The Un-Tour

Yesterday's stage was tailor made for a massive bunch sprint. But it didn't turn out that way. Alexandre Vinokourov was supposed to dominate the Tour this year. But that hasn't exactly happened. The chicken was supposed to run wild for a day, secure the polka-dot jersey, then fade away. But he hasn't. It seems as if the riders have torn up the script and tossed it by the roadside. Nothing is going the way it was supposed to. Which means that today's stage played out exactly as one might expect in this un-Tour in that it unfolded exactly like it wasn't expected to. With a 10 km Cat 2 climb less than 50km before the finish, it looked like a day for a breakaway to stay clear to the finish. Maybe another chance for Pozzato to win a stage. Or perhaps someone like Flecha, Hincapie, or Ballan. Pierrik Fedrigo and Amets Txurruka (with a name like that, how did he not get picked for the FGBC TdF Pool by someone?) gave it a solid effort. But instead, we got the bunch sprint we were supposed to have yesterday and the breakaway stage hunters were left wondering what might have been. Tornado Tom Boonen won it to cement his lead in the points competition. Zabel and Hunter were right there as well, keeping it a three-way race for green, or at least a hard-fought battle for 2nd.

More from CN, VN, and Pez.

With 3 of the top 7 finishers, Matt takes another stage win and increases his stranglehold on the FGBC TdF Pool yellow jersey. And that's without Robbie McEwen. Daniele Bennati, who was supposed to be my dark horse sprinting ace--before he went down in one of the early pileups, was 4th to help me take 2nd place. And Hal rounds out the podium for the day on the strength of Boonen.

According to the script, tomorrow's 54 km ITT should finally provide us with a good sense of how it will all pan out in the end, sorting out who's for real and who's merely been getting lucky so far. That's why they call it the race of truth. Conventional wisdom says Kloden should move up and the Chicken will begin his freefall. But the way things are going, I wouldn't be surprised if the final outcome remains as murky as ever. Who knows? Vino might all of a sudden insert himself into the race again.

Stage 12 results:

1) Matt - 255
2) Chris - 170
3) Hal - 154
4) Jonny G - 115
5) Cheryl - 76
6) David L - 70
7) David S - 20
8) Johnny S - 18
9) Rachel - 17
10) Jonny B - 12
11) James - 4
12) Charlene - 0
13) Vic - 0

General Classification after stage 12:

1) Matt - 1960
2) Jonny G - 1218
3) Chris - 1092
4) David L - 950
5) Hal - 938
6) James - 904
7) Vic - 823
8) Cheryl - 734
9) Charlene - 586
10) Rachel - 551
11) Johnny S - 477
12) Jonny B - 364
13) David S - 217

Sadly, one thing that does seem to be going according to script is that we have a big-time doping controversy in the works. All kinds of fingers being pointed at the current wearer of the yellow jersey. One finger that isn't pointing his way, however, is that of Christian Prudhomme, the director of the Tour, who hasn't had very many nice words about the honorary captain as of late. But that could change in a hurry. Funny business, this Tour de France.

OTT: Of Montreal, Suffer for Fashion