TDF Discussion - here be spoilers

[jobob]

ITA with Margo & papaver's opinions (or Margo's non-opinion )

I don't see why Contador deserves all this flak about being evasive and self-serving and not a team player.

Sure, those of us in the US see it mostly through Versus' highly selective filter, and Bob Roll in particular (along with Paul and Phil, who I suspect know better, but they also know where their paychecks come from) has been nauseatingly rah-rah Lance for the last three weeks.

But Contador has had little to no opportunity to speak for himself -- shame on him for not being fluent in English on the American-Kazahk-Belgian-American Astana squad, yeesh! -- and face it, everything that was said on Versus and in the mainstream American-centered press was for the benefit and glorification of Lance, and Contador was simply in the way of that.

Contador was the undisputed leader of team Astana until Lance decided to sashay back in, so of course Contador must have felt the rug was pulled out from under him. Why wouldn't he?

And what's this evasive stuff?? He doesn't speak very much English for cryin' out loud, plus the American media didn't care about him at all -- that was obvious -- the media only cared about the ridiculously trumped-up "rivalry" between him and Lance. So can you blame Contador for thinking this was for the birds, and making a few moves to show early on who was "boss" (to use Lance-centric lingo ) ? And naturally he got all sorts of crap for that. Of course, were it Lance to make such moves, we would have been treated to the usual Lance is the "Patron" BS that we in the US are so accustomed to hearing. Hell, the Versus boys made a huge deal over Lance getting into those gaps and gaining a few seconds on his rivals -- including his teammates-- good lord they were going absolutely gah gah over those four seconds Lance gained yesterday, yeesh.

Anyhow, Lance did a fabulous job today, kudos to him, he actually lived up to all the compliments he received today. That was a thrilling stage.

What on earth happened to Sastre?