July 9, Stage 6: Montargis - Gueugnon 227.5km

We all know how this stage ended. It was a breakaway (I was totally disappointed that they didn't stay away) and then there was a sprint finish. It was possibly exciting if you aren't me. I cannot believe I ever loved lead out trains. Seriously, they make things so dull (and sometimes dangerous, but that's okay) and when they work it just frustrates me. I think this is probably because I am tired of Mark Cavendish (already, you say? and I reply that yes, already, but really it's been coming). I know yesterday I complained about the Tour rewarding the whiners and while I still believe that, I don't see the point on complaining about it. I know that my friends who like Columbia (and Cav) are happy they won again. And I suppose it's probably a good thing for Columbia that Cav didn't let them down. But I just don't have the energy to spare caring that he won because it would just make me annoyed.

It was fun to see Sylvain and Marcus as I was watching the stage while doing work (at work). I'll be honest, I didn't pay that close attention, except for the sprint finish (which I've seen three times now). I cannot wait for the mountains, I can't wait for the KOM competition to heat up. It's weird because I used to love flat stages, and had I been at home for today's, instead of at work, I probably would have felt differently. Well, that and the winner of the stage. It was just nice to see different teams out and about. The one thing I did miss today was the great Eurosport commentary. Sadly I probably won't get much of that tomorrow either, even though I don't have to work until later (the curse of the Farmer's Market).

Anyway, the best (and worst) part of the stage happened after it was over. The first was the huge fight that happened. I have to confess, as I did on tumblr, that I kind of loved it. I've watched this video a bunch of times and it never gets old. Yes, I know, they're fighting, but they're pro athletes. They're being idiots and they're not sprinters, how rare is it that that happens? I mean, people talk shit in the press all the time and the sprinters are total assholes, but come on. Fisticuffs? How awesome is that? It's totally awesome. I will admit to being totally disappointed that they didn't get fined that much. On the Versus coverage, Phil was talking about how they should be kicked out of the Tour. I'm almost inclined to agree, even though the fighting was ridiculously awesome.

The other thing I want to talk about was what happened to Robbie McEwen. I didn't use to like him and now I do, end of story. What happened today really pissed me off. Robbie was riding with the rest of the cyclists after the stage when out of nowhere, a man stepped in front of his bike, sending him flying. Of all the cyclists to get injured, Robbie was the last one who needed it. He'd been crashing a lot and was already in a lot of pain. The dude who ran into him was apparently a tv journalist. According to Robbie's twitter, he's only been banned (suspended?) for one stage. One. Stage. Though I suppose if FIFA can refuse to ban refs who make blatantly bad calls, then the TDF folks can do whatever they want. I guess we don't know what kind of pull the TDF folks have over the TV journalists, but still.

As for tomorrow's stage? Aside from not being able to see most of it, I'm excited! It's a real mountain stage and hopefully things will, as they say on Versus, explode. I'm really looking forward to some action in the Tour. I feel bad, because like I said before, I used to enjoy the flat stages, but not so much this year. Hopefully tomorrow's result will be something I like.