Wow, what a day in the Tour. A massive break, the possibility of a race-fan-fave taking the yellow, and then another team comes and craps all over it.
We don’t really want to spoil it if you haven’t watched the Tour today, and if you weren’t planning to watch today’s stage–go do so. It replays every few hours on Versus. It’s possibly one of the most bittersweet and aggravating things to happen to professional cycling.
There’s also a good VeloNews article talking to the players involved in today’s controversy, which puts things in perspective.
**Reminder: We’ll be doing a Live Chat tomorrow tomorrow and the rest of the remaining days of the tour (aside from the rest day) and we’ll definitely be chatting about this. Come visit tomorrow and let us know your thoughts. **
And now for a quick semi-spoiler, skip the click-through to the rest if you’d like to avoid it.
It’s amazing to me that Garmin could spend the week doing nothing of any consequence in the Tour and then suddenly have to take a heroic act to maintain their position, that happens to hinder someone else they don’t particularly like. If you guys wanted to maintain the position of your riders, maybe you could have thought of that while they were busy being caught out on the line in all the rest of the stages? Was there really a need to do so when there was no strategic advantage to you, and it just ruined someone else’s crowning moment?
Here’s a thought for a new Tour strategy–if you see a guy have a mechanical instead of waiting for him to get back in, just sprint off the front. Who cares about decorum? This is sports, it’s not about anyone but you anyhow, right?
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