Perspectives of a Canadian in the Old/Deep/New/Geographic South: This is where I ramble on about nothing in particular and post a few nice pictures.
An entertaining stage today with some of the first big climbs of the Tour. Even the cows were getting into the race. Most days you see spectators waving flags and running along with the riders, particularly on the climbs. Today some cows decided to run along with the peleton too. I’m sure their owner is going to be the talk of the town.
Tomorrow it’s into the mountains. Two big climbs at the end will be sure to separate the men from the boys.
There’s just no break from the rain for the riders early on in this year’s tour. It’s becoming the year of the crashes with riders spilling almost daily. Lots of exciting sprint finishes on the past few stages. All the big contenders are still in good position going into the first rest day of the race. Starting Tuesday, the tour gets into hillier territory, so look for the standings to start shifting.
It’s day 1 of the Tour de France. Starting with a short individual team time trial (6.1 km) in Liege Belgium. Looks to be a simple out and back course. Fastest cyclist at the moment is Pereiro at 7:01.39, givng him an average speed of 52.1 kph. They’re really cruising. I can only manage speeds like that for short bursts.
Today’s OLN word of the day is CYCLYSM.
It’s coming! 6 days to go until the Tour starts. All the focus (particularly on OLN is on Lance Armstrong’s attempt for a 6th tour win. It looks like he’s still strong, but I wonder what the team is like this year. Seems USPS is dropping it’s primary sponsorship of the team, and they’ve lost Roberto Heras (one of their big climbers) to another team. I think it’ll be a good tour to watch this year.