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Tour de France, France

Stage 13, Miramas - Montpellier, 173.5K

15 July

The Dust Devil's Daily Wrap
Heartbreaker for Horner

Stages and Maps, The Dust Devil's Daily Wrap

Wow! What an exciting stage 13! That, sports fans, was some bike racing.

The obligatory breakaway was established early on, somewhat predictably. I thought for sure they would get reeled in very easily. Then when Chavanel jumped across and joined the leaders I began to have my doubts. And when Chavanel jumped clear of the break group and Horner followed, my attention began to perk up. I thought to myself "now we got something here! This could work".

We all know the results of the stage, I don't need to bore you all with the details. The race shapes up totally differently this late in the Tour. After several riders have abandoned and teams are starting to look a little thread-barren, tactics start to play out a little less from the text book and a little more from the gut. I feel for Chris Horner right now. He was out front literally all day, riding gutsy and riding smart. For him to have the chance of a lifetime slip through his hands within a few hundred meters of the line has to hurt. Though we saw his worth and character. Even though he missed out on a stage victory, I'm sure he caught the attention of more than one director who would be interested in getting his signature.

What an exciting day of racing none the less. Those don't happen too often so I just have to bask in the excitement! The whole time I was watching Chris Horner in the break with Chavanel, I was thinking back to a funny episode that happened involving the Devil and I.

Back in October 2003 at the World Championships in Hamilton Canada. We bumped into the Devil at the Toronto airport, (you know, the German guy who stands in the side of the road of every major UCI race yelling "YAH, YAH!!",) standing in his devil outfit needing a ride into town. With his limited ability to speak anything but German and our ability to speak no German at all, we worked out where he was going and that he could come with us.

The next thing I know, I'm sitting in the back seat of a rental car next to the Devil himself! He's seat belted in holding his pitch fork in his lap, telling my friends and I how long he's been following pro races in some very broken English and German. He then starts grabbing at my goat-tee beard and saying "Yah, Yah Chriz Hor-nuh, USA! Chriz Hor-nuh, USA!!" I don't know if I reminded him of Chris Horner or what, but something captured the Devil's imagination. The Devil is a good guy in DD's book

Not too many shake-ups on the overall GC. The only exception being the abandonment of Alejandro Valverde, who was sitting 5th on GC and was the current holder of the white jersey of best young rider. Three weeks in the Tour de France is asking a lot of somebody that young. We'll see how he does next time around.

There are two BIG days in the Pyrenees coming up this weekend. I think I know how it will go. I hope I will be surprised. I would like to see some attacking from Rasmussen, Basso and Moreau. A day in the Pyrenees is still exciting under the most dull of circumstances. But, I suspect that Armstrong will be absolutely on fire to honor the late Fabio Casartelli. He will be tough to beat.
- The Dust Devil