Floyd's gamble

Floyd gave away the yellow jersey yesterday. He let a breakaway get a long way up the road and decided that his team would not ride too hard to defend it. Since no other teams were willing to work to bring them back, the yellow jersey now sits on the shoulders of his former teammate, Oscar Pereiro, who began the stage a whopping 28:45 minutes behind Floyd. This was a tactical move, designed to save the team from the pressure of having to ride to defend the jersey for the next several stages. Floyd is apparently pretty confident that he can get back in the lead during the three killer stages in the Alps that start on Tuesday. Others not so sure that this was the right move. See the diary of CSC rider Bobby Julich. See also the discussion with Floyd and his team manager on cyclingnews.com. We'll see whose right soon enough.

Holy shit! As I'm writing this, two guys in today's six man breakaway just overshot a corner and went somersaulting over the barriers. Another went skidding across the road before he slammed into it. Nasty. One rider, Matthias Kessler, was able to continue, but it looks like the other two are on the way to the hospital and out of the Tour. Sounds like Ric Verbrugghe has a broken leg and David Canada broke his collarbone. Boom. It's over.