Tour de France; Very late Stage 14 report and Rest Day summary

Can we just pretend that sense I didn't post about stage 14 that it just didn't happen? No? Fine then, have it your way...

A French guy on a French team won the stage by beating an Italian guy on an Italian team. The French guy is the 2005 French national champion and the Italian guy is a former Italian national champion. Pierrick Fedrigo supplied Bouygues-Telecom with their first ever stage win and host nation France with their third stage win of this Tour.

The stage was marred by more crashes, including a nasty crash that happened in the winning break. Rik Verbrughe, David Canada and Mattias Kessler. Verbrugghe and Canada were forced out of the race with broken bones and Kessler was able to finsh the stage. Kessler has already won one stage of the race this year, so he could leave proudly, but his team is short a few riders already.

Anyway, in summary- French guy on French team wins and makes all the French fans happy. )And there was much rejoicing... yay!)

Skip to today... rest day number two. Legs are tired, bodies are sore and former contenders are trying to figure out where they went wrong and how it happened. Guy like Hincapie are trying to figure how their Tour imploded and Leipheimer is probably kicking himself for losing so much time in that darned first time trial. Boonen is likely trying to figure out why he can't win a stage this year. One thing is sure; they are all happy to have this rest day.

Now we move into the real race... the part that gets really painful. Tuesday and Wednesday will rally hurt some folks. I would expect some painful time losses tomorrow with the stage finishing on l'Alpe d'Huez... after a rest day. Legs are going to have a hard time making that adjustment. Thursday has one Above Category climb and then Friday is nearly flat. Saturday is the final big TT and should be great for Lanids if he is in the the lead or still contending for it. Then, of course, Sunday is the big day in Paris. This will be Boonen's chance to redeem himself, if he hasn't on the stage Thursday.

We are in the closing stretch now and things are about to get even more exciting. So far, this has been a damned fun Tour. I'm looking forward to this week...

The Cubbie is now in France, eating brie and drinking Chardonnay by now. She might be trying to climb a straw structure or she might be chaising George around trying to get him to autograph her... something. One thing is for sure, she is raising Hell and having a great time. While she was at the aiport waiting to leave for the land of berets, she filed this report...

BK's Quote of the Day
Who is going to win? It's a race to win for eight, ten or fifteen men. And one man's race to lose -- Floyd Landis.

-Bob Roll

Bob said it best on Friday. Bob usually does say it best . This is seriously the most interesting turn of events. Ten to fifteen guys are in contention. That makes this all VERY exciting. Granted, it was fun to see the American win for seven years and overcome cancer, the Belgians etc. I am excited to see some other guys move up - and see it all shake down in PERSON. (Popyvich? Floyd? LEVI?) It was sad to see Johann come on OLN for his obligatory interview during the race. I realize he's never lost at a Tour, but that is a rare feat and he didn't do it alone. I would think that Lance had a lot to say about the building of that US Postal/Discovery team. It has to be tough for him, just on a lot of different levels. I believe that he still has large interests within the
team; personally, financially, professionally.

My Tour Goals.
Get my picture with Floyd, Thor, GH (still!), Boonen
Be down at the finish line in my gold TOURDAYFRANCE* tshirt so you all can see me.
Get Lance to don a TOURDAYFRANCE* tshirt and get a pic with him and Bob.
Have Al wear the TOURDAYFRANCE tee on the air
Get some great networking done
Get some sponsors for BOBKEFEST: The best bike festival in all the land

* The gold TOURDAYFRANCE tees are in the Livestrong logo and there are 24 in the world. Four are between me and my husband. It's a collector's item, folks!

I think that's some seriously fun goals. I did have an offer to ride in a team car. I'm not
sure I want to interfere with the madness. You know? We'll see when I get there.

Ok, kittie cats - watch for me. I don't think I will be able to cartwheel behind Al and Bob during the broadcast, but look for me out there. I'm not sure the next time I'll be able to write so rock on with your bad selves!

CR

Tomorrow is a big, bug day, so let's hope all the riders are rested and ready. Should be fun to watch and listen to.

Tim
(PS- I'd lke to give a special thanks to Jessi' mom for stopping by and posting a comment the other day. Cub Reporter's mom; You Rock!)