Stuart O'Grady's Tour diary - Riccò a danger man?

Well the 'real' racing has begun. Today's stage was very long and pretty hard, but it's only a teaser for what lies ahead.

The aim for the general classification contenders was not to lose time and save as much energy for the coming stages. The 25 kilometre downhill after the last category one climb made it pointless for the big guns to unleash any fury today.

Ricardo Riccò is certainly flying uphill, but because he lost over three minutes in the time trial no-one was too concerned about reeling him in. They better be careful, though, because he's obviously got unreal form and if you let a guy like that get a sniff of the win he's not going to hesitate.

It was a scary day for Cadel, who had a nasty crash. He showed his real Aussie grit and determination by not only pushing through the pain but also not losing any time.

Our boys did well with Andy Schleck taking the white jersey and our three general classification guys staying right up there amongst it.

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