Lance Watch: coming out of the bus having visited with 3-time cancer survivor and just a good kid to hang out with, Jimmy Fowkes, LA was in a great mood.  When interviewed by Eurosport’s “Planet Lance” he responded to Vincent’s question, “When will you attack?” by saying, “It’s all about how good the legs feel.”  And with a wink and a nod, he noted the Tour was only 3 weeks long and time was running out.  You do the math…

The Weather Outside is: gorgeous.  A little hot, but sunny skies, and pretty darn pleasant when you come right down to it.  It is summer after all, so no complaints.

Ok, Ok: so what do I / the folks on the ground think about what happened today with AC and Schleck?  Quite frankly the jury is all over the place here.  I have heard everything from AC is a total cheat to Schleck made a critical error after attacking and then miss-shifted, and too bad so sad for him.  As for me, I saw Schleck attack, and Contador respond.  However I did see AC was behind him when he dropped his chain, and even if AC didn’t realize it at first, he definitely has a radio and Vino was behind it all.  Lack of knowledge is no defense.

To me it seems that Contador has simply either not been counseled on what makes a champion, or decided not to listen.  Everyone remembers when Lance waited for Ullrich, and when the same courtesy was applied when LA caught that musette.  And what do we remember right now for Contador?  In 2009 flicking Lance on Andorra Arcalis, dropping Klöden, and so far catching and passing Vino and now taking advantage of Schleck.  These are facts, not opinions, and as an old data analyst I’d say there’s a trend…

What lies ahead: the current situation makes it hard for not only Lance to get his stage win chance, but for anyone else.  Conventional wisdom was that Schleck needed 60-90 seconds ahead going into the final TT, and now he’s 8 seconds behind.  That will make for some explosive riding in the next 2 days, assuming he wants to go for the win.  But that also means he and his team are willing to risk it all as well.  That in itself remains to be seen, getting second place in the Tour is no slouch.  Will Saxo Bank go for broke, or simply test the waters and if not good, settle in?

Say what you will, but it’s now Alberto Contador’s race to lose.  Who is willing to step up and really challenge him?  We’ll find out very soon indeed, my friends.  Ciao for now – Cb…