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Vande Velde's View: Dead meat

By Christian Vande Velde, Team CSC
Published: Jul. 19, 2006

I am cooked, twice, maybe three times. I am still trying to get my breath back from today’s stage. I'm not joking. Or, maybe it is from the three plates of pasta I just put down.

I - we - are all hurting, but tomorrow somebody will attack from kilometer 0. I don't know why and I don't know how it is possible, but some people are stupid. What can I say?

We worked hard today and Carlos delivered what we thought he could. The last climb wasn't really steep enough for him to keep the chasers at bay, but tomorrow the last few climbs will be hard, so we still have one more day to try.

Frankie and I set some hard tempo on the Croix de Fer and after that made it back to hand the two guys some more bottles before I settled into survival mode.

I was spurred on by the yelling over the radio while I was riding up the mountain but it really didn't help that much, in all honesty. I was beyond dead and no matter what gel or energy drink I would have put in my guts it wouldn’t have helped. At that point, it was just too late.

On a day like today, you end up racing up the climbs and then race down, too, so you never are given the time to relax and take in the needed food and water, so when your tank is empty it is game over. Like Floyd. Crazy day again, who knows what tomorrow will bring us?

Hey, maybe the first yellow jersey for Carlos Sastre.