Saturday, July 11, 2009

Who leads the Astana team?

Some years the Tour de France is, if not boring, a little predictable. The race favourite gets into yellow early on and keeps the jersey all the way to Paris. Not this year though. Fabian Cancellara won the jersey in the first stage and managed to hold on to it until the race turned towards the mountains.

Yesterday, the Frenchman Brice Feillu won the stage to Andorra and Rinaldo Nocentini, who was in the breakaway group, took the yellow jersey.

The surprise though was Alberto Contador who shot off the main group with two kilometres to go leavingimage Armstrong behind. Of course, being in the same team, Armstrong didn’t respond. The 22 seconds that Contador gained over Armstrong by virtue of this move put him ahead of his team rival by 2 seconds.

The other surprise was Englishman Bradley Wiggins who was outstanding on the climb and now lies in fifth place overall just 46 seconds off the pace. C’mon Bradley!

Today, the Tour is back in the mountains and back into France with Stage 8 Andorre-la-Vieille Saint-Girons.

We will have to wait and see what drama unfolds today.

This is gripping stuff – far better than any football match! There are tactics, politics and team loyalty involved in Le Tour. Added to which you get to see breathtaking views of the countryside.

Hopefully there won’t be any drugs scandals this year!

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