i hate to have every post be about doping, or have a subtext about doping, but frank is correct: there was something subdued about today’s stage that, to be quite honest, i rather enjoyed. good riders who were not ready for six hours of relentless climbing got dropped (hincapie, mayo, horner, zabriskie). riders who rely on the autobus to bring them home within the time cut (mcewen, boonen) felt that even that task was a difficult one–and it is. riders who gave it all they had on a good day (evans, boogerd, moreau, sastre, kloden) found that six hours in the mountains requires–at a minimum–everything you have on a VERY good day. riders who got dropped tended to stay dropped–kind of like on a training ride, kind of like in real life.

and, in the end, just a handful of riders had the rides of their lives: menchov, leipheimer, and landis, in that order. levi rode beautifully today, as we all know he can, but it wouldn’t be my post without some sort of insult hurled in his direction. here it is: what kind of cyclist fails to go for it all out from a three man finishing group, when he is the only non-c.g. contender in the group? yes, levi made a couple of half-hearted attacks a few clicks from the line–and i credit him for those–but what did he accomplish finishing as he did? if he attacked all out, tongue on the top tube, he would have been either first or third. instead he was second, so what? did anyone think he could out-sprint menchov, two-up? floyd can be excused not attacking, as he was (first of all) working as steadily as he could to distance the dropped riders and second pack and (second) doing it in his preferred fashion, which is sit and grind. floyd’s ambitions were c.g., and he achieved them admirably. what were leipheimer’s?

o.k., enough about levi. nobody i know of predicted that rabobank would be the team of the day, and of the tour so far. rasmussen, to boogerd, to menchov is the great team tactical move so far, and it may turn out to be the best of the race. throughout the finish i kept thinking that menchov did not look that stressed or tired. take a look at this photo. it’s just one second in time, but it sure looks like menchov has the time to think about other things. boogerd, a notoriously clean racer, had his best day since the 1998 tour when (shock!) the festina affair swept away many of the worst dopers in the peloton. if it really is all about dope, then it’s depressing to think that boogie had to wait eight years just to ride on a level playing field (so to speak). if you want a great detail to look for on the oln replay, note that menchov up-shifts about ten seconds before boogerd finally pulls off the front; the two knew exactly what they were doing, and communicated masterfully.
as frank also pointed out, master tacticians riis and bruyneel look somewhat less masterful when they don’t also have the best riders in the race on their teams. sastre at least delivered for csc; discovery really imploded. there are still fantastic riders on that team, but it’s clear that they have no plan for this tour and that, understandably, they ride best when incentivized. glory, easy stage wins, and (of course!) money bring out the best in discovery. today, no team showed the kind of all-nine coherence discovery has had for the past several years, and only t-mobile has shown that ability in this tour.

i don’t think it’s any mystery that the favorites now are landis, menchov, and the rest of the survivors of today’s stage: evans, sastre, kloden, rogers, etc. velorant is proud that we named them all in an earlier post. i’ll have some more concrete predictions tomorrow, but of the best-placed, here are some random notes. cadel evans is the king of the jour sans. given his track record, it’s hard to believe he won’t have at least one horrible day. sastre has another good performance in him. remember the pacifier victory? frank was (again) right that kloden’s big-gear style did not serve him well today, but he tends to round into form later in the grand tours, as many big-gear pushers do. rogers is going to get very hurt in the high mountain stages of the alpes, but he is a great time trialist and may save something for the second to last day. same for karpets, who is super strong and an excellent time trialist. i believe zubeldia has something more to give, and will make his move on alpe d’huez. leipheimer may have had his bad day in the first itt and can certainly improve on that for the rest of the tour. chris moreau? still not out of it!