VeloNews’ John Wikcockson writes about the showdown in today’s individual time trial. Besides the battle for the yellow jersey, he also speculates on the 4-man shootout for 3rd overall between Frank Schleck, Bernhard Kohl, Denis Menchov and Christian Vande Velde.
From the article: “…the surprising Vande Velde, has gotten stronger as the race progressed. If he hadn’t have crashed on the descent into Jausiers on Tuesday, and lost approximately two minutes, he would be favored to finish on the final podium. As it is, he will have to ride the time trial of his life to achieve that….Vande Velde said he hadn’t pre-ridden Saturday’s time trial course, but he would be getting detailed information from his Garmin team manager Jonathan Vaughters. ‘Our fearless leader Jonathan is riding it tomorrow,’ he said, and then quipped, ‘It’s really pretty funny. He’s riding it in full gear. I want [to know] his time, too!’ “
