For those who wanted to hear what CC had to say.
Even if you don't care ;-)
Today wasn’t a very good day for Lance and the Discovery Channel team,
but they have come through difficult days before and will regroup for
tomorrow’s mountain stage. There are two weeks to go in the Tour de
France, and anything can happen. Lance has a one-minute lead over his
rivals, a team committed to winning, and perhaps the savviest director
in the caravan. Today may have been a bit of a punch in the stomach,
but it’s going to take more than that to knock the Discovery Channel
down.
The true mark of a great team can be found in their response to
adversity. There won’t be any sulking or brooding in the Discovery
Channel hotel tonight. It’s not their style. Rather, there will be a
lot of frank discussion about exactly what went right and what went
wrong. If it was bad legs, then they’ll get to work with the soigneurs
and chefs to find good legs. If it was tactics, they’ll make
adjustments. If it was just a combination of unfortunate
circumstances, they’ll express their frustrations and move on. This is
not a group of men who lay down after they’ve been dealt the first
punch. They stand up and get to work, and that’s just what they’re
doing tonight.
snip
Tomorrow’s climbs are different than today’s. Today there was one
shallow-grade climb at the end of a mostly-flat and fast stage. The
front group went up the climb in the big chainring at about 25 mph,
and that is not something we will see tomorrow. The rhythm of climbing
steep and long mountain passes puts unique demands on cyclists, and
hopefully the Discovery Channel riders find better legs on those
slopes than they found today on the Col de la Schlucht.
Chris Carmichael
ThePaceLine.com