Never say die

Vino Wins! Alexandre Vinokourov flicked the power switch today and set a blistering pace to nail his second stage win in three days! Where does he find that strength? Pretty incredible if you ask me. Michael Rasmussen and Alberto Contador battled head-to-head yet again on today's final climb. Contador was relentless in his attacks but could not drop Rasmussen. They were rewarded for their effort with a 56 second gain over the rest of the yellow-jersey contenders -- Evans, Leipheimer and Klöden.

Kudos today go to:
- George Hincapie who laid the hammer down on the final descent to help Alberto Contador gain as much time as possible on everyone but Michael Rasmussen.

- The Rabobank team. These guys have been killing themselves for Michael Rasmussen for more than a week now. Michael Boogerd in particular has been a domestique extraordinaire.

- Kim Kirchen from T-Mobile for putting in a solid performance and finishing 2nd.

Once again, Leipheimer was MIA. All this smack talk about what he was going to unleash in the Pyrénées and it turns out he was just blowing steam. Even big 'ol George Hincapie beat him in today's mountainous stage.

It seems as if Contador is the only challenger left for Rasmussen, however, there is still one time trial to go.  While Rasmussen's performance was impressive in the first time trial, he definitely benefited from the dryer roads. I expect he will lose a lot more time in the final TT. The question is: how much time will he lose?

With four climbs over 218.5km, the final day in the Pyrénées promises to be another epic battle. Contador has to attack if he hopes to beat Rasmussen and win the TDF. I think he is going to risk it all on Wednesday in order to gain as much time as humanly possible. No matter what, he is a climbing sensation AND an inspiration. His accelerations are truly impressive.