Astan-afia

Perhaps we should have all seen this coming, or rather maybe we have already. You know, this is the episode where Tony, recovering from a gunshot wound, orders Silvio, Paulie, and Christopher to hold down the fort until he's fully recovered. And once he's well, they go and whack everybody.

Insert the latest patron of the peloton, in Alexandre Vinokourov, for Tony, and any one of team Astana, like Serguei Ivanov, Andrej Kashechkin, Antonio Colom or Andreas Kloden, for the crew and you have all the makings of a Godfather-like crescendo of revenge killings in the final week of the Tour de France.

Photo: Tim de Waele

First they took care of France's hope for a podium, Christophe Moreau, when they splintered the peloton with a savage attack on Stage 11. Then they followed up that performance with the boss himself turning the screws on the favorites. Today, Vinokourov dominated the Stage 13 54km ITT in Albi, and rode himself back into podium contention. Apparently the rest of the peloton never got the memo because some guys you should just never let off the mat.

Heras, Heras, Heras
Its been said that like Red Bull, the Maillot Jaune, gives people wings. The current Maillot Jaune wearer, Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank), definitely engendered those sentiments today as he rode a powerful ITT, even catching his 3 minute man in Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Espagne).

The one prevailing comment I heard after the fact was the lack of recollection of a climbing specialist ever riding such a spirited ITT. How soon we forget?

As I watched Rasmussen finish just outside the top 10, the one thing I kept thinking about was Roberto Heras' (Photo: Graham Watson) effort in the final ITT during the 2005 Vuelta a Espana. The climbing specialist, then with Liberty Seguros, finished in second on that day to preserve what would have been his 4th Vuelta crown. However, test later turned up positive for EPO use.

Perhaps, the jadedness, skepticism, and cynicism have finally settled in [and who could blame me with Rasmussen doping speculation saturating the news media these days]. Ironically, the individual who was most affected by Heras' actions during that grand tour was Denis Menchov, Michael Rasmussen's current team leader.