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BOBKE: BOB ROLL'S QUOTE OF THE DAY: STAGE TWO UNITY
Bobke
July 6, 2010
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STAGE TWO
That was gnarly! If that race was dry today it would’ve been a spectacular finish with a stage full of attacking. As it was, it became a stage just for surviving. If so many of the top guys hadn’t of crashed they would’ve raced to the end, but in the end they called a truce so that the Schlecks and Lance could catch up. It looked like Team Saxo was setting a hard tempo so that the Schleck’s could catch back the time they lost in the TT. Don’t forget, these guys are bike racers and they just don’t race for the moment, they race for the future – with the Schleck’s moving on and Saxo’s future unsure, I bet a few riders thought it better to be on their good side!
As for the cobbles of Stage Three, in a word, carnage. And it will be carnage times two if it rains. The lost ski of Stage Two could turn to broken bones in Stage Three. I think every stage should have cobble sections. Back when I was racing I dreamed of a three week race full of cobbles if only to better crush the anemic climbing dweebs and give them an idea of what it feels like to carry 190lbs through the Alps! If that was the case today Tom Boonen could be as ten time Tour winner, but that’s not how the race has evolved.
Overall, I’d say that today was pretty cool. It wasn’t good to see the riders go down, it never is, but seeing that kind of solidarity in the ranks is rare. The riders played the only card they could and it was good to see in light of it appearing that they weren’t doing their job. Proud is not the right word, but it was edifying.
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