Tour Tidbit du Jour - 7/11/10

Today we saw the GC hopes of Lance Armstrong dashed by bad luck, actually, three instances of bad luck, all involving crashes, two minor and one major. By getting delayed in the minor crashes, and expending extra energy to catch back up with the overall contenders, plus suffering from the bruising and the scrapes of the major crash, it was too much effort for Armstrong and his domestiques to pace him back into position. This also shows how much good luck Lance Armstrong had to win 7 Tours de France in a row, by avoiding major crashes and not getting caught behind other incidents. Avoiding bad luck was mainly done by staying up near the front of the peloton and riding hard enough tempo that the group was stretched out instead of being so bunched up. That Radioshack was not one of the teams dictating tempo on this stage might be an indication that their riders were only strong on paper, or that the peloton was not giving Armstrong's team the deference that he had accepted in the past. Other riders have different ways of avoiding bad luck, such as Fabian Cancellara, who is wearing unlucky 13 as his bib number this year. To counteract misfortune, he turns one of the two placards upside down.