The way the race unfolded seems typical for a first mountian top finish in the Tour. Team Astana has proven they are the strongest and will more then likely sweep the podium in Paris. I know that will upset many people on here but sometimes the truth hurts.
Just like in other tours some of the climbers had bad(maybe not Bad)but invisible days because they do better in the second portion of the mountians then the first. Sastre is more then likely will not have a podium spot this year due to the strength of Astana. However, He will be a main rival when the race heads into the Alps. Andy schleck would be a serious contender if astana was not in the race. He did try to bridge the gap to Contador but, you can see Astana had the ability to sweep him up quickly. Cadel Evans, did attack and was quickly brought back. If that attack is what he has at full go it's not good enough to break the monster that is Astana. I think at the tempo Astana set is very close to his red line and he doesn't have much more then we saw today. I like cadel he is a fighter but, I don't think you can put him in with the elite mountian climbers in the race and he needs to be closer to them to be able to attack and ride away from the main contenders. Vande Velde did look good(better then last year) however, this is the first mountian finish and it wasn't as hard as some. Arcalis is a major mountian and very high but the grade after the first 4k are 4-5 percent and I would imagine for a pro bike rider it's not horrible.
Now for team Astana, I think the team performed excellent. I do feel after listening to the Armstrong after the race and his comments. Johan bruyneel, even stated in a pre race interview that Lance might be in yellow tonight. That Contador was not suppose to take off on his own. If this is the case I don't think Contador is making friends within the team. However, we don't know if contador had the go ahead to take off like that. Astana before that was working as a team and was taking on the attacks as a team. Levi and Kloden still worked with lance in the finsih and when you get close to the line its every man for themselves. Lance has some powerful allies and if Contador went on his own he may have NO help later in the race.
Now I did see some posters mention Lance didn't go after contador, and why would a teammate chase down another teammate? I don't think this is T-mobile is it? Another thing is Lance, Kloden, and Levi didn't even increase their tempo when Contador took off. If the move was not scripted it just shows Contadors is a young inexperienced rider that has much to learn. We have already seen that when the peleton split and Lance gained all that time on Contador when he missed the break. The race is not won today but, Many of the pre race favorites are not contenders but just pretenders.
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