Le Tour de France 2007 - Stage 13 - Chicken off the menu

For now, anyway. The Albi TT showed that Michael 'Chicken' Rasmussen has wings - and flew to an impressive extent. Not enough to win, mind - Vino proved he was the fastest as well as the toughest today - but enough to stave off Evans and Kloden. Chicken thus retains yellow and has to defend it in the Pyrenees.

So what happens now? Vino's and Kloden's Astana team is well placed to attack Rasmussen, as is Contador's and Leipheimer's Disco crew. Sandwiched in between is Cadel Evans, who has little option but to follow the moves. He could attack - but there's no second chances.. whereas both Disco and Astana do have 2nd options to play.

But there's also another TT after the mountains - and whilst Rasmussen has demonstrated improved TT performance he also showed that it's not enough - he'll still lose time, and he only has a minute up on Evans, who was 2nd in today's TT. So he must attack and put time on everyone within striking distance, especially Kloden and Evans but also Contador.

Which will be interesting. Who will attack first? Who will roll the dice and try their luck. An interesting week of racing awaits us...