Stage 16

It was on stage 16 when the the Honorary Captain had a very bad day during the Best Tour Ever back in 2006. Today it was young Andy Schleck's turn to shit the bed. At least he wasn't wearing the yellow jersey when he did it. He's also lucky still to be ahead of whiny little El Pistolero. But he lost precious time to the Grimace otherwise known as Cadel Evans today, not to mention the surprise that is Tommy V.

Thor SMASHED home another win. He and his Garvelo boys were supposed to be THE team for the spring classics. Their reign of terror did not exactly work out as planned. Nor did Thor's first eight months in rainbows. But they are redeeming their season with a very good showing at the Tour. This was the fourth win of the race for the boys in Argyle and the second for Thor. Predictably, this has KK, Brad and the RRR gang very excited. Even those of us who slagged Thor for his weak early season showing and even weaker victory salute when he did nab his first win of the season are kind of excited for the guy. But we are having a hard time making sense of the fact that not a single one of those Thor lovers picked him for their vicarious racing squad. KK, the Impaler, and Duester Juice all went with the Manx Mouth over their man Thor. Let's hope, for their sake, that the nasty Norweigan won't find out. We would hate to see anything bad happen to our BFFs from the white side. Or is it red? Or Colorado Avalanche purple? Would you guys please make up your minds.

Halberto believed in Thor. He also believed in Ryder Hesjedal. Gianni believes in both of those guys too. And they were both duly rewarded for their loyalty today. Halberto was rewarded with 290 points and a stage win, his second of the race. And Gianni finished second. He had 270 points today. Steve H rounded out the podium with a 250 point performance.

In the overall race, Brad extended his lead over the Fraggle by 60 points. His 80 points from Ignatyev were better than the 20 Peter Velits bagged for the Fraggle. Hal has moved back into third overall, bumping Rachel and Graham down to fourth and fifth.

Full results and overall standings here.