Alberto Contador: Lying, !@#hole Punk, or Fair-Play Good Sport?

The Sinners Have Much More Fun: okay, you saw it: everybody loves Baby Schleck had a mechanical on the climb, and Contador attacked his !@#. So is Contador a scum-dwelling, mud-sucking slimelord--or is he actually telling the truth when he says that he didn't even notice that Andy had a problem? Of course, the boy's self-absorption *does* know no bounds--but even someone that egomaniacal doesn't notice that the wheel he's been 2 seconds away from for 4 hours seizes up and jerks his prime competitor--in a rather distinctive yellow jersey, no less--to a complete halt on a climb? Then again, Menchov did confirm that he himself was clueless, but then again, (1) he's wrangling for 3rd with Samu (woo-hoo Samu!), not watching those guys, and (2) I still hate his weasel guts for stealing we still love Roberto Heras' Vuelta, so nothing he says really matters anyway. And even Bjarne, Johan, and Samu of the Gods say it was just the way things shake out sometimes.Me, I say let's look at the facts objectively: either Contador is not the rider he was last year, or Schleck's come in to his own enough to match him, 'cause Alberto sure as hell can't drop him; this puppy bought him an opportunity even he couldn't make for himself; and since Lance Armstrong who shrieked insults at him as his own teammate all last Tour to the press wouldn't insult him, and he wouldn't be polite to someone who'd beaten him fair and square without some nefarious purpose, he must think that Contador was enough of a skank to savor the pleasure of watching the little twerp hang himself. Or, our sweet little wonderboy could simply be a fair and reasonable tactician wholly entitled to win the Tour like a no-class bum-rushing dir--I mean, who is the accidental beneficiary of Andy's sadly-timed accident. I'm sold--cancel out the results of all these clowns, and give the final maillot jaune to Jens!

Relax, Don't Do It: speaking of Armstrong, and leaving his intermittent attention to Levi Leipheimer aside because we here at racejunkie do respect him for that, am I the only one thinking that Lance is being too !@#$ing lazy and selfish to help Leipheimer like he promised--and ought to--and is treating the rest of this Tour like a 3-week booze-cruise to the Caribbean every day? That's right, Lance cultists, give the man all your worldly possessions dress in baggy pastel sackcloth uniforms and start handing out daisies on the sidewalks to unwilling passers-by--that's a critique. Or is Armstrong not even up to being a superdomestique at this point? All right, all right, I'll cut him slack--he's still the same man who won the Tour seven times and podiumed last year after an unprecedented absence-by-champion--he's just intentionally being a jerk. Hey, cabana boy--bring Lance another beer, willya?

Anyhoo, Pistolero, enjoy the Tourmalet--it's probably the last mountain the peloton's gonna let you ride in one piece!