Stage 4: Cholet – Cholet TT 2008 Tour de France George Hincapie and Christian Vandevelde had a great race and finished in 6th and 7th place.  The stage was won by Schumacher of the Gerolsteiner team who also now has the yellow jersey.

Stage 3: St Malo – Nantes Today was a really flat day from St Malo to Nantes.  Four guys broke away early in the race and managed to hang on until the end.  Dumoulin won the sprint and Feilleu is now in yellow.   Thomas Frischkorn from Boulder, CO was in the break […]

 The race from Auray to Saint Brieuc was over 200k today on a cloudy day.   Norwegian Thor Hushovd  of the Credit Agricole team won the sprint at the finish line.  Valverde is still in yellow.  Soler Hernandez is suffering badly from the crash yesterday and may have to drop […]

Stage 21: Etamps – Paris Carlos Sastre racing in yellow on the Champs Elysee

It was a really long day today and the course was pretty flat and backlit. Stefan Schumacher won the stage, with Cancellara coming in second and Kirchen finishing third.  Carlos Sastre finished in 12th place which was enough to keep the yellow jersey into Paris tomorrow.  Cadel Evans made up enough […]

Break with Schumacher, Fedrigo and Ballan Stage 19: Roanne – Montlucon Carlos Sastre in yellow and Oscar Freire racing in green There was an early break with Martinez, Fedrigo, Schumacher and Ballan. Sylvain Chavanel finally won a Tour stage today so the French are happy. 

 Stage 18: St Etienne Burghardt outsprinting Barredo for the win in St Etienne Marcus Burghardt win in St Etienne  It was an exciting sprint with Marcus Burkhardt and Carlos Barredo playing cat and mouse the last kilometer until the finish line.  Burghardt won the sprint and Carlos Sastre is still […]

Stage 17: Alpe d’Huez Today was probably the best stage of the race so far.  The sky was blue all day, though a little bit cold on top of the mountain.  Carlos Sastre attacked early on the way up Alpe d’Huez and stayed away until the finish.  He won the […]

I had my last cappuccino in Italy this morning before leaving.   Today I drove the route over the first pass, the Col de Lombard which was a really long, narrow climb, filled with Italian cycling fans all on their bikes.  I stopped on the Col de la Bonette-Restafond, the highest road in Europe.  […]