Very little chaos for the conditions and no injuries today as far as I know. That was the longest stage of the tour and probably hit the worst weather. A creditable performance by all.
I started in the days of Louison Bobet (early 60s!)...remember Roger Riviere, Jacques Anquetil, Federico Bahamontes and the greatest - Eddy Mercx [video=youtube;_CU0mfHVBvU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CU0mfHVBvU[/video] [video=youtube;P4yqv7s6nbY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4yqv7s6nbY[/video] [video=youtube;47m9AeDSSQQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47m9AeDSSQQ[/video] [video=youtube;KN-NPYpCkBs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN-NPYpCkBs[/video]
You really are knocking on! Anquetil..... When we cycled a hell of a lot in our late teens (Scarborough and back in a day, just two of us) we were a bit sad and sang stupid things like (to the tune of Roadhouse Blues by the doors) "Keep your wheels on the road and your eyes on Anquetil". Sad but true. I went to a few Tours in the late 80's early nineties. Great fun, remember seeing Indurain in a mountain time trial. Beast of a man.
Today's 7th Stage is from Le Mans to Chateauroux. It was in Chateauroux, 3 years ago, that the (then) 23 year-old Mark Cavendish won the first of his many Tour stages. And today? Well - he'll want a win, but so will Thor Hushovd and Tyler Farrar. Should be good....
Where we're up to now: Hushovd in Yellow Jersey Cadel Evans (BMC) 2nd @ 0'01" David Millar (Garmin-Cervelo) 4th @ 0'08" Bradley Wiggins (Sky) 6th @ 0'10" Geraint Thomas (Sky) 7th @ 0'12" Boasson Hagen (Sky) 8th @ 0'12" Alberto Contador lags at 34th, 1'42" adrift, but is well capable of making this deficit up, come the Pyrenees Samuel Sanchez, the Basque, is 48th @ 2'36", and needs to make an attempt to get within the G.C. leaders when the race reaches the Pyrenees - his home ground (and the road-side will be festooned with the flag of Euskadi!)
A link for today: http://sports-livez.com/channel/ch-7.php 4 men out in front by 6+ minutes, with 130+ km to go...
Breakaway 4 are 5 minutes ahead of the peloton, with 80km left to ride. Most likely they'll be caught and it's shaping up for another sprint finish. If Cavendish were to win, that would be his 17th stage win (he's now equal to Anquetil on 16).
Hoping for this breakaway to get caught and another one to take place in the last thirty. No climbing today, all things are possible.
Garmin-Cervelo and HTC-Highroad teams 'pulling the train' (with Hushovd just tucked in with them - he wants a stage win in the Yellow). The gap at 4.5 mins and maybe just closing slightly. They'll either do what you say, B2W, or they'll close in the last 4 or 5 kms, ready for the sprint.
