Tuesday, July 5, 2005

Stage 4 - and time to post

Haven't had time to post folks, but I've got to stick in a note about Stage 4 or the Tour. Now Lance is in yellow - and I think he knew his team had to go for everything they could on this one. Too many teams were close, and CSC started last. It was quite obvious that several teams were taking this TTT (team time trial) very seriously. Phonak for instance - dropping riders like flies trying to stay in the running. Discovery - working like a machine, but the effort was visible. And CSC - what a run they had. I could see the effort was costing them, and I had just been thinking to myself that they looked near the ragged edge where - cough, cough - 'things' happen. And, a few seconds later - they did. Zabriskie went down, and it was just a miracle that the riders after him didn't also. My heart breaks for him and the team, because they were right on target, and they were all in on this one. They put everything on the line - they had no reserve of energy - they were spending it all. I think if Zabriskie hadn't gone down, they wouldn't have lost to Discovery. Two seconds? A mere blink of the eye can cost nearly that much. Even if they only lost one second, and the HAD to have lost enough concentration to lose that much, they would have kept Zabriskie in yellow another day.

I will post more photos and comments soon!