Weirdness continues
My plan was clear: Attack on the first km of the last hill, head down, ride. The problem with that... even If I was pretty sure I would have more energy than Barrientos (who was fitter than thought it seemed) and get away a) I get what, let's say 5". But then with the 110 gone from the attack (less if we are under 1000, which we probably would have been) I end up with the same or even slightly less energy than Barrientos, he keeps the distance to these 5"... or let's think positive and it goes to 10"... then what? a) He catches me. b) Thornquist catches all. On a) I would have been correct. On b) not at all it seems....
So plan B was: Bring somebody ahead. To use early or very unlikely after the big climb. Of course my team as dead as LiqLiq's, so seemed unlikely to work, try anyway. Added benefit, if the Donkey group on Bachchan wasn't allowed to go, I could inherit the mountain jersey with Antinori. Nice too.
So Belhassen on Bachchan. Thought LiqLiq probably had many of his riders on mine, seemed clear I would try that. So hoped Belhassen would be free, who uses a 74-80 for this after all. And of course he had 700 energy only. And LiqLiq offline. First big mistake. He keeps making those too. Not that the Donkey is riding brilliantly, but LiqLiq is doing very weird stuff too. He said he thought Trujillo, the half dead man, in tempo from km 1... clearly he wasn't. Second guy in tempo then worked, after 15 or so km and over 7' advantage. Trujillo with offsettings? Just put him in tempo...
So LIquigas then on, chases. Thought for a moment of attacking on the Saisies, but fortunately didn't. With half dead Belhassen that would have been catastrophic.
So then on the Aravis, green attack, get a minute or slightly more on top, then Belhassen full power. 5xx at this point, so lost lots of time, under 20 before the 5 at the bottom of Glieres Antinori rode, Barrientos not, which was good for me, back up to 28". And then Barrientos won back second by second. But don't think I went too early really, if I go late I start with less advantage normally (unless Barrientos goes green, which would be stupid IMO) and the flat pavé on top cost me a lot again. Green attack early, Aravis up green, then losing energy being in a small group, I think probably cost me 40 or 50 more than if I attack red in the Glieres. Only mistake was being to optimistic, thought Belhassen would do a better job, he was horrible. But highly unfit, so that's ok. He won't be fired. I hoped to have at least 30" there (had 28" including the 5 but that's because Antinori rode one km earlier than Barrientos)
Metz and surprisingly Thirifays keep up, Roche dropped by Barrientos. Group coming closer, sure I'll be caught. Thirifays and Metz go in tempo, I didn't completely get why at that point... Let me gain back a few seconds in the steep downhill vs Barrientos, let us 2 work it out. If Barrientos doesn't catch me before the small hill start, help him a bit there, then attack and go for stage, seemed the logic thing to do. But they went in. So I went out, 4" advantage at that point, with Thirifays 79 downhill, why ride. Then I see Thirifays out again, so I thought I go another km. IF you want to catch me that early, at least work. VERY lucky, Thirifays attacked, I stayed one second ahead. And second big big mistake by LiqLiq, he wasn't following Thirifays. Until yesterday I was saying he was a more deserving winner than me, now I'd say we're equally sucky. So then obviously I ride full power with them, they help, scared of Thornquist. In retrospect unnecessary, he never came close, but I'm not the only one miscalculating. Barrientos left alone in the back, loses time, won back a bit when Antinori was left alone, lost a bit again when it went down... Sprint, Antinori thought it was pointless, so no sprint, should have, Metz was unfit, might have gotten 2 extra seconds there.
So now: 39" for Antinori. 36 km TT, flat, same form same energy 43". Last 6 km are up...and there's some little orang and green before, so everybody tells me I should win. Ok then... I still don't know. Whatever it is, 43" or 33-36" as LiqLiq kept saying, that's all in the "chance range" anyway, I'd say pretty open. I honestly don't remember the effect mountain has if 2 guys are roughly the same in mountain, does the TT gain go down? Probably... but I was disappointed during the TdS at how strong this Gsiberger was in the climb.... So don't really know at all. Probably will come down to tactics, and since Aix filled my head with some TT tactics bullshit I lose those TTs. Gamov brilliantly defended Rosa before, Fahrny then lost the Tour of Yemen because the Donkey overdid Aix-tactics... bah.
The first 30 km, I'll stick with my 36" though. The orange shouldn't hurt Barrientos at all, the green a bit more, so maybe 34". Then... maybe I'll learn the effect of mountain this time.
Anyway, it's been fun riding with only 1 climber, but obvious that I'm not used to that really. Barrientos riding defensively rode better in many instances, but not perfect either, but did 3 huge mistakes in 2 days now. Another obvious thing was that neither of us really really wanted this TdF. Lots of try and see going on, which made for a more interesting race than if we both are calculating and doing only the "best" moves. Ok, without his 3 big mistakes IMO Barrientos would be the easy winner now. My fault for putting top form for the TdS for both climbers, who cares about the Tour... Put it for the Tour and I don't start with basically 30" to catch up. (Even if 9" had nothing to do with form but a big mistake by me) But then it becomes another race too, I'm close, probably yellow sooner, even without the Barrientos mistakes possibly get these 40"... but just by doing late attacks, so in the end the 30" back were ok too, made me have to try earlier.
Ok, don't really think it was such a good excuse now, but thought so when I did it. 
maillot jaune situation
maillot vert situation
maillot a pois rouge situation