Here’s what happened: a breakaway of 12 riders gets away, including George Hincapie, who rides for Team Columbia. Hincapie is only 5 minutes and change off the yellow jersey. The breakaway gets a maximum lead of 8+ minutes, putting Hincapie in the virtual yellow jersey. While this is happening, Astana is riding on the front, setting what appeared to be a medium tempo–neither gaining nor losing ground on the breakaway.

With 50k to go, AG2R, the team of the yellow jersey, moved to the front and tried to up the pace. Unfortunately, they struggled and as they approached the finish line, Garmin and (oddly) Columbia set the pace.

In the end, Ivanov, the Katusha rider, won the stage.  Hincapie finished soon after with the rest of the breakaway, and 5+ minutes ahead of the peleton.  Nocentini saved his yellow jersey by 5 seconds.   Columbia’s efforts on the front to set Cavendish up for a sprint were for nothing as Cavendish ended up losing all his sprint points due to a positioning penalty

After the stage, the high school drama began:

• Hincapie blamed: Astana, for setting tempo and needlessly contributing to the chase of the breakaway
• Armstrong blamed: Garmin, for needlessly pushing the peleton toward the end
• Johan Bruyneel (Astana’s GM) blamed: Garmin, for the same reasons as Armstrong
• Johnathan Vaughters (Garmin’s GM) said: he wanted his guys on the front to avoid any back-of-pack shenanigans that have been commonplace in this year’s tour

Basically, everyone claimed that they would have loved to see Hincapie in yellow, but no one (not even his teammates) did much to help him out today.

My take on all of this is that Astana did actually contribute to the chase (despite Armstrong’s comments to the contrary).  Their “false” tempo was basically maintaining the gap between the break and the peleton.  What they could have done, if they really wanted Hincapie to get yellow, was to let AG2R take over the pacemaking much sooner, allowed them to blow (AG2R doesn’t have the firepower to bring a 12 man break back 8+ minutes), and THEN set the “false” tempo to the finish.  That would have been more effective, I think.

Also, I’m not buying Vaughters’ explanation for why Garmin was on the front late in the race.  The Garmin riders could have been *near* the front, but not *on* the front if they wanted to avoid crashes late in the race.  I’m calling BS on Garmin’s strategy.

Lastly, Columbia majorly screwed up today’s stage.  They neither got Hincapie his yellow jersey, nor Cavendish his green jersey.  Now Hincapie is pissed and Cav is almost out of the green jersey competition entirely.  Not a good day for Columbia.

The stage came down to two stories:

The first story was that of the breakaway. Nine riders got away and distanced themselves from the fracturing peleton. One of those riders, 24 year old tall Frenchman Brice Feilieu, held on to win the first Tour de France stage of his promising career. his older brother, the (currently) more well known Roman Feilieu, finished in the grupetto and was obviously elated about the victory of his teammate and brother.

The second story played out slightly further down the slip. This was the story of the GC contenders, including half of the Astana team. Cadel Evans tried several times to attack, but he doesn’t have the explosive power necessary to make a break stick, and the contenders were able to cover him each time.

Eventually, Contador got sick of the games and busted everyone’s groove up. He attacked with a few K to go and put about half a minute into the rest of the GC contenders by the time all was said and done. His move was strong, quick and decisive, and it had to have demoralized all of the other contenders.

Armstrong chose not to respond to Contador’s attack, though he appeared like he could have at least attempted a response. He instead decided to mark the other GC contenders, knowing that if he did not follow Contador then the other GC contenders would not be able to follow either. This was, in my opinion, solid team tactics and shows that Armstrong is truly here in support of the best rider, Alberto Contador.

Now, perhaps Armstrong will attack Contador later in the Tour. We’ll see. That would be exciting if he does. However, on today’s stage, he made a tactical decision to maximize Contador’s advantage, and I believe that it was a good decision. Plus, if he decides to attack later in the tour, it will be tougher for the other GC men to overcome both him and Contador.

All in all, today’s stage creates more questions than it answers. However, one thing is for sure: Contador is ready to play. And so is Armstrong. And Cadel Evans is not.

Following them were a bunch of other riders, including Fabian Cancellara and Lance Armstrong. Noticeably absent from this group were most of the GC contenders, including Alberto Contador. Seems like a pretty “rookie” mistake for Contador to miss the group, but probably not a big deal in the overall picture.

Anyway, the group managed to stay ahead to the finish, thanks to some brilliant riding from the Columbia domestiques. Of course, Cav won the sprint (and phoned home as he crossed the line) in glorious fashion, bringing his 2009 Tour de France victory percentage to 67%.

At the end of the day, Armstrong sits in THIRD place, 40 seconds back of Cancellara, and Contador is a few seconds down on Armstrong in 4th position. Will Astana work together in the time trial tomorrow? Or are the FOUR Astana leaders (Armstrong, Contador, Kloden, Leipheimer) too selfish to put in a good ride? I’m sure they’ll be professional and do their job, but you never know…

(Okay, I admit it. I’m excited that Lance is racing. I’m excited about the drama surrounding Team Astana. It’s just too good of a story not to get excited about!)

Of course, everyone’s eyes are on Lance Armstrong this July. Most 37 year olds can’t compete in endurance sports on the most elite levels. However, Lance Armstrong has made it very clear over the years that he does what he wants, and he usually does it pretty darn well. So he’s racing this year.

Other competitors to watch include: the rest of the Astana team, TT specialist and Swiss Beast Fabian Cancellara, sprinting specialist and good looking guy Mark Cavendish, and Lance Armstrong.

The TT course this morning was rather technical, with a sharp ascent and decent, and some technical sections, particularly toward the end of the course. I was glad to see almost all riders deciding to use a full aero setup, including TT bike, TT bars, aero front and rear disc wheel and an aero helmet. (Hey, Danilo Di Luca, pay attention.)

Teams basically got to choose the order of their riders at the start, so Astana decided to put Lance off early in the day. He put in a pretty good ride, but seemed to fade toward the end. His ride of just over 20 minutes was tops at the line, but was quickly bettered by nine other riders. His position looked pretty good (velonews), and his new Trek TT bike is very smooth, but I’ll bet he was disappointed that he didn’t beat a certain Spanish rider.

Some other riders not named Lance did well. The last two riders of consequence out of the start gate were Astana’s “leader” (maybe) Alberto Contador and Fabian Cancellara. Contador displayed his fine time trialling skills on the tough course, but in the end Fabian slaughtered the field, beating Contador by 18 seconds and the rest of the field by a generally beastly margin.

Other notes:

• TT gear looked really awesome.  It looks like teams are spending more time on the details of the riders’ setups.  In particular, basebars looked well-considered and aero positions were generally good.  Not so much arm “scooping.”
• The traditional TT contenders–Cancellara, Wiggins, Leipheimer, Zabriskie, Millar, etc–all seemed to be on form.  Zabriskie and Millar finished a bit far back, but it was a tough, technical course that isn’t perfectly suited to a pure TT rider.
• Lance Armstrong, Lance Armstrong, Lance Armstrong, Lance Armstrong, Lance Armstrong.  Did you know he’s racing this year?
• I don’t think Contador can be beat this year.  His 2nd place effort today was very strong.  It’s only the first of 20 days of racing, but with his TT strength and his climbing abilities, I’m not sure anyone can beat him this year.
• Except Lance Armstrong.