The 2010 Tour de France had a rough and tumble couple of stages. Stage 2 wasn’t expected to be much trouble, but the slick descents caused Andy Schleck and Christian Vandevelde to fall and lose ground on the other GC contenders. In response, Andy’s teammate Fabian Cancellera slowed down the entire peloton and prevented the bunch sprint as a kind of protest against the tour organizers, and allowing Andy to rejoin the group. Christian was out a a result of broken ribs suffered on the fall.
Stage 3 was another story, and the headline should be Cadell Evans takes the lead in the hunt for the overall win. In navigating the cobblestones, Frank Schleck fell as Fabian Cancellara and team Saxo-Bank rode hard to try and gain time for their team leader Andy Schleck, who was behind most of the major contenders as a result of a bad prologue performance. Lance Armstrong initially made the break, but ended up losing major time as the result of a flat tire. Favorite Alberto Contador missed out on the initial break and fought back hard to lose only 1 minute 13 seconds to Andy Schleck and Cadell Evans.
Lance's face says it all
At the end of the flat stages all of the major contenders should still be a position to be competitive. Even Lance, who is 1’51″ behind GC leader Cadell Evans and 50 seconds behind Alberto Contador, should be able to rally back. Lance’s hard ride to keep from losing extra time after his flat, shows he still has the drive to win. The rest of the tour will show if Lance’s body is equal to that mind. The race is close enough that the sort out will still take place in the mountains, where minutes are to be made or lost, or on the final long time trail where the best man will win.
