The would have gone faster on Cervelos.

Yes. I did. Have to keep better track of my z's.

Hmmm. I expected some more out of Basso.

DiLuca lost a full minute to Menchov time trialing up the last climb. There are a dozen guys in the peloton who would have no trouble dropping Danilo up a long, hard climb - including Menchov, Leipheimer and Sastre.

Damn, Lance is twittering already. That is fast.

Just realized that the Giro gives time bonuses to stage winners, all LL would need to do is win a stage by 9 seconds

Oh, that's all?

Soon he'll have a smartphone on his bars to twitter from the peloton.

exactly.......

Interesting to see what a TT like today's does to guys like Zabriskie (118th place in the stage, 10:42 down from the stage winner).

almost four years out of cycling, barely 8 months after he announced his return, broken collarbone during the lead-up. I'd say almost making the top 10 in this TT is very impressive. considering...

One possibility is that Dave Z knew that he was not a realistic contender on the stage (which, VN prognostications notwithstanding, he wasn't) and thought it would be better to dial it back and cruise in rather than blow a lot of energy for no good reason.

ETA: and by "possibility," I mean "extremely likely." Even on a course like this, Dave Z would be a good deal better than middle of the pack, just not good enough to really threaten for the win.

garmin chipotle have been totally punked in this race. maybe dave z should have dialed it up a bit.

ed rader

Probably true, but i keep waiting to see what Garmin is saving all their energy for. Maybe so they can chase down some more breaks they missed so that they can set up to lose a few more sprints?

gotta hand it to Lance. he's doing better overall than i thought.

ed rader

Tour of Missouri.

I don't think Rabobank has the team to protect Menchov. Lots of attacks to come, and a lot of work for Menchov. Much like Evans last year for the tour.

guys like menchov and rogers usually find a way to lose. let's see if menchov can keep the maglia rosa.

ed rader

Yeah, it hasn't been Garmin-Slipstream's best race. Stages 12 and 21 are about as different TT stages as you could ask for though. Hopefully Z can put in an appearance on 21.

i used the term "punked" because garmin chipotle did it to themselves by announcing they were going to win the TTT .

ed rader

This is where Liquigas holds the cards, strong team with two guys in the running for the overall...lots of cards play.

You mean like Vuelta? Menchov is proven commodity...his team not so much.

you mean the race that none of the top GC guys contest ?

menchov is this generation's abraham olano until he proves otherwise (to me anyway).

ed rader

Yes, it's actually not bad for Astana to have DiLuca in second place and with five Italians in the top ten, there should be plenty of help to weaken Rabobank and Menchov.

I can't believe more guys in my biking community aren't watching this tour. I filled them in today during lunch.

"Why isn't Versus airing it?" I got.

If they were, I wouldn't be able to watch it much.