Them Disco Boyz better get workin’ - because this crap ain’t cool … That Vino dude freaks me out - he will win the Tour next year, … this year if Disco can’t back LA The T-Mob sharks smell blood in the water … 
“The T-Mob sharks smell blood in the water …”
Good! Last thing we need is a boring tour. I want to see those dudes fight until they cry.
If you are in charge of Discovery, wouldn’t you be telling Vino “You know, we happen to have an opening next year. Aren’t you sick of being a domestique for a couple of Germans you know you can beat?”
Reading between the lines of all the reporting, it seems that Discovery made a tactical mistake today…one that only became clear on the final climb, though one that they certainly could have predicted. The mistake was having the Discovery train run up the pace and drive the peloton on the leadup to the climb. The boys were shot for the day before the real action really began. Lance, with the benefit of having sat in, was NOT shot, though certainly had been riding a bit harder than the other GC guys, who were riding just off his wheel, BEHIND him…therefore, Lance still had enough go on the climb to put back all the attacks. Savoldelli even commented after the race that he was TOLD by Lance to drop back after he’d pinned back Vino’s initial attack.
I wouldn’t read any overall weakness into the results for Discovery Channel riders from yesterday. Just a mistake in tactics. Either they gambled that the other GC guys would take it easy, even though they knew it was a distinct possibility that at least T-Mobile would attack (as alluded to by Lance himself in a post-race interview), OR they were guilty of OVER-estimating their team’s strength advantage on the rest of the field (I.E. "we can ride hard on the front leading into the climb AND still ride hard ON the climb). Either way it proved to be a mistake. That particular climb was not selective enough…a rather large group simply put the pedal to the metal and jammed the climb from the beginning.
No matter, Discovery(as Postal) made mistakes in past tours as well…I still say yesterday’s race was a calculated risk by Bruyneel…one that he surely lost, but one that did not cost them significantly in the overall picture…
stage 9 Disco are back …no problems even tho Lance has gone to 2nd GC for the time being giving the powerful but non mountain climber Jens the yellow. But yes it does look a little more competitive now than last year, T-Mobile and CSC both hovering around with some chances.
Actually stage 8 after some help from Popyvich, Lance did limit the damage on his own.