Stage 8 – Pforzheim to Gerardmer (231.5km) Game On!
Lance Armstrong was under pressure today as the crack squad of T-Mobile proved while they are the highest paid team in cycling. All looked good and Armstrong was all smiles as the race headed closer to the final climb of the day, Lance was even chatting it up with the camera man (the motorcycle mounted cameraman).
However once the road began to point upwards on the days last climb (Col de la Schlucht – 16k at just over 4% grade) the peleton began to shatter as Vinokourov (with his little elf like frame and face) attacked as I had hoped he would. Lances smiles were gone, more alarming at this point however was the fact that Team Discovery was looking mighty thin with only two riders at Lances side. What makes this even more particular is the fact that the team has at least 4 great climbers (on paper) that should have been with the Boss at this point. Armstrong said “Definitely, a crisis within our team on the final climb,” Armstrong said. “For whatever reason I was left alone. We had a bad day as a team and that makes it that much harder and I had to cover some big moves myself.”
None the less Lance was able to counter and hang with the attacks as they started to come with a fast and ferocious pace. I think many of the leaders were aware that Discovery (as a team) were in trouble, this soon started to create a “feeding frenzy spirit” amount the main rivals.
Soon Andreas Kloden was also on the move with an incredible burst of speed that came from behind … one that Lance nor anyone else was able to counter. Kloden then was able to bridge up to a solo breakaway rider (Pieter Weening) who was with a breakaway for about 60k and then slipped away from his breakaway group just as the last climb kicked up.
Kloden and Weening then were able to keep it together and finished ahead of Lance and a group of about 30 riders (with not ONE Discovery rider besides Armstrong) by about 25 or so seconds. It was really touch and go for these two road warriors as they crested the final climb they still had about 10 k’s left in the race and a few times it looked like they would get caught.
My first thoughts …. Vinokourov is a danger, I think most people following the tour this year felt he could be “trouble”. Also Kloden looked dam good … dam good, most everyone did not see this coming as this year as been lack luster for the German. What this means is that these two great riders can attack “off of each other” and work Lance down and then let Ullrich make his move (can he, or will he … I am not sure). Other thoughts go back to the team of Discovery, I would not expect many smiles at tonights team dinner.
All in all I am really glad to see Vino back in the tour, his gutsy style is a warm welcome. I am routing for Lance and hope he wins, however I also want to see the man from Texas earn his last tour. I would like to see some of his rivals challenge the one man that has been like ice for the last 6 years. We all know he can be weakend, and I do think he will pull it out, but I like the competition and I think Lance does as well.
Tour Guy ~
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