Backporch Beer - WE'VE CLOSED! THANKS FOR YOUR PATRONAGE!

Le Tour stage 6 – 200 KM off the front

Two fellas left the peleton behind for 125 miles at an average speed of almost 45 km/h (28 + mph) before being caught about 500 yards from the finish. Huge effort. Decent recreational riders are huffing to keep up 20 mph for a couple of hours. 28 for 5 hours is flying.

Not a whole lot of news other than the big break today. Tomorrow starts mountain stages, where the standings really start shaking down. Victor Hugo Pena (USPS/Berry Floor) stayed in yellow for another day, and it looks like there’s a new Italian sprinter ruling the flats, Alessandro Petacchi.

If you only watch one stage of the TdF this year, make it the stage on Sunday. Two legendary climbs in one day, the Col du Galibier (2,645 m from a low point of 336 m at Aiguebelle), and l’Alpe d’Huez, the site of the Texan, Lance Armstrong’s famous look, staring down Jan Ullrich (TdF winner in 1997, and destroyed by fat and drugs for the entire 2002 season) before riding up the mountain like a bat out of hell.

My guess is that Postal is going to send a group off the front on the way up the Galibier, and LA’s going to grab yellow and the stage at the top of l’Alpe. Good stuff.