If you heard a distant rumbling on the horizon this morning, that was probably the sound of Floyd Landis blowing up and losing 10 minutes in the stage to La Toussiere. Oscar Pereiro is now poised to become the fifth Spaniard to win the Tour, after Federico Bahamontes (1959), Luis Ocana (1973), Pedro Delgado (1988) and Miguel Indurain (1991 to 1995).
But it's not game over for the other contenders by any means. There is still a nasty stage to tackle tomorrow, and a 57-kilometre time trial on Saturday. Kloden took a minute out of Pereiro in the first time trial, and he sits at 2:29 now. Sastre sits at 1:50, and he also beat Pereiro in the opening test, but by only 30 seconds. And with the top five riders all within three minutes of the lead, nothing is guaranteed.
As is the case with the pool. Metuzals and DeVeer continue to lead, but a dismal showing on the stage - 80th and 83rd respectively - has tightened the race up considerably. But nobody behind seems to be able to put in a consistent run at the lead. Linda Gilligan could only manage 64th today, Paul Crowley dropped to fourth with a truly awful 82nd, but Chris Holzauer jumped into contention with a second-place finish. Stage winner today was Chris White, but he is too far down to worry the leaders. The top 10 in the pool are covered by 49 points, so it's still open season out there.
A nod to Remi Berube, by the way, who lurched past Il Gatto into 86th overall, leaving Phil Brun del Re to contemplate life at the bottom of the pool.
Hasta manana -- KW
Date: 19-Jul Stage: 16 Start/Finish: Bourg d'Oisans > La Toussuire Distance 182,0 1st RASMUSSEN Mickael DEN RAB 2nd SASTRE Carlos ESP CSC 3rd PEREIRO SIO Oscar ESP CEI 4th EVANS Cadel AUS DVL 5th KLÖDEN Andréas GER TMO 6th MOREAU Christophe FRA A2R 7th CAUCCHIOLI Pietro ITA C.A 8th DESSEL Cyril FRA A2R 9th LEIPHEIMER Levi USA GST 10th ZUBELDIA Haimar ESP EUS Mountains RASMUSSEN Mickael DEN RAB Young rider CUNEGO Damiano ITA LAM Aggressive RASMUSSEN Mickael DEN RAB Teams T-MOBILE TEAM Abandon IGLINSKIY Maxim KAZ MRM Abandon JOLY Sébastien FRA FDJ Abandon DE JONGH Steven NED QSI Abandon BENNATI Daniele ITA LAM Abandon KOPP David GER GST Overall: Yellow PEREIRO SIO Oscar ESP CEI Team TEAM CSC Green MC EWEN Robbie AUS DVL Polka dots RASMUSSEN Mickael DEN RAB Young rider FOTHEN Marcus GER GST
RANK TOT Stage rank Stage points 1 530 80 7 Peter Metuzals 2 509 83 5 Helena DeVeer 3 500 64 15 Linda Gilligan 4 497 82 6 Paul Crowley "Team Blood Wash" 5 495 2 60 Chris Holzauer 6 491 16 39 Stefan Sander 7 486 9 45 Tyler Lawlor 7 486 64 15 Meylina Kandoy 9 482 37 30 Markus Chiang 10 481 27 35 Glenn "My Team is Clean" Robinson 11 478 43 28 Jamie Bryan 12 475 80 7 Orange Scheisse 13 474 13 42 Nat Faulkner 14 473 6 52 Grimpeur George 15 460 19 38 Julie Deschenes-Furry 16 459 3 58 Vicki Thomas 17 458 57 18 Ian Dalling 18 446 26 36 Team D.O.P.E.- Downplaying Operation Puerto Evidence 19 445 37 30 Steve Proulx 20 443 75 11 Spencer Campbell "Texless" 21 441 35 31 "Mr. Stevens Picks" 22 440 29 34 Alex Lai 22 440 53 21 "Barnet CC" 24 438 14 40 Derrick St. John 25 436 9 45 Chris & Storm 26 433 43 28 Blaine Penny 27 426 3 58 Rob Grondin 28 425 12 43 Jeffrey Furry 28 425 69 13 Craig Hawkes "Sith Riders" 30 422 7 50 Marc Boudreau 31 416 37 30 Sean O'Donnell "The Ruse is Up" 32 412 19 38 Matt Toulouse 33 407 64 15 John Fee / Cynthia Phelan 34 404 11 44 Gordon Dalling 35 401 55 20 Natasha Elliott 36 400 53 21 Mhairi Gilmore 37 399 73 12 Kevin Field "Fev" 38 397 27 35 Eva Ortega "VillaEva" 39 392 49 25 Courtnay Romkey 40 391 59 17 Paul Scafel "Team Venga Venga Venga" 41 385 8 47 SUPERFAN 42 383 69 13 Doug Hinan 43 382 56 19 Sandy Fulton 44 377 78 8 Ross Knight 45 356 83 5 The Cyclery 46 353 63 16 Kris "Can't win" Westwood 47 345 48 26 Lori Meyers 48 344 69 13 Julie Jay 49 341 19 38 Neil la Plante 50 336 19 38 Josh Hall 51 325 31 33 Richard and Catherine 52 317 3 58 Team Damdom 52 317 76 10 Musky Ninja 54 312 29 34 J to the U 55 306 24 37 Team Oro Rocks 56 294 33 32 Deb Hine's Most Excellent Picks 57 292 16 39 Ed Makarchuk 58 289 47 27 Yellow Dopes "Grubby Rabbit" 59 288 51 22 "Dick und Doof" 60 285 50 24 Mike Larochelle 61 283 31 33 Jay "Son of Rudy" Heins 62 275 24 37 Wilby McKnight 63 270 69 13 Jennifer Garrett 64 264 59 17 Kiwi Mike 65 261 51 22 Shawn Clarke 66 249 14 40 Rob Kerr 67 242 64 15 Team 18 Wheeler 68 241 33 32 Reed Archer 69 237 85 0 Team Boyz on Bikes 70 234 1 62 Chris White 71 230 43 28 Adrian Das 71 230 73 12 Donelli 73 229 85 0 Dave Thomas 74 206 43 28 Sheri Jay 75 203 77 9 Larginski 76 198 64 15 Les Boyz 77 197 59 17 "Team Wheelywotten" 78 190 35 31 Dave Shirley 79 188 16 39 Kate Scallion 80 150 37 30 Operation Spain 81 126 42 29 Los Spics 82 115 78 8 Team OK 83 99 59 17 Luise Sander "No Euros Here" 84 89 57 18 Mr. Glen 85 87 19 38 Remi "Team MTB + Frenchies" Berube 86 82 37 30 Il Gatto 87 -3 85 0 Phil Brun del Re "The Lucky Lucky Nine"Posted by kriswestwood at July 19, 2006 01:40 PM
My money is on Kloden to win the tour.
Posted by: Richard Thomas at July 19, 2006 07:41 PM