Time Trial Shakeup

Well, with one week left to Paris, we know much more about the Tour than we did Friday, before the Time Trial (TT). Vino rode himself back into contention, jumping from something like 22nd up to 9th with a monster effort that took 1:15 out of Cadel Evans, who was second on the day, and 2:00 or more off of everyone else. A couple of nominal GC (General Category) contenders, like Cristophe Moreau and Iban Mayo, were wiped out, and have nothing to work for other than stage wins. Levi Leipheimer didn't do poorly, but he didn't show much either - his teammate, young Alberto Contador, is showing himself to be a better overall contender at this point. Yellow Jersey Michael Rasmussen - currently dogged by doping rumors - is a famously poor time trialer, but actually held on to his race lead with an 11th place finish.

And Cadel Evans - of whom I said last year, I don't know why he's a GC contrender, but everyone says he is - looks right now to be the best positioned rider. He has looked strong every day so far, he obviously will not get hurt in the final TT, and he's up in the standings. Klöden remains ahead of Vino in the overalls, so if Vino falters again (as he is currently doing on Stage 14, but it's early yet), Andreas can take over as team leader and be in a position to go for yellow.

Exciting stuff with 3 Pyrennean days to go.