Cavendish has realised he's got no realistic chance of the green jersey (despite his four wins) and has pulled out of the race today, ahead of the first big Alp.

Sensible, I'd say. He must have a pretty good chance of medals in Beijing - I heard him and Bradley Wiggins would be going for the Madison on the track, will he be entered in the road race as well? If that went to a sprint he'd presumably be favourite?

Yeah, but it's a pretty tough course by all accounts, and fairly unlikely to end in a sprint - also, the Madison training will be too specific, and he'll just end up being peaked for neither. So he's not in the Road Race squaad...

Pereiro fell over a guard rail and broke his shoulder? Blimey.

Indeed.

I can;t find anywhere showing this - which is annoying, as it looks fantastic. The break are gone, and I think of them, Arrieta will climb his way to the win.

Meanwhile, CSC are giving it socks as the peloton approaches the final climb. Evans must be peeing himself.

Ha, Arrieta's immediately dropped. Typical.

Evans dropped!

THis is great stuff, Menchov's riding a stormer...

Bloody hell, what a race!

Schleck has seven seconds on Kohl, eight on Evans. Menchov is at 38, Vandevelde at 39, Sastre at 49.

That was an absolutely fantastic stage and proof, if needed, that the Tour has improved as a spectacle rather than declined since Lance's retirement and all the EPO busts.

Feel sorry for Menchov, he was free on his attack but fell off, yet still kept up with Sastre when he made the final attack. Even though he lost the yellow, I was really impressed with Evans, battled his bollocks off to try and keep up with every attack, of which there were countless. I don't think Vandevelde looks good enough, to me he just seems a slightly inferior version of Cadel Evans.

Anyway, Menchov is my man now, I thought he was superb today.

What an absolutely fantastic days racing.
Andy Schleck was superb as was Menchov and Sastre. Evans is a gritty rider, you have to hand it to him. He was being attacked by evryone, it was relentless and although they broke him in the end, he refused to hit the canvas.
This is going to keep happening for the next two stages. They need to put time into him before the TT. The poor bloke is going to be punch drunk by Saturday.

Best day of sport all year that was.

I think Evans might be saved by how many people are challenging though. So Menchov or Kohl might be wary of attacking Evans and leaving themselves open to each other and to CSC. Which is where Sastre and F Shleck have the advantage in having Andy to lead the pace and chase down the attacks - even if Menchov hadn't crashed yesterday Andy was already beginning to bridge the gap. He rode an amazing stage.

I really want to be able to give the Tour the indifference I now have for athletics, but stages like yesterday are too good.

The French TV commentators were expressing their general surprise at how well Vandevelde is doing - for a guy who previously hasn't figured as a contendor in other big races...

Most enjoyable stage. My wife didn't even mind missing a few minutes of the Open to watch the end. I just wish ITV4 were showing the full stages during the week as well as at the weekend.

loose cannon wrote:

QUOTE:
The French TV commentators were expressing their general surprise at how well Vandevelde is doing - for a guy who previously hasn't figured as a contendor in other big races...

There was a nice piece by Paul Kimmage on Vande Velde in the Times yesterday

You're right, that's a nice piece. Interesting that Armstrong had to have his stats "massaged".

I felt sorry for Menchov - he looked to have got clear when he fell. One report suggested the others slowed for him, but it to me looked like they did momentarily, saw his chain was slipping and so went off. He did well to get back to them, but seemed to have used up almost everything to do so.

Fabulous stage though. Evans was incredibly gutsy all the way to the end.

Did anyone see when Cancellara started winding it up for CSC and the peloton went rolling through that speed trap on the flat? The sign showed 70 kph...

I'm thinking about skipping today's stage, got a dissertation to write and would like to go swimming this afternoon.

Can toro or another authority confirm for me that tomorrow is the big one.

Today they're already reaching the top of the Col de la Lombarde, and have Col de la Bonnette-Restefond to go.

Tomorrow certainly is The Big One: the Col du Lautaret, Col du Galibier, Col du Télégraphe, Col de la Croix de Fer and l'Alpe d'Huez.