Who knew at the beginning of the Tour that Astana was not only the name of one of the top Pro Tour cycling teams and that of the capital of Kazakhstan, but also loosely translates into English as "pavement."
On three separate occasions on today's stage, two of Astana's triumvirate of leaders put skin to pavement, with the odds on favorite to win the overall classification, Alexandre Vinokourov, receiving the brunt of the damage.
Although Andreas Kloden accounted for the other two Astana crashes, they occurred early enough during the stage enabling him to keep pace with the peloton. Vino, however, wasn't as fortunate. He lost a little over 1:20 at the line. And if you were wondering who the "real" patron of Astana is, management left the other two leaders, Klodi and Andrej Kashechkin, alone upfront and burned out the remainder of the team helping Vino to futilely pace back up.
At the end of the day, his injuries may look much worse than what they are, but he'll certainly be stiff and sore going into tomorrow's stage. If you ever wondered why cyclists shave their legs, you need only look at Vino's road rash and envision the process of having to pull the hair out of those strawberries [to aid healing] if they didn't. OUCH! (Photo: CorVos/Pezcyclingnews)There's been much debate already as to how this will affect Vino's chance to win the Tour. As Lance Armstrong once said, "every second counts."
To those who see his chances having gone down the tube, I offer up this sentiment. It may be the best thing to happen to him. There was some concern at the beginning of the Tour as to how his leadership role would affect his attacking style. Although anyone would agree that its easier to attack while out in front, Vino's put himself into a position to do nothing but attack. The odds on favorite giant may just have awoke, and I'll bet he'll be fairly angry.
Riding to Rid
Did the peloton raise the pace when the favorite went down? I've read where CSC angrily resented the implication, while others claimed ignorance of Vino's predicament as they were already involved in positioning for the finale.
Although Vino's been tabbed to win, the only time that type of etiquette seems to be appropriate is for the wearer of the Maillot Jaune. Did the other team favorites intentionally attempt to distance themselves; possible but not probable.
As far as not knowing, no one in the modern peloton can ever claim ignorance. So much has been made recently of the way radios and other technologies have perhaps dulled the racing instincts of the cyclists, making them too dependent on their Directors to feed them race information.
Everybody knew he went down, some Directors probably saw it live on a portable [tele] in the team car. But in their defense, there was a race going on and there's a reason leaders have teams made up of domestiques.
Calling His Shot
Not to be lost in all this drama is the fact that someone won a stage of the Tour today. That someone was Filippo Pozzato (Liquigas). Strangely enough, Pippo ended up being the third person in this year's Tour to actually predict his fate on the upcoming stage. The other two are Fabian Cancellara (CSC) before the prologue, and Robbie McEwen (Predictor-Lotto) before Stage 1. Forget about prophetic, let's talk about self-awareness as each rode to victory on parcours that were suited to their strengths.
Other Stage 5 Tidbits
Although he has yet to win a stage this year, Erik Zabel (Milram) claimed the Maillot Vert. Has there ever been an overall Maillot Vert winner who didn't win a stage?
The speed of the sprint today...how about an astonishing 49mph. WOW!
Next: Stage 6 -Semur-en-Auxois - Bourg-en-Bresse, 199.5km
A look at the profile should tell you that this one if for the sprinters.
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