Polite Dissent

A very exciting stage of the Tour today. The T-Mobile team, lead by some of Lance Armstrong’s biggest Rivals (Jan Ulrich, Andreas Kloden and Alexander Vinokourov) made a surprise early surge, catching the Discovery Channel Team off guard. Lance was able to keep up, as were some other big names including Floyd Landis and Ivan Basso. This group battled up the first mountain, down its other side, and up the tallest peak of the day. Armstrong, Ulrich and Basso were the strongest and by the end they were the only ones left from the breakaway. Less than half a mile from the finish, Ulrich slowed, leaving Basso and Armstrong to fight it out. Armstrong surged ahead and beat Basso to the line.

OK, technically Armstrong took second because the lone rider remaining from the very first breakaway (Georg Totschnig), was ahead by a little under a minute — but it was an impressive day as Armstrong showed that even without his team behind him he was able to outlast his rivals.

Tomorrow is said to be the hardest day of the Tour. I can only assume that the rest of the Discovery Channel Team will feel like they have something to prove.

American Racers

Discovery Channel Team Racers