July 23, Stage 18: Salies-de-Bearn - Bordeaux 198km

Oh look, a sprinter's stage. I used to love these stages, but I think that was because I had a lot more free time to watch them. Now I work and that's okay, because money is more important than most things these days. So what I saw of today's stage was the end (on mute) and then the very last 10k or so (on Versus). It was fun to watch it with sound, because I didn't know that the Liquigas rider, Daniel Oss, was trying desperately hard to win the stage. It was sad, in a way, to watch him fighting so hard for something he clearly wasn't going to get it. That's the downside to flat (ha) stages. People in breaks and late attackers tend to get screwed over, unless they have a really long (10-15 minutes) gap ahead of the peloton.

Obviously we know before going into this stage that there wasn't any way a break was going to last. It was nice to have one, though I didn't get to see much of it. But I didn't mind too much, because I like a good sprint. Um, but that wasn't what we got. Instead it was Mark Cavendish versus everyone else. I don't know how this happened, but it's pretty much like everyone sees Cav coming and gives up. I don't approve of this at all. I know there have been sprint crashes recently, but seriously. Seriously. Whatever happened to drag racing to the line? What happened to a little argy-bargy (and not the crack that Renshaw pulled)? What happened to a flat out sprint where two guys cross the line so closely that it takes 10 minutes to figure out who won the stage? I guess I'm no longer easy to please, which is disappointing.

Not all was lost, of course. Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz were at the stage! Okay, so that's not what I meant, but it cracked me up none the less. They were apparently there to promote their movie, Night and Day, which I saw and absolutely loved (it's hilarious) . So that was funny -- and apparently they were in the commentary booth during the final sprint, but weren't allowed to say anything (lol). Anyway, what I was going to say is that something awesome did happen: Petacchi took back the green jersey. And, holy crap, it looks like, barring incident tonight or on tomorrow's ITT, he's going to make it to the finish of the Tour. I can't remember the last time he did that, if ever. Pretty fucking awesome if you ask me. The other super great thing was that Robbie McEwen was fourth and we know I like it when he's up there.

Everything else stayed the same, which is depressing, but nothing was going to change. Tomorrow is the ITT, which should be fun and hopefully I'll be able to watch most of it live (while cleaning my apartment). I really hope that fun things happen, though I don't mean in the Rasmussen kind of way (crash, crash and then more crashes). Just in the oh, hey, the yellow is in danger. Or something fun like that. Chances are that's not going to happen. But as long as someone I like wins the ITT, I think it'll be okay. I hope.

Two days left. Let's see if I can muster up some excitement!