High Times

They climbed the highest road in Europe today. Over 9000 ft. Cyril Dessel won the stage. CSC looked strong once again. Other than Vandevelde, all the contenders stayed together on the way up. But Menchov couldn't keep up on a screaming downhill plunge into the finish. He ended up conceding about 30 seconds. He can really go fast in the ITT, but at this point he'd need to pull back over a minute on Evans, which doesn't seem likely. It does make it all the more likely that he'll try to attack tomorrow. The CSC boys will have to attack too, at least if they want a realistic shot at winning this thing. All of which means tomorrow's stage is shaping up to be pretty exciting.

In the FGBC Pool, Dolphin Ankle Tatoos wins the stage with 315 points, just ahead of Team Runner Up. Arms Akimbo finished third. Team Runner Up is running away with the overall competition. Their lead over Zed's Dead, Baby is up to almost 500 points. Team Toulouse takes over the revolving door third spot. Turn Up the Good, Turn Down the Suck looks to be solidifying its grip on the lanterne rouge. The gap is up to 80 points to Viva Italia. Speaking of Turn Up the Good, Turn Down the Suck, that was the cheer that our competition in a game of ultimate yelled out last night after a late game timeout. They were up on us at the time. But we came back and beat them. Clearly some bad karma associated with that name. You'll want to try something different next time, Paddy.

John Lee Augustyn misjudged a corner and rode his bike off the side of the mountain. He managed to stop, but his bike tumbled all the way down to the valley below.



Stage 16 is the so-called queen stage of this year's tour. Not so much Elizabeth as Freddie Mercury. This queen's a killer: 210 kms, three HC climbs, and finishing by going up Alpe d'Huez. Ouch. Definitely worth waking up early for.


The top 5 spots on the GC are as follows:

1 Frank Schleck (Lux) Team CSC - Saxo Bank 68.30.16
2 Bernhard Kohl (Aut) Gerolsteiner 0.07
3 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence - Lotto 0.08
4 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Team CSC - Saxo Bank 0.49
5 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank 1.13

Stage 16:

Dolphin Ankle Tatoos (Ian) 315
Team Runner Up (Mike) 300
Arms Akimbo (Brad) 265
Team Toulouse (Vic) 250
Los Lobos Soundcheck Disaster (Bill) 235
Zed's Dead, Baby (Chris) 225
Poison Ivy Weedwackers (Hal) 225
Fuck It, Let's Go Bowling (Colin) 220
Sturmy-Archer All-Stars (Kevin) 160
Mylie Sigurdur's Wheels of Fury (Dallas) 145
Nothing Stops a Party Barge (Donna) 130
You Suckers Don't Have a Chance Against the King (Andy) 125
The A Team (Adam) 100
Farm Team (Tinker James) 70
You Like Samurai Swords, I Like Baseball (Arlene) 50
Frequent Flyers (Tom K) 40
Viva Italia (David S) 35
Annie Proffitt's Kids (Rachel) 30
Don't Stop to Smell the Flowers (LeAnn) 30
Bacon Wrapped Hot Dogs (Jonny M) 0
Powered by Veggies (Jonny B) 0
English on the Ball (Matt) 0
Turn up the good, turn down the suck! (Paddy & Naomi) 0


Overall Standings:

Team Runner Up (Mike) 2525
Zed's Dead, Baby (Chris) 2050
Team Toulouse (Vic) 1995
Los Lobos Soundcheck Disaster (Bill) 1845
English on the Ball (Matt) 1805
Powered by Veggies (Jonny B) 1775
Nothing Stops a Party Barge (Donna) 1545
Mylie Sigurdur's Wheels of Fury (Dallas) 1535
Farm Team (Tinker James) 1450
Frequent Flyers (Tom K) 1430
Bacon Wrapped Hot Dogs (Johnny M) 1415
You Like Samurai Swords, I Like Baseball (Arlene) 1400
You Suckers Don't Have a Chance Against the King (Andy) 1270
Fuck It, Let's Go Bowling (Colin) 1260
Dolphin Ankle Tatoos (Ian) 1170
The A Team (Adam) 1125
Arms Akimbo (Brad) 1060
Sturmy-Archer All-Stars (Kevin) 1060
Annie Proffitt's Kids (Rachel) 940
Poison Ivy Weedwackers (Hal) 740
Don't Stop to Smell the Flowers (LeAnn) 580
Viva Italia (David S) 490
Turn up the good, turn down the suck! (Paddy & Naomi) 410