A Matter of Scale. Today’s stage is sure to be one of the most decisive of this year’s Tour.
The first (of two) Individual Time Trials in the race, the riders are looking at 41km on a relatively hilly parcours where the stronger time triallists in the field will attempt to put some more space between themselves and their “mountain goat” rivals.
It is an ironic quirk of the Tour that Cadel’s ace in the hole against the Schlecks in the race last year is his weakness against Wiggo this time around.
The winner of the Tour is always either a climber who can time trial a bit, or a time triallist who doesn’t lose too much time on the climbs.
Wiggo is one of the three best time triallists in the world, with a magnificent Olympic track record at the Individual Pursuit.
Cadel is one of the eight best time triallists in the world… It’s all a matter of scale..
We shall see how much damage they can inflict on their rivals, and on each other in a few short hours.
Anything under 15sec behind Wiggo is a good result for Cadel I reckon, as that will start to mess with Wiggo’s head that he just can’t get away despite his magnificent team and flawless tactics.
Cadel is bound to keep coming all race long, so with one bad day he will be in a lot of trouble.
For mine, Cancellara will win it, with Wiggo second and Tony Martin third despite his broken hand.
