Quick Five: Stages 11 & 12

Apologies for the lack of a post yesterday - I was fried after work and went straight to bed.

1)We have a race. It was starting to look like the difficult mass-start stages would simply see Schleck and Contador keep each other in check, but the Astana captain shattered that today with his attack on the climb outside of Mende. Contador could probably have gone on to win the Tour in the final time trial by simply staying with Schleck, but he wants to win the race clearly, as he did last year and in 2007. He doesn't want to appear second-best on his favoured terrain of the mountains, and if he is as strong on Sunday as he was today, the end of that stage could be a cracker. However, Schleck was a bit slow to react and lost most of the ten seconds he conceded in the first meters of Contador's attack - it was hardly a comprehensive beating.

2)Mark Renshaw is a thug. The headbutt on Julian Dean was pretty bad, but check out what he did after Cavendish opened up the sprint - he closed the door very dangerously on Tyler Farrar and nearly pushed the Garmin rider into the barriers (thanks to my friend Kellen for pointing that one out). First, a totally unnecessary and dangerous headbutt, and then an equally dangerous maneuver that almost caused a very bad crash. A fully deserved disqualification all around.

3)It's a lot easier to tough things out when you're doped. Tyler Farrar tried to be the hard-man hero of the race, riding for a week with a fractured wrist, but found it too much to bear today. Unlike another American Tyler, Hamilton, Farrar's injury was a bit more serious in cycling terms, and (we hope) he wasn't nearly as juiced. Had he been, he should have picked up a couple of stage wins. For all of Hamilton's bravery and balls, his task was made much easier by the fact that he was substantially more doped than Farrar (again, I'm assuming here, but I think it's fair to make such an assumption).

4)Vintage Vino is gone. The old Vino would have won today's stage, teammate chasing him down or not. The old Vino would have hung with Contador and demanded the stage win. He is a hollow shell of a rider, and I couldn't be happier that he was overhauled before the line. As a former Vino fan who felt betrayed by him, I did not want to see a win for him and was pleasantly surprised that he got caught.

5)Petacchi will give Hushovd an excellent challenge for green. As I said on Wednesday, he looks to be in great form and picked up the green jersey after Stage 11. While he relinquished it to Hushovd today, he was up with the top riders through the first kilometer of the Monteé Laurent Jalabert, an incredible show for a big sprinter like him. Now that Mark Cavendish is without his lead-out man Renshaw, Petacchi should have a better shot at a third stage win tomorrow. He also looks a better bet to get over the small climb near the finish in a good position.