Right now there are two Dico boys up the road and Levi is in the group. If he’s feeling good, and I mean really good, he should attack the group and ride solo to bridge up to his teammates just as they summit the final large climb. Then the three of them can team time trial to the finish and basically win the Tour. What do you think.
Adam
Sounds good…but there may be a few riders that would try to spoil that plan!
I’ve been watching the Tour for a while now, and the next time Levi attacks will be the first. There are tour leaders, and there are tour followers. Levi in the tour reminds me of Cam Brown at Hawaii. Strong enough to be a contender but never gutsy enough to risk top 5 for top 1.
That said, I always cheer for them both, go Levi! I would love to see him take a chance at some point, though I don’t think today is the day…
Well said.
I’d like to see Levi attack, but he won’t until the Pyrenes and even then, let’s hope he doesn’t blow the TT like last year.
Cadel Evans, historically, has ridden the same way…
As for Levi bridging to Popo and Gusev without dragging the rest of the contenders with him…unlikely.
On paper it looks really easy…
In reality, Levi will not break away from Valverde, Mayo and co…He is not strong enough
Looks like Valverde is trying to get up to his teammate.
I realize you’re probably right about Levi not having the goods to get away on his own. He looks like a nice guy so I hope he makes a decent move. Plus, this is where I become a bit of a jingoistic American and root for guys from the USA.
But realise that as a good (half) Frenchie, all I want is for all of you to suffer and ultimately die, or at least look ridiculous.
We all hate yankees. 
It seems like Vino’s chances are gone.
Unless Levi steps up, Disco’s best hopes for this Tour are Contador in white or maybe top 5 and a stage win today for Popo if he can descend like the maniac he is sometimes going downhill.
We all hate yankees.
I’m from North Carolina and most of the folks around here also hate Yankees. I live in Chapel Hill, so I have a soft heart for those from other parts of the country.
Hey… I’m from Boston and I really hate the Yankees. GO SOX!
Back on topic - would take some gutsy riding and lucky breaks for Levi to put any time into the GC guys on this stage. He probably couldnt win the tour today… but he could definitely lose it.
I don’t see Levi winning the Tour today…or any other day for that matter. However, it certainly looks liked he has got better legs than Vino.
As far as I can tell Contador and Popovich have about 30k to chase down Soler who is 1’30" up. However, they have the yellow jersey group about 1’30" ahead of them. Contador could make top three today if he can hang with Pop and Popo lets him across first if there are time bonuses at the finish.
Contador may have a shot at the podium and definitely a good shot at the white jersey depending on where that young T-Mobile rider is today.
they have about 5km of flat to close on the leader…everything else is downhill…that said, the leader is from Colombia…and if he has the ‘legendary’ downhill skills of colombian riders, they might be able to do it 
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It sounds good on paper…
It was unlikely that two Disco riders would be let go as it was. A third will never make it up the road unless he can physically ride them off his wheel, which isn’t going to happen.
Bigger question, can the 2 Disco boys hold off the Rasmussen, Mayo Levi group which is about 9 or 10 I think?
At this point, I think Disco says screw Levi and go Contador. Without the flat on Sunday he would be in the top 3 today but with a strong finish today he may get there anyway.
If only it were that easy!
Chase group reeled in the disco boys, Soler could still take it though
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Damnit, the setup of this stage sucked. Nothing is going to change other than Vino probably being completely written off.
Way to much riding after the last climb in my opinion. It’s one thing to have a gnarly descent to let someone with the guts try to catch a climber going into town. But all that riding after the climb just allowed everything to come back together.
I really need to get cable, I get to “watch” the tour from the velonews updates again, I would like to have seen this stage
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And soler hangs on to win it
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Agreed. Well put. I don’t believe we’ll see Levi attack because he just isn’t a dominator in the mountains. He’s going to rely on his team to drag him up then hope he can make it up in the ITT. I don’t believe this is going to work for him in this TdF, however.
~ AB ~