By Chris Brewer

It was no surprise to anyone that there was a strong final battle on the steep climb to Mende.  But there were a couple of interesting tactics on the way to the finish line, and the second one will have tongues wagging probably till Stage 14.

The first card played was done really well by Teams RadioShack, Astana, and Garmin-Transitions.  By putting Klöden (good to see him with some good legs!), Vinokourov, and Hesjedal in the big break it forced Saxo Bank to do the bulk of the pace work today.  Then when that trio of riders with Kiryienka along took off, that really forced the peloton into action as they contained the kind of horsepower that could win the stage.  The downside to this kind of talent up the road was that they were never going to be given much of a time gap, Hesjedal at 5’42” and Vino 6’15” down on GC, and so the group stayed at a very manageable three minutes throughout much of the day.  Still, a good game played early on.

At the base of the climb the peloton had closed to within a minute.  Up at the front of the race, Vino attacked – no shock there – and I thought he was on his way to a well-earned stage win.  Back in the peloton a non-threatening AG2R rider had attacked, but it looked like the big boys were content to ride together.  And then an odd thing happened making many recall Andorra Arcalis and a similar day in the 2009 Tour…

I said earlier today I thought Contador needed to attack Schleck, to bring the race to him.  But I thought he would have gone much earlier, and with about 1500m left in the climb it seemed a truce had been reached.  All of a sudden Katusha’s Joaquin Rodriguez attacked (5’08” down on GC) and Contador jumped with him, surprising Schleck.  The gap soon settled in and yes, Contador had the advantage - but then they kept going, even to the extent of passing Vino without so much of a thought of waiting and working for him for the win.

Rodriguez easily sat on Contador’s wheel and came around him for the stage win, Vino third just four seconds away and Schleck 10 seconds back, safely still in yellow. And that is what people will be talking about – what was the intent of the attack and subsequent tactics?

Last year I asked one of our experienced staffers what they thought when AC went out against the select peloton, gaining just 40 seconds for his effort.  I was told, “You only attack on the final climb for one of three reasons: to win the stage, to get the yellow jersey, or to put significant time into your rivals.”  Using that sage advice I bet there will be some interesting talk on the buses today and dinner tables tonight.

What do you think?  Whatever your opinion, that’s bike racing, and I think it will all come to a head just a couple of stage from now on Stage 14 and the vertical road to Ax-3 Domaines.  Ciao for now, we’ll talk soon – Cb…