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Wah! Hard climb today. Watched a great deal by myself, which was nice because my annoying uptight brother wasn’t there so I could shout GO RYDER GO, GO RYDER GO, GOGOGOGOGO at the TV all I wanted! Except we all watched the finish together. Not so much fun with him there. >_> Grrrr…
>Anyway yeah! Ryder was active! Present and correct and attacking! Finished in 10th again, so he is now up into 17th! Hey, they should protect this guy. I’m sure he’d have a great ‘week in yellow’, like Thor did, kind of thing. I don’t think Garmin’s strong enough to protect a yellow jersey to the finish. Anyway, maybe Ryder can’t climb like Contador but I bet he would be almost as good in yellow as poor Tommy Voeckler, who rode like a lunatic today. Man, when he saw he wasn’t bridging that gap on the Galibier, he really should have sat up, because Cadel etc. did catch him… But he’s determined! Yesterday when he was so mad (I guess?) at his manager for, what, probably telling him not to go so hard and that he wasn’t going to keep yellow, that he ripped his earphones out so he wouldn’t have to listen to that anymore, it payed off. He kept going, and he kept yellow. But today… maybe one fight too far? Maybe he was still mad at his manager or something and didn’t want to believe him or listen to him. Maybe I’m making stooff up. Well, I don’t think he’ll get a podium finish because even if he’s a good time trialist and Frank is not, I’m not sure he can make up that deficit. But he’ll definitely finish in 4th which is pretty awesome! The highest a Canadian has ever placed is 4th! And I’m sure the French are still estatic with his ride, I’m sure that he in the end is/will be very proud of himself (with very good reason) and YAY HE IS SO CUTE AND AMAZING I LUFF HIM SO MUCH
His Tour is done for the year, although there are still two days left to go, but what a Tour it was. Congratulations x1000, Thomas Voeckler!!!
He just came out of nowhere, really, although Cadel says he did recognize the danger early on. I’m sure the Tour officials are glad they invited Team Europcar! (most teams, like Leopard/BMC/Garmin/HTC etc. get automatically invited, but they leave a few slots to fill with extra teams (usually French and FDJ is always in there – why not issue them an auto-invite too?) and Europcar just happened to be one. Probably due to what I hear was a very successful pre-Tour season for Voeckler. 10 pre-Tour wins this year? Pretty nice!)
Well, Phil and Paul are saying that even if Voeckler never has another chance at yellow (he does have a collection of 20 to hang in the closet now which is pretty good, you know!) the guy who won today’s stage, Pierre Rolland, is only 24 and could have a very decent chance at winning the Tour de France for the French in upcoming years. Huzzah for the future! Cadel did say in his blog ‘all these kids they’re saying are the future, like (for instance) Boassen-Hagen, they’re the now. They’re here!’ or something like that. Like, don’t wait to see what they’re developing into. They’re winning now too!
>But first, I hope Cadel wins tomorrow. It would be a bitter disappointment for my hero Andy… and I would be sad for him… buuuuut Cadel has worked just as hard for this. He’s waited so long… I would be really sad for him too! I’m gonna be happy and sad no matter which way it works out.
But really, I don’t know who to cheer for! I know I just said I ultimately support Cadel, but then Andy comes out and smiles for the camera and I don’t know what to do. And his win yesterday was awe-inspiring. And today he followed everything like a champ. Both of them are awesome.
>Also, good on Contador for attacking so much (lol) (and in the normal way too). He’s hurting from all kinds of angles but he can still fly when he tells himself to. Of course if he hadn’t, it would have been nicer for Voeckler, but what ya gonna do… Can’t win anything if you don’t try. So he tried. Like Andy said yesterday, ‘no guts, no glory’. Which was a perfect place to use that line; I was thinking of it myself, yesterday. So Contador almost got to steal it today. And he still proved that he is not a pushover just because he’s sick or whatever. His form’s been up and down but he’s still got it, ultimately. (Also I hear he won the Giro by a landslide or something so hey he still has that. I’m sure if he doesn’t get banned in two weeks he’ll try to win the Vuelta at the end of August, too.)
>Nice to see the Canada flags out there today! Not so nice to see a couple Canada-flag-waving fans behaving like lunatics, but anyway I’m sure Ryder was happy to see all the others. It’s like all the Norweigians following Thor and Eddie.
>Tomorrow I hope to see Cancellara fly. He’s been pretty quiet this tour, really. Just riding in the bunch, looking out for his captains. Actually there have been a lot of quiet guys. It was a surprising Tour for that, but I guess that’s with the amazing teamwork protecting the lead for Thor and Voeckler, so it’s always been people like either Dave Zabriskie or Yohann Gene. Except when Leopard comes to the front to put the hammer down (Stuey! Monfort! Gerdemann! Jens! <3 )
>What was with Frank today? He kept sitting back. It didn’t look like he was matching his performance in the Pyranees. Perhaps he is saving something still, or he spent it all when I wasn’t looking, but it doesn’t seem like he’s Andy’s equal at this exact point in the race. Very strange.
>An old interview (a few days old) with Cadel. What a nice guy! I can’t believe that a few years ago he had a reputation for being grumpy. Maybe it’s the awesomeness of having veteran George Hincapie and the solidity of BMC to help out? Phil and Paul hinted at that last year. They also hinted that winning the World Champion’s Road Race jersey helped too. But whatever it was, he’s so very generous.
>Other cyclists who are totally cute, looking at their profile pics on the official Tour site – Chavanel, Gerdemann. XD (I believe these were taken at that team presentation thing that I have not been able to catch more than glimpses of, but there are no profile pics for anyone on Team Sky or Omega Pharma-Lotto. Although I didn’t check everybody.)
>All right. I am soooooo tired still. Wore shoes that hurt all day. New shoes; half price; very nice looking but not quite as comfortable as I thought they would be. Also I hate the piano recitals of 5-year olds. Or maybe I’m just immature for my age… and restless from lack of sleep and mental stimulation. I am going to sleep in to noon tomorrow. Do I have any appointments tomorrow? I hope not because I am beat.
>Man, the time trial starts in a couple hours. Shoo, me!
Flairé joined the Wayrift Guild, because he and my other characters will probably feel more at home there. They might even play with people they know!
) and last but definitely not least is Cadel Evans. …And then there’s me.
