Originally Posted by lhbernhardt

Yes, I was going to say cycling is just like life. And while I was watching the stage, I was all set to admire Dessel as a real working-class hero, a team rider and one of he few guys yesterday with the guts to do some attacking on a stage where everyone was afraid to attack because of the final long descent, and it paid off big time for him.

But then when I saw that he wasn't going to cooperate with Mercado, I thought, "what are you doing?!" I had seen him beat Mercado in the uphill KOM sprints, so I guessed that he had become overconfident and greedy. So this greed actually made me turn against him, and I was pleased about (and I fully expected) Mercado winning the stage.

Well, at least the guy is honest. And we've seen that sometimes it doesn't pay to "give gifts," as Lance found when he let Pantani win that stage. But I think that situation was different.

- L.