I found it somehow hard to watch. The scenery was great, as usual, but the race was a yawn. If I'd been racing myself (highly unlikely, I admit) then I may have felt differently. Of interest was that Pineau took back the dots and Cav took the belated sprint. And some people with broken bodies made it to the end unscathed. But it did drag along somewhat.
Tour De France: Stage 10, Route Maps & Results | Cyclingnews.com
Tour De France: Stage 10, Route Maps & Results | Cyclingnews.com
"I knew I had to attack to get away from the group, and I actually felt pretty good," Paulinho said after the stage. "I was just a little bit stronger than Kiryienka, and waited until the last moment to make my move."Tour De France: Stage 10, Route Maps & Results | Cyclingnews.com
The victory was an important boost in morale for the American team, whose leader Lance Armstrong had his dreams of an 8th Tour win all but dashed on the road to Morzine on Sunday.
"We did a lot of work for the team in the first week of the race. The last two stages were very important to the team, and we were quite strong. All we really wanted was to get a stage win," Paulinho said.
"In the team meeting this morning, we were told we needed to have someone in the breakaway. We also had to look out for the team classification, so when I saw a rider from Caisse d'Epargne go, that's when I decided I had to be there."
The only semblance of racing came from king of the mountains contenders Pineau and Charteau, the French duo tied on points in that classification with the Bbox Bouygues Telecom rider wearing the jersey courtesy of a countback. They scavenged the remaining points on offer, with the Quick Step rider doing enough to take back the polka dot jersey he has worn for much of the last week.PezCycling News - What's Cool In Pro Cycling
At this point, there was not a single Frenchman represented in the move of the day - unacceptable. Just to make things interesting, the French duo of Maxime Bouet (AG2R) and Pierre Rolland (BBox) spotted the break two minutes before setting off in pursuit. 30 kilometers later, and the two made the juncture, after that, it was just a matter of staying attached along the rest of the route, which included 3000 meters of climbing. Not bad for what turned out to be an easy-ish day.PezCycling News - What's Cool In Pro Cycling
Fast forward back to the present, and the turn that effectively ended the career of Beloki is decorated with yellow steps to commemorate the path that Lance Armstrong took in a move that saved his Tour de France. The race passes the turn with no incident, but the view is almost eerie.PezCycling News - What's Cool In Pro Cycling
Lampre put together another solid leadout with Danilo Hondo doing the business for Petacchi. Petacchi started the sprint early as he is want to do and had the measure of Green Jersey, Thor Hushovd. Unfortunately for Petacchi, Mark Cavendish was right there and beat all comers with ease. You'd be foolish not to put your money on Cavendish in tomorrow's stage.
