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Stage 18
Annemasse-Lons Le Saunier 166.5 km
Analysis
The stage started out very aggressive until six riders went up the
road. Then Simeoni tried to bridge and Armstrong jumped up to
him. The two of them worked together to bridge, worked for
only a little bit in the break, and then they both dropped back to
the peloton. The commentator made it sound like Lance was
being a bully. There may have been some problem in the peloton
in which Simeoni said or did something that ticked certain of the
top riders off and his punishment may be that he can't go on breaks
for a while. It would have to be something like causing a
crash, hooking some one, or insulting some one. There is no
other reason why I could see that Simeoni would not be permitted in
a break. He is almost three hours down on GC and the only
other title he is even listed on is the Points Title where he is
42nd. He isn't a threat to anyone on anything just like
everyone else in the break.
Since the rest of the peloton finished together, there were not any
changes on the standings for anything. It was a relatively
boring stage with six riders trying to win a stage and the rest of
the peloton using this break to keep the pack relaxed without
attacking or sprinting.
You young riders coming up, need to understand that, if you do
something stupid that almost puts a top rider down, it can take a
long time for the rest of the peloton to treat you with respect.
I have seen a lot of riders in one of their first races with the
pro's being chewed out in the peloton, some times with a pro beating
on their helmet and screaming, because they almost crashed the pro.
That is why I wrote the section on Bike Discipline and encourage all
of you to learn the stuff and get really good at it. If you
crash and hurt a top pro, your career could be over. If you
want to get on the good side of the pro's learn to ride right in the
peloton before you get up to them.
Tomorrow
The flat time trial tomorrow is the last significant stage for GC.
It will be the last sort of the race with the pure climbers being
passed by the climbers who time trial well.
Most likely Lance will win or finish in the top three not losing
much time. There are only two riders who are close enough to
him that, if they had a really great day and he had a really bad
one, they could be a threat to him. Most likely Basso will
lose at least three to four minutes to Lance and could lose second
to Kloden and even be passed by Ullrich.
From about fifth place down, the riders in the top ten are close
enough that there could easily be some shifting around in order.
A lot of riders took it easy today to save their legs for tomorrow.
