July 20, 2004
Lance in yellow (again)..
Well, in a stage where the commentators expected everyone to take it easy because of tomorrow's grueling time trial up L'Alpe d'Huez instead the peloton split apart as the best riders had to chase a breakaway group that included pre-race favorite Jan Ullrich. Of course, Ullrich had little hope being ten minutes down to Lance but it looked like maybe he thought he could cut a couple of minutes off that lead before tomorrow's mountain time trial.
Not to be the case as a chase group of Postal riders along with CSC's Ivan Basso brought him to heel before the last climb. And yet again Basso and Lance finished in the first two places with Lance taking the stage win again. So he got a twenty-second bonus and Basso a twelve-second bonus for second place.
So barring accident Lance looks in good shape for tomorrow's time trial up the Alps. I rather doubt that Basso will gain much time on him as it looks like they are very evenly matched (which in itself is a surprise to most of the commentators). We may well be watching a race between Le Patron and the heir apparent here.
Oh, yes. Iban Mayo and Tyler Hamilton are both out of the race. Kloden looks a distant third so unless Ullrich rides the race of his life every day until the finish it will most likely be Lance and Ivon in first and second on the podium. It's still not certain that will be the order--it's a compelling last few days.
Posted by artandscience at July 20, 2004 04:38 PM