13th stage:

Lots of things to say about this 13th stage.

First of all:Leipehimer abandoned the race.Yesterday he fell together with Evans and Rogers and broke his right scaphoid.Saxo Bank has lost Arvesen,Astana now has lost Leipheimer.

Second thing:the stage.Both Logic and Fangirl were awaiting for some GC riders to attack,but nothing actually happened.The weather was really horrible,lots of rain and just 12 degrees.

Immediately after 1 km of race,some riders tried to enter a breakaway.Those riders were Moreau,Haussler,Sylvain Chavanel,Perez Moreno,His Amazingness Jens Voigt,Garate and Uran. After some kms,at the head of the race there were just Perez,Chavanel and Haussler.

After the Schlucht climb,Linus Gerdemann escaped from the peloton but was caught again on the following climb,the Platzerwasel,where Perez was dropped from Chavanel and Haussler.One of the most active riders in the group was Pellizotti,who's won a lot of points for the polka dot jersey today.This happened also because Egoi Martinez was dropped by the peloton during the Platzerwasel climb.

At a certain point the younger of the Sorensens,Chris-Anker,started to set the pace in the peloton.Some riders lost contact,the advantadge of Chavanel and Haussler became smaller,but then the Dane rider's action ended and everything came back in order.Of course me was awaiting an attack of one of the Schleck brothers,so I was a bit disappointed when I realised that nothing was going to happen.

During the descent of the Platzerwasel,Haussler dropped on Chavanel and approached the following climb (the penultimate of the stage) alone.

On said climb (the Firstplan) Andy Schleck punctured and his teammates had to bring him back in the peloton.
During the same descent in which Haussler dropped Chavanel,Feillu and Txurruka decided to attack.Anyway Haussler's gap on the other riders (Chavanel included) was too big and the Australian-German rider could finally cross the finish-line alone.The "racing kangaroo" even broke into tears on the finish-line and that was a very moving moment.
"You could see on the finish line...the emotions were going crazy.I really tried hard today and that's why I couldn't hold the tears back.I was thinking, ‘Geez, we're at the Tour de France,I don't want to get second again like inSanremo.' I just didn't want to get second again like in Sanremo and Flanders".
"I only live 30 kilometres away from here,so it's pretty much like my training area," Haussler said."The beginning of the year,my form was really good,I was climbing really well and I knew I could win this stage,or have a go at it.But then,leading up to the Tour,the team had goals with Thor Hushovd in green and Carlos the defending champion."
The 2nd rider to cross the finish-line was Txurruka,while Brice Feillu came in 3rd.Chavanel was finally 4th.Andy Schleck came in 10th,while Frank was 15th.
The yellow jersey is still on Nocentini's shoulders,while the polka dot jersey is on Pellizotti's ones and the green jersey has returned to Hushovd.
Then,the last (and worst) thing to say about today's stage: someone shot at the riders.When I first read about this thing I thought it was a bad joke,instead it's all true.

While the riders were facing the Col Du Platzerwasel descent,someone shot at them with an air-gun and Oscar Freire and Julian Dean got hit.The riders actually heard 3 shots,but fortunately 1 of them didn't hit anyone.Freire was shot in the leg,while Dean was shot in his index finger.The 2 riders seem to be ok now and will be at the start tomorrow morning.

I don't think that words can describe what happened also because my kowledge of bad words used by English speaking people is not that great.I think it's useless to say that what happened is a very frightening and worrying thing and I can't even dare thinking about what could have happened if one rider was hit in the eye.At the moment I hope the Gendarmerié will soon find and arrest that a****** that shot at the riders.They already face great risks every single day and shooting at them is just an horrible thing.I wonder how the "person" that shot at the riders would feel if somebody shot at him/her while he/she's working.Probably it wouldn't be a great feeling but,in that person's case,it would be fully deserved.

(Photo Reuters)