Thu, 13 Sep 2007
Stage 2: Armadillo Attack!
Anyone who was skeptical of the existence of armadillos in the
state of Missouri was treated to prime evidence to the contrary as
one of the little critters apparently ran into the middle of the
peloton yesterday about 3 miles into stage 2 of the Tour of Missouri
bike race. This apparently caused several riders to go down and
unfortunately Dan Schmatz of St. Louis got the worst of it
suffering a bad collar bone break. Let's all wish Dan
a speedy recovery (no it's very difficult to even pedal
at all with a broken collar bone, he's out of the race) and hope he comes back
next year to show those rodents who's boss!
And you might also wonder about my ability to understand bike racing as my prediction of today's time trial being the major selector stage for the overall winner has been disproved for the most part. The reason this is so is simply that 12 riders formed a break yesterday and proceeded to extend their lead over the rest of the peloton by about 15 minutes. So for sure, the winner of the tour will be one of those 12 guys. And the guy who is sitting in the cat bird's seat is George Hincapie who was clearly in control yesterday. The only question is how much energy did he use chasing down attacks at the end and in general keeping that break together for most of the day. But today he will have an advantage over the others because he will go last and so will know who of the 12 has the best time at each checkpoint on the course and he can adjust his speed accordingly so that he maintains the overall lead. That's not to say he can't be beaten but if I were a betting man, I would probably not bet against George at this point.
Cycling News' account of yesterday's stage is really good and will give you some great insight into what makes bike racing so interesting and at times unpredictable. As that break formed, there were certain politics of the situation that came into play and the article explains it quite well. And you have got to love some of those beautiful photos of Midwestern Missouri!
[/cycling/professional] 2 comments permalink
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