It’s the final day in the mountains and the final
serious day for the maillot juane. The 125km parcours takes the riders through
the gorgeous area around Annecy with a mountain top finish at the ski station
at Annecy - Semnoz. Richie Froome (Sky) went into the race with a handy five
minute margin, his grip on the yellow is almost complete. The real battle of
the day was for second and third on the podium.
Gabriel Gate had been out fishing in the streams and brought
back a big haul of trout which he smoked improvising with saw dust and the
overheated engine of the Orica-GreenWEDGE team bus. Gate turned out a
magnificent Terrine de Truite Fumée au Concombre or cucumber and smoked trout
terrine. No butter so the Beurremetric counter sits
on 634g.
Halfway through the race Radioshack Leotard’s Jens
Voigt took off like a scolded cat and at the age of 41, the oldest man in the
peloton and indeed the world, led the peloton until 8km before the finish. Not
even a rose bush that leapt from the side of the road in the neutral zone was
going to stop him. Keep in mind Voigt was racing in the last century and here
he is still going strong. No wonder ‘The Jensie’ is a legend with Tour fans
everywhere.
The outcome of the race would be decided in the
final 7km on the climb to Annency – Semnoz. Alberto Contador (Saxo Tinkoff)
lost his grip on second. Rockin’ Rodriquez (Katusha) succumbed to Froome and
Quintana (Movistar) with the young Columbian taking the stage and second place
in the General Classification, an outstanding effort for a Tour debut.
In other news Australia is abuzz with the
announcement of Eros Ramazzotti’s NOI World Tour dates. How do we know? Well SBS
has had the ads on high rotation during Le Tour broadcasts for the past week,
that’s how we know. If this deal to get ‘My Favourite TdF Things’ recorded with
Weird Al Yankovic falls through there may be an opening with Ramazzotti later
in the year. Stay tuned.
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