Le Tour 2010 - Wake me up – I've got Sprinter's Stage Sleep Disorder : Stage 18

I admit it - I caught some drooping eyes watching this stage!

After the excitement and drama of the climbing, the 198km of Stage 18 fom Salies-de-Bearn to Bordeaux was a real snore-fest for me, and my mind and body sneakily crafted to eek out some snoozy-time whilst the tedium prevailed.

I'm not even certain that the breakaway, who escaped early and held out until the final participant Daniel Oss (Liquigas) succumbed at the 3.5 km mark, were anything other than resigned to their inevitable fate: I'm pretty sure a couple of the 4 escapees were catching some beauty sleep whilst pedalling on auto-pilot (something that should be absolutely ingrained after close to 3 weeks of riding). A pretty much pancake-flat stage across some less-than-breathtaking scenery, plus an escape closely monitored and given no latitude by the sprinter's teams all day, saw my adrenaline levels plummet to just above life-sustaining!

So, here's the summarized version: small escape groups goes, said group never gains more than 3.5 min and is left dangling like a dead fish, sprinter's teams ramp it up with 30 km to go, Oss provides the faux 'will he won't he be caught' tension, peloton control techniques gradually fall apart in the run in to the flamme rouge, most sprinters are left to kill their own food, Mark Cavendish pisses on them all for an easy slowing-down win (a muted 'Yay' begrudgingly crawls out of my lips), Julian Dean comes in fast over the top of Petacchi who (thanks to a badly misjudged effort from a fading Thor Hushovd sliding back to 14th), regains the maillot vert and sets up a 3-way scenario for disputation of that jersey on the Champs Elysées between himself, Hushovd (10 points in arrears) and Cavendish 6 more points back again (I'm betting on Cav. to win this now), Robbie McEwen claims yet another 4th - surely some type of award requires bestowing! - and no change in the top GC places.

So, it's on to Bordeaux and the Stage 19 ITT over 52 km from there to Pauillac. Methinks one for the TT specialists who still have some leg and lung power left: it's dead flat, non-technical and ready to be muscled into submission by the huge-quad-ed freaks! Maybe some rain or wind will spice up the equation, although the interest still centers chiefly on Schleck v Contador, and also to see whether Denis Menchov can wrest 3rd and the podium finish from a likely sore and bruised Samuel Sanchez.

For those riding just for the views, apparently there are some nice vineyards to eyeball: the thought of a glass or two of the old vin rouge plonk might entertain lesser mortals seeking survival rather than glory in the solo format.

Ride Safe!