Quote Originally Posted by maillotpois
Well, he's had some problems with his team. Perdiguero would have been expected to stay with him in the mountains, but crashed. I find it absolutely amazing and wonderful how Axel Merckx has pulled himself together to stay with Floyd on some of these stages. Axel has never been a super great stage rider, more of a rouleur on the flats. But he dug deep and I was just so impressed. He's also got Nicolas Jalabert, who is a very solid rider.

Interesting, both Merckx and Jalabert both have family who are much more accomplished cyclists that they ever turned out to be. I wonder if they ever talk about that.
I'd like to add that Axel's wife is from Kelowna so I always keep a pretty close eye him during the tdf. Kind of nice that he has a bigger profile this year. Today I rode the route that he usually does when he's here. Of course he probably does it twice as fast as me...