funny I should mention...

Mayo Flayo!
Iban Mayo nearly caught the nameless French guy who won the stage today (still a great and deserved win) w/ a display of his old climbing self last seen in this race 2 years ago. He even crashed early on and managed to pick himself up and prove himself a protagonist on the stage! I may have called him a bitch, but I still think he's an amazing talent that I wouldn't want to see wasted by a fragile morale. Iban has one of those climbing styles that makes you want to be on your bike doing the same thing. It's got a snap to it when he's on form, and it constantly looks like he's going to "light the blue touch paper" and shoot off making everyone look like "club cyclists". [ed.note-managed to paraphrase from the "Book of Paul" twice in one sentence] You always want to see good riders riding great, so "good on ya mate"!

Christophe Moreau is looking decent too. Not bad for a 35 year old Frenchie also w/ a fragile morale. He admitted it himself. Would've been nice to see him get a win instead of Menchov as he did a majority of the work, but that's how it goes.

Hincapie looked better on this climb although Levi is still the dominant American so far. Landis Mayo'd (old Mayo) his way up the climb again today, so hopefully he's saving himself for the Tour. Floyd came in second to El Capitan de Austin in this race so he knows what is needed to get from here to July.

It's weird how long it feels to get through the off-season and through all the early season races, but the moment the classics start it's suddenly June! So much good stuff packed in such a little amount of time. After the Tour the season is a letdown. At least w/ Cycling.TV we'll be able to see the late Summer and Fall classics to tide us over. I'm not a big fan of the Vuelta, although it can be a good race, it doesn't have the power that the Giro and the Tour have. It's still a bike race!

T-tags:Dauphine Libere, Iban Mayo, Hincapie, cycling



Images courtesy of Cyclingnews.com.