The Tour de France often starts with a short prologue TT. This year, it was a regular road stage. I think many were expecting a “yawn”…sprinter’s stage, but ironically this might be one of the most decisive stages of the tour. Not due to skill, but due to luck. This was the first time the Passage du Gois was used since 1999. Then, Alex Zulle, one of the prerace favorites crashed on the wet pave, losing several minutes to Lance Armstrong who was at the front.

Fast forward to 2011, and there was a major crash with 8.5 km to go. The field was split and prerace favorite Alberto Contador was caught up. Phillipe Gilbert went on to win the stage that he was picked to win, but the real winners were Contador’s rivals who picked up over a minute on him. Yep, it sucks, but this is a 3 week race!

I had my own bad luck today. I was reconnoiter part of the Orange County Gran Fondo and heard a ker-chink at about 40 miles. It was a mild uphill, and I thought it was a broken chain. Nope. My rear derailleur had cracked in half at the lower knuckle. I just decided  to call Rose to come “rescue” me. Time to call SRAM next week.

Oh, well, again so much of riding comes down to luck…:)