Tour de France 2008

Update: As we know, Sastre won. Better luck next year Cadel! Maybe Vandevelde? We’ll see.

American Christian Vandevelde is rising in the overall standings (as of 7-14-08). I was really glad to see Cadel Evans fight every minute un the Tourmalet and Hautacam after his crash the day before. His acceptance of the yellow jersey on the podium was so emotionally charged. I like the High Road – Columbia team, but Kim Kirchen almost seemed bored on the podium.

I really like Oscar Freire, but he didn’t seem to excited to pull on the green jersey on stage either. Maybe he wanted the stage win that Mark Cavendish sped off with. I understand that. I’d love to see Freire win the stage, and one for Eric Zabel. Zabel is strong! He is up there at the finishing line.

I wonder what’s going on with Alejandro Valverde. I thought he’d do better on the slopes of the mountains. He still has more stages to show what he can do. The Col de Agnel in stage 15 looks wicked as does the Cime de la Bonette-Restefond in 16, and of course epic L’Alpe d’Huez. The time trial the day before Paris will be exciting too. I’m glued to the Versus channel!