Wednesday, July 13, 2011

A Couple of Follow-Ups

I noted yesterday that Afghan president Hamid Karzai’s half-brother was killed yesterday, and that I’d read previously that the brother was a brutal thug who probably had it coming.  Today, the Guardian newspaper had the good grace to present a bit more on that.  The article is a good read, but it skips one of the biggest knocks I’d heard, that the junior Karzai had embezzled millions and millions of dollars from the Afghan government over the past ten years.

Today’s stage was the last flat stage for a while, and given that, it was perhaps no surprise that British Sprinter Mark Cavendish (HTC-Highroad) won both the intermediate sprint and the stage itself.  I didn’t get to see it, but I was happy enough with the result.  Cavendish is easily the world’s greatest sprinter, and I cannot help but applaud his sheer ballsy awesomeness. 


What was a little more interesting (and surprising), at least to me, is that despite a few set-backs and a couple of legitimate challenges from other talented riders, Cavendish managed to take the lead in the Green Jersey competition.  The Green Jersey is often called the Sprinter’s Jersey, but really it’s a points competition in which riders get points for how well they finish (by place, not time) in both intermediate sprints and in total stage finishes.  Considering that there are points awarded in both sprint and mountains stages, and that most true sprinters get shelled in the mountains, it is perhaps no surprise that the recent past has seen more sprinty-type all-arounders as winners than true balls-to-the-walls sprinters.  So this year, the Tour’s organizers changed the formula a bit, and the result has been a really interesting battle.  Up to today, the leader has been Belgium’s Phillipe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto), who’s done decently in the sprints and been almost unstoppable on the climb-ier stages, but today Gilbert got shelled in both the intermediate and final sprints, giving Cavendish a massive swing in the points standings.  So, while I don’t know that I think Cav can win, I do think that it’s appropriate for the best sprinter in the world to at least spend a day or two in the Sprinter’s jersey.

Tomorrow we get into the mountains for real, and I wish like heck that I could take the day off to watch it.  As it is, I’m planning to take Friday off, but the next high mountain stage after tomorrow isn’t until Saturday.  So… so much for my “vacation with the Tour” plan. 

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