Sunday, July 10th 2005
Tuesday July 12th 2005
That is my prediction on where the fight begins for the “general classification” or overall race leader. I personally think that weekend (sat and sun July 9th and 10th) will be hell on wheels for a number of riders who are not up to par with their mountain climbing skills.
Yan Ullrich will surely have these stages in mind, it will be interesting to see how Sunday unfolds (one week from this coming Sunday). If Yan is trailing at the summit of the Le Ballon d’ Alsace climb on Sunday he will have just over 50 k to play catch-up and bring back the leaders. This final ascent, 55km from the finish was the first mountain ever climbed in the Tour 100 years ago. Figure these first real days in the mountains (alps) will be testing grounds for the leaders.
However expect a full out assault on Tuesdays stage 10 with two category 1 climbs both over 20k’s and a mountain top finish it will be an epic day at the Tour de France.
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