As I sit in my hotel room writing this on the second rest day of the Tour de France I can't help but wonder what's to come?  Contador has said that he will lay down all his cards in an effort to take over the yellow jersey.  If history shows us anything, I would bet on Contador.  In Paris-Nice and Castilla y Leon, two races Contador won, he was marked but was still able to slip off the front and make up enough time to take the overall.  Those races were not the Tour where the stakes are a bit higher as is the motivation.  Can he do it again?  That is the question.  I think Alberto needs to make up at least a minute on Rasmussen during Wednesday's stage to put himself within striking distance for the final TT.  Rasmussen surprised everyone with a stellar TT in Albi but I am not sure he is going to have the strength to repeat that after a week of defending the yellow jersey.   As the yellow jersey hangs in the balance, we will just have to wait and see which side is falls on. 

With a little inside view I can tell that the machine is working.  Johan, Dirk and Sean are all busy researching and devising a plan that will help insure victory.  All we can do now is wait and see what the final day in the mountains will bring......