Luis Leon Sanchez proved the strongest in the breakaway, claiming Stage 8.Firstly congrats to Luis Leon Sanchez, a former Tour down Under winner who keeps getting better each year. He won stage 7 last year and his good form continued into 2009, he won the Tour Méditerranéen as well as the coveted week long Paris-Nice earlier in the season - he is a great up and coming rider.
Now.
Cadel Evans.
You are an idiot.
Did you think you could win the tour de france by attempting a breakaway on the first climb of the day with 150km still to ride - with 2 more climbs to come? i dont know what the media is saying, probably calling him gutsy, courageous, blaming Astana etc etc. I would call him stupid, ignorant and his attack ill conceived. What did he think was going to happen? Astana and Saxo Bank would just let him get 3 minutes or so that he needs to get back into the race? That he would just ride with a small group out the front for 5 or 6 hours and be left alone? That he would go by himself? (he is not Flloyd Landis you know!) They were never ever going to let him out of their sights, Lance & Contador rode at the head of the bunch like they were wearing Yellow (and even rode away from the yellow jersey on the final climb then basically let him rejoin on the way back down - make no mistakes, if Astana wanted to be in Yellow they would be.) I had to laugh when Fabian Cancellara and then Thor Husovd both told Cadel to 'go away' - im sure that is not what they said, i bet the language was more colourful. It was quite easy to see from the body language of the two that Cadel was not welcome in the breakaway. And right they were, as soon as the breakaway was 45 seconds ahead of the peleton Astana got on the front and closed it down. I know you want to win the race Cadel, i know you think you can, i know you should never give up, but really if you used your brain you would have known it was an impossible task. Then in the post race interview Cadel complains that they "behave like 3 year olds" and they were saying "get out of the break, they will catch us with you here" well it does not take a genius to realised that Hushovd (sastre) Cancellara (Schleks) and the other guys as well had team mates that are in overall contention so they are not gonig to help Cadel take time off them.
That is why he is an idiot.
They did let a few riders not in the overall contention slip away though and Sanchez played a good tactical game over the last 5km to reel in Efimkin who had slipped away from the others and then he easily out sprinted Sandy Casar who did a mountain of work in the stage.
Andy Schlek showed how you attempt an attack on the peleton. At least wait until the last climb of the day and then go. He was marked by a bevvy of Astana riders, i actually think that Schlek did not think at any stage he was going to get away, but he thinned the pack and took note of who had the ability to go with him. The fact that there was a significant downhill to come meant he was never going to get away.
Thor Hushovd was the other revelation last night, the big fella hauled himself over the top of the first climb like a guy half his size and then took off on the decent knowing that two intermediate sprints lay at the bottom. He only needed 2 points to claim the green jersey so with Cavendish nowhere in sight he took the intermediates and now wears a Green Jersey. His strength over the hills is going to make cavendishs' job on winning this green jersey hard. he is going to have to win 3 more stages as I reckon thor will continue to rack up points from here on in. Christophe Kern picked up enough KOM points on the first climb to give himself a new jersey for stage 8 - i doubt he will be keeping it though.
Oh Cadel.
Well done for trying. Well done for your team for Buying Bernard Kohl and Thomas Dekker, both who turned out the be drug cheats and subsequently banned. the only way Cadel or anyone outside Lance and Alberto is going to win this bike race is to gang up on the astana team and i dont think thats going to happen. Time for a new team Cadel. try again on stage 9, but just wait for the Tourmalet -please!
They did let a few riders not in the overall contention slip away though and Sanchez played a good tactical game over the last 5km to reel in Efimkin who had slipped away from the others and then he easily out sprinted Sandy Casar who did a mountain of work in the stage.
Andy Schlek showed how you attempt an attack on the peleton. At least wait until the last climb of the day and then go. He was marked by a bevvy of Astana riders, i actually think that Schlek did not think at any stage he was going to get away, but he thinned the pack and took note of who had the ability to go with him. The fact that there was a significant downhill to come meant he was never going to get away.
Thor Hushovd was the other revelation last night, the big fella hauled himself over the top of the first climb like a guy half his size and then took off on the decent knowing that two intermediate sprints lay at the bottom. He only needed 2 points to claim the green jersey so with Cavendish nowhere in sight he took the intermediates and now wears a Green Jersey. His strength over the hills is going to make cavendishs' job on winning this green jersey hard. he is going to have to win 3 more stages as I reckon thor will continue to rack up points from here on in. Christophe Kern picked up enough KOM points on the first climb to give himself a new jersey for stage 8 - i doubt he will be keeping it though.
Oh Cadel.
Well done for trying. Well done for your team for Buying Bernard Kohl and Thomas Dekker, both who turned out the be drug cheats and subsequently banned. the only way Cadel or anyone outside Lance and Alberto is going to win this bike race is to gang up on the astana team and i dont think thats going to happen. Time for a new team Cadel. try again on stage 9, but just wait for the Tourmalet -please!
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