Who Will Win Tirreno Adriatico?

[Angliru]

None of 5-6 main guys were on their limit on the Ventoux. Armstrong was dancing on the pedals quite freshly. Armstrong looked better than Frank, So Contador sacrificed a POSSIBILITY of stage win. More precisely Contador and Andy did it.

No one is saying that Contador would have DEFINITELY won on Ventoux but had he not been burdened by having to escort Armstrong and ensure his 3rd place in the gc there is a good chance that he would've have won the stage if that was his intent from the beginning of that stage. Andy hadn't shown to be his equal, Armstrong certainly hadn't shown any evidence of being in the same neighborhood as Contador in the mountains and considering that the Pellizotti almost made contact with Martin and Garate before running out of gas, I'm quite certain that Contador could've done the same. Andy would've been too busy trying to help Frank in his efforts to take Armstrong's 3rd step on the podium to really concern himself with Contador going for the stage win. Frank was obviously Andy's priority on that stage as Armstrong, unfortunately was Contador's.