Stage 13 - Cheats Propser

Noted cheat, liar, and blood doper Alexander Vinokourov won the fourth (legal!) Tour stage of his career on Stage 13, a 196km trip from Rodez to Revel. Vinokourov attacked the peleton on the final cat-3 climb of the day to steal the glory from the sprinters. Mark Cavendish led the bunch home for second just ahead of Alessandro Pettachi, whose third place was enough to see him regain the Green Jersey from Thor Hushovd. With the peleton finishing together there was no change in the overall standings.

Let's get things straight - I have no time for Vinokourov, who claimed in 2007, after someone elses blood was found in his body, that it must have mixed in with his blood during a crash a few days earlier. Bulls**it! I hate the fact that this guy is back and racing and his stage win overnight leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. Especially the way it was won. It takes a phenomenal effort to ride the peleton off your wheel in the final 10km when the sprinters won't the glory, but Vino appeared to do it easily, mainintaing a 13 second gap over the main field over the final dead flat 5km. Not only that, Vino pulled off this phenonmenal performance just ONE DAY AFTER he was part of a breakaway that led for over 150km of yesterday's stage. Surely he would be a little tired? Especially given the effort he put in on the final finishing climb to Mende? If this win doesn't have a whiff of dodgyness about it then I don't know what does and the sooner Vino dissapears into retirement the better and more enjoyable world cycling will be. The Tour orgainsers took big risks inviting this guy back to the race and if he tests positive at any time over the next 6 months I am going to be massively pissed off!

Anyway, rant over, and back to the real race (which unfortunatley was for second). Mark Cavendish showed the loss of Mark Renshaw will not hold him back when he powered over the top of his sprinting rivals to take second on the stage. He is now up to third in the points classification and trails Green Jersey wearer Alessandro Pettachi by just 25 points. Pettachi got the jump on Cav at the finish but simply had no answer to the power of the Manx man who stormed right over the top of him. Still, he regains the Green Jersey for his efforts after Thor Hushovd weakend in the final straight to finish only 8th on the stage. Personally I think that means his shot at back-to-back points titles is gone and the fight will be between Pettachi (presuming he can get over the Pyrenees) and Cavendish (presuming he wins the last two sprint stages).

Despite the series of small climbs on the days stage, most of the King of the Mountains points were won by the days 3 man break (Sylvain Chavanel, Juan Antoni Flecha, Perrick Fedrigo) meaning there was no change in the race for the Polka Dot Jersey, Anthony Charteau still wears it. And with the main bunch finishing together Andy Schleck continues to wear both the Yellow Jersey and White Jersey for best young rinder.

Yellow Jersey - Andy Schleck
Green Jersey - Alessandro Pettachi
Polka Dot Jersey - Perrick Fedrigo
White Jersey - Andy Schleck

Tonight's Stage - The peleton finally confronts the brutality of the Pyrenees, begining with the 184km ride from Revel to the ski resort of Ax-3-Domaines. On the way they will also tackle the giant HC climb of the Porte de Pailheres, a giant that rises to over 2000m. That climb should be enough to knock out all but the elite GC boys by the bottom of the final cat-1 clims to Ax-3-Domaines and we should be set for a showdown. I expect Alberto Contador to attack like he did on the road to Mende and by the end of the stage he may have neutralised his current time gap to race leader Andy Schleck. Contador to win for mine.