Sorry for missing posting after yesterday's stage. In the interest of brevity, here it is: there was a break, it got caught, McEwen won the sprint, Metuzals kept his lead in the pool.
Now, the time trial today was pretty interesting. Nobody really knew what was going to happen, and in the end we got a mess of confirmed expectations mixed with a couple surprises and a number of disappointments. Downer number one was Bobby Julich, who repeated his already remarkable exploit of crashing out of the '99 Tour in a time trial by, you guessed it, crashing out of the '06 Tour in a time trial. You'd figure he'd learn but, hey, he's the one who gets paid, not me.
Meanwhile, Leapin' Levi Leipenheimer was disappointing his fans in a more conventional manner, by simply going slowly -- a full six minutes off the winner's pace. No word on an explanation so far, but he's effectively out of contention for the overall now. Hincapie also dropped the ball in his bid to succeed Lance, losing 2:42.
It was Serhiy Honchar (or Sergei Gontchar, depending who's counting) who stole the show by winning the TT for T-Mobile by more than a minute over his closest rival. But is he a contender? He's got the team to back him up, but he has never demonstrated he can climb and, at 36, it's a little late to learn, and Honchar/Gontchar has his own history of run-ins with the doping police ... The boys in pink are more likely to work for Michael Rogers (1'08" back, who can climb, but well enough to win the Tour?) or Andreas Kloden (1'50", who was supposed to be the heir-apparent for Ullrich). And how good is Sinkewitz (1'45")?. Anyway, Landis is sitting pretty at one minute, despite various mechanical issues so far.
No change at the top of the Tour Pool, with one point separating Metuzals and DeVeer. Julich's abandon caused some pain -- six entrants chose him -- but nobody chose Honchar/Gontchar, and the other top performers are balancing each other out for the time being.
Contratulations to Julie Deschenes-Furry, by the way, for her stage win. Also, Il Gatto's fine 62nd place on the stage propelled him out of dead last into a tie for dead last. Nicely done.
Until tomorrow -- K-Dub out
Date: 7-Jul Stage: 6 Start/Finish: Lisieux > Vitré Distance 189,0 1st MC EWEN Robbie AUS DVL 2nd BENNATI Daniele ITA LAM 3rd BOONEN Tom BEL QSI 4th EISEL Bernhard AUT FDJ 5th HUSHOVD Thor NOR C.A 6th FREIRE Oscar ESP RAB 7th ZABEL Erik GER MRM 8th PAOLINI Luca ITA LIQ 9th STEEGMANS Gert BEL DVL 10th ISASI Inaki ESP EUS Mountains GUERINI Giuseppe ITA TMO Young rider EISEL Bernhard AUT FDJ Aggressive GESLIN Anthony FRA BTL Teams CREDIT AGRICOLE Abandon SACCHI Fabio ITA MRM Overall: Yellow BOONEN Tom BEL QSI Team DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM Green MC EWEN Robbie AUS DVL Polka dots PINEAU Jérôme FRA BTL Young rider VAUGRENARD Benoît FRA FDJDate: 8-Jul Stage: 7 Start/Finish: C.L.M. Ind. - Saint-Grégoire > Rennes Distance 52,0 1st HONCHAR Serhiy UKR TMO 2nd LANDIS Floyd USA PHO 3rd LANG Sebastian GER GST 4th ROGERS Michael AUS TMO 5th LARSSON Gustav SWE FDJ 6th SINKEWITZ Patrik GER TMO 7th FOTHEN Marcus GER GST 8th KLÖDEN Andréas GER TMO 9th MENCHOV Denis RUS RAB 10th POSTHUMA Joost NED RAB Young rider FOTHEN Marcus GER GST Teams T-MOBILE TEAM Abandon JULICH Bobby USA CSC Overall: Yellow HONCHAR Serhiy UKR TMO Team T-MOBILE TEAM Green MC EWEN Robbie AUS DVL Polka dots PINEAU Jérôme FRA BTL Young rider FOTHEN Marcus GER GSTRANK TOT Stage rank Stage points 1 360 15 17 Peter Metuzals 2 359 15 17 Helena DeVeer 3 337 10 19 Paul Crowley "Team Blood Wash" 4 333 15 17 Linda Gilligan 5 323 15 17 Jamie Bryan 6 314 15 17 Markus Chiang 7 310 3 25 Orange Scheisse 8 308 62 5 Stefan Sander 9 305 55 8 Spencer Campbell "Texless" 10 301 59 7 Steve Proulx 11 286 15 17 Glenn "My Team is Clean" Robinson 12 278 2 27 Meylina Kandoy 13 275 15 17 Blaine Penny 14 271 40 13 John Fee / Cynthia Phelan 15 270 6 20 Nat Faulkner 16 265 40 13 Chris & Storm 17 263 13 18 Grimpeur George 18 258 15 17 Team D.O.P.E.- Downplaying Operation Puerto Evidence 19 254 62 5 Natasha Elliott 19 254 55 8 Eva Ortega "VillaEva" 21 253 6 20 "Barnet CC" 22 252 15 17 Craig Hawkes "Sith Riders" 22 252 15 17 Chris Holzauer 24 251 15 17 Tyler Lawlor 24 251 15 17 Sean O'Donnell "The Ruse is Up" 26 244 44 12 The Cyclery 27 238 15 17 Ian Dalling 27 238 69 3 Lori Meyers 29 237 62 5 Mhairi Gilmore 30 236 15 17 Doug Hinan 31 233 62 5 Sandy Fulton 32 232 15 17 "Mr. Stevens Picks" 33 228 1 32 Julie Deschenes-Furry 34 227 15 17 Ross Knight 35 225 15 17 Derrick St. John 36 221 15 17 Matt Toulouse 37 218 44 12 Josh Hall 37 218 6 20 Courtnay Romkey 37 218 15 17 Kevin Field "Fev" 40 215 15 17 Jeffrey Furry 41 212 55 8 Kris "Can't win" Westwood 42 211 10 19 Paul Scafel "Team Venga Venga Venga" 42 211 38 15 J to the U 44 199 86 -5 Dave Thomas 45 198 6 20 Vicki Thomas 46 196 15 17 Alex Lai 46 196 15 17 Gordon Dalling 46 196 44 12 Musky Ninja 49 195 15 17 Marc Boudreau 49 195 69 3 Deb Hine's Most Excellent Picks 51 187 74 0 Ed Makarchuk 52 186 59 7 Rob Grondin 53 185 13 18 SUPERFAN 54 182 62 5 Neil la Plante 55 181 74 0 "Dick und Doof" 56 180 10 19 Julie Jay 57 175 38 15 Jennifer Garrett 58 173 73 2 Team Boyz on Bikes 59 167 44 12 Yellow Dopes "Grubby Rabbit" 60 164 74 0 Wilby McKnight 61 160 44 12 Jay "Son of Rudy" Heins 62 157 55 8 Mike Larochelle 63 154 44 12 Team Oro Rocks 64 153 54 10 Team Damdom 65 150 74 0 Sheri Jay 66 149 44 12 Richard and Catherine 67 144 40 13 Kiwi Mike 68 135 40 13 Team 18 Wheeler 69 125 74 0 Donelli 70 116 62 5 Larginski 71 114 59 7 Rob Kerr 71 114 3 25 Shawn Clarke 73 110 44 12 Reed Archer 74 108 74 0 Adrian Das 75 100 74 0 "Team Wheelywotten" 76 87 69 3 Chris White 77 86 5 22 Dave Shirley 78 82 69 3 Kate Scallion 79 79 44 12 Les Boyz 80 45 74 0 Los Spics 81 44 44 12 Team OK 82 43 74 0 Operation Spain 83 37 74 0 Luise Sander "No Euros Here" 84 22 74 0 Remi "Team MTB + Frenchies" Berube 85 6 86 -5 Phil Brun del Re "The Lucky Lucky Nine" 86 0 62 5 Il Gatto 86 0 74 0 Mr. GlenPosted by kriswestwood at July 8, 2006 11:38 PM