Kiss My Astana!

Alexandre Vinokourov and the boys in baby blue came out to deliver a message to the rest of the field today. Not only are they not going to throw in the towel, they very nearly took 1-2-3 on the stage today. Only Cadel Evans was able to prevent a clean sweep for Astana. He finished 2nd, 1:14 behind Vino, and now looks like he might be best poised to win it all. Valverde and Mayo, sitting 2nd and 3rd going in, had monumentally bad days and rode themselves out of the race, unless they can get back into it on the mountains. No real shocker with Mayo. But for Valverde, this sort of implosion was not expected. Valverde even got caught and passed by the chicken, who must have had another shoebox full of cow's blood (or Oxyglobin, or whatever it is he uses) show up at the hotel overnight. He finished 11th, giving an angry finger to his historical record against the clock, not to mention the UCI, and was able to hold onto his yellow jersey by one minute over Evans. Contador beat Leipheimer, and now clearly has to be rockoned the team leader at Disco. The young Spanish climber jumps into 3rd on the overall GC, just ahead of Kloden. Can't wait to watch him and the Chicken duke it out in the Pyrenees. I hope Cadel can hold on until the next ITT. With his monster ride today, Vino sneaks into the top 10. He now sits just over 5 minutes back. Still a long way back, but close enough to give him cause to attack like a man possessed over the next 3 stages. Kashechkin also moved up, making it 3 Astanas in the top 9. Good for the overall team rankings. Perhaps less good for figuring out the strategy from here on out.

the top 10 after today looks like this:

1 Michael Rasmussen (Den) Rabobank
2 Cadel Evans (Aus) Predictor-Lotto at 1.00
3 Alberto Contador (Spa) Discovery Channel - 2.31
4 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana - 2.34
5 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Discovery Channel - 3.37
6 Andrey Kashechkin (Kaz) Astana - 4.23
7 Carlos Sastre (Spa) Team CSC - 4.45
8 Mikel Astarloza (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi - 5.02
9 Alexander Vinokourov (Kaz) Astana - 5.10
10 Kim Kirchen (Lux) T-Mobile - 5.29

More from CN, VN, and Pez.

Killer stage tomorrow. 2 HCs, and finishing atop the 2nd one. Will have to catch that one on the evening replay, since I'll be racing out at Birch with my friend Johnny S.

Swatty's team of Kazakh strongmen wins the day, more than doubles his point total so far and creeps out of last place. But Charlene, riding the backs of Evans and Kloden, was just 11 points back. With Valverde's bad day, Vic's string of zeros continues. That's four in a row and falling fast. Watch your back Jonny G. I'm coming after you.

Stage 13 results:

1) David S - 226
2) Charlene - 215
3) Chris - 125
4) James - 92
5) Rachel - 91
6) Cheryl - 90
7) Jonny B - 64
8) Johnny S - 18
9) Matt - 11
10) Jonny G - 10
11) David L - 10
12) Hal - 8
13) Vic - 0

General Classification after stage 13:

1) Matt - 1971
2) Jonny G - 1228
3) Chris - 1217
4) James - 996
5) David L - 959
6) Hal - 946
7) Cheryl - 824
8) Vic -823
9) Charlene - 801
10) Rachel - 642
11) Johnny S - 495
12) David S - 443
13) Jonny B - 427

OTT: Goose, Girl