It's all Lance Armstrong again, as he retains the yellow jersey in the 7th stage as the Tour de France enters Germany. But with a mountainous stage coming up on Saturday, you got to wonder whether he'll be wearing it at the end of the 8th stage.
Friday's 141-mile stage from Luneville, France, to Karlsruhe, Germany, played out like those in the past several days:
A solo breakaway, Fabian Wegmann of Gerolsteiner, took a good lead, but was pulled in before the final sprint.
One rider touched the back wheel of another on the sprint and two riders went down.
Australian Robbie McEwen appeared from nowhere and won the sprint, his second in three days.
Armstrong stayed well-protected near the front of the peloton by his Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team.
In the overall standings, Tom Boonen is wearing the green jersey because of his success in the sprints (McEwen is third), and Wegmann gained the mountain leaders' polka dot jersey after he was the first to cross the two category climbs today.
There are no changes among the leaders in the general classification battle for the yellow jersey, which Armstrong has worn since another American, David Zabriskie, gave it up on Tuesday when he fell about a mile from the finish line. All results are available at CyclingNews.
Saturday's 143-mile stage between Pforzheim, Germany, and Gerardmer, France, starts with a series of four climbs and ends with a steep climb right before the finish. (VeloNews has a piece on the invention of the Draisine, forerunner of the bicycle, in this area.)
This could be the time for Armstrong's challengers, like Alexandre Vinokourov or Jan Ullrich from T-Mobile or Ivan Basso on Team CSC, to wrest the yellow jersey from his shoulders. Earlier in the week, spokesmen for Armstrong's Discovery team said they didn't want to protect the yellow jersey all the way to Paris, still two weeks away. However, Discovery did lead the peloton at times today and kept Wegmann within easy catching distance. (Other challengers… )
If one of Armstrong's major rivals does gain the yellow, it would be certainly make for an interesting battle later when Armstrong tries to get it back. I think once T-Mobile or CSC gets a rider in the overall lead, that team would be be willing to defend it for the last two weeks — leading to exciting battles at the end of the Tour.
I do hope something happens — soon — because this Tour is getting boring. I don't want to sound jaded, because I do enjoy hearing the commentary and watching all the cyclists and trying to pick up all the soap opera drama going on. But if Armstrong rides in the yellow for the next two weeks without any serious challengers, this Tour will be exciting as watching the rain in Seattle.
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