They May Beat Me, But...

They may beat me, but they'll have to spit blood to do it.
- Patti Catalano Dillon

Today, as I watch the first long time trial in the Tour de France, I am reminded of this quote. Alexandre Vinokourov is riding an amazing race. He had crashed earlier in the race and has been riding with a large number of stitches in his knees and elbows. The crash and the few days after it cost Vinokourov a lot of time. It looks like he's going to take a lot of the time back today. Conditions are less than ideal, with a wet roadway, and rain in the earlier part of today's time trial. Several riders have crashed, including a young Russian, Gusev. (I think he was Russian who was on fire in his race until his crash - how fast was he? - I think he wound up third fastest after getting back on his bike.) Vinokourov seems to be demanding that everyone else spit blood.

Note: When he finished, Vinokourov posted a new best time for the day of about 2:15 faster than the time Brad Wiggins had set early. Wiggins' time had held up for a looooong time, so it was very solid, and Vinokourov just destroyed it. Wiggins' time was about 1:08:48, "Vino" was about 1:06:34 - that would equate to winning a half-marathon by almost half a mile!