Saturday, July 23, 2005

tour de france

And there we have it. The podium tomorrow in Paris will be Armstrong with the yellow jersey, Ivan Basso second and Jan Ullrich third. Rasmussen, who was in third before today's TT, had about the worst time trial I've ever seen. He crashed at least twice and stopped several times to replace his bike. Someone is fired over this performance, even if he would have had a tough time holding off Ullrich for third place without the mishaps. But the prize for Rasmussen is nevertheless the polka dot jersey for best climber. Popovych, another Discovery rider, won the white jersey for best young rider. T-Mobile, I believe, will have won the best team category.

The only thing left to be decided now is whether Thor Hushovd can hold onto the best sprinter's green jersey, keeping it from O'Grady and McEwen. The Champs Elysees will see some mad dashes for the sprint points tomorrow.

So, congratulations to Lance for his seventh and final yellow jersey. Like him or not, he is a hell of a bad-assed rider. Congratulations to Ullrich for making it back to the podium. Congratulations to Rasmussen for the polka dot jersey. Congratulations to guys like Leipheimer, Popovych, Hincapie, and Mancebo for nice performances. Stay tuned for next year when the race will open up again to all sorts of contenders for yellow.

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