Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Friday, July 07, 2006

Oscar finally got the win he's been trying for with a cheeky move on a gap to the right and Boonen's still looking for his stage win. Egoi Martinez went from Discovery hero to goat when he crashed inside 20 km to go and lost over a minute on the main fiels to plummet to 89th in the race. He'll still be an attacking rider but not one anyone really has to worry about. Bennati was involved in a crash as well and so he's now in the second tier of riders along with Hushovd and Zabel for the Green Jersey. Right now it's a three man race between McEwen, Boonen and Freire.

Today is another sprint stage with one climb and a lot of crosswinds. If the field were driving hard I wsould expect some splits to show up but I think that it'll all stay together. All the usual suspects will be there for the finish and it's hard to say who will pull off the victory. I think McEwen is the strongest in the race, but his leadout train needs work right now. Boonen's sprint was a lot better yesterday but still not at the top end. The good thing for him right now is that his lead in the race is up to 13" so even if he finishes outside the top three he should hold onto yellow for one more day.

So predictions?

Boonen
Hushovd
McEwen
Freire
Bennati

As usual, Zabel, Eisel, Paolini and Kopp should all be around somewhere. Who knows, maybe even Jimmy Casper will resurface if the sprint is really chaotic again. I don't know about you all, but I'm ready for the sprint stages to be done. I miss the team time trial which would have happened either on stage 4 or 5 in year's past. It broke the monotony of the first week up and was a beautiful event to watch. Oh well, we get the first big test tomorrow and we'll have a better sense of everyone's condition. The big question to be answered for me will be whether Levi's managed to ride himself back into better form over this first week.

Off to the races then.

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