Where are we now? 2010 Tour de France - Stage 12

Yikes.

Faster than Lance, Contador or even Andy Schleck spins the cranks, we've gotten bogged down and lost in a slew of stages, wild results, people actually getting disqualified from the Tour, and a leaderboard that is shaken harder than a James Bond martini each night.

That's right, that's my way of saying, "I'm sorry I've been a slug and haven't given you your daily Tour love on time each day."

I've been watching the Tour, but as I prepare for a two-week journey of my own in the Gulf of Mexico (no, I won't be on a bike), I've been working on other projects and updates here have been limited to a few per stage. That said, here are your wrap-ups for stages 11 and 12, and my prediction for tomorrow's stage 13 and Sunday's MASSIVE, TOUR-ENDING (or at least -rending) STAGE 14.

Stage 11 - The main field finishes together while a sprint at the end sees Mark Cavendish winning and his teammate getting tossed out for blocking the line and nearly crashing the entire sprint group. That's right. If you were watching the sprint and saw team HTC rider Mark Renshaw head butting another rider - that was OK.

The real reason Renshaw was booted from the 2010 Tour de France was because he endangered the entire field - and mostly Tyler Farrar - when a few seconds after the head butting, he swerved dramatically off-line and nearly put Farrar and a dozen other riders into the steel fence along the finishing stretch.

Needless to say, that would have been bloody and crazy. It wasn't. Renshaw was booted. Farrar abandoned in Stage 12 (reasons unknown to me so far). Cavendish got his 13th stage win in Tours de France. And Schleck remained in the lead by 41 seconds.

Stage 12 - Tough mountain finish. Brutal heat. Contador teammate Alexandre Vinokourov looked poised to take the stage but Contador is a baby and rides like one. So Alberto raced past Vino and finished second on the stage. This took about ten seconds out of Schleck and jumbled the field a little bit.

Here's how the overall GC stands now...


1. SCHLECK Andy 11 TEAM SAXO BANK 58h 42' 01"
2. CONTADOR Alberto 1 ASTANA 58h 42' 32" + 00' 31"
3. SANCHEZ Samuel 181 EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI 58h 44' 46" + 02' 45"
4. MENCHOV Denis 191 RABOBANK 58h 44' 59" + 02' 58"
5. VAN DEN BROECK Jurgen 101 OMEGA PHARMA - LOTTO 58h 45' 32" + 03' 31"
6. LEIPHEIMER Levi 25 TEAM RADIOSHACK 58h 46' 07" + 04' 06"
7. GESINK Robert 195 RABOBANK 58h 46' 28" + 04' 27"
8. RODRIGUEZ OLIVER Joaquin 77 KATUSHA TEAM 58h 46' 59" + 04' 58"
9. SANCHEZ Luis-Leon 161 CAISSE D’EPARGNE 58h 47' 03" + 05' 02"
10. KREUZIGER Roman 44 LIQUIGAS-DOIMO 58h 47' 17" + 05' 16"
11. BASSO Ivan 41 LIQUIGAS-DOIMO 58h 47' 31" + 05' 30"
12. VINOKOUROV Alexandre 9 ASTANA 58h 48' 26" + 06' 25"
13. HESJEDAL Ryder 54 GARMIN - TRANSITIONS 58h 48' 26" + 06' 25"
14. ROCHE Nicolas 81 AG2R LA MONDIALE 58h 48' 45" + 06' 44"
15. SASTRE Carlos 91 CERVELO TEST TEAM 58h 49' 35" + 07' 34"
16. WIGGINS Bradley 31 SKY PRO CYCLING 58h 49' 40" + 07' 39"
17. ROGERS Michael 118 TEAM HTC - COLUMBIA 58h 49' 48" + 07' 47"
18. EVANS Cadel 121 BMC RACING TEAM 58h 50' 09" + 08' 08"
19. LÖVKVIST Thomas 37 SKY PRO CYCLING 58h 50' 25" + 08' 24"
20. KLÖDEN Andréas 24 TEAM RADIOSHACK 58h 51' 06" + 09' 05"
21. MONIER Damien 178 COFIDIS LE CREDIT EN LIGNE 58h 52' 32" + 10' 31"
22. PLAZA MOLINA Ruben 168 CAISSE D’EPARGNE 58h 52' 42" + 10' 41"
23. DE WEERT Kevin 133 QUICK STEP 58h 53' 28" + 11' 27"
24. HORNER Christopher 23 TEAM RADIOSHACK 58h 53' 57" + 11' 56"
25. GADRET John 85 AG2R LA MONDIALE 58h 54' 29" + 12' 28"
26. LE MEVEL Christophe 61 FDJ 58h 56' 10" + 14' 09"
27. CASAR Sandy 62 FDJ 58h 56' 12" + 14' 11"
28. MORENO FERNANDEZ Daniel 107 OMEGA PHARMA - LOTTO 58h 56' 34" + 14' 33"
29. VAN SUMMEREN Johan 58 GARMIN - TRANSITIONS 58h 58' 45" + 16' 44"
30. RIBLON Christophe 89 AG2R LA MONDIALE 58h 59' 56" + 17' 55"
31. SIVTSOV Kanstantsin 119 TEAM HTC - COLUMBIA 59h 01' 55" + 19' 54"
32. ARMSTRONG Lance 21 TEAM RADIOSHACK 59h 03' 17" + 21' 16"

Tomorrow and Sunday are big days too.

Saturday is Stage 13 and has the 196KM ride from Rodez to Revel. It's got a few climbs in it, but nothing compared to Sunday and stage 14.

Sunday is the 184.5KM ride from Revel to Ax 3 Domaines and it includes an HC climb that could shatter the field.

SO - here are my predictions.

Saturday will see someone like Levi Leipheimer finally win a stage by being in the breakaway all day. This will make all the riders tired because both Contador's and Schleck's teams will work all day to keep Levi within a few minutes. This will put Levi in third place and leave Alberto and Andy in the same spots.

Sunday will be the surprise of surprises. Similar to our former friend Floyd Landis' heroic but drug-induced efforts, one Lance Armstrong will duplicate the effort without the help of drugs and will astonish us all with his heart and bravado. He will be in a break that he will then shatter and go on to put himself back into the top 15 riders of this year's Tour de France.

It won't be enough to make him a contender. But it will be enough to cement in viewers' minds that nobody will ever come close to his dominance in this race.

That's it from here. I'll be back Sunday to chat about the week ahead. Please share your thoughts on all this in the comments.