Le Tour est fin (almost)

Have to realize that even if he hadn’t fallen, Ullrich (who is surely the second greatest athlete in the world, behind Lance) wasn’t going to gain time on Lance in the time trial. He knew that too, which made him take risks. He fell hard and skidded completely across the road and was lucky that there were actually hay bales at that location to keep him from slamming into a curb. He got up and got back on, seemingly not much worse for wear, but you could see how much that shook him and he couldn’t do anything to try to gain back the time. Lance had scouted the course that morning, had been warned by Hincapie that the final 15k were like ice, and knowing that Ullrich had lost time in a fall, he took all the twists and turns ultra-conservatively, and in the end still took back another 11 seconds from Ullrich. A phenomenal finish to an unbelievably exciting race. Lance has hinted a couple of times that there are things going on that people don’t know about, which of course makes one wonder if he was hurt in his fall at Dauphine Libere, or if his cancer is back, or what. And normally, they’d be able to say it’s all over and tomorrow is just a slow, easy ride into Paris, but the green jersey for best sprinter is still in contention, meaning the peloton will be working tomorrow, and Lance will have to watch out for any breakaway situation that Ullrich might be involved in, and his teammates will have to work to keep him out of trouble in the peloton. Too much, baby.

Oh, you wanted to hear about the reunion? Not yet. But soon.