Tour de France Preview - Stage 7, July 10th

 Photo credit © Roberto Bettini

Not sure who to blame on the Garmin/Transitions team for the botched sprint attempt today. Director Matt White either didn't lay down clear enough direction on who was supposed to go for the sprint or Farrar for hesitating (maybe a missed shift) too long when he had the chance. In sprinting fearlessness gets the win. It probably didn't help that Team Sky acted like the little brother who wanted to be included in his big brother's party and disrupted Lampre and Garmin ambitions. Probably no matter though, as Cavendish was not going to be denied today. Good thing he got the win today, cause he won't see the front of the race until the Tour gets out of the Alps in a few days.

Stage 7 will probably not decide too much tomorrow, the final climb is not much steeper than your average American overpass. However, the stage might give an indication of who is ready to fight on Sunday. Speaking of fights, before reading on take a look at this. The only difference between this scrape between Rui Acosta and Carlos Barredo and a baseball fight (where no on ever gets hurt either) is that one of these combatants throws a wheel and not a haymaker.


Good stuff.

Look for the GC contenders to be looking tomorrow. Looking at each other for any weaknesses, because they will be looking to exploit those chinks the following day to Morzine. Check back tomorrow for my thoughts on what is going to go down, when the Tour heads upwards for the first time 2010.