Fausto Coppi in the act of doing it

Last night's view opened the race wide and gave a few sharp pointers to the form of the pre race faves. I don't think anyone sentient had ever given a lot of credence to the Cunego for Yellow rumours that had been floating around for a while pre Depart...his win in the Giro seems but a distant memory, he hasn't really come good in the way one might have suspected. Climbing up to Super Besse he got shelled out the back of the second gruppo, the leaders having gone off up the road. It just goes to show how tough the Tour really is, much harder than any Giro. The Gruppetto came in 17 minutes down! Welcome to the harsh reality of the Tour De France, Mark Cavendish!

Talking of Grand Tour winners we come to Denny Menchov. He stayed in the lead group yesterday and his name is every year linked to Yellow but again he never has come good in the TdF. His Vuelta wins would tend to suggest that this is a guy who can hang on when the road goes up but past form in France has shown otherwise. The Vuelta, like the Giro is not like la Boucle. The field isn't so hot, the pace isn't so fast and the stages tend to be shorter.

Valverde had a good day even allowing for his crash yesterday. Evans was as consistent and uninspiring as ever. Millar faded farther than Cunego on a day when we might have been forgiven for expecting an attack. The pace set by the Casse D'Espaigne guys was just too hot for him I guess. He looked all in at the end.

Segre Coppi having just done it

The guy you have to feel sorry for is of course Schumacher. He's lost his jersey after colliding with Kirchen's back wheel after a sudden outbreak of braking in the lead group when the lead riders hit the 10% gradient and abruptly slowed. During a normal race he would have been given the same time as the winner and retained his Yellow Jersey but as it was officially a mountian top finish he lost 35 secs instead and the Jersey to...Kim Kirchen! What a choker. It can be a cruel race indeed. Maybe I'll write about it one day.