With this epic battle of pack filler, you always wonder where Armstrong would've been on those climbs.
Clearly, Lance would've crushed these guys and cruised to No. 8.
Likely by a gap of 6+ minutes. Although Armstrong rode pretty conservatively last year, which suggests that he was slowing down a bit.
Here's the Pereiro quote I couldn't find before:
_ Q: You know Floyd very well. Did you have any sign during the stage that Floyd might not have a good day? Are you shocked at how severely he cracked today?
OP: I didn't realize this until the very last climb to La Toussuire. I'm really sad for him, as I honestly would have liked to see him up front at the Tour. I don't know what happened to him. Maybe he had a hunger knock, I don't know. But I can assure you that I would never would have been the first to attack him; he's a friend. Thanks to him, I rode the Tour before, and I owe a lot to Phonak._
"The song of a bird…We used to ask Ennesson to do bird calls. He could do them. How he could do them, and when he perished, along with him went all those birds…"-Return from the Stars, Stanislaw Lem
"We just walk around, and sometimes we go out and dance, and then we listen to the environment."-Ralf Hutter, Kraftwerk
