View From the Bushes

First mountain-top finish of the Tour today. As usual, Armstrong put in a pretty big attack; not big enough to drop everyone or win the stage, but big enough to drop just about every big name you can think of (though, I guess Mancebo is a fairly big name). Basso and Leipheimer were a minute back, Kloden, Landis and Ullrich were 2 minutes back and Vinokourov and Beloki (and Julich, unfortunately) were five minutes back. The real interesting story is Rasmussen, who won yesterday's stage on a huge 167 km breakaway and still had the energy to match Armstrong all the way to the top. Already it looks like it will be a battle for second and third on the podium, but not for first, which I have to say kind of sucks.

Tomorrow sees two Hors category climbs: the Madeline and the Galibier, but with the top of the Galibier 40 km from the finish, my guess is that there will be some regrouping on the descent. Still it should be interesting to see if a guy like Rasmussen can keep it up. Another interesting note: for all the talk about T-Mobile switching to supporting Kloden or Vinokourov, Ullrich is back to being the highest placed of the three, though not by a huge amount. I have a soft spot in my heart for the guy. I mean, how can you not?

I'm still working through Lonesome Dove. I passed the halfway mark yesterday. So far I've found that people who notice me reading it have one of two reactions, either "What a great book!" or "That's the last thing I thought I'd see you reading," as if I should be reading nothing but Dostoevsky. After I'm done with that, I'm going to read Harry Potter 6 ( a few copies of which have already leaked out), but I'm not sure what I'll read after that, or if I'll even have time to read...

Enjoy the silence
Ross