Despite the off-the-road drama of the Tour, stage 19, was the most exciting stage of the 3 week event. Discovery came in and did what they do best: WIN! Contador maintained his lead over Ausie Cadel Evans by 23 seconds; enough to keep the yellow jersey and (probably) win his first Tour de France.
But the day belonged to American Levi Leipheimer of the Discovery team. Third in GC standings, behind Cantador and Evans, Leipheimer blew the time trial off its hinges. Evans, who finished second, was 51 seconds behind; Leipheimer put himself 6 seconds behind Evans, and 30 seconds behind Cantador in the GC. This will probably go down as the ride of his life!
Not to distract from Leipheimer’s tremendous accomplishment, but isn’t it interesting that 30 seconds is the difference between him and the Yellow jersey. If he could have improved any 5 of the 18 stages by 6 seconds he could be wearing yellow.
How do you mentally make up the seconds? These guys push themselves to the wall and over, so to imagine that seconds can be improved is pretty difficult. Obsession, it’s the only thing I think drives these guys through this much pain, which explains a lot for the cheaters.
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