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93rd Tour de France - presented by

Stage 15, Gap - L'Alpe d'Huez, 187K

18 July

Dust Devil's Daily Wrap
The Angel of the Mountains!

Dust Devil's Daily Wrap, Stage List, Stage Profile, Photos

Whoa!

That's about all I can say after today's barn-burner of a stage up the epic Alpe d'Huez! What a day of racing! Everybody was out with both guns blazing today and there was a genuine sorting out of the big favorites.

Let me start by saying that I cannot believe that Frank Schleck hung on to take victory. Not too often does a day long break succeed to the top of Alpe d'Huez. I thought for sure at the about 10K to go, the Landis group would swallow Cunego and him up. But, he won in mighty fine style. He's a good looking rider. His position is great, he's long and lean, but not gangly. A very nice rider to watch.

Floyd Landis showed some real class today, and showed that he is solid as a rock. Keeping an eagle eye on everybody, and attacking when necessary to shed riders when necessary, he rode a smart race. And, at least from where I was sitting, he didn't look like he went so far into the red like some other guys did. And with two more very serious days ahead, that will be very key.

Namely, Denis Menchov. He got dropped like a stone not long after the climb began. But about 2/3 of the way up starting gaining ground. And Michael Rasmussen appeared out of nowhere at his side to help his captain. The look of pain on Menchov's face with about 3 or 4K to go said it all. He was riding himself inside out! We'll see if he dug too deep today though in the coming days.

Andreas Kloden looked like he was only there to follow. Not looking very capable when the accelerations happened, and hanging on by the hairs on his chinny chin chin.

Cadel Evans and Levi Leipheimer didn't fair anywhere near as well as I thought they would. Evans was dropped pretty handily as soon as the climb began. Leipheimer managed to hang on for awhile longer, but he was gone as soon as Landis accelerated to catch Axel Merckx.

That was the other thing that was unusual today. There were remnants of the early break scattered EVERYWHERE along the climb. The Landis group just kept picking up and spitting out riders who you hadn't heard hide nor hair of all day pretty much. Boom! All of a sudden there's Mazzoleni, or there's Merckx. And they would latch on to help their captain or whatever. It was a chaotic, crazy day of racing!

So, here we are. Landis will probably not have the opportunity to let go of the jersey (voluntarily) again to ease the burden onhis team before Paris. So, now he is in the defensive role.

My prediction tomorrow is that Pereiro will drop from sight. He will fight, but he will probably lose about 3 minutes or so. Same with Dessel. The way things are going, I think Kloden will leapfrog everybody else in the GC. It just looks like Leipheimer, Evans Menchov Sastre or Michael Rogers can handle it when the big hammer goes down. Although, before today I thought that Menchov could handle it, so you never know.

To me, Landis is looking more solid than anybody else out there. His face shows nothing on the climbs. He looks absolutely emotionless. I don't know if I would say effortless. But, in comparison with everybody else, he looks effortless. And he is there everytime an acceleration happens.

I think he has the restraint to keep himself in check and ride for the overall without needing a stage win. I would like to see him win in Yellow inthe mountains, though. Every tour winner should win a mountain stage, shouldn't they?
- The Dust Devil