So here we go round on this again.

I just went back to YouTube to re-watch he video of the eventful Chain Drop and a couple of things seem to be going on.

AS is attacking and is about 30-40 ft., maybe more up the road from a group containing AC. Vinoukorov is bridging. AC is accelerating and has a huge amount of momentum as he passes AS. Just prior to being passed by Vino, AS suffers a mis-shift and dropped chain. AC is accelerating past him and isn't really looking back as AC bridges to Vino, who has also passed AS. AS stops to fix chain. The leaders ALL go by him. Nobody slows.

It's an attack, started by Schleck. As the following riders respond, Andy drops his chain. In pretty much all the other major races I've watched, when a leader gets a mechanical and there's a group with that leader, the group responds by waiting. When it's an attack, there's usually no group, thus nobody to share the info of a leaders problems. That seems to be the case here, where it's doubtful that AC knew initially knew that AS had a mechanical, as AC is sprinting up the road, followed by Vino and a bunch of others and does AC even know that AS is out ?. Is anyone in the groups yelling "Hey Wait ?" and there's no Tyler to tell Jan "hey Lance fell, lets wait". Probably at some point, AC knows, but should he wait ?. Good question and the consensus has never been clear. At what point does he stop ?. It's an attack remember, started by Schleck and responded to by Contador, so in some cases, all bets are off and sorry Andy.

Point 2 is that in all the other races where I've seen Schleck race, it's apparent he cannot accelerate up a hill like Contador. pretty much nobody in the peloton today can. Would Andy have won that stage ?, doubtful. So it's kind of a moot issue.

As to AC himself ?. Seems like a cold fish, but the guy speaks zip English so there's few interviews where we get to really get a feel for what kind of guy he is. Andy likes him, and I like Andy, so that's a plus. Lance doesn't like Alberto and I don't really like Lance, who speaks english, so that too is a plus for Alberto. Did he dope ?. Probably. Is he now ?. Probably not, as I like to think there's really a HUGE amount on the line right now, with AC starting a reign that could surpass both Armstrong and Merkx and that's a major career that you don't want to screw up.

SB