Friday, July 22, 2005
TdF Stage 19
GUERINI TAKES SOME OF THE SPOILS. I don't know about you, but the "transfer stages" from the last mountains to the individual time trial and arrival in Paris are really hard for me to watch. The riders come out of the mountain stages with the race all but settled. Whatever spoils are left or whatever remains unsettled will be dealt with in the time trial--the test of truth. Transfer stages like stage 19, unfortunaely for stage winner Giuseppe Guerini, just get lost in the calculating and anticipation.
"TURBO" STILL WORKS FOR THE 35-YEAR OLD. These stages seem to be a set-up for what's left. If one was hoping for fireworks--and I think we all really like fireworks--one would be disappointed. Alas, this is the nature of the Tour de France. But spoils ARE spoils. Guerini won a Tour stage at L'Alpe d'Huez six years ago. Today the Italian perfectly timed an attack on his breakaway companions near the end of the stage. A T-Mobile teammate of Ullrich, Vinokourov, and Kloden, Guerini's win is significant because he is 35 years old; that's old enough to be called "uncle" on the Tour. But he proved that his nickname--"Turbo"--still applies.
"TURBO" STILL WORKS FOR THE 35-YEAR OLD. These stages seem to be a set-up for what's left. If one was hoping for fireworks--and I think we all really like fireworks--one would be disappointed. Alas, this is the nature of the Tour de France. But spoils ARE spoils. Guerini won a Tour stage at L'Alpe d'Huez six years ago. Today the Italian perfectly timed an attack on his breakaway companions near the end of the stage. A T-Mobile teammate of Ullrich, Vinokourov, and Kloden, Guerini's win is significant because he is 35 years old; that's old enough to be called "uncle" on the Tour. But he proved that his nickname--"Turbo"--still applies.
# posted by John Franklin Hay @ 3:15 PM 
