Dauphine: Haedo Comes Outta Nowhere!

If you look at the photo above, you can see some confusion amongst the sprinters without their arms in the air. They are not so much surprised at the fact that they lost or who they lost to, but just how he got there. JJ Haedo had an extremely powerful kick in the final meters to push his way through the sprint and take stage 2. Just getting to the sprint was tricky enough, though, for the main field. A breakaway managed to slip away early and was not caught until within the final kilometer of the stage. As expected, the teams with the sprinters worked the hardest but Astana also did some of the work. This may just mean that they were starting to protect Contador, who kept yellow for the third straight night. Contador initially said he had no interest in defending the lead, but with two straight sprint finishes he is still ahead. The time trial on

stage 3 tomorrow may just be the deciding factor as to whether Contador will go for the win. He said the prologue was just an opportunity to test his new TT bike, so tomorrow's stage should be interesting to watch.

Only one small climb on the TT and then the rest is pretty well flat. Races are often lost and won on the time trial, though this one is early enough to recover from if a rider has a bad ride. My prediction for tomorrow's time trial is David Millar. Millar is known as a somewhat "time trial specialist" and should excel especially on a course like this. I would also keep an eye on Denis Menchov. After a lackluster start to this year's race, Menchov finds himself almost 2 minutes behind. He is a good climber, but he may have dug himself into too big of a hole by the time the climbs come along. He will need a strong run tomorrow, and at the very least, not to lose any more ground.

CLASSIFICATIONS AFTER STAGE 2

OVERALL

1. Alberto Contador

2. Tejay Van Garderen -2

3. Janez Brajkovic -5

4. Geraint Thomas -10

5. Dario Cataldo -12

10. David Millar -15

11. Grega Bole -15

16. Chris Horner -18

89. Denis Menchov -1:57

MOUNTAINS

1. Bram Tankink 23

2. Guillaume Bonnafond 22

3. Cyril Gautier 20

POINTS

1. Grega Bole 52

2. Geraint Thomas 50

3. Steve Chainel 27

TEAM STANDINGS

1. Quick Step

2. Astana -8

3. Garmin-Transitions -9