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Monday, July 24, 2006

is it just me ...

... or did the final couple kilometers of the Tour pretty much wrap it all up in a nutshell?

Total chaos ~ with every player throwing their cards down on the table, a slapping of wild hopes and held breaths.

Discovery's move, i thought, pretty much summed up their Tour. A plan with execution just off enough to make them look a wee bit silly. Ekimov pulls out the gauntlet and smacks the pack in the chops with it at a bit over a k to go. It strings the group out something fierce and each squad looks like they've wapped once or twice with the panic stick. Ekimov is reeled in and then Hincapie drives out of the group, Popo on his wheel ... we can see the blueprints for this plan ballooning out from Hincapie's noggin like a Family Circus thought bubble. I mean, everyone can.

But, poor Georgey doesn't have the gas to last ... no one would. After a few short seconds, Popo launches off Georgey's wheel, well short of anything realistic. A valiant effort but they are swallowed up, chawed upon, and shat out.

Davitamon used an arsenal to control the pack for 50k, Horner and VanSummeran phenoms in the service. But in the final K, all their matches are crumbing cinders on the sides of the Chomps and McEwen is left to strike out on his own.

The French, throwing themselves like legionnaires into the colonial sands ... utter futility.

Zabel there ... because he is always there when the race comes down strength and desire.
Behind.

And Thor ~ waiting, watching, wanting it more than any other drives to the line in one of the toughest sprint finishes in a long time. These boys were flat out, strung out, torn outside in and insides bleeding to stay in contention, stay at the front ... finally pushing aside all the pain, all the doubt to hurl themselves toward a silly little line, and cross it first.

The Tour.

12 comments:

Allison Krasnow said...

floyd had a funny comment in a pre-stage interview...

said it would all be fun and games on the last day unless the frenchies had too much caffeine and decided to duel it out in a break.

and when the illes baleares guy shoved the lotto guy (horner, i think) out of the rotation, waving his fist at him during the large break on the champs de lyse.

classic.

Allison Krasnow said...

oops, should've read OV comments on your previous post...you've got the lotto shoving move all dialed in there.

nosajpalnud said...

yeah - Georgie went way early - McEwen went really early as well- maybe cause he lost his leadout guy

Levi's not going to be Disco's answer next year

jAndy donka-donk said...

maaaan

the GIANT dingleberries did that to us on sat too. 31 reg'd, 11 of were fruits....

I got sick of beting my head against the wall real quick...

Dan Cleary said...

When Thor took off, there was so much power in those legs, I thought his bike might just disintegrate and he would just fly over the line from the momentum.

Chris said...

Awesome camera shot...perhaps the awesomest ever. Mount a full-size remote-control studio cam on the back of a motorcycle and pace alongside those guys, showing every little bit of magic and all the gaps. That's the clip that should get played in the recruiting videos.

Ron Castia said...

It's our lines that are silly, their lines are the real deal.

norcalcyclingnews.com said...

oh yeah, that camera shot was amazing. why didn't they use it more during that final tour stage?

without doubt, some of the best bike camera work ever.

L. Christmas said...

They had a separate lane just for that camera on that strip.... kept the camera clear to be right there the whole time w/o jostling for position. Like those cams' in track n' field.

Beautiful summary of the last few kilo's!

Nate Rogers said...

cool that thor is wearing is "raisin hell" bracelet in that pic of him winning. anyone hear saul's already doing 3 hour trainer rides? jayzus.

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