Finally, the Tour went back to what it's supposed to be about: a cycling race without cars knocking the riders down and without athletes ending up in hospital because of crashes.
This morning the Grande Boucle was still shocked by what happened to Hoogerland and Flecha the other day.
Many people feared that Johnny (who got 33 stitches and who couldn't sleep properly because of some dreadful nightmares) would have had to abandon the race, instead he grit his teeth once again and he managed to finish the stage and wear the polka dots jersey for the second day in a row. Also Flecha managed to end the stage in spite of the injuries caused by the infamous crash.
Juan Antonio has recently released an interview to Cyclingnews, in which he criticises not only the driver who knocked him down, but also the behaviour of Thomas Voeckler. The fact that that stupid driver (who didn't ask for permission to overtake the riders and who shouldn't even had been behind them at that point of the race) didn't even sound his horn before trying to drive past the athletes is simply shocking and it really disgusts me. There are no apologies for something like that, especially if you consider that that man didn't even stop to check if he had badly injured the riders he had hit.
As far as Flecha's critics of Voeckler are concerned, I don't think the Frenchman accelerated after his crash. I was actually very surprised when I saw the breakawayers riding on in spite of that accident but, actually, I must admit that I don't think that they could have done something different.
Still talking about Saturday' stage, la Gazzetta claims that Vinokourov is already thinking about coming back racing. Girls of the AAVL, I hope this makes you feel a bit better.
Talking about the rest day, instead, the topics of discussion were 3:
1. Will Contador retire before the end of the Tour?
2. Is Gilbert going to try to get a good placement in the GC?
3. What really happened between Contador and Karpets the other day?
So, let's go in order.
Topic 1: we all know that Contador has hurt his knee in two of his three crashes. This morning many people (according to Italian tv) feared that he wouldn't have started the stage, instead he took part in it and finished the race with all the main GC leaders. But still, Alberto might decide to retire if things don't go well for him on Thursday, in the Luz-Ardiden stage. 'I know Alberto', Tiralongo told Ialian tv this morning. 'And he's not here to get dropped on the climbs. If his form isn't good enough, I think he'll retire'.
Personally, I agree with Tiralongo. In fact, I believe that Alberto will retire if he realises his shape isn't good enough in the mountains. However, I don't know whether Conti is trying to bluff a bit with his condition (making it seem a bit worse than it actually is) or not.
Topic 2: apparently, after VDB's retire Gilbert has told a few Belgian journalists that now he'd like to focus on the GC. Eddy Mercx approves the idea of the Omega rider and so do I. In fact it'd be great to see someone like Philippe giving it all even in the hardest stages. Especially because, with nowadays GC, many riders have good chances to make it to the top 5 or to the top 10 of the race. Cunego, Martin, Vandevelde, Taaramae, Roche, S. Sanchez, Velits... All guys that can still fight for a position in the top 10, especially now that there are so many spaces left empty by the crashes of guys like Vinokourov, VDB and Wiggins. Will Gilbert enter in that fight too? The fact that he's thinking about it makes me really happy, but this doesn't mean that I believe he can make it. Unfortunately, in fact, so far Philippe has exploited his team on every single stage of the race. Moreover, long climbs don't seem to suit him. But still, I'd like to see Philippe giving it a try.
Topic 3: Take a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKuJCGV8m-w and pay attention to Vladimir Karpets, the rider with the half white/half red jersey. It took me a lifetime to realise what that video is about, but then I saw that Karpets made a strange movement which caused Contador to crash. Someone thinks that Vladimir did it intentionally, someone else (me) doesn't. I think Karpets made that movement at random, not because he really knew that Alberto was behind him. But still, there are many guys who disagree with me.
After mentioning these topics of discussion, let's talk about the stage du jour. As said, this afternoon no one crashed seriously and this is a very good news.
The breakaway of the day was formed by Delaplace, Marcato, El Fares, Minard and Vichot. They started their adventure after 14 kms and ended it with about 20 kms to go. At that point, on the last little climb du jour, the fireworks began: Toni Gallopin in fact attacked and he was followed by great riders like Voeckler, Gilbert, Martin and Devenyns. The 5 men worked well until they reached the 8 kms to go mark, where they gave it in. Actually, 4 of them did: Gilbert in fact kept on riding until he was caught with 7 kms to go. Once again, the Belgian showed us all his class.
The stage ended with a sprint in the town of Carmaux. Said sprint was very particular, since HTC couldn't form its leadout train and because there was a curve with just 350 meters to go.
Sieberg (a rider that I really do like) abandoned its place at the head of the peloton right before that curve, so that Daniel Oss fund himself leading the group. Cavendish was behind the Liquigas rider and Greipel was behind Cannonball. Cav began his sprint when he saw that Oss' speed was decreasing. In that way, unluckily for him, he spent too many energy, so that Greipel could overtake him in the last 10 meters of race. A great victory for André, who wins his first Tour stage in his first TdF right in front of his old nemesis Mark Cavendish. Someone must be very pissed off right now...
Johnny Hoogerland managed to finish the stage (just like Flecha) and this is a very good news. Farrar didn't look that great, whereas the GC leaders hid themselves.
Another day at the Tour is over, now we're waiting for tomorrow's flat stage, the last one before the riders reach the mountains.
