Tour de France: Stage 9

The entire peloton apparently decided that today was not the day to make a move.  All of the yellow jersey contenders were happy to sit behind AG2R and allow them to set the pace.  That was surprising for a mountain stage, but today’s route was apparently designed to encourage the riders to cruise, rather than try to open up gaps. Now the Tour climbs down out of the mountains, takes a day off, and then has flat stages most of next week.  A week from today starts the Alps, where we’ll find out who really wants to win the yellow jersey. Until then, the sprinters will take center stage again, as the overall contenders try not to lose time to each other. As for Astana, their internecine drama was moved to the back burner today, but look for it to resume in the first Alpine stage (or earlier, if Nocentini drops 6 seconds and Contador gets yellow). I’m a little concerned for Andy Schleck, who is one of my favorites.  He’s less than 2 minutes down on Armstrong and C...