Although the past stages have had interesting finishes (sprints), it is definitely time to give the GC riders their opportunity to shine and add excitement to the races (which have been rather dull so far).

Day 12 looks quite challenging, but the fun days will be 17 and 18. Take a look at the elevation gains (and drops) on those days!

Last summer, in Briancon for Tdf viewing, I rode several of the local classic climbs - L'Alpe d'Huez, d'Izoard, Telegraphe/Galibier, Madeleine, and even Ventoux. My estimation... stage 16 the ITT around the 21 switchbacks will be great excitement (as will the Pyrenees), but the carnage will be on stage 17. Madeleine, especially from the south, is the hardest thing I've ever ridden - 20k at 8%, its steep and endless. And these guys will have already bagged one HC (dont believe the ranking for Glandon), will have to contend with a 'paltry' cat 2 before finishing over two more cat 1's.

Hey Bill, love your blog.

I have a request: for those of us who are interested in the Tour but not well versed enough in cycling to be able to sort out what's going on (yeah, I mean with Armstrong) from the official site -- could you please give a brief recap somewhere, either in hobbesonline or elsewhere, of what the action was and how it affects the standings between Armstrong and the various competitors who pose him a serious threat?

I only know the name of one of them: Jan Ulrich. I know there are others, but I don't know who they are. So if you could post something like "today, Lance Armstrong finished eleventh with a time of X, Ulrich finished 14th with the same time, so-and-so finished 23rd with a time of Y, so Lance is still 55 seconds ahead of Ulrich, and he picked up four more seconds on so-and so."

That would be a tremendous help for those of us who like the sport but don't know anything about it!

Thanks,

Dafydd