Studley Do-Right's Tour de France Update

Today is the second and last rest day for riders in this years Tour de France. Yesterday was a day where almost all of the contenders showed what they had, as it was the first mountain top finish in the Alps this year. As the field approached the last climb there were probably 80 or more riders in the main group. Then Team Saxo Bank's Jens Voigt took charge. He got on the front of the peloton and set a blistering pace for the first 1.5k of the climb. This left only about 15 or 20 riders in the main group, and the rest strung out over the mountain. Then Saxo Bank's Frank Schleck took the lead and that number was whittled down to just 5; Frank and Andy Schleck (Team Saxo Bank), Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong (Astana), and Bradley Wiggins (Garmin-Slipstream). This set the stage for an ungodly acceleration from Alberto Contador. Andy Schleck answered but just could not keep up. Contador won the stage, finishing 43" ahead of Andy Schleck, 1'06" ahead of Frank Schleck and Bradley Wiggins, and 1'35" ahead of Lance Armstrong.

Overall Standings:

Alberto Contador
Lance Armstrong +1'37"
Bradley Wiggins +1'46"
Andreas Kloden +2'17"
Andy Schleck +2'26"

Contador is now in the yellow jersey and Andy Schleck is in the white jersey. After the stage Armstrong said that it is obvious who the best climber on the team and the best climber in the world is. He said that he is behind Contador 100% and if Contador wins it "I'm cool with that. I got 7 of them at home." Right now his interest is in having Astana in the yellow jersey in Paris, no matter who is wearing it.

There is a lot of tour left. 3 more days in the Alps and an individual time trial. Nothing is final yet but it looks like we wont see Lance winning his 8th tour this year. SDR predicts Alberto Contador winning his second and either Lance or Andy Schleck coming in 2nd, with the other finishing 3rd.