Does anyone think that isn't exciting racing? I found it a bit odd that whereas when Armstrong and Ullrich were racing in the mountains and one of the main candidates crashed, Phil and Paul went on and on about how peloton protocol called for the other contenders to wait. Today, down goes Vino and the peloton gleefully hammers away. But admittedly circumstances were different today.The explanation I read on cyclingnews.com was that the teams at the front of the peloton were in the hunt for a stage victory so they had to keep driving to catch the breakaway.
Also, Chavanel is a real G.C. contender. They could not afford to leave him out there with that 5 minute advantage. Given 5 minutes at this point in the race Chavanel might well be able to carry the yellow jersey all the way to Paris.
I found myself riding around in the Fairgrounds again today. I had to wait for a cloud to clear the sun but eventually I got a picture of the official Fair mascot, Fairchild. From the spot where I was standing to take this picture I could also see one of those dinosaurs, a Linus, a Lucy and a Snoopy and Woodstock on the doghouse. Oh, and one of those former elm trees carved into a figure. So a real compendium of "art".
Here's Gino in more or less mid-season form.
2 comments:
You encountered the big casino of ceramic art. Did you get a picture?
Vino got up and nearly destroyed his team, and still lost over a minute. There will be mountains this weekend that may help him get back into the race, but he looked pretty banged up to be riding as fast as he was. A good race day for the guy in yellow and that Italian dude. TT
A significant differance was that when they waited for Armstrong, he was in yellow. It was the yellow jersey that was respected, not necessarily the guy wearing it. Vino might have been the favorite, but he wasn't anywhere close to being the leader when he went down. It was a really bad day for that team -- Kloden's hairline fracture of his tailbone may well end his hopes. I had a serious tailbone injury in a sailboat accident off of Dunedin one midwinter's day. It made things like walking very difficult for a couple of weeks. And full recovery was a year or more. Not fun. SS
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