Today's stage: Short Team Time Trial to shake the overall standings up some.
Who won the stage? The Garmin-Cervelo team finally got the monkey off their backs and won a tour stage after four years of trying. The win was Garmin's first Tour de France stage win.
What matters in the GC race? In the current standings, Thor Hushovd (Norway, Garmin-Cervelo) took the yellow jersey and race lead from Philippe Gilbert (Belgium, Omega-Pharma Lotto) though he is no threat to take the overall victory. In the final overall race, Cadel Evans (Australia, BMC Racing) is tops in 3rd place. The other news is the fate of Jurgen van den Brock (Belgium, Omega-Pharma Lotto), Alberto Contador (Spain, Saxo Bank-Sungard) and Samuel Sanchez (Spain, Euskatel). All lost time today with van den Brock dropping about a minute (along with Gilbert), Contador losing another 20 seconds (hampered by starting first and having no time checks to go off of) and Sanchez losing another minute in addition to yesterday's time with Contador because of his awful time-trialing squad (last place on the stage).
What matters in the other competitions?
Green Jersey (best sprinter): Gilbert retains his lead in this competition and will wear the green jersey tomorrow.
Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains): Gilbert also leads this competition as the only man with any mountain points. It will revert to the second in points for tomorrow meaning Evans will switch today's green jersey for tomorrow's polka dot jersey.
White Jersey (best young rider): Geraint Thomas (United Kingdom, Team Sky) retained his white jersey though overwhelming favorite Robert Gesink (Netherlands, Rabobank) is only 8” behind
Biggest surprise: Garmin rode such a good time trial. I know Garmin is supposed to be good at the discipline, but they were bad yesterday and many of their top guys didn't look ready to race. To come back and win today is a shock despite their favored status.
Biggest disappointment: Bernhard Eisel (Germany, HTC-Highroad) crashed on the first corner robbing HTC of a chance to win the stage. Without the stage, it is likely HTC would have overcome Garmin behind ace time-trialist Tony Martin (Germany).
Other items of note: Eisel did make it under the time limit losing nearly six minutes after his crash today. No other crashes along the way so everyone remains in the race.
What is coming tomorrow? Flat as a pancake stage. Only a category 4 climb topping out at a meager 66m in elevation is on the docket. Other than that, its bunch sprint time. Expect Mark Cavendish (United Kingdom, HTC-Highroad), Tyler Farrar (United States, Garmin-Cervelo) and Ben Swift (United Kingdom, Team Sky) to contest the victory along with the other sprinters.
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