A typical transitional stage today, with the contenders happy to let the no-hopers play up the road while they wait for the time trial. Matteo Tosatto saved the Tour for Quick Step, who lost Boonen a couple days ago, with the stage win. In other news, Freire dropped out. McEwen pretty much has a lock on the green jersey anyway, so it doesn't change too much.
Meanwhile in Germany, Jan Ullrich got fired by his team, so things aren't great for the Kaiser.
Despite the relatively inconsequential stage, there were some changes in the pool. Metuzals' lead is down to a mere seven points over Holzauer, and DeVeer has dropped another place to fifth. Julie Deschenes-Furry took the stage and moved up to sixth overall, within striking distance of the overall win. The top 16 in the pool are covered by a mere 50 points now ...
On another note, there are now 141 riders left in the Tour. Three entries picked that number: Rob Kerr, Barnet CC and Superfan. Cross your fingers there are no Julich-style crashes tomorrow!
It's going to be an awesome TT ...
By the way, the list of prizes for this year's Pool has yet to be published. We haven't forgotten, we're just waiting for them all to come in.
-- KW
Date: 21-Jul Stage: 18 Start/Finish: Morzine > Mâcon Distance 197,0 1st TOSATTO Matteo ITA QSI 2nd MORENI Cristian ITA COF 3rd SCHOLZ Ronny GER GST 4th QUINZIATO Manuel ITA LIQ 5th HINAULT Sébastien FRA C.A 6th PINEAU Jérôme FRA BTL 7th CALZATI Sylvain FRA A2R 8th VAUGRENARD Benoît FRA FDJ 9th ISASI Inaki ESP EUS 10th MARTINEZ Egoi ESP DSC Mountains CALZATI Sylvain FRA A2R Young rider VAUGRENARD Benoît FRA FDJ Aggressive LEIPHEIMER Levi USA GST Teams GEROLSTEINER Abandon LOPEZ GARCIA David ESP EUS Abandon FREIRE Oscar ESP RAB Overall: Yellow PEREIRO SIO Oscar ESP CEI Team T-MOBILE TEAM Green MC EWEN Robbie AUS DVL Polka dots RASMUSSEN Mickael DEN RAB Young rider CUNEGO Damiano ITA LAM
RANK TOT Stage rank Stage points 1 559 44 6 Peter Metuzals 2 552 7 17 Chris Holzauer 3 544 30 10 Paul Crowley "Team Blood Wash" 4 539 11 13 Meylina Kandoy 5 537 57 5 Helena DeVeer 6 536 1 24 Julie Deschenes-Furry 7 532 8 16 Stefan Sander 8 530 44 6 Linda Gilligan 9 526 17 11 Tyler Lawlor 10 522 30 10 Vicki Thomas 10 522 5 18 Grimpeur George 12 521 17 11 Markus Chiang 13 519 30 10 Glenn "My Team is Clean" Robinson 14 516 30 10 Nat Faulkner 14 516 30 10 Jamie Bryan 16 510 57 5 Ian Dalling 17 507 44 6 Orange Scheisse 18 502 4 19 "Mr. Stevens Picks" 19 496 14 12 Alex Lai 20 493 2 22 Rob Grondin 21 486 30 10 Derrick St. John 22 485 30 10 Team D.O.P.E.- Downplaying Operation Puerto Evidence 23 473 44 6 "Barnet CC" 24 472 17 11 Marc Boudreau 25 471 30 10 Blaine Penny 26 467 30 10 Craig Hawkes "Sith Riders" 27 466 17 11 Steve Proulx 28 464 30 10 Jeffrey Furry 29 462 9 15 Gordon Dalling 30 458 17 11 Chris & Storm 31 456 57 5 Spencer Campbell "Texless" 32 455 17 11 Sean O'Donnell "The Ruse is Up" 33 452 17 11 Matt Toulouse 34 442 5 18 SUPERFAN 35 441 17 11 Mhairi Gilmore 36 439 9 15 Eva Ortega "VillaEva" 37 436 44 6 Courtnay Romkey 38 429 57 5 Paul Scafel "Team Venga Venga Venga" 39 427 57 5 Kevin Field "Fev" 40 425 17 11 Ross Knight 41 419 44 6 John Fee / Cynthia Phelan 42 417 30 10 Sandy Fulton 43 412 57 5 Natasha Elliott 43 412 57 5 Doug Hinan 45 392 11 13 Richard and Catherine 46 379 87 -5 The Cyclery 47 377 57 5 Josh Hall 48 376 57 5 Kris "Can't win" Westwood 49 373 57 5 Julie Jay 50 371 3 20 Team Damdom 51 363 17 11 Neil la Plante 52 361 80 0 Lori Meyers 53 353 57 5 J to the U 54 345 44 6 Team Oro Rocks 55 337 74 1 Musky Ninja 56 333 17 11 Ed Makarchuk 57 327 17 11 Deb Hine's Most Excellent Picks 58 320 80 0 Yellow Dopes "Grubby Rabbit" 59 313 44 6 Jay "Son of Rudy" Heins 60 309 57 5 Mike Larochelle 61 307 43 7 Shawn Clarke 62 302 74 1 Jennifer Garrett 63 301 44 6 Wilby McKnight 64 300 74 1 "Dick und Doof" 65 289 30 10 Chris White 66 284 57 5 Kiwi Mike 67 279 44 6 Rob Kerr 68 270 44 6 Reed Archer 69 269 11 13 Adrian Das 70 254 44 6 Team 18 Wheeler 71 242 14 12 Dave Shirley 72 240 57 5 Donelli 73 237 80 0 Team Boyz on Bikes 74 229 80 0 Dave Thomas 75 228 74 1 Les Boyz 76 226 57 5 Sheri Jay 77 221 17 11 Kate Scallion 78 204 74 1 Larginski 79 194 86 -4 "Team Wheelywotten" 80 167 72 2 Operation Spain 81 151 72 2 Los Spics 82 134 80 0 Team OK 83 126 14 12 Mr. Glen 84 114 30 10 Il Gatto 85 109 44 6 Remi "Team MTB + Frenchies" Berube 86 96 74 1 Luise Sander "No Euros Here" 87 -3 80 0 Phil Brun del Re "The Lucky Lucky Nine"Posted by kriswestwood at July 21, 2006 09:12 PM