Hills and Spills

I had a bit of a late one last night (in a very undergrad way I operate on the theory that cheap booze kills lingering bugs) so I only caught the end of stage 16.

I saw enough to see that poor guy John-Lee Augustyn, who made it over the top first of the Tour's highest climb, stack it and lose both his lead and his bike.

Tough day at the office huh?

Apparently descending is a skill all of its own and Denis Menchov a Russian rider touted as the dark horse of this years tour.... well he is not so good on the downhill bits. He lost time to Cadel and to the other leaders last night as did the American Christian Vandevelde also reputed to be a chance to wear the yellow in Paris. Carlos Sastre on the other hand made up some ground but is still 41 secs behind Evans.

It seems too that losing the yellow has had a positive effect on team Silence Lotto with Yaroslav Popovych in the breakaway to the end. Nice to see that should Cadel need some help he may be able to get it...

Cadel did well not losing any ground to the two leaders, he is still trailing Kohl by 1 second and Frank Shleck by 8 seconds and according to those in the know, i.e. the SBS commentators, Cadel can still take it in the time trial. In fact they suggest that should he stay within a minute he should be able to take back the yellow jersey.

Well I don't know about that but even I can see that those numbers are small and the climbs are high and sportsfans that means it is game on...

Guess it's going to be another late night tonight.