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Tour de France, France

Stage 8, Pforzheim - Gérardmer, 231.5K

9 July

The Dust Devil's Daily Wrap
The Cowboy holds off the Posse

Stages and Maps, The Dust Devil's Daily Wrap

Y'know, for the life of me I just don't understand T-Mobile's way of thinking. From the French bar where I was sitting, it looked like they may have had a good chance to batter Armstrong a bit on the Col de la Schlucht. Vino, Ullrich and Klöden were all there (Klöden off the front), they were looking perfect to get Armstrong against the ropes.

Sending Klöden off wasn't what I would've done. I would've sent Vinokourov first with Klöden and Ullrich to mark Armstrong. Then, when Armstrong decided to chase Vino, they counter attack, ad infitum. Serve up a T-Mobile sandwich old school style. Even if it didn't work, they would've worked over Armstrong physically, and perhaps fired a warning shot (or two) across his bow. Signaling that T-Mobile was here to play hardball, instead of letting Armstrong run away with victory like he has every other year (except 2003).

If anybody is going to have a snowball's chance in hell of beating the cowboy, they are going to have be a little smarter. I reckon they need to band together (favorites from different teams like Basso, Voigt, Vino, Ullrich, Heras, etc ...) to start the attacks thick and fast. Doing this while they're all still close together on GC, so they are of genuine threat to Armstrong. The cowboy will not waste his time marking Heras in the third week when he's 8 minutes down. Attacking 10K before the finish is only going to net so much (if the attack sticks-that is).

Remember Alpe d'Huez in 2003? That's what I'm talking about! You had Beloki, Hamilton, Zubeldia, Armstrong, Vino and Mayo all there together. First Beloki went, then they all just took turns delivering blows to Armstrong. Finally Mayo, and eventually Vino, got away. More importantly (in 2003) it probably rocked Armstrong's world a little knowing that it was him against the world. He has to use a lot of his energy stores (both psychological and physical) to fend off that kind of offensive. That is important because sooner or later he's bound to crack under that kind of pressure.

If they wait and play the defensive game, trying to hold Armstrong's wheel it's going to be another race for second place this year.
- The Dust Devil