Sunday, July 18, 2010

So where does Contador stand?

By now it should be obvious I've thought Contador will win all along. But, today he and Scheck are playing games with each other, and they can both do the mountain goat thing better than anybody else - except each other. Given the way that both are on a different level from everyone else, and I wouldn't be surprised if both have also found a way to micro-dose and not get caught. It might be just a little tiny bit too good to be true. On the other hand, Alberto demonstrated this superior ability to climb and accelerate in the mountains a long time ago. So, we'll assume not, since it won't make any real difference to us.

It did make a difference to the guys in 3rd and 4th, tho. They actually managed to take advantage of the cat-and-mouse being played by Alberto and Andy and gain back 10 or 15 seconds. That isn't much, as they are about 2 and a half minutes behind, but it puts an extraordinary effort a little bit closer to their reach.

After today, I'm less confident that Alberto will win - it could be very close.