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Today is the Tour's second rest day; tomorrow begins the first of four Alpine stages (including two mountaintop finishes, one atop the Col du Galibier! and one atop Alpe d'Huez!). After that is the long ITT in Grenoble, and the finishing parade in Paris. Rainy weather is predicted and it should be an amazing shootout all week; I can't wait.
In the meantime here's some pictures from the first two weeks:
stage 1: the Passage du Gois
stage 2: Led by Thor Hushovd, Garmin win the team time trial
stage 3: Tyler Farrar wins his first TDF stage
stage 4: Evans asserts himself to beat Contador, win stage
stage 5: crashes in a nervous peloton
stage 6: Bossen Hagen wins amid more crashes
stage 7: the peloton in a quiet mood, for the moment
stage 8: Vinokourov almost pulled it off
this is how I will remember him as a rider, on the attack
stage 9: lots of climbing, a breakaway which succeeded, and more crashes
(including a runaway TV car which took out two riders in the break)
stage 10: sprint, with Andre Greipel edging Mark Cavendish
stage 11: the beautiful sunflowers on a rainy day
stage 12: Pyrenean mountains, wow, the climb up to Luz-Ardinen
stage 13: more mountains, and a long descent to the finish let Thor Hushovd escape
stage 14: Plateau de Beille with perhaps the steepest finish of this Tour
stage 15: Voeckler in yellow, amid his team; they had an amazing week
It is truly the calm before the Alpine storm. Will Voeckler hold yellow? Can Evans finally win? Will the Schlecks attack, and will it work? Can Contador defend? We'll see ... onward!
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