Robert Hunter created a bit of history by becoming the first rider from South Africa to win a stage of the Tour de France. He bolted into the lead in the final turn of the 182.5km stage to Montpellier and held off a fast finishing Fabian Cancellara to give Barloworld its second stage success in its maiden Tour. This was how an extremely rapid, tension filled day ended.
But it was at the 115km mark that the real story of the stage began: the Astana squad raced to the lead of a peloton that was over seven minutes behind quintet of escapees and hit the turbo button. Within moments what had been a tranquil peloton was split into three.
Christophe Moreau was caught in the second group while Erik Zabel and Thor Hushovd were well behind in group three. The French champion began the day in sixth overall and ended it 12th place in the general classification. It was also a day that was a bit sad due to the fact of the doping scandal of T-Mobile rider Patrick Sinkewitz and the fact that German television channels stoped their coverage of the Tour de France.
Also i’ve seen that the alltime Tour de France super champion Lance Armstrong is in the heat again after the Sinkewitz affair. He spoke out on the allegations by L’Equipe made in 1999 in his first major newspaper interview since retiring from cycling two years ago, Armstrong maintained his stance that he never used performance enchancing drugs during his career as a Pro rider. I don’t think that he did use drugs to win, cause the interviews and movies i’ve seen of him is a person that is very motivated to win and sets his training and lifestyle to accomadate that dream of being the best.
I think it’s sad that a bike race that is so good and offers so many exciting days in front of the TV should be blackend by doping allegation left and right. Can’t we just enjoy stunning scenery, exciting racing and performances beyond belief ??
I’ll be back tomorrow with my view on the 12th stage.
Hello,
I like to follow Tour de France but I felt it reached the end when Michael Rasmussen is now involved in some investigations…
Franco
I feel that unless the tests are positive, which they weren’t in June, he should be out of the tour and dealt with. But it seems strange that Danish Cycling Union director Jesper Worre reveal this information now, when he had it in late June, before the start of the Tour de France.
More or less the same happened to Lance Armstrong in 1999 and again in 2003, i think it was, be he never tested positive.
I will continue following the Tour de France, because i love the excitement and all the commentry on Eurosport. I guess i have to make another post about Doping now in the Stupid Things section
/Mathias
Thanks for your reply
For sure the guy gets more publicity when he gives information like that during Tour de France…
You never know what kind of personal deals are done between self centered persons and media..
We just have to hope that all media don’t leavethe tour.