Stage 11- Brits Massacre the Field in the Alps! Two French Consolation Prizes.

Oh la-la!  Quelle domination!  Quel coup de foudre Britanique! 

Team Sky’s dominance from the Criterium du Dauphine is asserting itself in this year’s Tour de France.  They not only defended the yellow jersey in today’s last high mountain stage in the Alps, they massacred the field!  For Cadel Evans, it must have felt like a thunder bolt had blasted his dream to repeat as champion!  Evans tried a bold attack early, but Sky reeled him in, and nearly buried him.  He almost cracked, and only managed to limit his losses through the valiant sacrifice of his teammate Tejay Van Garderen dropping back to rescue him!  Nibali and Van den Broeck also tried to attack, but were caught by Sky, though they did not lose time to Wiggins.  By powering Wiggins safely to the finish line, Chris Froome also managed to move himself into 2^nd place overall.  So, Evans drops two places to 4^th, Nibali stays in 3^rd, and Van den Broeck moves from 8^th to 5^th.  Total domination by Team Sky!

The other contenders in the top 20 were shuffled, with some moving up and others moving down.  But all lost time to Wiggins.  Schleck?  Moved up from 16^th place to 12^th, but lost 1’27”.  Brajkovic?  Moved up from 13^th to 8^th, but lost 1’01”.  And Leipheimer?  He dropped from 19^th to 30^th, and lost 23 minutes!  Pick your favorite.  No one looks even remotely capable of knocking Wiggins and his Sky machine off their pedestal.

Two French riders did bring glory to France in the run-up to Bastille Day.  Pierre Rolland (Europcar) was the last survivor of the breakaway, won the stage and the combative award.  Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) took second place in the stage, and moved into 10^th place overall.  Both are over 8 minutes behind Wiggins, so they are no real threat, but they at least gave France something to cheer about.

Pinot also moved into 2^nd place for the white jersey, just 2 minutes behind Van Garderen.  Taaramae suffered a 24-minute collapse, falling from 2^nd place to 10^th, and probably out of contention.  Van Garderen’s ability to retain the youth classification prize may depend on how many more times he has to rescue Cadel Evans.  Look for Pinot to attack Van Garderen and Evans in the remaining mountain stages.

Back to the GC competition:  By my calculation, there are only three high mountain stages left that offer any hope for a challenger to overtake Wiggins and his Sky troops.    And only one of those has a summit finish.  Team Sky has shown itself fully capable of defending Wiggins’ lead through those, or any other stages.  Barring a catastrophic accident, Wiggins seems destined to become the first British winner of the coveted yellow jersey.

Say "Good-bye" to the Alps!  This is Aaron nearing the top of the famous Alpe d'Huez, May 2011.