some thoughts

[Andre.J]

Lance finished much higher than I thought (I predicted 10th overall). Thor better than Cav? That's an enormous understatement. Cav is a girl compared to Thor. About Contador...we'll find out in 2 months. We'll also find out about Nibali, Ignatiev, Wiggins, Pelizzoti, Garate, Lance, and some lesser names.
I found today's stage anti-climatic. It did not live up to my expectations of drama (call me crazy if you want). Riders that I've become fond of during this stage: Farrar, VDB, Kreuziger, the Schlecks. Riders I'm disappointed with: Sastre, Devolder, Boonen, Menchov, Freire (Monfort rode well except for one stage where he went into the red zone). I think Team Colombia wasted their GC riders for Cav the ***. They completely burned out Kirchen, Momfort and Martin.
Too bad about Gesink and Levi, I would have enjoyed to see how well they finished.

Amicalement,

Andre

 

[anubisza]

Thor isn't better than Cav, it's obvious Cav is quicker. Thor is just more consistent.

Lance finished higher than I expected too, a podium is a brilliant result, no one can deny that.

And how can you say they wasted riders on Cav? He got 5 stage wins!! There's no way they had a shot at the GC, so 5 wins is a bloody brilliant return for him.

 

[joeags]

I think the organizers neutralized this stage by placing it at the end. Contador follows Andy Schleck, Lance follows Frank Schleck. Honestly, the only interesting thing to me today was Nibali bridging up to Andy and Alberto. They had a good 30 seconds at one point, but Contador didn't work, for obvious reasons, and Nibali did nothing also. At that point, Andy shut down. That was the only real interest for a period of time on the climb.

Even AC played it very team-like by not making a run with a couple kms left to go for the stage win. There were a few times where I thought he would run, but whether he learned a lesson from 3 days ago or what, that was limited what would happen with the 3rd place podium.

Regardless of the anti-climatic finish, I was impressed by Wiggins. He fought his **** off, albeit for a 4th place finish.

 

[anubisza]

Regardless of the anti-climatic finish, I was impressed by Wiggins. He fought his **** off, albeit for a 4th place finish.

He had a brilliant Tour. Good experience for him, next year should be interesting.

 

[psychlist]

I thought the stage was about as interesting as it could possibly be.

 

[usedtobefast]

it went as i thought. break up the road. gc boys mark each other.
always hard. next time put it somewhere else in the race.

 

[scribe]

I was impressed at how the chase pack with all the GC boys nearly chased down the leaders. It was extremely quick and not given to as much drama. The big surprise of the stage was Frank's inability to cross the gap Andy had created. I fully expected Frank to tear apart the leader board.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

Thor isn't better than Cav, it's obvious Cav is quicker. Thor is just more consistent.

as a cyclist ona whole, thor is better.
Cav is a better sprinter.

 

[avanti]

.........................
I found today's stage anti-climatic. It did not live up to my expectations of drama (call me crazy if you want). ........................................
Too bad about Gesink and Levi, I would have enjoyed to see how well they finished.
..........................................

I agree with you 100%