Stage 11
July 15 Gap - Marseille 195 km
Today's stage started as I expected. There was quite a bit of
attacking from the start. FDJ held off the attacks until the first
sprint for Cooke and then more attacking started right after the
sprint with nine riders getting off and staying to win the stage.
The riders who got off were not high in any of the standings and at
least 47 minutes down on GC so the peloton used them as a control to
keep anyone else from attacking and keep the pace modest. Because of
this, the peloton let the break go without even a suggestion of a
chase and the break won by almost half an hour. The teams were
obviously tired because, with tomorrow being a rest day, today's
racing should have been more aggressive for the Points Title and
Combativity Title.
The lack of effort also said something about the lack of interest in
this new Centennial title which earned points with today's finish.
No one seems to care about the title.
The most important thing about today's stage is that an already
tired USP team towed the peloton for almost the entire stage. I know
that they only averaged about 25 to 26 miles per hour, but, even at
that speed, the peloton did about 30% less work today than USP.
Tomorrow
Tomorrow will be a rest day and the most exciting thing about the
Tour will happen right here when I give my regular coach's analysis
talking about what has happened, the significance of it, and what I
expect to happen based on what has happened. See you there.
