The Wobblin' Sprocket

At least that’s the way it looked.  Racing 200k in rainy, cool weather looks downright miserable.   There was barely a smile caught on camera all day long.  Even Hienrich Haussler, who won the stage by being in front of the peloton for 195 of 200k’s, looked more overcome by emotion than joy.

Despite the lousy conditions, there were no crashes.  That’s a good thing.  The bad news is that Levi Leipheimer broke his wrist in a crash yesterday.  He didn’t realize it until this morning.  He is now out and no one likes to see that.

The suspense of who is going to what when isn’t easing up.  Despite it being a long race, the GC contenders only have one or two shots and they need to be both present in the corral and able to fire their bullets at the right time. Without Levi around, the shootout looks like it will be even more interesting.

It’s impossible not to like the way that Nicki Sorenson won today’s stage of the Tour de France.  He rode away from the lead group of seven and was joined by another rider at 20k out.   They built their lead up to about 30 seconds and then, when the two had faded to only 7 seconds ahead of the chasing group of 5, he bolted to a solo win.

His moves left no doubt who the strong man was.   There were no team trains and no launching of a sprint in the last 50 meters.  Don’t get me wrong.  There is plenty of excitement in the mass sprints, but there also is something wonderful about a finish where someone can just step on it at the end and leave 6 guys behind.  I loved it.