Tour de France

It's Wednesday 23rd July. D-Day in the Tour as we hit Alpe D'Huez. Never has the top ten of the Tour been so close together.... I wonder if a lack of drugs has anything to do with it !! Certainly the playing field seems so much more even than in previous years. No dominating force. No one going off the front to power to a multi minute victory. It's good. This Tour has had it's problems but in general it seems as though everyone is beginning to learn that 'you will get caught'.

Anyway, today and the Alpe!

As expected,  an early break went looking for possible glory. They were brought back in time for the 'real' action on the Alpe. I predicted a quick attack by Menchov and Sastre. This would force Evans to respond setting up Frank Schleck for a counter. It so happens that Menchov blew and Evans made a BIG tactical mistake. He let Sastre go! Maybe he couldn't respond but he let them time gap stretch out and out for Sastre. He gave away 2min 13 sec. Yes, okay, the time trial is to come on Sunday and Sastre was 41 secs behind him anyway. But the yellow fleece can bring a rider to life. The Saturday Time Trial is not a foregone conclusion and I think Evans may have made a big mistake today.... he should have reduced that gap!