2009 Tour De France: Going Rogue

CEBU, Philippines - For Lance Armstrong fans, the question would be, “WTF was Alberto Contador doing?”

At the start of this Tour, most observers believed that Lance Armstrong would disobey team orders and disrupt AC’s ascendancy. However, the opposite has happened, with LA respecting the traditions of cycling, even if it stifled him and AC going rogue twice already with questionable results.

AC was in a 4-man break with teammate Andreas Kloeden, and Andy and Frank Schleck. The Schlecks were doing all the work at the front and all AC had to do was to stick with the brothers. He could have still distanced LA the upstart Bradley Wiggins and more importantly, put the lights out for Cadel Evans, Carlos Sastre and Christian Vande Velde. He could have gifted the stage to Kloeden and ASTANA would have 1-2-3 on the overall standing.

But with 18km to go (3km climb and 15km descent) to the finish, Contador had a donkey moment and attacked. Instead of shedding the Schlecks, he instead dropped Kloeden. The momentum of the attack also distanced LA who dropped from second to 4th overall. Now why would he do that?

AC said team director Johann Bruyneel said he could attack but Bruyneel, who’ll be leaving ASTANA after this year and probably team up with LA’s new team, said otherwise. So instead of having the top 3 filled with ASTANA riders, the Schlecks have 2nd and 3rd while LA and Kloeden are 4th and 5th, respectively.

All is not lost for LA and Kloeden though, as both are a notch above the Schlecks in the ITT. I think that LA can easily overcome the 30” deficit he has with Frank and move to 3rd but Andy’s 1’29” might be a bit harder considering that the ITT is just 40km. But strange things have happened in the 3rd week of the Tour.

I sympathize with Bradley Wiggins. Sitting prettily at 3rd at the start of the, stage, SAXO BANK and ASTANA were bent on dropping the Brit for the reason that he is a good rider against the clock and they want a buffer going into tomorrow’s ITT. And they succeeded mightily. I don’t think that Wiggins can overhaul his 62” deficit past LA but he has a reasonable chance of leapfrogging Frank Schleck.

Of course, even if my prognostications are right, there is still the Mont Ventoux to ride this Saturday and the overall standings will most likely be shuffled for the final time.

WORD OF THE DAY: “BIDON”, water bottle. – THE FREEMAN