9 stages down and no doping scandal

I'm cautiously optimistic. The only two riders that have been riding very differently from the past are Wiggins (overperforming in the mountains) and Sastre (underperforming everywhere). They'll test Wiggo continuously.

I do think that the lack of doping (plus the tour route) has created parity...there's been no opportunity for a single someone to blow the field to bits through a herculean effort.  Sadly, for me, the parity (thus far) leads to a relatively boring race. I'm a TDF junkie, but the script has been the same on the sprint stages (Cav) and the mountain stages (break goes up the road, Astana reels it in as they see fit). 

If it weren't for the drama with Astana, this would be a pretty pedestrian affair.   

Wiggo is peforming better than he has in the past, *but* he's also managed to shed a fair bit of weight.  Power stays the same, weight goes down, power to weight ratio goes up.

Just want to point out that it's not some miraculous event for wiggo, but taking a different approach to race prep and cutting more weight than in the past that has allowed him to now keep up with the lead group on the climbs thus far.

I think the French are figuring that if they can't catch Lance doping, maybe they can at least slow him down by inducing anemia...