Stuart O'Grady's Tour diary

Stuart O'Grady has a lot of Tour experience
Photo ©: Jon Devich

Australian Staurt O'Grady rides for Team CSC and is one of the most experienced riders in this year's Tour de France. The Aussie has already used up all the bad luck for the past year, returning from a horrible crash in the 2007 Tour and a broken collarbone in the 2008 Giro. O'Grady has won two stages in the Tour de France. He finished second in the points classification four times and has worn the yellow jersey. Things are looking promising for 2008 and Stuey will keep Cyclingnews' readers informed via his diary.

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Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Time trials equal tough times

Well, I've never done an easy time trial and today was no exception. That was hard. The course, the wind - It all equals pain. I was told to go in cruise control, but even that hurts because your not completely focused on your effort. And that's not good either.

Overall the team is really happy with today's results. Of course Fabian Cancellara is a bit disappointed, but that's racing. He can't win them all and everything happens for a reason.

Now we don't have the stress of the yellow jersey for the next few days, which is a good thing for the 'big picture'. Jens Voigt, Carlos Sastre and Andy Schleck did awesome rides and Frank Schleck was about where he should be. There's plenty of time for them to rip it up in the mountains.

Cadel Evans did an awesome ride and showed he's obviously going very strong and surely has a psychological edge over the other general classification guys.

The big surprise was Stefan Schumacher and Kim Kirchen. Those two really ripped it up out there.

Tomorrow we have the longest stage of the tour and hopefully some sunshine!

Time for some rest.

Stuart