The guy on Testosterone, EPO and two bags of extra blood in his system will beat the guy on Testosterone, EPO and one bag of extra blood in his system.
Or Alberto Contador because he is so fun to watch.
contenders’ teams go ballistic on larrau tomorrow, blowing the race wide open. rasmussen has one teammate at best at the top of larau, and he’ll be completely isolated by top of the col de la pierre. he’ll still be there, but he’ll have no one to help him from his team. whoever is left in the maillot jaune group to fight among euskatel, discovery, evans and sastre will jump rasmussen one by one. nobody will go with the attacker immediately, but as soon as somebody has a good gap, other jumps will follow. nobody pulls rasmussen back.
the question is, what will the remaining contenders in that front break do who haven’t made it to that front break? will they work with rasmussen to catch up in between the mountains, or will they make him work, and continue to jump him?
rasmussen either loses the yellow or loses boatloads of time to at least two contenders, unless he’s well liked in the peloton. if rasmussen remains in yellow at the end of tomorrow it’s because he’s got friends on the peloton who’re riding for other teams. otherwise, his only hope is that somebody like evans doesn’t make the break, and decides to ally with rasmussen in order to keep hold of his podium spot.
No chance. I realize the stage has happened/happening already, but I have yet to watch so am still predicting.
Port du Larrau is a killer climb and absolutely a prime climb to shred the peloton, but with a long descent and then a flat, gradual climb for 30K to the base of the Col de la St Pierre (itself not a tough climb), there’s too much time for teams to regroup.
The action will start on the Marie Blanche. It’s super steep and it’s late in the day. Teams and individuals have no opportunity to regroup between Marie Blanche and Aubisque.