..Voeckler.
The post that went tits up the other day was a long anti-Schleck rant based on Andy’s whinging after the downhill finish into Gap on stage 16.
It was a dangerous finish…I am pretty disappointed. We don’t want to see riders crashing or taking risks. Everyone has families at home. A finish like this should not be allowed Andy Schleck
Added to the fact I was getting pissed off with neither brother actually doing anything. Except looking back.
Andy’s head is always turned looking for either Contador or his brother, while the brother Frank is always looking for Andy. Too concerned with others to actually go out and just do it themselves.
That was up until yesterday when Andy Schleck finally took off and didn’t straight away look over his shoulder at what his brother and main competition were doing or indeed slow down and let them catch him. The latter part perhaps because the rest just looked on, figuring with 60km and two hors catégorie climbs left, Andy has let the criticism coming his way get to him and gone a bit barmy.
What followed was one of the great rides as he powered on catching those in front of him, mopping up and using his team-mates in the various breakaways sent out for this very purpose. Those left behind seemingly with no answer to Schleck’s pursuit of the yellow jersey.
But even after he’d finished all on his Tod having blown everyone away I was cheering another on. The main contenders for GC seemed to not want to chase Schleck down but Cadel Evans finally decided he had to do something and lead from the front. Almost single handedly he dragged a group of six up the Galibier slowly eating into the time gained by Schleck.
Thankfully in that group was one of the heroes of this year’s Tour, Tommy Voeckler, doing everything he could to hang onto that prized shirt. You could see when he tried one final burst there was nothing there left in the legs but with thanks to Evans it was enough that in the matter of minutes, over last few metres for Schleck’s lead to turn into the Luxembourger starting today 15 seconds behind the little Frenchman.
It may not be enough to see Voeckler keep the lead much longer with another monster day in the Alps today, Galibier from the other side and Alpe-d’Huez. But I for one, am hoping he can just hang on for at least one more day in yellow.
Also hoping that Mark Cavendish can hang on. Was tight yesterday as he missed the cut-off time limit by a couple of minutes. Thankfully he was one of 88 so wasn’t disqualified but another 20 point penalty won’t do his hopes of ending the Tour in green any help.