Time to roll out the puns and cliches, members of the press! Today saw the second serious dog-related incident of this year’s tour, though it didn’t end so badly for Sandy Casar. In stage 9 we saw Markus Burghardt’s wheel fold under the impact of a tubby blond Labrador going for his customary lunchtime stroll across the road. This time it was a chocolate Labrador (what is it with labs and crossing the road without looking, eh?) who decided to dash across the road in front of Sandy Casar of Française Des Jeux and Frederik Willems of Liquigas. Casar lost a fair bit of skin in a pretty tender place but managed to get up and keep going, but poor Willems was delayed enough to be re-absorbed by the peloton.
As we now know, Casar hung on, using every bit of his remaining strength to best a fading Boogerd, Merckx and Lefèvere for another French win. Meanwhile eight minutes back in the peloton, Discovery managed to fall asleep for long enough for Cadel to gain another three seconds on Contador. What’s that about? It could be a Tour-changing three seconds for both of them!
Keep your eyes on the prize Alberto!
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