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Tour de France, France

Stage 4, Tours - Blois TTT, 67.5K

5 July

The Dust Devil's Daily Wrap
Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining

Stages and Maps, The Dust Devil's Daily Wrap

Team CSC, photo: T-Mobile

With the exception of Zabriskie's 11th hour crash, there weren't a lot of surprises for me today. I hope he's not hurt, so bad that he can't continue. Although his crash, and CSC's loss of the yellow jersey, could be a blessing in disguise!

This puts Discovery Channel in an interesting position. Already taking the yellow jersey at the end of stage 4 and still 17 stages remaining, they will have their work cut out for them.

Armstrong in Yellow, photo: CyclingTime.com

The course being what it is this year, the opening TT created much bigger time gaps than the tradition 6 km (or so) prologue, thus eliminating quite a few of the typical opening week candidates for yellow (i.e. sprinters, breakaway artists).

I'm thinking it will be difficult for a break to stay away until the first mountain stage on Saturday (when the serious eliminations will begin). Everybody wants to win a stage in the Tour. The third week a break may get away and stay away when everybody is a little more worn down. But, this early on, everybody is still hungry. And with some strong lead-out trains in Davitamon-Lotto, Quick-Step and FDJ, the chances are less likely for somebody to stay away.

Now we're looking at a situation where Discovery Channel has to spend the entire next 3 weeks fighting off the rest of the pack. My gut tells me they can do it. They will have to work very hard, but I think if any team can, they can. Stay tuned to BiciRace.com for the next installment........
The Dust Devil