Tour's Over--It's the Vuelta a Espana, Baby! #tdf

Froome Wagon: yep, after Saxo-Tinkoff's daring and beautiful attack on the maillot jaune on a crosswindy sprint stage--propelled, I imagine, as much by terror of team boss Tinkov's alternately ecstatic and threatening twitter ravings as an actual desire for the podium--and a peaceful subsequent rest-y day for all but the breakaways, Chris Froome absolutely slaughtered the once-unbeatable Contador and everyone else on Mont Ventoux, and with this Tour basically over except a passel of face-saving stage wins by the remaining GC wish-they-weres, it's almost time for the Vuelta, baby! Well, in the meantime it still *is* the Tour, and anything *can* happen--so can Sylvain Chavanel finally take a stage, or what?

The (Big, Gangly, Scrawny, Yellow) Elephant In the Room: so right beside Froome's amazing triumph, the obvious question bedeviling the poor guy, who apparently also whacked the late Marco Pantani's best time on the legendary climb: was he using, and do we have to wait another 10 years for an Operacion-Puerto-redux doping-control-catchup bloodbath to nail him? Or is it merely a question of Contador clearly not being what he used to be, at least this Tour? Me, I *hope* our yellow jersey's clean, and perhaps his many detractors are being unfair--isn't this what everyone *hoped* would happen, that with more sophisticated controls the dirty dopers would reveal their essential roadly humanity and a new and wholly unexpected group of former mere mortals would emerge in their spotless unsupplemented glory to claim their rightful places? I mean, look how beautifully that played out with underestimated ex-domestiques in the Giro d'Italia this year--aw, crap! Aaaaanyway, here's his happy win: And did anyone else notice we love Euskaltel's we love Mikel Nieve grabbed third? Well, enjoy your well-earned rest day, Froome--and happy Bastille Day to all!