There is no such thing as the "best steady state climber". The guy who gets to the top first is the best climber. If the discussion proceeds to how much time he'll lose, he's probably not the best climber in the race. There are several guys who can/will put time into him on the climbs on one day, and he'll take back some on the next.

Basso already had Levi on his back foot in one stage, I've watched the midget for quite a while and I could see some strained body language and cadence from Levi when Basso was on the front for a long period.

I wouldn't bet against Levi in the TT. Given the course though, he may not gain as big as advantage as people might think.

If he doesn't come out of stage 12's TT with a 3+ minute lead, he could well lose this to Basso, with an outside chance of guys like Di Luca, Sastre, or Menchov finding their way in front of him. An on-form Basso could take several minutes out of him in one of the mountain stages, cumulatively he could take enough to win.

Levi's best GT finishes have been when his teammate has won. Like Cunego working off the other's fear of Simoni, Levi has benefited greatly from Alberto's presence. The record backs that up, much as Sastre would not have won the TDF without the Schlecks.

If I'm Astana's DS I would have been screaming in Levi's ear today to shut down the bridge. He had a great opportunity to either make teams chase the break then counter, or leapfrog Horner up on GC and force the other teams to watch him also. Instead he took a moron pill and doomed a perfect set up while burning matches needlessly. And Popovich needs to quit being a self indulgent stage hunter. Great idea, launch a weak attack at the end on the race...burn some matches. Levi who? Why are we here again? Shades of his horrid riding for Lotto in the TDF last year.

Finally they need to cut Lance loose to fend for himself and send those guys up the race. He's done, and he's not going to be a GC factor in the tour either. Horner broke his collarbone in April too, missed about the same amount of training time, and has been flying. Lance has been at this since November and while he's looked good if his name was Frenchy Cameratime, he's shown zero vestiges of Tour winning form.

Astadiscomailboxes looked brilliant when they had the strongest guy in the race. Lately? Not so much.

Finally, Levi could just implode. He's had a lot of racing to this point.