The stage to Saint Fargeau was a fairly predictable, but none the less thrilling example of how fast Mark Cavendish is. There was a pretty steep climb to the finish line and one of the criticisms of Cavendish is that he can't get up a hill, but he proved he can when he really wanted to get the job done.
A perfect lead out from his Columbia Teammates. George Hincapie moving to the front at the very bottom of the last steephill about 800 meters from the finish line. Big George did about 400 meters, which is about 65km per hour, a big ride by George.Mark Renshaw took over and lead Mark to about 300 meters to go and then Cavendish launched his sprint. It was a long way out and the new American sprinter on the block, Tyler Farrar almost had enough road to edge out Cavendish. Farrar hestiated for a second as Hushovd battled for his wheel. Mark Renshaw came back toward the slower riders from the front of the peloton, there was a moments hesitation from Farrar and he had to go around Hushovd to Cavendish's left hand side. Farrar didn't fade and all but nearly beat Cavendish at the line. Farrar is the only man in this years Tour de France so far that was capable of matching the speed of Mark Cavendish and actually having a chance to beat him, but falling about a half a bike length short. Nobody has been within 3-4 bike lengths of Mark Cavendish at the finish line. So a very impressive ride by the young American sprinter and we'll look for big success from that man in the future.
For Lance Armstrong, you can't really say that 200k in the saddle is easy, but as the Tour de France goes these last two days should give Lance plenty of miles and a couple of days to recouperate from an absolutely grizzly first week and to be rested for a very tough final week of the Tour.
Lance had one flat tire, the only moment of concern to Team Astana, but he was well paced back into the comforting embrace of the peloton by his teammates. For the remainder of the day it was Lance's job just to stay out of trouble.
Lance commands so much respect in the peloton and can use just about any wheel he wants to move to the front of the peloton.
Lances next big rendezvous with destiny will come on Saturday's stage, not by the mountains, but by some very tough climbs on the race route and then, of course, Lance will get deep into work in the final week of the Tour de France, along with anybody else who plans to wear yellow in Paris.
