Stage 21: Champs d' elysees

Well, does this stage even count? Team Columbia on the TGV (train) to Paris to start the race. Lots of drinking… I like Mick Rogers with a beer on the way.

But then, massive crazy finish! Team Columbia was leading but then they went into the tunnel at the final turn and it was a race til the very end. George Hincapie lead Columbia with a broken collarbone, Renshaw did the leadout and Cav did it again and won the stage!

Cav said "I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I hadn't won it after they did such a good job. When we came around that last corner, to be honest, I was sh**ting myself. It was scary, it was tight. But I just followed: if Renshaw thought it was okay, I'd be okay, and we were okay. To cross the line with your hands in the air, in view of the Arc de Triomphe, is one of the most spectacular feelings you're supposed to have, and for sure, it didn't disappoint me today.”

So, final standings. Alberto 1st, Andy Schleck 2nd, and Lance 3rd. I bet someone at work that an American would beat an Aussie. I was thinking Lance over Cadel and I could’ve won on Christian Vande Velde (8th) AND George Hincapie (19th) over Cadel’s 30th. Excellent! And Levi would’ve made it four!

Post – race gossip from the guys:
wegeliusI've got a bike, you can ride it if you like, its got a basket, a bell that rings, and things to make it look good!
wegeliusThanks for the company on the tour chaps. Nice to have 7k people to commiserate with you when you have a sore ass!
LeviLeipheimerCongratultions to Alberto, he's won the last 4 Grand Tours he's done!! Proud to be part of 3.5 of em. He's shown he's the strongest.
laurenstendamChamps was really crowed. Fast pace. Congrats to cav, and to albertn of course!
Mick Rogers: Thanks for all the tweets & support during the TdF. Much appreciated.

Mark Renshaw: Yesterday was amazing for the team! It felt so good to finish 1,2 on the Champs. I really nailed that last corner.

kaarvesenAndy is a natural born talent. Not only in cycling, yesterday night he took our dinner/party by storm with his speech!

Wiggins: 2 lamps went missing from the Garmin party last night, Jury's still out as to who is responsible!

Lance: eeing these comments from AC. If I were him I'd drop this drivel and start thanking his team. w/o them, he doesn't win. hey pistolero, there is no "i" in "team". what did i say in March? Lots to learn. Restated.

Christian VDV: The smoke is still clearing. Thanks everyone for all your support through the race. Looking forward to next July.
George Hincapie: On my way back home. Lots of up and downs this tour. Ended on a high note for sure!!!! Thanks for all the support...

Paul Sherwen: @ghincapie- you’re a warrior, hope the collar bone fixes soon

Stage 20: Montelimar to Mont Ventoux

Phil Leggett: Oh Boy - the wind on top of Ventoux is gale force and the big trucks have had to go back down. 500,000 expected to stand on the slopes.
Steven de Jongh: 500,000 people at the Ventoux?!?!? Is there still space for us?
Wegelius: Wondering if the wind will have more effect on stage than the big hill.
Brett Lancaster: I'm ready as i can be for this big sucker of a mt. today! Should be attacks left right and center from the gun! Bring in Paris tomorrow!!!
Mark Renshaw: Wind, hills and heat... One hard day left before the show rolls to Paris. Don't like this climb up to the moon today! Hope the climbers don't get blown off the top of Mt Ventoux! Downside of being 50kgs soaking wet...

Levi: It's typical for the group to split in the wind before Ventoux, watch for Saxo to hit it as hard as possible once the climb starts. There's not a lot of tactics once the climb starts, the bottom is hot and steep and straight (no switchbacks). Actually, technically the climb starts in the open fields and the wind will be a factor. Astana will follow Saxo. The idea is that Frank will try to jump Lance and get up to Andy, then Andy goes full gas. Easier said than done.

The biggest climb of the tour – 1700 meeters. Stuart O’Grady is the day’s pacemaker for the peloton. There’s a breakaway with Garate, Tony Martin and Biblon leading by 3’22” with 50k to go, then they loose Biblon and its just the two. Meanwhile, the Schleck brothers, Lance, Alberto, CVDV, Wiggins, Krueziger and Nibali are in the lead of the second group. Lots of attempted attacks by Andy to get his brother Frank up in the group. Alberto always stays close and Lance too. In the end, Garate wins the stage (first stage win for Rabobank), then Martin. Later it’s Andy Schleck 3rd, followed by Contodor.

So the standings going into Paris are: Alberto, Andy Schleck, Lance and Bradley Wiggins 4th.

Lance: Ventoux done. What a day!! I have never (ever) seen crowds like that @ the TdF. Unreal!! I felt great too and kept my "podium" spot. Happy.
koendekort: what a lot of people today, it was like riding up a mountain in the Netherlands, heard my name heaps. Great support everyone!
Laurens Ten Dam: Laying on my bed right now. Tired, but happy. The crowds were amazing today! Big respect to them all!
Big George & Cav sleeping on the Team Columbia bus after the big climb:

Stage 19: Bourgoin-Jallieu to Aubenas

After yesterday’s time trial, there’s still 3 days of racing to decide the race.
Brett Lancaster: I have very bad memories from Stage 19 last year when it started up a climb from km0 it was the hardest stage. I think today will b the same
Mick Rogers: On the bus traveling to the start of stage 19. Break away will probably get to the finish today.

Interesting day… started with a 19 man breakaway including David Millar, Kim Kirchen, Luis Leon Sanchez and Cadel Evans. Then the group broke again and Cadel missed the 5 leaders. Lefevre broke away for awhile, then rainbow jersey (world champion) Alassandro Ballan joined him, but Denis Menchov led the peloton to catch up time and George Hincapie (with a broken collarbone!) paced the peloton back to eat up the 2 leaders. So they all ended up all coming back together in the end for the sprinters. I think this was unexpected as the towns were narrow for the entire group to finish at once. The stage favourite for Oscare Fierer, but Hincapie was working for Cav and Team Columbia at the front… and I believe it was Tony Martin who did the leadout, and Cav went early with Thor right behind him because everyone was itching to sprint. They had a 260 meter uphill sprint to the finish which is far too long, but Cav did it. He said he couldn’t let Columbia down after working for him all day. That’s his 5th stage win this tour and 9th overall. They don’t call him the world’s fastest sprinter for nothing!

Steven de Jongh: That was a fast hot day! Last climb was 6km too looonnnggggg
Mick Rogers: Full gas all day today. Front group split on the decent into the finish and I got caught behind. Cav rode amazing to win the stage.
Laurens Ten Dam: Rode on pure anger 2day. That makes you stronger!
George Hincapie: very hard day today. I was in the hurt locker for most of day. Came around near the end.
Mark Renshaw: Great stage win for the team. Cav showed he is a classy sprinter. I had a bad day so Tony and Hincapie ripped it up to the line. Chapaeu
Lance: Yo! I'm alive. Complete disorg @ the finish today. Just got my bags and phone. Sorry, twitterati. St19 wasn't easy. Peloton was flying all day chasing a group of 20. Gradual but long climb b4 the finish blew it up. Cav made it over to win.
Wegelius: They say the tour is long. But its actually only 18cm lng. As long as a tube of toothpaste.wash tth 2x day and it will run out just in Paris.
Greg Henderson: Rest up Wiggo. Big day tomorrow. You have made a transformation again into cycling history. Nothing to lose tomoz.feed it to em.
Christian Vande Velde: My Giro saved my life today. Wear your helmets. Concussed but ok. crashed into a moto earlier in the race today. Now, just gotta fly up one mountain tomorrow.
Mick Rogers: Tonights gossip at the dinner table was mostly about how much we suffered during todays stage. Can't believe we were laughing about it :-)

Stage 18: Annecy Time Trial

Its time trial day and they are going around Lake Annecy. Mike & I are just thinking back to last June when we were there for a long weekend and met up with Donna & Herve and their girls for the day. So beautiful! And this is Paul & Phil announcing from the paddleboats!

George Hincapie: The doc is thinking I have a badly bruised collar bone. Not a great day for me. It may be a survival day.

Lance: Good morning! Drinking coffee in the room and looking out over Lake Annecy. Overcast/ windy/ cool. Heavy showers expected 4 the race. Watch Kloden fly today...
Greg Henderson: Weather forecast here in Sachsen is Heavy rain and lightening storms. Awesome. We have the yellow so a lot of riding in the wind today.
Mick Rogers: Did a reci of the TT course this morning. Fast first half. Solid climb around 15km to go. Starting in 1h. My pick for todays TT is Kloden.

And the Garmin-Slipstream guys on the bus:


Okay, for the Time Trial in Annecy: Contador is the fastest, then Cancellara, then Ignatiev at 3rd. Larsson 4th, Millar 5th, Wiggins 6th, Sanchez 7th, Moreau 8th, Kloden 9th, Zabrinskie 10th. Lance said: TT done. Finally back to the hotel. That hurt like hell. Ran outta fuel and paid for yesterday's effort I suppose. Happy to move to 3rd tho.

This means overall rankings are: Contador, A. Schleck (4’ 11” behind), Armstrong, Wiggins, Kloden, F. Schleck, Nibaldi, Vande Velde, Astarloza, Le Mevel. (Cadel Evans is 29th). 3 days of racing left.

Stage 17: Bourg-Saint-Maurice to Le Grand-Bornand

Lots of climbs and downhills today. Stuart O’Grady led the pack for a good chunk of the day, then the attacks and catch-ups…

Frank Schleck attacked and they all follow. Andy Schleck attacks, they all follow. Christian VDV kept pacing Wiggo back into the race. Kloden is the first one to breach the gap. The Schleck brothers are in the leader group with Contador and Kloden and Wiggins and Lance are in the group behind.

Contador launched an attack and left teammate Kloden behind. The Schleck brothers caught him, so it’s worst because now AC doesn’t have AK as his teammate. I thought it was Klodi’s day today – that would’ve been cool. Kloden summits on his own in 4th. Lance summits on his own a 2 minutes behind the leaders in 5th place. Lance is trying to make up town on the downhill to meet up with teammlate Kloden.

The 3 leaders joustle and AC seems to want to let the brothers do the work so he doesn’t race to the line, but makes sure they come in with the same time. The 3 across the line are Frank, then Contador then Andy (all with the same time). Frank Schleck wins!

Andy tweets: After a bad day like yesterday with jens we hat super day today frank wins I’m so happy for him! He’s the best brother and Friend you can have

Tomorrow is the Time Trial (TT) around Lake Annecy Bonjour Donna & Herve – we’re thinking of you guys!

Lance: Getting lots of question why AC attacked and dropped Kloden. I still haven't figured it out either. Oh well.
Levi: AC said in post race interview he had asked Andreas if he was up 4 the attack and got an ok. AC was upset he got left…I can tell you that AC and AK speak to each other in English, so it's easily possible there was a misunderstanding. I'm sure we will see.
Steven de Jongh: Almost forgotten , I got another chainring tattoo! Cervelo Bike rotor chainring. Two holes richer ! I Hope Andreas Klier is ok!
George Hincapie: Hit the deck hard today. Have a very sore collar bone. Hoping its ok . Doc is gonna check it out when we get to hotel
Mark Renshaw: Thank god that's over ! It was a very long day again in the hoop group. Think I had 15 gels and 10 bars today... No hunger flat for me
Christian Vande Velde: What a day. It was my pleasure riding for wiggo today. Tomorrow is a very different day, but will hurt the same none the less.

Stage 16: Martigny to Bourg-Saint-Maurice

Saint-Bernard is the highest summit of this year's Tour. Steep uphill and steep downhill.

Andy Schleck launched an attack. Peloton spilt with the Schleck brothers, Contador, Kloden, Wiggins, Nibali (Lance, Carlos, Cadel, etc were in the second group, but then Lance caught back up with the lead group).

Two kilometres from the finish, Mikel Astarloza of Spain (team Euskadi) made what proved to be the decisive break of the day. He cruised home unchallenged to take the victory with four hours, 14 minutes and 20 seconds. French pair Sandy Casar and Pierrick Fedrigo crossed the line six seconds later.


A bad crash for Jens Voigt. Slid down on his face very fast downhill with 30k to go – very nasty spill. He lost his front wheel on a road marking and crashed heavily onto his right shoulder.
George Hincapie: Touch day today. Did Not have good legs. Hoping they will be better tomorrow. Really hope Jens is ok. Made me sick to him on the ground.
Andy Schleck: A bad day for us we lost Jens he crash bad in the last downhill. Jens is okay he is not in danger get stitches and broken cheekbone but he told us to kick ass... Next days with a smile
Phil Liggett: Jens has a fractured cheek bone and will stay in hospital for observation. he is talking and sending good wishes to the team for today.
Lance: Team truck stopped at border 2day and searched for 3 hrs. At the end they said, "why do you have this olive oil?". Really?
Mark Renshaw: Hope to have more company in tomorrows stage... Got sick of looking at Cavs arse today. Big Bravo TDF for staying 35km up in Mtns @ 2200m:-(

End of day standings Contador 1st, Lance 2nd, Wiggo 3rd, Klodi 4th, Andy Schleck 5th, Nibali 6th, Le Mevel 8th, Frank Schleck 8th, Sastre 9th, Christian Vande Velde 10th.

Stage 15: Pontarlier to Verbier

Cold and wet at the start, but Paul Sherwen posted a pic from Verbier where he’s commentating the race – looks nicer at the finish!


The breakaway was started with Frenchman Moncoutié (Cofidis) after 42km, joined by Italian Pellizotti (Liquigas), then six others, then another four, then another three for a total of 15. One of the three in that last mini-group was Spaniard Mikel Astarloza of Euskaltel, who was the virtual leader on the course when the breakaway’s time gap rose almost a minute above his three-minute deficit to yellow jersey wearer Rinaldo Nocentini. Team Astana gradually drew the gap back and the breakaway was caught with six kilometres to go, which was the signal for Frank Schleck and then Contador to attack.

Lance didn’t respond to Contador, and was content to sit behind Andreas Kloden and eventually lose 94 seconds on his Astana team mate, possibly consigning him to second fiddle in Astana for the rest of the tour. Contador won has the yellow jersey, one minute and 37 seconds ahead of Lance.


Mick Rogers: Ouch, ouch, ouch. Hard stage today. Lots of crosswind in first 2h. Did lots of work for the boys. Congrats to Contador. In his own league. 2morrow rest day:-)
Lance Armstrong: St15 done. Ouch! Verbier was as hard as I thought. Alberto - super and had great punch/power. A heartfelt congrats to him. Rest day 2morrow!
Wegelius: Must admit I had a slight panic moment when I punctured both my wheels after 12km when group was flying. Mental note: don't go in huge holes
Steven de Jongh: Feel sick as a dog , had to vomit 4 /5 times. I could make it in time ! But now I want to sleep!
Mark Renshaw: I'm just about in tear's getting my massage... You know the tour is catching up with you when this is happening.
Christian Vande Velde: Ouch! hurt locker for me today. Tried to go with the boys at the bottom and paid dearly. Wiggo ruled today and AC smashed it as expected.
Andy Schleck: Up in verbier was a good ride finish 2 behind contador congrats to him an also to lance my brother will be there the next days without him
Danny Pate: thought I was going to give birth at one point in the race today.
Mark Renshaw has switched roommates and now has George Hincapie: Cav is in the single room as punishment for irregular sprinting and Big G needs 24hr surveillance ... ha-ha.

And a rest day tomorrow. Check out what the announcers Phil & Paul get up to on a rest day.

Stage 14: Colmar to Besancon

Lots of bad things happened today. Plus the weather was still horrible, cold and rainy. First, Jens Voigt was in the lead breakaway but got a puncture and had to use the general mechanics and lost a lot of time but made it back into the main peloton.

And Cav was disqualified from today’s stage after shoving off green jersey rival Thor Hushovd yesterday. His penalty was getting placed at the back of the peloton (154th instead of 13th) and given the same time as the peloton. He also lost all of today’s points and now trails Thor by 18 points. Team Columbia thinks the ruling was unfair. Mick Rogers says: Cav didn't really move much, barrier did but looking over shoulder lining up Thor is what judges would have dq'd him for.

Also, a women was hit by a police motorcycle while crossing the road near the town of Wittelsheim, 38.5k into the stage, and died almost instantly. A few of the cyclists (Steven de Jongh & Laurens Ten Dam) saw it and have posted horrified stories on twitter.

The accident happened shortly after a 12-man breakaway, featuring American George Hincapie, went past the crowd. The leader group had an 8min, 40 sec lead, and Russia’s Ivanov attacked with just over 10k remaining. He kept the lead over Ireland’s Nicolas Roche and NZ’s Hayden Roulston who finished second and third.
There was a chance George Hincapie would get the yellow jersey today, but in the end, Nocentini kept it, with Hincapie five seconds behind, and Contador in third.

Stage 10, 11, 12 & 13

Stage 10: Limoges to Issoudun
Stage 10 is the first of 2 radio-free days. The riders have to go old school and watch the chalkboard updates and yelling from the team cars. Seems to have lots of safety concerns. So from 4k out, a lead group broke away and led for most of the day but got sucked back 10k from the finish - Hupond (SKS), Vaugrenard (FDJ), Ignatiev (KAT) and Dumoulin (COF).

Towards the finish the teams started getting organized and Columbia did it again… Hincapie floored it, followed by Mark Henshaw, then Mark Cavendish. Thor Hushovd was right on his tail, with Farrar behind that pushed out by David Millar. Cav wins his 4th stage this tour (7th overall) but Thor keeps the green jersey.

Andy Schleck: Easy day fast sprint we lost Kurt broken collarbone! too bad that's not what we need
Danny Pate: My bike crashed today! But I jumped off that sinking ship and ran it out!
George Hincapie: What a finish today. Quite a rush staying in first 5 positions with the best Sprinters in the world in final ks.
Mick Rogers: We racked another stage win with some guy called Cav. Hard one to leadout today but we pulled it off. Spirits are high now in the bus :-)
Mark Renshaw: We are lucky to have Big George on the team, he remembers racing back in 79 sans radio :-)
Brett Lancaster and Cervelo boys hanging out. It looks like they are tweeting:


Stage 11: Vatan to Saint Fargeau
Stage 11's uphill finish in Saint-Fargeau - not as difficult as the sixth stage to Barcelona, but much harder than the previous stage - was expected to suit overnight points leader Thor Hushovd (Cervélo) and Tyler Farrar (Garmin) far more than Cav. Yet once again, Hincapie and Renshaw set him up for the win. Cav’s 4th win this tour AND he’s back in the green jersey!

Levi: Stg 11 probably looked tame on tv but the narrow roads made it dangerous in reality. One big nasty sounding crash in the beginning

Mark Renshaw reports: What a day! Fast start, crashed big time (bike was smashed) spent a while fixing spare bike. Super hard finish to judge, waited waited & Boom. Went at 500m and Cav then jumped at 175m. I felt strong like yesti. Team worked like clockwork again! Loving this race! Thanks 2 u all.

Stage 12: Tonnerre to Vittel
Stage 12 is one for the sprinters and Cav was the favorite to win today. However, the Tour never goes to plan… 82 k out, there’s a breakaway with Egoi Martinez, Franco Pellizotti, Nicki Sörensen, La Mondiale and others. 50 k from the finish, the leaders lost La Mondiale, but the weird thing was – no one chased.

23 k from the finish, Nicki Sörenson attacked. Calzati chased him. At 5 ½ k, Sörenson attacks again. He kept the lead and won the stage finishing 48 seconds clear of Laurent Lefevre (Bbox) and Pellizotti. Cav, winning the field sprint for eighth place, arrived a massive six minutes behind.

Fourth-place overall, Levi Leipheimer, ended up overcooking a corner with Silence-Lotto's Cadel Evans 2.5 kilometres from the finish, but within the stipulated three-kilometre-to-go margin that negates any time lost, both kept their places and times on the overall standings. It was a big crash through and Levi posted: I'm ok folks, wrist hurts but not broken, lost some skin, it could’ve easily been much worse. Not sure what happened? All I remember is seeing the curb coming and thinking it was game over. I'm happy to hear Mick is ok too.
Mick Rogers said: Kind of felt like a WWF wrestler flying through the air and landing on Levi today.

Stage 13: Vittel to Colmar
Bad news… Levi broke his wrist and is out of the tour. So sad!!
Levi writes: About to have surgery, they're putting a screw in the Scaphoid, transverse fracture. They're taking very good care of me here in France

Also, at least 2 riders were hit by pellets from a fan with an airgun at the 165km mark in the hilly Vosges region. NZ Julian Dean (Garmin’s lead out man for American Tyler Farrar) was hit on a finger and Spanish Oscar Freire (Rabobank) had to have a pellet removed from his leg after the stage.

As for the actual race, it was a really rainy day and Heinrich Haussler launched the first attack and a breakaway group followed. Shortly thereafter it was just 2 riders - Haussler and Chavanel. In the end, Heinrich kept the lead (at times by 45" ahead of Chavanel) and won the stage. We like him because he’s a German-born Australian from Inverell, NSW.

Greg Henderson reports on the day: Holy smokes. Poo-ed my pants today. Just luck saved me from the hospital for sure. Car pulled out at me while I was doing 60kph. Hit the curb... Concrete stumps lining the road. foot out on my way down as I'm hitting the car and the curb... boom. a driveway. I somehow popped on the sidewalk. Couldn't even abuse the driver as I was in shock just left shaking my head going "how’d you save that one Hendy". Luck!

Steven de Jongh posts a picture of his hotel room at night:

Stage 9: Tarbes to Saint Gaudens

I have to say, Australian Mark Renshaw cracks me up...
Mark Renshaw: Did a train run over me last night? 8.5hrs solid sleep ! We have a Nespresso Cafe machine in the room so Cav's making the brew's already. Got to think about packing today, need passport and travel needs for our flight to next hotel...yes flight ! got to love the tour & transfers!

I'm loving this picture of Big George Hincapie & the Columbia boys on the bus. Doesn't Mick Rogers look like he's in pain?

And Frenchman Pierrick Fedrigo sprinted across the finish line just ahead of Franco Pellizotti to win the 9th stage. All the race favorites came in 34 seconds later, and Nocentini keeps the yellow jersey. This marks the end of the 3-day trip through the Pyrenees. Tomorrow is a rest day to recover.

Laurens Ten Dam fell hard today. “Fall off hard 2day. Scratches everywhere, and than I mean everywhere...” Check out his scratches.


Team Columbia on the rest day...

Stage 8: Andorre-La-Vieille to Saint-Girons

Laurens Ten Dam: Morning it will be a bright shiny day in the pyrenees! Exiting race!
Levi Leipheimer: 2nd day in a row for anti-doping blood control. Today's stage starts off going uphill for 20 miles!! That's a rude awakening, plenty of riders will be looking to get in the breakaway.
Danny Pate: 4 right gloves 0 left gloves ..... Come on!!!

An Aussie update before we begin - all 7 riders still in: Cadel Evans 18th, Matthew Lloyd 63rd, Heinrich Haussler 91st, Brett Lancaster 123rd, Stuart O'Grady 125th, Mark Renshaw 157th & Mick Rogers 164th.

What a day! The first 15k are in the neutral zone with the Director pacing them out, then he waved the flag and they were off - a few guys attacked straight off (I think it included Laurens Ten Dam & Jens Voigt). Then Cadel launched an attack in the mountains, and soon a breakaway group was established, but first Fabian then Thor yelled at him to fall back to give them a chance. If he stayed in the leader group, the peloton would try hard to swallow them up and they wouldn't try with Cadel in the group so he had no choice but to fall back.

Cadel later complained to the media in a ranting fit: "You'd think anyone in the Tour de France would let me go in a breakaway, and then when they get into a break with me - like a couple of members of them did - they carry on like three-year-olds with their tantrums, saying 'get out of the group, they're gonna chase us."

There's a big leader group including Martinez, Pauliho & Ruran. Then Cancellara, Thor, Hincapie, Zabrinski, Casar, Kern & Flecha.

Thor pushed forward and got a lot of points and took the green jersey away from Cav before getting sucked back into the peloton. Oscar Pereiro (2006 Tour winner) abandoned the race and Andy Schleck had a great attack in the end paced by teammate Fabian and did some hurt. And Big George Hincapie has a big day out in front (1' 1" lead at one point).
George Hincapie: gave it a go today. spent to much energy early on try to get rid of GC rider in break. will keep trying though.

At 2.7 k out, Vladamir Efminkin surges ahead of Astarloza, Casar & LL Sanchez. They catch up with meters to go and its a race to the finish for Casar & Sanchez and Spanard Luis Leon Sanchez does it!!

Then the peloton sprints to the line almost 2 minutes later, but no sprinters so the whole group gets the same time and the general classification times remain the same.

Wiggo: Good day again today for me and the boss VDV. Not too hard today, Schlecks attack hardest moment of the day
Mick Rogers: mickrogersGetting treated my the team physio. Verdict is that I've sprained a disc in my back. That would explain why I can barely push on the pedals
Laurens Ten Dam - with a giro helmet tan line.

Stage 7: Barcelona to Andorre Arcalis

And now the Pyrenees... whoo-hoo the mountains! Early on in the race, there is a 9-man breakaway and guess what? Most of them held it all the way!

So 5.4k from the start, Cancellara is slowing down. He ends up finishing the day in group behind the peloton and losing the yellow jersey after a week in yellow. And 3k from the summit, Brice Feillu is still in the leader and the Frenchman held it to the end and won the stage at 23 years old! And Frenchman Christophe Kern coming in second.

Meanwhile, in the front of the peloton, Cadel launched an attack and Contador, Armstrong, Vande Velde, Andy Schleck all followed. After Fabian's slow day, the yellow jersey went to Italian Rinaldo Nocentini (below) with Contador in 2nd, Lance in 3rd, Levi 4th, Wiggo 5th, Kloden 6th, Martin 7th, CVDV 8th, Andy Schleck 9th, Nibali 10th.

Levi Leipheimer: I had the unfortunate incident of tangling in a crash at the bottom of the last climb, very fast bike change, Rast and Muravyev brought me back perfectly but having to make up ground on a speeding peloton at crunch time is not advised, I was wounded more from that than crash:)ha. I'm fine- a couple scrapes and a tire burn on my calf! Never had that before.

Stage 6: SPAIN: Girona to Barcelona

A day entirely in Spain! Sounds good but it was grey in the end and rainy and there were some serious crashes! But first... a breakaway with David Millar (a good Scottish bloke), Auge & Chavenel (Frenchmen) and Txurruka (Basque). It was amazing... David Millar held the lead until 1.2 km from the finish when he got sucked into the peloton and ended up losing his 10th place spot for the GC.

So, Sastre was the first to crash, just 10 minutes into the race but was unhurt. one crash was on a roundabout, where Heinrich Haussler barely hit his brakes and slid on the wet, white line, causing a crash where Mick Rogers went down hard and was rushed to the hospital after the finish line to get his elbow checked. Also, 2 Americans were crash victims - George Hincapie and Tyler Ferrar.

The next big crash took down at least 5 riders -- Japan's Arashiro (BBox) and Laurens Ten Dam (Rabobank). It was outside the last 3k so the riders will loose time over it as its was 7k from the finish.

Another crash took down and Tom Boonen. In the end, it was a sprint to the end and Norweigan Thor Hushovd won the stage, with Oscar Freiere coming in a close second.

laurens ten dam: Recovering from crash last 10 k. Hurt my back, shit happens
ghincapie: Flated with 25k to go, came back to group moved to front then crashed with 20k to go. Never been so scared on the bike as I was today.
Ps , I'm fine very little road rash. But mic went down with me And he was alot worse...hope he's ok.
mick rogers: Thanks to all for your kind wishes. Feeling a very sore after todays crash but nothing broken. See you on the start line tomorrow

Stage 5: Le Cap d'Agre to Perpignan

What a great way to start the day... Cav in the Green Jersey. Mick Rogers posted this on his Twitter with the caption. Is this A) Cav, B) Kermit the Frog, or C) an Apple Jelly Bean?

Since 12km from the start line, there was a 6 man breakaway. the leaders did well until the wind started up.

There was a crash where Matthew Lloyd went down and Robert Gesink. Then in the mountains, a car actually got through and was driving into the Tour, and then some seriously strong wind came up and split the peloton. Not in half, not in thirds, but in four parts! All of the leaders managed to stay in the front section including Lance. You have to keep your head down at 45 degrees because if you pop up just a little, you'll get knocked back.

Bad luck for Tom Boonen who got a flat tire. Then the fourth part merged into the third and eventually the third into the second. At 7k from the finish and 1 minute behind the leaders the sprinters broke out. At 4.7k from the finish Tomas Voeckler (Frenchman from BBox) attacked with a 3-man chase group. Albert Timmer followed but he had speed and held his lead well onto the finish line! What a win from the Frenchman!!

Final standings and a great group of 10: 1) Cancellara, 2) Armstrong, 3) Contador, 4) Kloden, 5) Leipheimer, 6) Wiggins, 7) Zubelidier, 8) Martin, 9) Zabinskie and 10) David Millar

Stage 4: Montpellier TTT

Its Team Time Trial day and the boys are getting ready!

bradwiggins: Just been out on the course with the boys, feeling good touched speeds of 70kph on the flat run in.. time is my everything.
markrenshaw1: Just in the cars and off to recon the TTT. Legs are a bit heavy today. The Team is on a high and looking to carry on like our ttt yesterday
ghincapie: heading to check ttt course again. Had a great night sleep...
laurenstendam: Heading for the ttt course now. Hot already.
mickrogers: Getting ready to ride the ttt course. Very techinal, up, down, left and right. To win today you need lots of legs and brains
bradwiggins: Team Garmin are rolling out at 9.30 to do a lap of the course, our start time this afternoon is 4.22pm

Wow! What a day!! Team Time Trials are crazy. The way they work is that each team does a time trial together and only 5 guys need to cross the finish line and the team gets the time of the fifth rider. The days started out with Cancellara 40 seconds ahead of Armstrong - what will happen?

I saw some crashes... first Denis Menchov was the first to crash into the gates (this guy has bad luck), then Bouygues had a crash early, on, and Silence-Lotto (Cadel's team) have a crash in the 2nd to last guy and the last guy managed to avoid him and came in at 49'04". Garmin-Slipstream had an amazing time led by Wiggins and Millar at 46' 47". Saxo Bank had a good finish, pedaled in by Cancellara 47' 09". Team Columbia High Road is the most successful team w/ Cav and Hincapie and Kirchen. Astana (w/ Armstrong, Contador, Leipheimer & Kloden).

Astana comes in at the team winner at 46'29" but who gets the yellow jersey as Lance and Fabian are tied and the time will be . Cancellara gets the jersey with a 0 second lead (0.138 seconds). WOW!

Stage 3: Marseille to La Grande-Motte

And some pre-race Tweets:
ghincapie: Getting a police escort threw marseille. Viva le tour!!!
LeviLeipheimer: Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor just showed up at the bus. I'm a big fan of both of them
mickrogers: We now have wifi on the team bus so we can twitter it up during the TdF
Cav: Yesterday with 3km to go, Piet Rooijakkers (skil shimano) kidney punched me. Is he a:stupid b:crazy c:disrespectful d:all of the above? Cav
markrenshaw1: Just laying on the bed talking shit with Cav, spoke about the stage yesterday and how good it was. Looking to keep this train a rolling...
bradwiggins: Garmin boys preping for stage 3, one more hot and nervous day before TTT and the chance to take yellow, Fingers crossed
koendekort: Watching the last episode of Californication before I have to leave to the start of the 3rd stage. Will be nice and hot again!
ghincapie: just read that only 4 riders in history have done more tours then me. is that true? I guess i really am getting old. But enjoying life!!!!
stevendejongh: Goodmorning, it's to early to eat so i'll have to wait. Killing time with my ipod

What a day of drama!! There was a breakaway by Perez Moreno (EUS), Dumoulin (COF), Bouet (AGR) and De Kort (SKS) over 9 minutes ahead of the peloton at 94k to go. But the big news was with about 30km to go, and a big cross-wind came up and Team Columbia took advantage and jumped ahead by 1’11”. Most of the teams weren’t going really hard as it’s the TTT (team time trial) tomorrow but Team Columbia seemed to be in the team race today.

The cross-winds caused a big split in the peloton and the controversial bit is that Lance made it into the front peloton with 2 other teammates, while his Astana team leader, Contador, was left in the second half. Basically, all of the race leaders, aside form Armstrong & Cantellara were left in the second half of the peloton split. This will definitely mix up the placements at the end of this stage. With 10km to go, the riders have a strong head win and there’s 33 seconds between the two sections of the peloton. There is no way to pull the breakaway back in by the finish line.

George Hincapie did a great job for Team Columbia and put Mick Rogers, Kim Kirchen and Mark Cavendish in good position approaching the finishing line. Mick Rogers gave the word to the team to attack and Cav was right near the front – teammate Mark Renshaw was holding late and stayed as long as possible and then launched his attack and Cav won and barely beat Thor Hurshov across the line!! But the news is that the second peloton came across 39 seconds later. What an impact on their times and standings.

The day finishes with Lance moving into 3rd – Cancellara in 1st, Tony Martin 2nd, Contador 4th, Wiggins 5th, Kloden th, Gerdemann 7th, Evans 8th, Monfort 9th, Leipheimer 10th, Mick Rogers in 11th. And tomorrow is the team time trial!

What are the guys saying?
koendekort: Tough day today, all day in front with 4 riders. Heard my name a lot, thanks for the support guys! Team was great today, we got a 3rd!
ghincapie: Wow!!! What a day. We crushed it. Still 3 weeks to go though…
ChristianVDV: hard day today. caught with our pants down. hats off to columbia.
andy_schleck: today a shit day we were not in the split but yes it is how it is. I take it on my cap.
kaarvesen: And then we woke up! We slept today, and only got Fabian up there. Hat off for Colombia! They are flying. TTT is going to be a thriller!
lancearmstrong: St3 done - gnarly! Crosswinds all day and a group snuck off in the last 25k behind Columbia/HTC's tempo. I was lucky enough 2 b there. Had Popo and Zubeldia w/ me and no other GC favs in the front. Gained valuable time but most likely minor in scheme of 3 weeks. Onward. And congrats to Cav. Even if he didn't deserve it (which he did) then his boys more than earned it for him.
markrenshaw1: Well it don't get much better then that! It goes down in my books as the most crushing team performance iv seen . Great team great mates....
mickrogers: That was awesome! That was the best team effort I've been apart of in 10 years as a pro. Cav did what he's best at.. Winning
LeviLeipheimer: I've never seen the group split so suddenly, one second we were calm & then Columbia hit it in a very short section of cross wind. LA alert!
stevendejongh: What a day ! In 500 meters everything was split up! Only 1 rider in the front, not good.

Stage 2: Monaco to Brignoles

The peleton will leave Monaco, ride through Nice and St Tropez and finish in Brignoles with the sprinters racing to the line. Today everyone’s thinking Cav will take it – he is the fastest man in the world AND we got to know him a bit from living in England and seeing all the coverage of him.

Before we start Stage 2, my guidebook has some features of some of the riders. I love the titles:
- The Boss Returns: Lance Armstrong (back from retirement and with 7th consecutive Tour wins)
- The Other American: Levi Leipheimer (6th last year and a great American rider)
- Working on a Dream: Cadel Evans (2nd place last 2 years)
- Experience is Critical: Carlos Sastre (2008 Tour winner)
- Classic Man at Le Tour: Stuart O’Grady (winner of Paris-Roubaix and an experienced TdF rider)
- The Supernatural: Alberto Contador (2007 winner, couldn’t race in 2008 as on Astana, and the 2009 favorite)
- Moving Up the Ranks: Christian Vande Velde (a former domestique and now a team leader)
- A Fine Young Cannibal: Andy Schleck (2008 white jersey winner and proving himself with winning the Liege-Bastongne-Liege Classic)
- The Elder Brother: Frank Schleck (good, but lots of crashes and getting beat by his younger brother Andy)
- From Pink to Yellow: Denis Menchov (the Russian who won the Giro d’Italia)
- The Outsider: Mick Rodgers (strong Australian but bad luck in 2007 with a ripped tire and a crash, and out of 2008 due to illness)
- King of the Sprints: Mark Cavendish (the Brit with 4 stage wins last year before quitting the Tour to head to the Olympics)

And the happenings of Stage 2:
- Breakaway for the King of the Mountains point race… The quartet of Stef Clement the Dutchman (Rabobank) being the man doing all the work in the lead, Cyril Dessel (Ag2r) the Frenchman, Jussi Veikkanen (Francaise des Jeux) a Finnish rider, and Stephane Auge (Cofidis) arrived alone ahead of the pack in Nice for the first sprint point of the day, 27 kilometers into the stage and 160 kilometers left to go. Auge beat Dessel for the six-point prize, Veikkanen finishing third for the final intermediate points (took the polka-dot jersey from Alberto Contador). Ninety seconds later, the main field made their way through Nice.
- Quick Step riders had a crash – looked like Jurgen Van de Walle broke his collar bone but he seems okay.
- Back of the group was Frank Schleck as he crashed and the peloton helps him back. The good thing is that his teammates are in control of the peloton with Cancellara in the yellow jersey. Frank Schleck has some familiarity with crashing – there was the Tour de Switzerland last year when he went over the edge of the cliff and into a ravine, and year prior at Vuelta al País Vasco, near a cliff face, and this year, at the Amstel Gold Race in the with Matt Lloyd. Don’t want to ride near him in the peloton! And some more bike problems today… jeez!
- Igor Anton (Rabobank) was involved in a crash but looks okay.
- Stuart O’Grady and lots of the Saxo Bank guys were leading the peloton today.
- BIG crash at 54 km from finish at the back of the main field without any problelms. Looks like Hayden Roulston went down, a bit of a panic, looking for mechanics and new wheels. Angelo Furlan (Lampre) racing back.
- Boonen had a flat tire 19k from the finish but no problems.



Cav, Tyler, Romain
At then end of the stage, British Mark Cavendish (aka Cav) won the stage (good job in the heat, especially since he’s from Isle of Man!), Tyler Farrar of the United States finished second and Romain Feillu of France was third in the 116-mile route from Monaco to Brignoles and Cancellara kept the yellow jersey. (4th: Thor Hushovd; 5th Yukiya Arahiro; 6th Gerald Ciolek; 7th William Bonnet; 8th Nicolas Roche; 9th Koen De Kort; 10th Lloyd Mondory)

Cancellara has an 18-second lead over 2007 Tour winner Alberto Contador of Spain. Bradley Wiggins of Britain is third, 19 seconds behind. Armstrong, the seven-time hampion, is 10th, 40 seconds back. Overall standings: 4th Kloden, 5th Evans; 6th Leipheimer; 7th Kreuziger; 8th Martin, 9th Nibali; 10th Armstrong

Some funny Tweets:
lancearmstrong: @ dinner. For whtvr reason we r cracking ourselves up 2night. Gr8 morale @ the table. Btw, @levileipheimer is getting serious grief tonight.
LeviLeipheimer: At around km 15 in the race today was where I proposed to my wife over 9 years ago. We were going 80kph so no time to reminisce:)
bradwiggins:We are at the same hotel as Astana. what an entourage! Millar's going mental for my Aloe after sun spray gel, happy times
mickrogers: Just about to pull into the hotel. It's HOT. Hope we have aircon in the room!
Greghenderson1: Went training with Jason McCartney today. He was doing high heart rate sprints efforts. He said he must be tired cos he only hit 436bpm.
Carlos_Sastre: The most important thing now is to rest up for the team time trial
laurenstendam: Just saw the final on tv. Congrats to cav and his team. And of course to my red number teammate clement!
markrenshaw1: I would hate to know how many bottles I had today, to have a stab in the dark... a good 12 to 14 easy ! It was cooking all day
andy_schleck: What a day first stage 40 degrees in the shadow,50 under my helmed,never like rain but today I was praying for it
stevendejongh: Making a transfer 71km to marseille , 20left. Then straight for massage ! And drink another gallon of water.

Stage 1: Tour de France in Monaco

This year the Tour starts in Monaco. The time trial route has a lot of climbs, turns and nasty stuff and is so long that it can’t even be classified as a ‘prologue’. Plus it was muggy and lots of things happened…

- Lance rode early in the day, hedging his bets that the wind would pick up in the afternoon for the top racers. He finished with a time of 20 minutes, 12 seconds (46 km/hr).
- Team Astana did well today – first Lance, then Levi then German Andreas Kloden.
- Australia’s Cadel Evans rode second to last today and finished fifth.
- Australia’s Mick Rogers dropped his chain twice and lost at least 30 seconds. There goes the tour for him…
- Russian Denis Menchov didn’t do well today and got passed by Cancellara.
- 7 Australians in the race: Brett Lancaster (Cervelo), Heinrich Haussler (Cervelo), Mick Rogers (Columbia), Matt Lloyd (Silence Lotto), Cadel Evans (Silence Lotto), Mark Renshaw (High Road – Cav’s lead-out) and Stuart O’Grady (Saxo Bank).
- Stuart O’Grady & Swiss Cancellara are roommates – great room for a party tonight!

In the end, Swiss time-trial champion Fabian Cancellara came out on top with a time of 19’32, 18 seconds better than Alberto Contador. Followed by Bradley Wiggins (3rd), Andreas Kloden (4th) and Cadel Evans (5th). Americans Levi Leipheimer was 6th and Lance was 10th.

Jersey standings are below:
Yellow: Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank); Green: Bradley Wiggins (Garmin-Slipstream); Polka-dot: Alberto Contador (Astana); White: Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas). Tomorrow the peleton begins!


And some of the best Tweets from the guys…

Mick Rogers: On the massage table. Bit gutted over todays bad luck with dropping my chain twice. Anyway, life goes on

Levi Leipheimer: Having dinner now, awesome team performance today, 4 in the top 10, won't team GC for the day! So far so good, day by day. Thanks 4 replies

Andy Schleck: Well first time trail done. now the tour starts

Mark Renshaw: Good to get the first stage over and done with. Felt good and just rode a nice tempo on climb. Bring on stage 2.

Bradley Wiggins: Could not have done anymore today, I was at 70kph+ on the decent. How do you do it Fabian?

Christian Vande Velde: more than happy with today. Didnt know what the body was going to do today. fabian?? yeah, that just happened.

George Hincapie: Sitting on my balcony enjoying the view of the beach in Monaco. Last day here. Not my best tts today, but happy the race is on!!

Lance Armstrong: Hittin' the sack. Good day today. Team was amazing - winning the team classification. Alberto, Klodi, and Levi rode great 4 sure

Bradley Wiggins: Millar just took a pic of me in Green and sent it to Cav.... Just for giggles though

Robbie McEwen (not racing this year): On my sponsors yacht for dinner. It's like MTV Cribs! The Buggati Veyron parked on the dock really ties it all together!

Allan Davis (sent home): In Singapore for transit on my way to Aus, cant wait to see everyone and the country I love most, HOME. Watched 17 again on the flight.

Tour de France starts soon!

The Tour de France starts on the 4th of July – one of my favorite events every year. For 3 weeks, I immerse myself in the Tour and can’t watch anything else (or really think or talk about anything else). It’s like the Olympics for me – where I like to know all about it, the riders, the stats, and then I can watch it with its full potential for enjoyment. And this year, I decided to blog about it, so as not to fill up Facebook & Twitter!

I bought my Official Guidebook and read it cover to cover to understand the 20 teams and 517 riders. By the time the race starts they will be down to 180 readers and I need to hear all the goss/ drama/ rivalries before it begins. Here are some of the highlights for those not as obsessed as me:


Lance Armstrong is back. I know you know this, but after 7 straight tour wins and 3 years off (Pereiro 2006, Contador 2007 & Sastre 2008), he’s not the favorite for the race, but he’s undoubtedly the most popular.


Alberto Contador of Spain seems to be the favorite. He’s on Team Astana and has been given number 1 jersey and team leader spot (over Lance). If you recall, Astana couldn’t race in 2008 for doping reasons and so last year none of the past 3 Tour winners were in the race. Which is why we had a new contender – Carlos Sastre.



Australians root for Cadel Evans. He’s come second in 2008 & 2007 but last year they showed a montage of how mean he is to the media and fans and yells and throws tantrums. So, I will not support him and have even made a bet against him with a colleague. I hope I win!


Speaking of Australians, Robbie McEwen (great sprinter) is out with an injured leg from a crash in the second stage of the Tour of Belgium in May (he hit a tub of flowers), followed by leg surgery.


Boonen vs Cav - Previously, my favorite sprinter was Quick Step’s Tom Boonen (Belgian & green jersey winner in 2007). But he couldn’t race last year because he tested positive for cocaine. So, I looked for him in the program this year, and he’s been crossed out for testing positive for cocaine again this April (3rd time in 18 months for the 2005 world champion). BUT on the day of the race, they cleared him - so he’s back in and will give Britain’s Mark Cavendish a run for his money. And that means Australian Allan Davis – winner of the 2009 Tour Down Under – has been sent home from Quick Step. Very sad footage of him packing up in Monaco and rumors that he’s going because of his nationality. (Most of Quick Step is Belgium).

And finally, I did some maintenance on my Twitter page so I will be following some of the cyclists and getting their updates; including: Big George Hincapie, Christian Vande Velde, Levi Leipheimer, Lance Armstrong, Andy Schleck, Mick Rogers, Mark Renshaw and Bradley Wiggins (his are really funny). Plus, Paul & Phil the SBS announcers (and Robbie McEwen and Allan Davis even though they aren’t in it this year). Am I a giant dork? Yes – but I love it!!!

Here are some of the pre-race Tweets:


George Hincapie: Rode the course two times this morning, then will another time this afternoon before race time. Course is very hard...


Bradley Wiggins: Prologue recon today, chaos out on the course. Teams, Traffic, Police, people in big glasses loving being in monaco. whos got the most money
Lance Armstrong: Good Morning and Happy Birthday America.



Levi Leipheimer: Rode the course this morning, had lunch, now I'm in my room getting ready 2 go 2 the bus/start & ride the course again, I start at 4:37 CET. Again, happy 4th everybody, hopefully Lance, myself and the other Americans in the race can make some fireworks of our own today


Mark Renshaw: Big day here, Monaco is going bananas for TDF. So many people around town already.

Bradley Wiggins: 4th of July, Team Garmin are having a Mardi Gras to celebrate this great day. Its a Bonanza at the Garmin breakfast table

Robbie McEwen: physio + easy ride then watch the guys in TdF prologue. If Cancellara doesn't win I'll eat my own pants! Millar second, Contador 3rd


Mick Rogers: Morning all, having some espresso with Cav before heading out for a lap of tonights prologue course.



Christian VDV: Hung out with Hincapie and a bunch of the guys last night at a charity event with Prince Albert. We can start in Monaco every year.