I always sort of admire someone who lacks some essential component of greatness (in Cadel’s case, that acceleration), yet uses what he does have so well as to make it almost a non-issue. I’d like to see him win.
Well, one thing’s for sure… 10 years ago Andy would be totally out of the hunt even with the same Stage times. And the reason? Everybody’s forgetting Andy finished 1:38 down on Stage One, however he was caught up in a crash with 2.9km to the finish - just 100m within the “immunity zone” - whereupon he was granted “bunch time”. He actually crossed the line behind Contador, who (unlike Andy Schleck) was negatively clocked 1:38 on the Stage.
10 years ago, the “immunity zone” was 2km from the finish.
By any yardstick, that’s a luck of the draw which worked against one rider, and worked in the favour of another - even though they both finished 1:38 behind Evans on the day and even though Andy didn’t actually hit the deck.
If Andy wins, in my book, this Tour will forever have an asterisk beside it. There’s an arbitrary bit of luck at play here I reckon.
Well, there’s a flip side to that arguement of course. If the results show that Evans climbed the Galibier 2 minutes faster than Andy Schleck did, that would indicate that he should have gone with Andy when he originally attacked 60km out, or, put in an attack of his own.
They used to say that about Big Mig too… namely, that he lacked the featherweight accelerations on the HC climbs, so what he did instead was use his “in the saddle diesel” to grind his opponents down, from a long way out. And he wasn’t afraid to put in a solo attack either.
Race is on and Evans appears to be taking time out of Andy’s lead in the first half of the course.
Cadel taking a massive dig at Andy here, got him on the ropes. Ahead at 2nd checkpoint.
Evans is virtually Yellow now. Andy will slow the bleeding on the hills but he hemorrhages everywhere else. Evans form is good and rode this stage well a month or so ago (I’d forgotten that).
Anything can happen though, exciting race. Time trials are the only things I’m good at, at 187, pounds so naturally I like riding these.
Same weight as Thor Hushovd, so we’ll be expecting you to win mountain stages on solo breaks next year. 
Put money on me if you want, you’ll probably get good odds.
Also, I figured Cadel would be fine if he was within a minute and a half of Tony Martin, but he may actually win this damn thing. (stage)
2 seconds behind Martin at the last split, down from 7 seconds at the second and 21 at the first. You could well be right.
Andy shoulda had a Red Bull before the stage, because the yellow jersey certainly hasn’t given him wings.
Nope, not the stage win. Finishes 7 seconds behind Martin. He’ll be crying into his yellow jersey over that for sure.
So did Andy lose it in the Pyrenees? Should he have attacked more at that point to try and build a better gap rather than counting on the Alps? Regardless, what a great ride by Evans today. He may not have attacked in the mountains enough, but he certainly went after it today.
Cadel doesn’t have the acceleration to attack in the mountains. All he can do is pick a speed and ride that diesel engine all the way up.
You’re right, should’ve attacked in the pyrenees instead of waiting.
Freedom of Australia to that man - rode like a champion there. Looking very emotional on the podium as he has every right to.
Andy couldn’t fight back, had nothing left.
It’s funny yesterday when AS was asked was he confident for the TT he looked straight at the camera and gave an immediate and unequivocal yes. Same question to Cadel, walking away and not facing the interviewer, he said he’d fked it up twice before so why would he think he could do it now? 
Chapeau to the pair of them in any case - great tour
I’d say ol’ Cuddles needs to buy Contador a case of Corona to say thanks for sucker punching Andy into a long break yesterday that just wiped him out for the ITT today.
Kudos to the French TV producers for lingering an extra little bit longer than normal on a Yellow Jersey podium presentation.
And that’s that. Well done for Cadel Evans, one of his best time trials, actually THE best time trial of his career.
Kudos also to Voeckler, who I thought would slip out of the top 5, but actually gained #4. It was Cunego who slipped out and Contador who rode a great time trial.
Evans rode that stage 1:07 quicker than at the Critérium du Dauphiné, 6 weeks ago–and picked-up 1:13 on Tony Martin.
It wasn’t that the Schlecks were bad–17th and 20th seems about right for Andy and Frank in an ITT–it was just that Cadel was awesome.
The year that Floyd Landis won? (On time at least…) I recall that Cadel was on a wild ITT that day, probably a Stage winning ride, however a puncture ruined his ride.
I’m pretty sure I’ve got that right.
One thing’s for sure, his ITT yesterday (in relative terms) was “right from the very top shelf”. And the results show that if it weren’t for his bad luck on Stage One, Contador would be on the podium too.
For mine, the big chase on the Queen Stage when Andy was away on his 60km break? That was the defining moment for me. I recall saying to myself, as I watched him climb the Galibier with not one bit of help in the final 20km, I was saying “If you want to win a Tour de France these are the days you can’t hide anymore. These are the days you HAVE TO SHOW YOU’RE A BAD ASS”
Turns out he had to chase almost as hard on the Alpe d’Huez stage too. Very few people helped him on that chase, apart from two of the FDJ lads. He showed some serious horsepower on that 2nd day of chasing, which clearly manifested itself in the ITT.
My regret of course is that Cadel is 34 years old now. If there’s a guy in the poloton who was/is known for being scrupulously clean, it’s Cadel Evans, which means if his mind is up for it he could still be a major force next year too.
This is the 3rd time now Andy Schleck will have finished 2nd in the Tour, by my reckoning. That’s starting to get into Raymond Poulidor territory. As I noted two days ago, now that Andy has shown he can do a 60km breakaway on a Queen Stage, the poloton will never let him do it again. That means, if he ever wants to take that next step onto the winner’s podium, he simply has to improve the rest of his arsenal.
In pro cycling, there are 3 areas you can be an expert in, and you need to be an expert in 2 of them to consistently be a champion - they are (1) the ability to sprint, (2) the ability to ride solo at great sustained speed, and (3) the ability to climb with the very best climbers.
Winning a Grand Tour (or any stage race which features major climbs) requires loads of Point (2) and Point (3), the ability to sprint is not so important. Poor Andy? He really is only an expert in Point (3), the ability to climb with the best of them. He definitely can’t sprint to save his life, and his sustained solo speed (whilst OK’ish) aint ever gonna worry his opponents any big deal.
Just heard from a little birdie who still rides amongst the pros that Contador is in for a tough time defending his positive test last year.
Apparently, it’s not so much the insignificant amounts of clenbuterol which is the issue but rather, the biological passport system indicates that the day in which he tested positive is proof of homologous blood doping, using his own blood from 3, maybe 6 months earlier.
The good oil is that he’s on his way to a hiding it would seem. They (the doctors) tried to filter Contador’s red blood cells perfectly from months earlier, but they missed a tiny little bit, it seems. And the biological passport detected changes to other parameters from the the day before vs the day of after the positive.
The same little birdie also mentioned this same testing regime is why we saw no sign of one Dennis Menchov this Tour, at all.
To be fair (with regards to my last post) the GEOX Team (that Menchov now rides for) didn’t enter the race, but they were given an invite apparently and they turned it down 3 weeks prior to the race - and they were replaced by one of the little known French wildcard teams.