Can you believe we’re already a third of the way into Le
Tour and have reached the Pyrenees? This can only mean one thing - all eyes have
turned to mountain men Froome Dog, Schleck, Contador and Evans for two stages
of gruelling climbs.
The stage takes the riders through the highest point of Le
Tour on the Col de Pailhères. With fresh memories of the blizzard conditions of
the Giro d’Italia, the peloton nervously checked the forecast after realising
they hadn’t packed the winter woollies. Conditions were pleasant, but the way
the Ps talked about the ascents you’d be forgiven for thinking the peloton was
about to conquer Everest.
The parcours winds its way through some breathtaking scenery
of mountains, valleys and more gorgeous gorges with the Gorge of St Georges the
most gorgeous of them all. Needless to say this wasn’t going to be good cow
spotting territory.
In true sporting cliché parlance it's the climbs that
separate the men from the boys. Africa was in yellow but it took a young South
American to really put a cat among the pigeons.
Things appeared to be going well for Thomas Voeckler (Team Ooooropcar
and interpretative tongue dancing specialist) going on the attack at the 39km
to go mark until the mighty Nairo Quintana (Movistar) caught his wheel. The
Columbian was on the march having defied a ‘death curse’ all his life, according
to Paul. Voeckler saw his chances flag. Pretty soon Quintana had left Voeckler
in his wake. The Frenchman had nothing
left except to say “shut up tongue”.
We hadn’t seen Voeckler more upset than the time his tongue
turned up as himself at a Thomas Voeckler’s tongue lookalike contest only to be
judged runner up to the tongue that did those beer commercials a few years ago.
Voeckler contemplates what went wrong
Quintana continued his heroic effort but Sky had a long
march in mind when it sent out Richie Porte on the final ascent to reel in Quintana and to launch
the Froome Dog to the finish. Apart from
Froome all the big names failed to fire leaving questions at the backs of our
minds about what went wrong. Last year Froome played second fiddle to Sir
Braddles. This time the Froome Dog was well and truly let off the leash to take
the stage at Ax 3 Domaines and lead the GC.
Today it was Tomo and SBS cycling computer Anthony Tan’s turn for the post-race
dissection. We fear the Tan Man may have experienced a software glitch. Facts, figures
mixed in with a heavy dose of cliché made Tomo wince more than once over a number of excruciating minutes. Tanny, sometimes you’ve just have
to take a leaf from Voeckler’s book and know when to say shut the tongue up.
And it seems Gabriel Gate has been listening to the pleas of
the Tour caravan. Today’s dinner was a lovely roast duck leg dish Cuisse deCanard Rôtie aux Pruneaux. The Beurremetric Counter account has officially opened on 1
tablespoon of butter.
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