Why Doesn't Anybody Love Ale-Jet?

That was not so much a sprint as a battle of attrition. Three crashes within the last 3 kms, taking out the Manx Mouth and the Wenatchee Wunderkid among others, left only a small group to contest the bunch gallop to the finish line. That was easily won by Petacchi over Renshaw and Hushovd. Petacchi used to be a dominant sprinter in his own right. Remember 2003, when he won stages 1, 3, 5 and 6? Apparently not. Nobody in the 2010 FGBC TdF Pool was willing to show him any love. And so nobody claimed the 150 points on offer for first place today.

Miriam happily took the points that were on hand for second and third though. She chose Renshaw and Hushovd as her sprinters, and they provided her with 225 points and a stage win. Woohoo! She told me today, as we were walking to buy milk, that she prefers mountain bike racing to road racing. And she also prefers climbing to the downhills. She has appointed North Carolina's own Willow Koerber as her favourite rider. She could do worse. In any case, she was very pleased to receive the news that she won today's stage. And she was even more pleased to hear that her brother finished tied for last place on the day. Sucka!

As for the rest of the podium, it was once again overrun by a crowd of pretenders. This time they squeezed themselves onto the second step of the podium. King Andy, Brad the Impaler, Gimpy Graham, and Greg the Lunchbucket Kid were there, each of them finishing with 145 points. At the other end of the spectrum, there were plenty of goose eggs laid today. 12 of them, to be exact. Too many to name. And another 12 finished with 20 points or less, including yesterday's leader Matt R. That is not how you win a vicarious grand tour Matt. Consistency is the key. Like, for example, that shown by Greg. With 215 points yesterday and another 145 today, he moves into the overall lead with 360 points. Olli is in second, just 20 points back. And 5 points back of him is a trio of Adrian, John W, and last year's champion, Melissa. It's all very close. We like to see that.

Full results and standings here.

If you like crashes, watch the highlights (lowlights?):