CyclingRevealed's First Impressions '05
Stage 10 - Grenoble to Courchevel, 192.5 km
Sign Language
To the uninitiated Discovery Channel team's crushing performance today may seem uncanny. What we really saw was an organization, prepared to perfection, roll out yet another facet of their strategy. Everyone in the Discovery organization would have been delegated the task of observing certain riders on the road. Signs of strength and weakness would be reported back to Johann Bruyneel in his mobile command center. Based on this intelligence he would then radio his instructions to Lance and the boys.
It has been this way for six Tours and today we again saw Lance's team riding with well drilled perfection. A long list of favorites were expected to finally deal with Lance today. Instead the Discovery team took complete control of the race at the front. As they powered up the first Category 1 climb of the day, Bruyneel and his team would have been closely observing the competition. They would have seen obvious signs of stress, underlined when Jens Voigt, resplendent in his new Yellow Jersey, slipped out of the back.
The 22 km climb up to the Courchevel finish presented us with the sight of Discovery's torrid pace dispatching riders out of the back every few seconds. When the likes of Mayo, Heras, Vinokourov, Ullrich and Basso lost contact it was a clear sign that something special was on. As each of these riders started to show signs of weakness Bruyneel would have calmly asked the boys to up the tempo even more. At the end the young Spanish hope Alejandro Valverde outsprinted Lance for the stage win with Rasmussen and Mancebo just behind them. The tattered remains of the peloton was spread out all over the mountain. Many hopes died on that cruel climb.
We now have a clear sign of life after Lance. It does not belong to all of those champions that were humbled today. The new young generation is moving in and Valverde and Rasmussen are leading the vanguard. But first Lance has some business to finish off.
Return to ToC >>> Previous Stage >>> Next Stage >>> |
