Monday, July 24, 2006

Smashing!

What a smashing end to the Tour by we love Thor Hushovd, who took out Robbie the Ego in a brilliant and astonishingly powerful sprint in his own right as Robbie made a rare tactical error as well despite a very fine leadout by Horner and co and started out too soon for his legs to take him to the line. It's beyond dandy for Hushovd to sandwich the Tour so neatly with the prologue tt and the prestigious win on the Champs-Elysees, particularly after his nasty slice from a giant green promotional hand and losing any chance at the green jersey due to his crap relegation by the Tour honchos for Eisel's own screw-up in an earlier sprint. Yay Thor! And massive admiration for Stewie O'Grady for coming in third with a cracked 4th vertebra--what a lovely result after his valiant success conquering the Alps. While we're at it, what the heck is going on with Euskaltel in the flats this year, they were right up in the sprint! It could be a very interesting Vuelta.

And I utterly forgot to say what a privilege as always to have Phil and Paul to take us through the Tour, who in their complete knowledge of all things cycling almost managed to negate the nails-on-a-blackboard stylings of the nit Al Trautwig (and I don't think the Bob Roll's done a damn thing to deserve being stuck with him, while we're at it). The only thing I might have done a tiny, tiny bit differently--and since Phil and Paul can do no wrong, I am sure the responsibility for this lies squarely with OLN--is to have explained, while showing the American's overall standings, why they are as they are for cycling newbies, as Horner and Zabriskie in particular were exactly where they should be, and tt god Zabriskie in fact put in a surprisingly strong performance in the mountains this year for Sastre's sake.

Forza!

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