Post Alpine Cheers and Jeers

photo: Graham Watson
Cheers to Valverde for showing his metal today. It was a put-up or shut-up kind of day and our contenders list has shrunk to this: Rasmussen, Valverde, Mayo, Evans, Contador, Moreau, Sastre, Kloden and Leipheimer.

photo: AFP
Cheers to those that raced valiantly but lost too much time to be serious contenders: Schleck, Menchov and Vino. Michael Rogers crashed out in stage 8 in virtual yellow, that has got to be a really hard way to go. Vino was brought to tears at the end of stage 9 today, and your heart has to go out to him. The guys got about six square feet of road rash and still he continues on. I hope to see him on the attack in the coming days.

photo: AFP
Jeers to Rasmussen for blowing a chance to motivate his team-mates behind him. After stage 9 he commented, "Now there is no doubt about who is the captain of this team is. I stayed close to Valverde because he had another teammate up there. I felt like it was a victory for me to be able to fight back the 25 times Valverde tried to attack. I felt very clear in the head today seeing the tactics of the race. It was disappointing that Menchov couldn't get his ass over the Galibier. I think it's a climber's Tour." Wow! Michael sure knows how to put the ass in R-Ass-Mussen...Let's see if he can finish Saturday's TT without crashing (twice)!
And finally Cheers to Contador for trading elbows with the big boys. Cheers for Mayo's return, and Leipheimer's stealth. Levi is capable of punishing the "climbers" on the TT's. Let's wait and see. Go Levi! On the exit of the Alps Cadel Evans was looking very good, and he won't suffer on the TT either. Sastre and Kloden are looking as smooth as ever and you know they will be there in the end.
-Adam