changing of the guard

Bernard Hinault shoves a spectator off the podium.

Photo credit © Roberto Bettini

Out with the old guys, the young bucks are showing who's got it. Alberto Contador put on a show Sunday on the first test of the Swiss Alps on stage 15 of the Tour de France. He really laid down the hammer and no one else could respond. Secured the yellow jersey for Team Astana and relegated Lance to domestique in second place in the general classification. Still lots of racing left in the alps. Stage 20 should be another great stage on Saturday.

Hate it that Lance couldn't stay with Contador. The excuses have all been thrown out; age, training, broken collarbone. Lance came into this race to win the yellow jersey. I just hope he can be a true professional and help Team Astana keep Contador in the yellow. Hope he doesn't become a bitter old man, like the "badger" Bernard Hinault.

For us older runners we can use age graded results to see how we fare compared to the youngsters. I've been using Pete Magill's road rankings on his site "Younger Legs for Older Runners". I'm still middle of the pack, roughly in the lower 70% range. FM is in a whole other playing field, mid to upper 80%. Interesting stuff.