Sunday, July 09, 2006
No major changes
Sébastien Joly is still the Lanterne Rouge, and is likely to remain so until at least Wednesday when the mountain stages begin. At least he got to ride first in the time trial yesterday, at 10:48 AM, and relax the rest of the day, right? Joly has a brief Wikipedia biography here, by the way.Daniele Righi (pictured), Italian rider on the Lampre-Fondital team, was the sole late finisher today, crossing the line 55 seconds after the main peleton. He was a member of the long breakaway in Stage 5 which was caught within 3 km of the finish line. He rode a respectable time trial yesterday for 128th place in that stage.
It's nice to note that the current yellow jersey wearer, Serhiy Gonchar, and today's stage winner, Sylvain Calzati, both abandoned on this very same day of the Tour last year, July 9th. That was the same day that Dave Zabriskie, who made up time in a breakaway today, was hanging on for dear life after his famous team time trial crash, trying his best to continue riding in the Tour (followed by his abandonment the next morning). I'm sure they each remembered the events of July 9, 2005 at some point today! Seeing those kind of delightful comebacks are one of the great rewards of this blog, along with the stage win this year of Jimmy Caspar.
