General Classification Leader: R. Noncentini (48:27:21)
Lance Armstrong: 3rd (+00:00:08)
Alberto Contador: 2nd (+00:00:06)
Podium girls kiss the winners. You would think they were all French, but there is at least one non-French podium girl. Versus had a segment on one such podium girl, Laura Antoine, from St. Louis, MO. She described her daily routine, waking up at 6:00 am handing out Skoda merchandise, then the finale each day giving the various jersey winners their jerseys and completing the double-cheek kiss.
A few notable crashes today. One with Cadel Evans, another with Levi Leipheimer. Both were within 3km to the finish though so they won’t drop in the GC.
Check out a fellow tour-blogger over at Twisted Spoke. His by-line is totally right and his write-ups are hilarious. In the meantime, here I am posing with my sweet TDF Kraftwerk 45 from Amoeba Music in San Fran.
General Classification Leader: R. Noncentini (43:28:59)
Lance Armstrong: 3rd (+00:00:08)
Alberto Contador: 2nd (00:00:06)
I was bored with today’s stage before it started. Another flat one for Cavendish to take…
But the final sprint was awesome, I thought for sure Cavendish was going to get beat. He didn’t though, he passed the finish line first for his fourth stage win and to take back the green jersey.
If Cavendish weren’t young himself, I would say Tyler Farrar is the man to watch in the future.
Levi Leipheimer, Alberto Contador, Andreas Kloden and Lance Armstrong were given blood tests today before the race. In his Tweet, Lance said the blood tests were a good thing. I agree, if the results come back clean (which I’m sure they will) they will preclude any critics’ arguments that Astana is successful as a result of blood doping.