Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Oh, Yeah--The Tour de France Begins, Baby!

Yep, forget the 11 days of GC-decimating crash-hold-ups, mass pile-ups, and dates with ditches that've left basically Cadel and Andy slugging it out for numero uno and all the other dogs just yappin' behind--it's finally time for the high mountains, baby, and the Tour begins in the Pyrenees! Anyway, tomorrow we'll see if what's left of Alberto can finally drop--and let's be honest, he needs to *severely* drop--Cadel and baby Schleck, or if he'll be stuck recovering time in craptastic 10-second increments til even the final time trial can't save him. Me, I'm rather hoping Alberto'll gain it all back just so Cadel can slap him around in the end like the road warrior he's finally grown into, but then, if Contador can pull this Tour out of the hole, especially after that grindfest of a Giro, I suppose it'd be just plain bad sportsmanship *not* to cheer him. And, since we all already know Samu Sanchez will take a stage for his down-but-not-out orange army (shut up! will too!), can the cagey Ivan Basso come up with the goods and knock one of the chosen ones off the top 3? Still, go Cadel--bonus points if you bring your dog up on the podium!

The stages: tomorrow, it's an Hors Category two-fer up the Tourmalet and Luz-Ardiden,
, then, after a Friday drop off the Col d'Aubisque, Saturday brings us 6 ugly climbs with a lively--and leg-mashing--finish on Plateau de Beille. Meanwhile, chin up, Cav--a few more years of crawling on your knees up these stages to make the time cut, and you'll be climbing mountains like Thor Hushovd, I promise!

2 comments:

PJ said...

All I can say, is, I hope Alberto pulls out all stops and wins the yellow jersey in Paris. I'm not a big fan of either Cadel or Andy. Alberto is a gifted rider and exciting to watch.

Velocodger said...

D'accord PJ. Watching whiny Andy race is about as exciting as watching paint dry. If there were a jersey for top wheelsucker he would win it hands down!