Overnight the narrative arcs of both the cricket and the Tour were startlingly similar. From a strong position, a descent into despair.

All the talk before Stage 9 was of Schlek and Contador. Though in the yellow, Cadel was kind of flying under the radar, was he insulted or happy about it? In the end it must have been a heavy radar he was under as Cadel was dropped at the start of the Col de la Madeleine and struggled to the finish more than eight minutes to the bad. The killer day took its emotional toll and Cadel broke down in tears before declaring his tour over and revealing he had a fractured elbow. Having started the Tour so brightly Cadel, was finished.

The surge of Schlek and Contador up the final climb in pursuit of the breakaway destroyed the peloton. It was all that is amazing about the tour. Suffering on an imaginable scale, Schlek attacking Contador before they agreed a pact and worked together. Need makes for the strangest bedfellows though agreements mean nothing in sight of the finish and the mad dash for the line as the two caught the lead group with one kilometre to go was incredible to watch. The tour is now a two-horse race.

Over at the cricket, Australia started spritely enough and though Watson (20) and Ponting (26) fell cheaply, the eternal Katich and new No. 4 Clarke settled in so at 2-171 in the over before tea things looked rosy. Enter disaster of broken-elbow proportions. Asif’s wicket-maidens either side of the break started a collapse that had the Aussies plunge to 9-229, saved from a one-day rout by bad light rather than stoic tail ending. Inauspicious were the debut innings of gloveman Paine (7) and Hope For The Future Smith (1) to say the least. And this was a side supposed to bat as deep as Barry White’s voice – not the ideal start on the road to the Ashes.

The night’s results had an uncomfortable symmetry indeed.

Cycling – cricket connection; how much does Phil Liggett sound like an ever-so-slightly more excited Richie Benaud? More than a coincidence.

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