A wild and wooly stage in the rain today; the uphill finish at the end into Barcelona disrupted what might otherwise have been a routine field sprint, and Thor Hushovd was able to prevail.  I felt bad for David Millar who was in the early break, attacked out of it, led almost to the finish, but was swept up with less than 1K to go and blown out the back.  It happens.

Others who suffered on the day included Denis Menchov, who is not having a good tour and now finds himself pretty much out of the running, quite a disappointment for the erstwhile favorite (and my own rooting pick, as I always root for Rabobank as the "Dutch" team :)  Yeah, he could recover with a great attack in the mountains, but that would be unlikely.  Nearly the same with Carlos Sastre and Cadel Evans, two other pre-race favorites who find themselves minutes in arrears with only six stages in the books.

Well there is a  l o n g  way to go yet, and much could happen.  In particular tomorrow we have the first mountain stage, an HC climb up to Arcalis in the Pyrenees which could really do some sorting out.  Should be excellent, particularly if there's a battle between Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador.  Stay tuned!

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