I saw it at the Cinerama theater in Honolulu. My mom caught the bus into town to meet me and my brother after school and walked with us down to the Cinerama which was about 5 blocks from my school. It was a 3:30PM showing, so the house was mostly empty. It also happened to be the first movie I ever saw at the Cinerama. Of course the theater is gone and is now an auto parts store... *sigh*
The title of the movie was "A New Hope". It was about the discovery a new Jedi to take up the reigns against the Empire.
And to me, that's what stage 9 yesterday was, "A New Hope".
While we didn't have a single Luke Skywalker to come to the front to battle the evil Sky empire, we did have a band of rebels. A rag tag bunch of riders who, seemed to come together and give this tour some excitement.
After stage 8, I was like most people. I had written off this tour as a forgone conclusion. Sky would dominate, Froome would win, blah blah blah. I was preparing to use my fast forward button on the DVR to get through two weeks of boring racing. Sort of like last year when Wiggo got into the yellow jersey and dominated from the front. Boring. The only excitement last year was within the Sky Team with Froome obviously stronger in the mountains than Wiggins. Very Hinault/LeMond.
Two teams lit the fireworks yesterday and showed that the Sky empire can be conquered. Someone smuggled out the plans for the Death Star (probably Toby) and gave it to Garmin and Movistar. And they found the 2 meter hole that led straight to the reactor core.
Sky blew apart.
Constant attacks by Garmin early, who have nothing to loose since, in my opinion they have no real G.C. hopes took the already tired legs of the Sky train and filled them with lead.
By the final three climbs, Froome was isolated. Movistar had 6 (6!) riders in the peloton, and Garmin had 3. Even Contador had two helpers. It seemed like Froome was doomed.
At the end of Star Wars, Darth Vader lives to fight another day. Froome has done the same. All he had to do was follow wheels, stay in the pack and limit his losses. He just had to look over his shoulder to make sure Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon weren't baring down on him.
And frankly he didn't really loose anything. No time was lost over Valverde and the rest. He finished in the pack of contenders.
The only real loser of the day was me. And Richie Porte. Me, because I picked Richie to finished third, and Richie because he lost 17 minutes.
I've seen the comments, "Movistar squandered their chance." "Quintana never committed."
I disagree. I think Movistar played it smart. I think if they wanted to, they could have decimated Froome, left him heaving on the side of the road and rolled home with the yellow jersey. But they didn't want to have to defend it for two weeks. They didn't bring a team for that.
I think Quintana was sent ahead to see how Froome would react. He kept jumping away to keep sapping the power from Froome's legs. Now everyone knows how much jump Froome has. Everyone knows that the Sky train can be taken apart. As long as the contenders don't lose huge chunks of time in the time trials, I expect a very exciting 3rd week in the Alps.
I'll be interested to see what happens next week. While it's mostly flat stages and a time trial, I wonder if anyone who's close in the G.C. will have a go. Why not send Dan Martin up the road and sap more strength from Sky?
The third week will be one of two things...
"The Empire Strike Back" or "Return of the Jedi".
I hope we just skip the 2nd movie.
Happy riding.
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