I had a trial today so I did not catch any audio or video of today’s stage. On my way out to court I caught just enough information to determine that Popovych and Gusev of Discovery were part of an early man attack. I presumed Levi Leipheimer was somewhere in a big group following either Vinokourouv or Rasmussen. (As a Discovery fan I remain concerned that Levi always follows and has yet to attack. I hope they can at least figure how whom he should follow from here on.)

I understand the Discovery plan today was for those two to ride up the road to try to win the stage. Since I will not have any real knowledge until I get home tonight and watch the stage, here is my theory on what Disco is doing.

First, Disco is playing this game very conservatively (duh!), presumably because they understand that Levi does not have any one peculiar strength that he can ride to the GC. They probably suspect or know that he is not the guy who can win it for them. So they have decided to hedge their bets.

Vinokourouv now is looking like he will not be a GC contender. Disco evidently did not know that before today. Not being sure they can beat out the other contenders like Valverde, Evans, Cadel, Sastre and Kloeden, Discovery is trying to force Rasumssuen to choose between the yellow and polka dot jerseys. If he elected to protect the yellow, Discovery would try to win the polka dot; or at least put it in jeopardy forcing Rasmussen to choose between the two. This also would give Disco a very good chance to reclaim the white jersey while putting them back into contention to win the Team Classification at the end of the race. They also had a chance to win a stage.

Maybe I will change my mind after seeing the race tonight. But it’s always fun to discuss these sorts of things. Please share your thoughts with us.