Thursday, July 12, 2007

Stage 3 - Tuesday, July 10: Waregem - Compiègne, 236.5km

I mostly have a bunch of notes I took on Tuesday during the stage. I think the thing I remember most is my reaction of "oh my god Cancellara." Which pretty much sums up the stage. The weather wasn't a factor and from what I recall, the crashes (and I'm looking at you, Steegmans) were mostly due to a lack of attention. The peloton chased at a leisurely pace for most of the day and by the time they turned it up, it was practically too late.

They were going so slow that Phil and Paul were all 'could they go any closer? no' or something like that. It was amusing, but good for the riders. Later, Cancellara was interviewed and stated that the reason they were going to slowly was because of the massive winds, which makes sense. But because the peloton was going to slow and the break was doing what breaks do, there wasn't much for Paul and Phil to report on. Instead, they gave us a really nice history on the area that the cyclists were going through. It was a lot of World War II stuff and pretty interesting.

The break almost made it, but as usual, the peloton caught up with them, but didn't catch them. Instead, amazingly, Fabian Cancellara attacked. And by god did he attack. He timed it perfectly and road around the four boys in the break, then road past them and sprinted for the win. It was amazing and I've never seen anything like it. Sure, we all remember the days of Lance Armstrong and how he'd overtake people (like Chavanel) for wins on the mountain stages. But never on a flat stage.

So, hats off to Cancellara. Good job. And I think I've underestimated him.

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