Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Tour de France- Stage 3

Fabulous Fabian Fools Fast Freaks in France!

I swear, I missed my calling.

Yes, today's longest stage was one [won-Ed] by current Time Trial World Champion, former Paris-Roubaix winner and current yellow jersey wearer Fabian Cancellara. After a breakaway dominated much of the day, the longest stage of the Tour, Fabian Cancellara launched an impressive attack in the final meters of the race to hold off the rest of the field. The sprinters were all caught sleeping as Fabian stormed across the cobbles (um, hello... he's a winner of Roubaix) and yanked victory away from the dumbfounded sprinters. I'm not sure if I'm more stupified by the actions of the sprinters or the four riders from the break who screwed themselves out of the victory by making tactical errors (playing cat and mouse with the field chasing them down). These four had the day wrapped up and they let it go by thinking of the win too soon, rather than sticking together and working a little longer. Sorry fellas... but that was a dumbass move.

Oh well, this just means that now BK is ahead of me by one point and I get first stab at tomorrow's winners; Boonen and Stefan Schumacher. Tomorrow's stage has several category 4 climbs and is otherwise fairly hilly, in a rolling way. Nothing big or difficult, but lots of rolling hills to keep things interesting. If it comes to a sprint, then I'm picking Boonen. Otherwise, I'm picking Schumacher to sneak off the front or sprint out of a small group and take the win. I'm gambling, but I'm a gamblin' man by nature.

Today was a great stage and the right man won. It's always great to see the Yellow Jersey attacking and making the race come alive. Cancellara continues to impress with his sheer class and aggressive riding (man, I hope he isn't doping and I end up regretting those words). So far, this Tour has been a good one.

Ok, BK... time to make your picks.

Tim

7 comments:

blue squirrel said...

i have one word for you tomorrow
1] zabel
2] hushovd
3] ? some french guy

Super Rookie said...

Yes, today's longest stage was one by current Time Trial World Champion, former Paris-Roubaix winner and current yellow jersey wearer Fabian Cancellara.

you pulled a super rookie 'one' s/b 'won'

:)

1. McEwen
2. Zabel
3. Bennati

Queen of Couth said...

Jesus, Blue. You read my mind. Those were my picks! Zabel and Hushovd!

I'm sending my folks to your site for my picks.

Good picks.
Peace Out
bk

James T said...

That was a crazy and exciting stage finish. I kept yelling at those four though the TV, but they just wouldn't listen. Collectively, they looked back at the field about a thousand times in the last kilo, so I guess they just wanted to be swallowed up at the last minute.

blue squirrel said...

yes [results]- i believe that puts bk and myself infront of masiguy...... [oh, heads up, SS has a cold]

1 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Crédit Agricole
2 Robert Hunter (RSA) Barloworld
3 Oscar Freire (Spa) Rabobank
4 Erik Zabel (Ger) Milram
5 Danilo Napolitano (Ita) Lampre-Fondital
6 Gert Steegmans (Bel) Quickstep-Innergetic
7 Robert Förster (Ger) Gerolsteiner
8 Tom Boonen (Bel) Quickstep-Innergetic
9 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Cofidis
10 Mark Cavendish (GBr) T-Mobile

Queen of Couth said...

You must have missed your calling because it ain't Tour picks! Not this week at least.
Love you brother
Peace Out
bk

Anonymous said...

Tim,

Thanks for this series. It's lots of fun. Who's got my man Napolitano?