Chicken and Mayo

Either of them on their own is fine. But they definitely go better together, as both Jonny G and David L can attest. Jonny leaps into 2nd place over Hal, whose team of 8 Belgians is not really enjoying the mountains. With 290 and 300 point stages, respectively, this suggests that some of the rest of us can keep our meagre hopes alive for now. But Matt, of course, also has Rasmussen and so had another good day. Then again, he lost O'Grady (9 broken ribs and 1 puntured lung) and McEwen (outside the time limit) today. So he's down to 7 riders. Bummer. We feel your pain, Matt. Really, we do.

It was a bad day for Aussies in general at the Tour. In addition to O'Grady and McEwen, Michael Rogers went from looking like he was on his way to put on the yellow jersey to abandoning the Tour, all during one tight left turn. He hung on for a while, but it's hard to climb with a separated shoulder. Fellow Aussie Cadel Evans, however, is looking like a real contender for the podium in Paris, which is good news for Charlene and me. Also dropping out yesterday was Mark Cavendish (Jonny G, Cheryl, and Charlene), and a whole whack of others, including Patrick Sinkewitz, who ran into a fan on the way down the mountain, after the stage, and broke his nose. Friere (Vic) dropped out the day before from a nasty saddle sore. Ouch. Full reports over at pez, cyclingnews, and VN.

Rest day today before another brutal mountain stage tomorrow. It's starting to get interesting.

Stage 8 results [corrected]:

1) David L - 300
2) Jonny G - 290
3) Jonny B - 195
4) Johnny S - 171
5) Matt - 165
6) Chris - 132
7) Vic - 108
8) Charlene - 56
9) David S - 54
10) Rachel - 47
11) Cheryl - 33
12) Hal - 0

General Classification after stage 8 [corrected]:

1) Matt - 1483
2) Jonny G - 907
3) Hal - 726
4) Vic - 705
5) David L - 646
6) Chris - 642
7) Cheryl - 622
8) Rachel - 378
9) Charlene - 370
10) Jonny B - 249
11) Johnny S - 237
12) David S - 110


OTT: Ghosty, Make it Easier