UNBELIEVABLE
After yesterday's stage I think everyone figured that Landis' Tour was over. Certainly I did, but there was apparently one person who didn't and that was Landis. From 130 km out he launched his attack. There was already a break of 11 up ahead of him, but over the course of three climbs he caught them and left them in the dust. The other teams who were trying to crack Pereiro let him and his team do all the chasing and as a result Landis ended up getting his advantage up to a high of over 9 minutes. It was still nearly 7 minutes at the bottom of the feared Joux de Plane. This was the point when I expected that Landis, who had been on the front for a very long time would crack, but as it was he booked up that climb and ended up conceding only 2 minutes on the climb to Sastre and held even with the yellow jersey group!
On top of that he decended faster than Sastre and ended up winning the stage by nearly 6 minutes. Pereiro was not out of it yet though and he managed to cross the line still in yellow, but with only 12 seconds on Sastre and only 30 seconds on Landis!!! The little bit of the televised coverage I did get to watch this morning included a brief conversation with Landis' coach, who said that he would feel comfortable going into the final time trial with anything less than a two minute deficit, to come within 30 seconds they have to be ecstatic. If the margins from the first time trial hold up in the second, Landis is going to win this thing after all. All I can say is, wow! I'm guessing that the last Tour even close to this exciting would have to be Lemond's victory on the final day back in '89.
I was very tempted to stay and watch the stage rather than going into work. I eventually decided to come into work, and now... I'm pretty sure that was a mistake. I read something recently (I'm too lazy to track it down at the moment) that in the short term we always regret being irresponsible, but in the long term we generally regret not being irresponsible. I think that's how this is going to be, years from now I'll be kicking myself for not blowing off work for an hour and watching this amazing stage.
Words escape me
On top of that he decended faster than Sastre and ended up winning the stage by nearly 6 minutes. Pereiro was not out of it yet though and he managed to cross the line still in yellow, but with only 12 seconds on Sastre and only 30 seconds on Landis!!! The little bit of the televised coverage I did get to watch this morning included a brief conversation with Landis' coach, who said that he would feel comfortable going into the final time trial with anything less than a two minute deficit, to come within 30 seconds they have to be ecstatic. If the margins from the first time trial hold up in the second, Landis is going to win this thing after all. All I can say is, wow! I'm guessing that the last Tour even close to this exciting would have to be Lemond's victory on the final day back in '89.
I was very tempted to stay and watch the stage rather than going into work. I eventually decided to come into work, and now... I'm pretty sure that was a mistake. I read something recently (I'm too lazy to track it down at the moment) that in the short term we always regret being irresponsible, but in the long term we generally regret not being irresponsible. I think that's how this is going to be, years from now I'll be kicking myself for not blowing off work for an hour and watching this amazing stage.
Words escape me
posted by DireKobold at 10:30 AM
6 Comments:
Inconceivable!
Can't you just tape/TiVo it and not look at the online sites until you get home?
No, I do not possess sufficient willpower.
for some resson your blog reminded me of this article.
http://www.stressdoc.com/emancipation_proc1.htm
"laziness is instant gratification."
Well, can you add all the racing sites you normally look at to your company's firewall's blacklist and let someone else have the password? :)
That is why you are you and I am me. :D
--Wil
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