A short, rolling stage, with two Cat 3s, the last about 35 Km from the finish.

Pasamonte had an escape of over 100 Km, which ended at about Km 136 when he was passed by Noval. He was reabsorbed quickly, and it was a group run to the end.

Just prior to the second Cat 3 summit there was a crash starting about ten back in the peloton. Heras had a cut left knee, but restarted after being patched up by the medical car. Not so Piil, who went off in an ambulance. Not sure of his injuries, but it took a while to get him up, on a stretcher, and into the ambulance. It passed the peloton a few Km before the end with siren wailing.

Stage was Petacchi, Zabel, Zanotti, and Boonen. Overall stays Menchov, Heras +47", and Mancebo +1'53".

Sounds like Petacchi really has his form. With Freire out for the Worlds, it's Petacchi's to lose.

Hope Piil is okay.

I wonder now how much of a factor Heras' knee will be... how much time will he lose in the TT vs. how much he can gain in the mtns over Menchov.

I pose the same question as last time: what do you think of Menchov's chances now?

We'll have too see on the next climbing stage if Heras is ok after this spill, he seemed like he was in a lot of pain today.

From Cyclingnews this morning re Jakob Piil:

"Jakob has got serious concussion and quite a few superficial wounds," said team doctor Joost de Maeseneer on team-csc.com. "This again shows just how important it is that the riders wear a helmet. At the moment there's no sign of any broken bones, but as customary after a bad concussion Jakob is being kept under observation for 24 hours."

I think he took 11 or 12 stitches in one of those, and five in the other. They apparently came from someone's chainring - maybe his own - in the pileup. He looked OK in Stage 13 today.

Crap man! I was eating lunch!

Glad to hear he's perked up for Stage 13.

Koffee

Piil also suffered a broken thumb in his crash, but will be able to race more this season, apparently.