So here we are, the tour is past the half way point and is now in the Pyrenees located in the souther part of France. While the Alps are “usually” longer climbs the Pyrenees are steeper and hotter since they are located in the southern part of France. The French Pyrenees have always played host to some incredible show downs in the Tour de France and this years main contenders to Armstrong were not going to simply allow the Discovery rider to dictate todays pace via his Discovery team.
It was T-Mobile who saw an opportunity on the days first gruelling climb, for the second time this year Lances team was not in it’s usual place on the front setting tempo. T-Mobile saw this right away and put in some serious effort to mix up the peleton and to possibly isolate Armstrong, the tactic worked and team Discovery simply “went away” …. The Discovery “Vanishing Act” now ya see’em …now you don’t. What was impressive was the fact that with or without a team Armstrong managed just fine.
It was Alexandre Vinokourov (the guy get my vote for aggressive rider of the tour so far) to kick things off. He went off the front and everyone else started attacking as well. Soon the peleton closed the gap and Kloden and Ullrich continued to hammer away at the front and kept the pace high and the Discovery team back. All the big names were their, Ullrich, Basso, Vino, Landis, as well as Levi and Rasmussen. Soon the peleton split in two and Armstrong was caught in the second group with Rasmussen, as soon as Rasmussen jumped Armstrong was their (Rasmussen was only 38 seconds behind at the stage start today) and quickly got on the Danish’s wheel. At this point the peleton was only about 20 some riders. The promised show down was on, and my poor wife Amanda was her usual nervous self.
This climb lasted forever, with over 15k to the summit at an 8% grade …. ugly …. ugly stuff for sure. About two thirds the way up the group split again. The first group contained Basso, Ullrich, and Rasmussen however did not contain Armstrong. You just knew he had to bridge the gap and within one or two minutes he was out of the saddle for about 90 seconds and made it look almost “too easy” as he made contact with the leaders.
Soon others began to reintegrate into the main group of GC contenders and as the descended down the mountain in preparation for the last climb of the day (a cat one climb just over 7k’s) Vinokourov made contact as well. As soon as Vinokourov got back to the main group he simply rode around them and attacked again at the base of the climb, at this point I was pissed off … I mean really made. Who was doing the work at the front to bring back Vino. T-Messed Up Tactics … or T-Mobile I should say, now I realize that Vino was probably shot and had no real chance but dam, give the man the benefit and let the others close the gap. He looked back at this point and I am sure he was demoralised to see Kloden stringing up Ullrich to Vino’s wheel … it made no sense at all.
Soon however the main group contained three men, Ullrich, Basso and Armstrong. I have to credit Yan Ullrich for staying with Lance and Basso for so long. His form looked the best I have seen it is quite some time. That being said Lance was able to shake the German at about 2k from the finish and then started a slightly longish sprint to drop Basso by about 2 or 3 seconds. Lance Armstrong was in control even without his team.
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