Excellent finish!

Congrats, Di Luca.

In that pic Mario looks the way 40'ish men look when they're not emaciated like pro cyclists. It's kinda sad when a guy runs the risk of being labeled chubby because you can't see his rib cage. UCI Supermodels.

I'm surprised Armstrong was there at the end. I thought he'd still be lacking fitness and over ideal climbing weight. (not that he's fat)

are there time bonuses?

the live universal sports announcer is sooo clueless... the way he pronounces escapee, lol!!

he was in the general vicinity, but no where near the action.

Di Luca's sprint, beautiful.

Loving this race so much this year and it's just the 4th stage.

Lovquist = Maglia Rosa

Anyone else think he has a very feminine face?

Someone has a Man Crush!!!!

Astana, 4th, 5th, 6th..

and 13th.

Haha, not quite.

I guess finishing in the lead group now means you've been dropped.. uh?

uh ya he's a swede, babe-tastic over there.

That's very funny. Reminds me of "Rambo" Eeckhout.

My wife comes in as I was watching the podium stuff....Lovkvist gets up there...and she says, "is that a woman????" I give her a perplexed look and she says sarcastically..."oh...it's a he/she, I get it"...D'oh!

:innocent:

I think Linus Gerdemann had a feminine face.

When you went from the front 15 to the 15 seconds down, then yes you've been dropped.

Or maybe you know you have 2 1/2 weeks ahead of you and it's better to spend your energy wisely rather than really tax yourself for a very minor gain. He's 6th in the GC and gave away 15 seconds while finishing in the lead group. That's not dropped by a long sight.

gave away 15 seconds=dropped, just dropped late.

The amount of energy required to stick with the group for the last 500m is not going to hurt him over the next 2.5 weeks. Silly argument.

Is anyone else surprised by how well lance has been doing? 6th seems pretty impressive to me.

He rode well (especially for coming back from a broken collarbone) but he was dropped at the end.

From Lance himself (via twitter):

I dunno. I think losing only 15 seconds to the winner in your first Grand Tour mountain stage in 3 years is pretty good.

it's damn good. but it's still dropped.

Different situation for Levi who's riding really well:

Levi's twitter: