And now it's all over; it's Monday morning and we're in a cafe at Montmartre - lucky us, I'm taking care to savour the moment.

Even though the coffees are four euros each.

Yesterday was different for us, we decided to be "fans for the day" - it's all on Pez.

The crowd on the circuit was huge, but strangely thin on the Rue de Rivoli.

Being a spectator made getting good pics pretty difficult...

We had a fight to get to what we thought would be a good vantage point - over beside the Seine, on the Quai.

However, this year, it was mobbed, there were more policemen than ever getting in the way of the camera (thanks Lance) and it was hard to get good pictures - in the event, I think we did not bad.

...but we managed!

Cav: what can you say?

A force of nature, the best sprinter in the world, period.

Contador: tranquilo, smiling, professional, photogenic, dignified, the best climber, the best chrono man - the champion.

Last year, Philippe Brunel told me that for a Tour winner to be a real star; "he must impose himself upon the race."

Bert did that, and with half of his team riding against him.

Respect, Alberto Contador.

Metro's everywhere are the same; grim.

The Metro was horrific, it felt like being in a sci-fi film, fleeing from an alien menace, for the Parisiens; "c'est normale!"

The press room was unusually chatty, you could have been forgiven for thinking that it was a friendly place.

There's always a big sense of anti-climax after the Tour, if you're working on it.

For the riders, there's a big bash, the loved ones are all there, looking cool, there's joy and relief in the air - but if you're a hack, you skulk off into the night feeling a little empty, confused, needing a shower and a bed.

We manage to catch up with our ASO pal Domink once he's back on the race after illness. Great to see you mate!

Working on the Tour is like working at a six day race; you're in a bubble.

The mobile may push a pin through the latex and connect you to the world outside of the bubble, but within seconds of the call ending, the latex self seals and the call is forgotten - I have to write them down, on the spot, they don't even register.

Then it's over - and there's the MOT, the dog being sick, bills, customers and guilt.

Guilt, because apart from the few minutes you spend chatting to your loved ones each day, you've hardly thought about them.

Your mind has been full of angles, schedules, pieces, parcours, pictures, Lance, Cav, Bert and all the others.

Never mind - soon be La Vuelta !

Cheers!

Al Hamilton

“Contador, rey del Tour. Volveré a por el tercero en un equipo en el que no esté Armstrong” - “Contador, King of the Tour. I’ll be back for the third in a team without Armstrong” is the predictable headline in today’s AS.

Garmin want Contador.

Alberto Contador made all the front pages in the sports and normal press today with his second Tour de France win and he wants more, but without the problems of being in a team with the seven times Tour winner, Lance Armstrong.

“El señor del Tour. Contador fue agasajado en Paris ante un Armstrong gélido” - “The gentleman of the Tour. Contador smothered with attention in front of an icy Armstrong”

Garmin wants Contador for an “anti-Armstrong” and it seems that Alberto has many “girlfriends” that are courting him. Caisse d’Epargne, Katusha and Fernando Alonso (F1 driver with Banco de Santander). Stay calm, he signed a two year contract and won’t share his liberty with no one. Well we will wait and see.

Armstrong es un idolo roto - the Contador family don't think much of LA anymore after he used Astana as a vehicle to get into the Tour, and split the team into two.

Other quotes:

Mikel Astarloza: “The objective is complete. I won my first stage, which was very special. The pain is that I didn’t finish in the top ten. The Tour likes Euskaltel as the team animates the race, always on the attack”:

Lance Armstrong: “My rivals were stronger than me. My broken collar bone upset my preparation in the Giro”.

Carlos Sastre: “I wasn’t at my maximum”.

Christian Prudhomme (Tour Director): “Contador is a very human champion, not the look of a robot. He demonstrated through out the Tour his strength of character. An elegant climber who dominates his rivals. Alberto is a unique antidote to Lance Armstrong”:

Andy Schleck: “I’ll be back for victory”.

Beppu and Arashiro: "The first time two Japanese riders have finished the Tour in Paris”. History in the making, they didn’t win any stages or take any jerseys, but everyone knew they were there. Beppu said on the fast train to Paris, “I’m going home to my country for a party”:

Last word goes to the home town (Pinto) of the 2009 Tour de France winner, Alberto Contador: “Armstrong es un idolo roto para toda la familia Contador” - "Armstrong is a broken idol for all of the Contador family".

Tonight (Madrid 18:00, Pinto at 19:30) there will be all of Alberto's family and most of the people from the village in the Plaza de José Crespo to welcome and congratulate him and many of the youngsters will end up having a bath in the fountain!

LA was not exactly chuffed for his teammate, and didn't go to the Astana celebration dinner last night.

I hope you have enjoyed the view of the Tour de France from a Spanish prospective. Next we have La Vuelta in August and September, see you there!

¡Adios amigos!  Al.

Bonjour! Usually I start the VeloResults diary in the morning but then have to switch to Pezification for most of the day - going back to poor old VR late in the day, as Martin and I fight off le vieux homme, Morpheus.

But today, you got me all to yourselves - at least until this afternoon, when le Tour hurtles into Paris; with Astana as winner's (and winning) equipe at it's head - as tradition dictates, because right now Martin is driving us from Lyons to Paris, a small matter of 350 miles.

Talking of L'Equipe, some good (or sad, depending on your viewpoint) stuff today:

# oldest podium place was Raymond Poulidor at 40 years and 3 months - [hey! isn't that amazing, we could have Lance for three more years!]

# "Contador wins and puts an end to the politics - a good strategy" says Philippe Brunel, damn right, Phil!

# Garate 10/10; Brad 4/10 "the Ventoux is just a little too high for him." Kloden 1/10.

# team classement on national teams [3 riders] 1) Spain. 2) USA. 3) France. 4)Germany. 5) Italy. 6) Luxembourg. 7) Russia.

Andy pulled Bert and LA up the Ventoux.

# fastest up the Ventoux, yesterday was Andy (or Awndee as Daniel Mangeas calls him) Schleck in 58:40 for the 21 kilometres.

The record?

Iban Mayo in the Dauphine 2004 with 55:51.

# Garate: this was his third Grand Tour stage win - Giro 2006 & Vuelta 2001 plus a stage in the Tour de Suisse 2002 and the Spanish champs in 2005.

Martin was reading me out Lance's 'tweets' tonight, he was in Avignon with "McConaughey, and others."

One has to respect the man's ability, single mindedness and drive but I think that the "McConaughey" reference sums up what I dislike most about the whole Lance Mania carry-on.

Bicycle road racing is the people's sport, you don't have to pay through the nose to watch it; the parcours go past your front door or over that big hill, just down the road.

Eddy Merckx was the greatest ever - I don't recall bodyguards.

Lance's minders clearing a path for him, and shoving anyone in arm's reach out the way.

I've seen babies thrust into Johan Museeuw's arms for a photo opportunity and Johan responding with a laugh and the perfect pose.

The sport isn't about excluding people, minders and Hollywood - it's about Brittany, Flanders, old ladies cuddling Tom Boonen, Christophe Moreau stopping by the roadside to meet his family, Nico Mattan heading straight for his supporter's club cafe after he wins Gent-Wevelgem - it's about real people, real life.

Bert handled the extra stress of having to race his teammates superbly well.

Meanwhile, Contador keeps it low key, no tweets, no celebrity pals and even though he must hate the sight of the kit he wears, he's never seen sporting anything else - except yellow, that is.

Ah well, Cav again!

We went "public" today for the last stage, and it's all here on Pez.

Number six for Mark. And Renshaw second - stunning.

Tour 09 Stage 21 Map.

Tour 09 Stage 21 Profile.

Al Hamilton

As you might guess the Spanish media is full of Juan Gárate and Alberto Contador.

Front page headline “Gárate se coronó en el Mont Ventoux” Gárate is crowned on the Mont Ventoux and lets face it he has saved the Tour for the Rabobank team who after a great Giro d’Italia have done nothing here until now!

Garate took the "queen stage" to Mont Ventoux.

Juanma Gárate is no stranger to victory as he was Spanish National Pro Champ and yesterdays Tour stage win goes with his Giro and Vuelta stage successes. And winning on the Mont Ventoux? “It gave me goose flesh…I can’t explain it in words! It’s the gold badge of my career”.

Alberto Contador: “Corri dos Tours, uno en la bici y otro en el hotel” - I rode two Tours, one on the bike and another in the hotel. This refers to his problems within his Astana team, Armstrong/Bruyneel and their working relationship past and future. And next year? “After tomorrow I will be talking about my future. Armstrong and I are working on different projects”. What about the insinuations of Greg Lemond? “I have no problems over doping. I am available 365 days a year and have taken all the necessary controls. I think there has been a change in the mentality of cyclists. A Tour without doping is also a victory”.

Bert fought 'two Tours' - one on the bike and one with his teammates.

A big “Fiesta” is planned in Alberto’s home town of Pinto. After the finish in Paris where the Mayor of the Madrid Community and the Spanish minister of Sport will be in attendance, Contador will be having a private party in Paris with his girlfriend; Macarena and all the team of Astana, then at 12:30 he is off to Madrid airport and Pinto for a “Grand Fiesta”.

After the Tour the two Astana riders (Contador and Armstrong) have very different schedules. Contador will be going to his celebrations in Pinto and then riding a post-Tour criterium in Holland. Lance Armstrong, on the other hand, is off on his holidays to the Bahamas.

Last word goes to Carlos Sastre: “I just didn’t have any strength in my legs!” the ex-Tour Champion dropped to 17th overall at 26 minutes and 21 seconds behind Alberto Contador.

Hasta Mañana, Al

It's 9:00 pm and we're headed for the A7 "Autoroute du Soleil," and the drive north to Paris.

Incidentally, the A7 is one of the most dangerous roads in Europe; so that's a comfort.

It's been a day-and-a-half, albeit I think we were all expecting more from the stage.

Lovely part of the world this - peaches and oranges growing by the roadside, here we see olives groves, field after field of lavender...

But perhaps it's unrealistic to expect that men are going to race like demons after three tough weeks around France.

We were up early and away, this morning - panic; traffic jams to the horizon, however, once we made the autoroute, things speeded up.

Breakfast was in the Tour Village; sausages, bacon, bread, fruit salad - parfait!

Even crisps cycle in France!

The plan was to get away early, to give ourselves loads of time to take pictures on the Ventoux.

The yeti's dancing on the sign-on stage.

This guy was cutting sausages up in his half car.

However - we hadn't gassed the car-up; a mad breenge off race route ensued, we resuscitated the wee Citroen and rejoined the parcours.

Martin shows today's L'Equipe at the start of the race marker.

Unfortunately, we were caught up in the race caravan, by them and had to sit it out.

Still, we bagged two wee bags of salami, three bottles of water, a key ring and three hats - result!

The rest of the day was spent nudging into the rear of the caravan.

There she is.

The weather was beautiful, the scenery magnificent and the ambiance as we've come to expect from le Tour fans - warm, friendly, fun.

It has to be said though, that it's warmer, friendlier and more fun, after the caravan has off loaded the goodies.

With the benefit of hindsight, if I was doing it again, I'd have missed yesterday's stage - which was never going to be decisive - and gone to the Ventoux.

It was simply impossible to stop on the lower 60% of the climb, the crowd was perhaps the biggest I've ever seen at a bike race; apart from Alpe D'Huez in the early 90's, when it was still, "Dutch mountain."

Two long lines of crazy, drunk, Dutch fans, rowing themselves to nowhere and singing along to the oompah band - just great!

We got lots of shots of "crazies," but had no opportunity to stop and chat to folks, take pictures of the countryside - and it would have been nice to wander round Bedoin, again.

Dave, Viktor and I were on the Ventoux in 1987, when "Jeff" Bernard won the time trial up the climb.

We took tents down but had to bail out of them and into the mini bus in the middle of the night because it was so cold.

The water bottles froze solid - by noon the next day, the heat was extreme.

We had to be on the mountain the previous night due to the road being closed at around 2:00 am.

We're going up there!

I remember Bedoin being relaxed and friendly; there was an old gypsy caravan in the town square which had a wood burning oven that produced the best pizza we had ever tasted - and back then, prices in France were reasonable.

Bedoin was just a blur today, crowds, noise, heat and just glimpses of the town - ah, well!

The climb was wild, about the craziest I've ever seen.

The view from the top - on a clear day, you can see the Med from here.

It looks great for the TV but one has to wonder about the safety aspect - some stretches were genuinely scary.

(It's all on Pez, folks!)

Garate powers through the last right-hander.

Bert has it won now, barring accident. (click for the full image)

Garate won the stage today, sprinting past Tony Martin on the last bend, where we were stood!

It's getting close to midnight now, so bon nuit.

Talk to you from Gay Paris, tomorrow.

Tour 09 Stage 20 Map.

Tour 09 Stage 20 Profile.

Al Hamilton

Hinault: “Contador puede ganar cinco Tours” that’s today’s front page headline in AS. Bernard Hinault thinks Alberto Contador could equal his five Tour wins.

The big question is for which team would he be riding for? The F1 driver; Fernando Alonso is serious about his project of having a Protour team by 2011 with Contador as the leader. But what about 2010? If he stays with Astana for the second year of his contract, which will be with Vinokourov, he might not be able to ride the Tour.

Contador has behaved with dignity and total professionalism.

Bad news was the loss of two Euskaltel riders; Amets Txurruka and Alan Pérez finished 30:58 after Mark Cavendish won the sprint and they were out of the time limit. Their team leader, Astarloza, is battling for 9th place overall as he is only 1 second behind Le Mével.

“De Cavendish al Ventoux." The British sprinter won his 5th stage yesterday. Today the last battle”. The Mont Ventoux looms large on all the riders on the Tour and this could change the podium and the top ten overall. The mythic mountain of death, not just Tom Simpson, but the many riders who have had problems on its slopes. The battles between Kubler and Mallejac, Gimondi and Poulidor.

De Cavendish al Ventoux.

Then in 1958 between Gaul and Bahamontes who went on to be the first Spanish Tour winner the next year. The deception of Delgado in 1987 by Hinault and Herrera, more recently the triumph of Pantani over Armstrong and the arguments that caused! We can only hope there will be action today!

Mañana, Al.

Cervelo: their Tour has been a good one, Haussler and Hushovd have won stages and Thor has made himself a whole load of new fans by the way he has ridden in pursuit of green.

Astana: their Tour has been marvellous - even better than that if you go on the "no such thing as bad publicity principle."

It's the Tour - you gotta have a sunflower shot.

Saxo: have had a good Tour thru Fabian, Sorensen and the Schlecks - it could get better; in my memory, no brothers have ever shared a Tour podium - and that's possible.

Garmin: haven't won a stage, but they've made the headlines with Bradley; not to mention Farrar and Millar.

Liquigas: Pello in polka dots and Nibali top ten, enough said.

Euskaltel: a stage win and Astarloza in the top ten; probably more than they had hoped for.

Columbia = Cav.

Bert and Lance are never that far from each other - except on the team bus.

Caisse, Sánchez's stage win means it's a good Tour.

Skil-Shimano: have won nothing - except admiration and column inches; Rudi Kemna says that it's his squad that's getting all the press back home.

AG2R: Nocentini's tenure in yellow has made it an excellent Tour - I'm still not sure about the brown, though.

Agritubel: finish at the end of 2009 but Feillu's stage win and a resurgent Moreau have made it a good Tour for them.

B Box: two stage wins - a big, big result for the boys in blue.

Katusha: Ivanov saved the day; (even though I think he may be an alien)

Who's left?

Rabobank: a grim Tour for the orange men - no question that the Tour was too much for Menchov after his battle with Di Cera in the Giro.

Francaise de Jeux: disastrous, especially with AG2R, Agritubel and B box all doing the biz.

Fiellu was slightly off the back, suffering a mechanical.

Cofidis: see F des J!

Lampre: dire, made worse by Liquigas's good run.

Milram: Who? Were they here?

Quickstep: maybe their worst ever; even Chavanel couldn't pull a rabbit out of the hat.

Silence: maybe even more disastrous than QuickStep's - a Chernobyl of a Tour, in fact.

This was the year that Evans was to win!

With three stages left and being pragmatic; a Head will win on Ventoux and Cav will win on the Champs.

Therefore, if you want to win a stage; "today's the day."

Beautiful tree-lined avenues aplenty in this part of the world. It's lovely here.

It's all up there on Pez - as I always say.

Not being wise after the event, but we could see that it might well be together at the foot of the last climb.

The first 50 or 60 K were perfect for a break to 'stick' but then there were long, open stretches where it could be hunted down.

Cav makes it five - an amazing young man.

Cav: there's nothing else to say, except; "the best sprinter in the world."

Baroudeur stage?  But nobody told Cav!

Tour 09 Stage 19 Map.

Tour 09 Stage 19 Profile.

Al Hamilton

There is only one story today and that is how Contador won the time trial and put more time between him and everyone else.

Alberto Contador had the whole of the front page of AS and took over the first eight pages, pushing football towards the back, something that doesn’t happen very often!

“GALÁCTICO CONTADOR wins the time trial in spite of the boycott of his team: Bruyneel followed Armstrong and his (Contador’s) radio was broken.”

Now this is a play on words in that Armstrong has a new team and sponsor (Radioshack) and Bruyneel will be going with him, but the team manager was in the following car of the American and not the race leader!

The front cover of AS today of course celebrates Bert's outstanding time trial.

Quotes from the riders:

Contador: “It’s an honour and I’m proud to be compared to Indurain. It’s disproportionate to compare me to Merckx, I don’t have his level of victories”.

Wiggins: “I gave all I had”.

Klöden: “I was near the podium”.

Frank Schleck: “On Ventoux there will be war”.

Andy Schleck: “I want my brother to be third”.

Astarloza: “I want to be in the top-ten”.

Cancellara: “I can’t win every time”.

Bert doesn't mind being compared to Indurain.

In Alberto’s village of Pinto the Town Hall had a special live showing of the time trial in the Cultural Centre. “Pinto animo al grito de: “¡Armstrong, vete ya!” which translates to: “Pinto (Home town of Contador) joins in with the cry: “Armstrong, go now!”

Johan Bruyneel following Armstrong and not the yellow jersey in the time trial also did not go down well with the Spanish press. Contador had second in charge; Gallopin and Ekimov behind him in the team car. All this after talk of Bruyneel stopping the attack of Contador's the other day on Le Colomiere. Armstrong and Bruyneel are off to Radioshack and Alberto isn’t in their plans.

Greg Lemond has been going on about Contador’s performance not being what it should be, watts out-put etc. This based on the calculations of an ex-doctor at Festina, I’ll say no more, as Armstrong said the other day “I’ll bite my tongue on the subject!”

So as the Tour organisers wanted, it looks like there will be action tomorrow on Mont Ventoux, my money is on Alberto!

Accion Mañana, Al.

There's a little breeze fluttering the trees, it's mild at 25 degrees but rain is forecast - chrono day.

The thing about a Tour time trial is that the conditions I have just described might prevail for first starter, at 11:10, F des J's Belorussian champion and lanterne rouge (now that Kenny has gone home) Yauheni Hutarovich.

But when Bert bumps that Trek down the ramp at 16:47, the conditions could be completely different.

Our game plan today is two fold; drive the course, behind Garmin sprinter, Tyler Farrar, then do a 'before and after' on the Big Guns.

It's 12:40 am now; need to finish this after sleep.

Bon nuit.

Later...

A long but exciting day on Thursday - we did our following car 'thing' with Tyler Farrar and then spent all afternoon looking at how the big GC guys fared.

Read about following Tyler here and the Time Trial day here.

So you think you can time trial? Tyler rode at 80%, and did 55kph on the flats!

What's not, is the running around it takes to get the precious "stee-kerr" for the windscreen that enables you to enter the hallowed start area, then follow your rider.

You run around daft, have all sorts of language hurdles to jump; then you meet the right guy, who speaks perfect English, sticks his hand in his pocket - 'et voila!'

The man you need to know if you want a little yellow sticker - Jean-Michel.

A part of the day I really enjoyed was getting to the start; to get there we had to drive the second part of the course - there's so much joy, fun, expectation and sheer glad to be alivedness evident.

Lance; for sure he generates interest but for me the minders, the tweeting, the 'spin' against Alberto and then, on the day the Spaniard confirms his dominance, to announce his new team - it's all against the grain.

But I'm 54 and grew up when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Bert's dignity and professionalism are in marked contrast to LA's tweeting, PR, and invideous remarks. Did you notice even Bruyneel doesn't wear Astana gear? It's all Livestrong teeshirts and polemics.

Alberto, on the other hand is a pro; as Philippe Brunel says in L'Equipe; "The Spaniard avoids the politics but his gestures are eloquent . . .

In other words, he talks with his pedals.

There's a photo in L'Equipe which sums it up. Three Astanas warm up on the turbos for the test; one has a Livestrong thing on, one sports an anonymous vest, but only one wears an Astana top - Alberto.

LA warms up for his time trial. (Photo:©MWilliamson/VeloResults)

Wiggins, can he make the podium?

Can Wiggins step up to the podium? Today was the day, and we think he might have missed his chance. Can't see him doing the necessary to LA on the Ventoux.

Yes, if he does the ride of his life, tomorrow; he's only nine seconds behind Lance, but in turn, he has Kloden just two seconds behind him, with climbing ace Frank Schleck just 23 seconds down.

Bert took a while to go through dope control, and popped out for more water. I'm told that Peroni is a better diuretic son!

One of Lance's minders shoved Martin out of his way, to which he was advised some choice Scottish terms.

It's all to play for.

We've got a stage to go to, so I'll sign off.

Au demain.

Tour 09 Stage 18 Map.

Tour 09 Stage 18 Profile.

Al Hamilton

The Tour and cycling makes it big on the back page of today’s AS, first Contador is in the good section with congratulated on his securing his victory by taking more time, then in the bad section we have the failure of Armstrong who lost time and fell off the podium and De Luca is also in the bad section with his positive for CERA at the Giro.

Contador will do well to actually have a team who are behind him.

Also on the back page is an argument over why Contador stopped his attack on the Schleck brothers on the last climb yesterday, there is more about this on the inside pages.

AS says: “Heroica etapa que no ganó Contador porque Bruyneel le frenó”. So the reason he stopped was orders from above!

The attacks had dropped Wiggins, Armstrong and eventually Klöden, but it looks like the time loss of Lance was more important than a stage win or more time in the bank for Alberto?

Bruyneel is leaving Astana at the end of the year, maybe to set up the new “Team Armstrong” which will probably not include Contador, so….

Spanish paper AS does a great job of race coverage.

Are you happy with things before the time trial? Contador is asked; “now I have more time between me and Wiggins I have a little more tranquillity. The time trial in Annecy is long and Klöden and Armstrong are specialists”. Have you won the Tour? “For nothing are the next two days the key, the time trial and Ventoux…I keep my feet on the ground”.

Other quotes: Sastre: “Attacking is my only option”

Nibali: “I collaborated with Lance in the final kilometres; I hope to gain some time in the time trial”:

The President of France, Sarkozy: “Contador is magnificent”.

Bradley Wiggins also thinks he will do well in the time trial; “I hope to recover my place on the podium in Annecy”.

Last bit of news; and if you saw Jens Voigt's crash you won’t be surprised to hear that the doctor in the Grenoble hospital that treated the German said “the helmet saved his life”.

Just the TT and Ventoux now!

Mañana. Al.

To get down to the Bourg-Saint-Maurice start, we had to drive against a section of race route and decided to get away early to beat the closures.

By the back of 08:00 we were clear of the worrisome section; we grabbed a coffee then made our way down to the start.

Bright sunshine, pretty girls, a free breakfast and a meet with a yeti - what more could you want?

Ed meets the Yeti, and another myth is busted.

In the village we had a chat with ex-British pro road race champion, Tim Harris who drives the VIP's on the Tour; **** hotels, a helicopter trip over the race, champagne picnics - a snip at €3,000 per head.

We chat with TIm Harris, driver for the VIP's.

Martin was on his "Pez daily distraction" mission - Pez long ago gave up on trying to get me to do them.

The lovely Charlotte - it's a tough job snapping these girls, but it's their job, and someone has to do it!

Breakfast scoffed, lovelies snapped; time to go, but we had to wait until the caravan passed - a nice distraction.

I got to meet the Skoda Yeti - the white furry suits are so hot that there are vents in the bum - then off to the car, via the jersey stalls.

100 euros for a kid's jersey and shorts!

It's a €100 for a kiddies Columbia shorts and jersey package; but the good news is that the Astana kit is all reduced in price - can't think why.

No gran - if we're going to the race, you have to come too.

As usual, the day is up on Pez; what's not up is that we met the Peebles crew, Gary Robson et al, on the Colombiere but our parking wasn't the best when we stopped to chat.

A rather miffed Bernard Hinault gave us an ear-full for that one.

Fancy bumping into you lot on the Col Du Colombiere!

A pig of a parcours which saw Evans in the autobus, Sastre's podium dreams end and brave lanterne rouge, Kenny Van Hummel crash out.

Not a great day for Wiggins, but not a disaster - I think he can square it again, around Lac D'Annect against the watch, tomorrow.

LA rode well on this brutal stage, but we reckon he took a lot out of himself to do so.

In fact, I think Bradley can win that TT - it's just a pity that Contador always looks like he's on the way back from the paper shop.

Our pal J-L Arrieta came over the top on his own.

If Bradley can get back level with Lance and Co. then it's all down to The Ventoux for second and third - just like ASO wanted.

First? Alberto, on less than 90% effort, I'd say.

Bert stamped his dominance on the race today. Now for that time trial tomorrow...

Schleck senior wins, a present from Bert. That's one you him, Frankie.

And that's gone midnight, again.

Bon nuit.

Tour 09 Stage 17 Map.

Tour 09 Stage 17 Profile.

Al Hamilton

Mikel Astarloza’s win yesterday put him on the front and the back page of today’s AS. “El gran Astarloza” is his headline and “Victory for the Euskaltel leader. Andy Schleck attacks Contador”. Not that it did the young Schleck much good!

Astarloza can be proud with himself after today.

The Basque, Mikel Astarloza is a bit hard on himself in his interview as his self description is of a “pathetic team leader”. He isn’t big headed or charismatic, but he can win races. At the moment he is in 11th position at 4 minutes and 38 seconds, good, but not great!

Contador: “Ya hablo en carrera con Lance”. The relations between the leaders of the Astana team seem to be improving as Alberto admits to speaking with Lance during the race. Also in the Astana news is that team manager Johan Bruyneel will be leaving at the end of the year; “I’m turning a page in my career”.

Lance had a pop at Bert today for attacking and putting Kloden out the back - since when did LA care about a teammate on the podium? Anything to have a go at AC.

All this along with the announcement of a new team by “The Boss” Lance Armstrong on Twitter the other day, all looks too pre-ordained. Where does this leave Alberto Contador? He still has 1 year left of his contract with Astana.

The crash of Saxo Banks, Jens Voigt gets good coverage with five photos, the retransmission of the Tour on Spanish TV last night showed the crash in all its bloody details. So far we know he has a broken cheek and collar bone and will be in hospital for a while. Marchante also crashed into his Cervelo team car yesterday, but he did finish.

Spanish TV will be showing today’s (Wednesday) stage live on the normal channel (La 2) and on the sports channel (Teledeporte). Co-presenters; de Andrés and Delgado will be doing more than 5 hours transmission again.

They are very happy with their work and receive many e-mails on facebook. “Many chicas [women] are very interested in cycling” they say, and at the stage finishes Pedro still gets shouted at by the fans “¡Perico, Perico!”

That’s it for today; let’s hope there is more action to talk about before the finish?

Hasta Mañana, Al.

The Gazzetta looks better, but the L'Equipe goes so deep.

Today, for example, as well as the usual stats, there's a big analysis of how the stage might pan out, with four options; a table of how Contador has built his lead and - one that Viktor will love - the best and worst descenders.

Ed and Martin decided to take a trip through the Mont Blanc tunnel to get onto the race route in Italy, then drive along race route and stop on the last climb to watch the action. And have a picnic.

In line with their "in depth" approach, they've canvassed a whole host of riders and DS's.

Hushovd comes out as 'meilleur descendeur' with Cancellara and Samuel Sanchez joint second.

But not content with the best, they've sussed the 'moin bons descendeurs' - and here's the part that will please Viktor - worst by a mile is David Moncoutie with Frank Schleck second and the disappeared Mauricio Soler in third spot.

Pello rode strongly today.

Every day, you have to be thinking about doing things just a little differently - today is le pique-nique; we've got bread, cheese, salami, water, fruit - all we need now, is a little alcohol!

Well, 11:50 pm and the day is up on Pez - no dinner tonight, didn't have time.

A good day's racing - the last climb was carnage, riders everywhere; and Brad's still there, among the Heads.

LA is surprising lots of folk with his powerful riding in the mountains.

It looked to us as if Dave was ridden-out, but when we spoke to Ryder tonight he said that it 'just ended up that way'.

Cavendish was comfortable in the autobus.

The autobus was driven by Ballan and Pozzato

He has to get through tomorrow - it's a monster; four firsts and a second cat. then, on Thursday, it's his "thing," the time trial - but a time trial in the last week of a three week Tour isn't the same as a prologue or test in a small stage race.

However, he's been full of surprises, thus far. You can read about our day on Pez and our chat with Ryder Hesjedal here.

Midnight - time for bed, au demain.

Tour 09 Stage 16 Map.

Tour 09 Stage 16 Profile.

Al Hamilton

Contador: “Quiero ganar muchos Tours”.

That was the top of the front page of todays AS, yeah “Bert” wants to win lots of Tours and looking at his present form and the competition I should think that would be quite possible. He is still thinks of his rivals that “Andy Schleck is very strong and Wiggins is dangerous in the time trial”.

The two climbs today were both monsters.

Inside the sports daily we have; the sunrise of a champion and the Tour following life, all good rest day fare as the race journalists struggle for anything to write!

French sports paper L’Equipe goes for the obvious “Contador is the matador of the Tour”.

In Italy, the Gazzetta dello Sport says; “climbs with an imperious (urgent) rhythm”

The New York Times gives “Contador a 2-0 win over Armstrong in the mountains”.

The Times of London think that Alberto “Is the boss of the Tour”. So nothing new from the worlds hacks.

Carlos can't complain about us - we bigged him up after his two Giro stage wins!

Talking of journalists, Carlos Sastre is not impressed with the press corps, especially the ones from his home country of Spain. He feels he is not treated as the previous year's Tour winner, and complains that 99% of the questions they ask him are about the troubles at Astana, mainly to fuel the fires between Contador and Armstrong, not about his Tour or team. He would like to win on Mont Ventoux, the podium is now not his ambition.

José Angel Gomez Marchante is in this Tour to help Carlos Saste in the mountain stages, but he says he will be the leader of the Cervelo team at La Vuelta a España, so we might actually see him in that race as he’s been a bit invisible in the Tour!

Last word to Contador, the new king: “I want to win the maximum of Tours”

El Tour segue vivo.

That’s the offerings from yesterdays rest day. We can only hope there is more to read this week?

Hasta Mañana. Al.

Postscript - 31/07/09

A Press Release from the UCI today accounced that Stage 16 winner Mikel Astarloza has been provisionally suspended by the UCI for a positive test for EPO in an out-of-competition test, dating from June 26 this year.

He also finished 11th overall in the Tour, and the decision to suspend Astarloza was made in light of a report from the WADA-accredited laboratory in Madrid that found traces of the drug in a urine sample.

The provisional suspension will remain in place until a hearing panel convened by the Spanish Cycling Federation determines whether Astarloza is guilty. The hearing panel will also make a decision on applicable sanctions, if necessary, and possible disqualification from the Tour de France.

Wonder if second-place Sandy Casar will be promoted to the Stage win?

Astarloser.

Bert dominates the front page, smiling with his "smoking gun" finger held high - VeloResults says; "Chapeau, Bert !"

It was a late start for Martin and I today, but it let us get loose ends tied up and plans made.

"Rest day" is a bit of a misnomer, if you're committed to what you do.

It would be easy to do a few phone interviews, or amble along to the nearest press conference, take some notes of the same quotes as everyone else is taking, then have a nice early dinner.

But if you want to do your best, that's different.

We're en route the Skil-Shimano press conference; we want to talk to their manager, Rudi Kemna about being the little fish in the big pool.

It's more of a low-key get-together than a press conference.

We're also meeting Orlando Van Den Bosche there; he's the Schleck's manager and has promised us a 'two on two' interview with the two stars - a nice coup, if we can wangle it.

Martin and Rudi chat about the Skil team's approach and attitude, they want to ride with 'bravura'.

Much much later, we're sat outside the hotel in a post fondue glow.

The Skil-Shimano gig was a good one, Rudi Kemna, the DS oozes enthusiasm and has good patter.

We had another chat with lanterne rouge, Kenny Van Hummel - he's cool too.

Ken might be last on GC, but he's a bloody good rider - a stage win at the Dunkirk 4-day and second at Schelderprijs this year shows that. Oh, and he rode 200 mountainous klicks on his own yesterday, and still made the time cut!

But the Schleck interview has gone from rock solid to a mirage.

We were meant to meet our Schleck contact at the Skil 'do' but that fell through and it ended up that we had to present ourselves at the Saxo hotel at 10:00 pm - one can imagine the thrill that les Freres Schleck would experience at two eejitz from Scotland arriving to interview them at 10:00 pm.

Stuck without our second piece of the day, we dived into the Silence-Lotto hotel, about 30 K down the road.

Marc Sergeant still looks in great shape.

Marc Sergeant is a good guy; eloquent in English and never ducking questions.

We also grabbed Big Hendrik Redant; we chatted to both of them about Cadel's bad day and the last week of le Tour.

It transpires that old Hendrik is a lover of Scotland and visits our shores every year - it's a small world !

Bon nuit !

Ed and Hendrik talk about whisky and *that* criterium in Dunfermline in 1987.

Al Hamilton

“Manda Contador” Contador in charge is the headline this morning on the inside pages, but on the front cover we have “Contador, colosal en Verbier” a colossal, splendid or excellent Contador and as you might guess Alberto made all the TV news stations in Spain.

Contador is now the leader for sure.

Alberto Contador;

“There is now no doubt who is the leader at Astana, it’s me…”

Have you won the Tour?

“Surely no. There is still the third week and many adversaries who have the strength to change things. The brothers Schleck have demonstrated they have it”.

What was it like to attack your idol?

“Nothing special. Armstrong is my idol, but it meant nothing at that moment, only the ride towards the line. Lance on paper is important for Astana."

Armstrong; “Alberto is the best in the Tour”. He also commented;

"I’m happy to be in second position overall to my “compañero” Contador."

Andy Schleck: “Contador es un cohete” - Contador is a rocket and made a monstrous attack.

Cadel Evans: “Mi peor dia en el Tour”. My worst day in the Tour!

Bradley Wiggins is “El rey del velódromo que dejó la cerveza”. The king of the cycle track without beer. He was well known in The Duke of York pub in London for having a drink. With a diet and no beer he lost 7 kilos and now he is more agile in the mountains. AS thinks he will be the star of the new Sky team with Millar, Cavendish and Flecha.

A lighter, sober Wiggins is doing wonders.

Carlos Sastre wants to win a stage in the Alps, he is 3 minutes and 52 seconds behind Contador and said: “Sunday has started a really hard last week”. He wasted a lot of energy chasing back to the leaders after the frenetic action from the Saxo Bank team earlier on the climb to Verbiers.

So that’s all the news from Spain on the last rest day, except for the photo of the podium girl at the Vuelta a Madrid on the back page of AS, just to remind you that the Tour isn’t the only race at the moment, also today I bumped into Neil Stephens and some riders of the Caisse d’Epargne checking out the big stage to the summit of the Aitana for this years Vuelta a España, so there is life after the Tour.

AS' back page.

Hasta Luego, Al.

'03: # Tour de L'Avenir, prologue.
'05: # Circuit de Lorraine, time trial, # Tour de L'Avenir, stage.
'07: # 4 Days of Dunkirk, prologue, # Dauphine Libere, prologue, # Tour du Poitou Charentes, stage, # Duo Normand.
'09: # De Panne, time trial, # Tour of Qatar TTT.

Contador stamped himself all over the race and his team today.

It's not bad, but it's not amazing - today was amazing; he dropped Lance and was driving in front of Nibali and Schleck.

I thought that maybe the Head's sedate progress through the Pyrenees had been responsible for his exalted GC position - but no, today was a death race with the absolute best on the planet.

Total, unqualified respect, Bradley.

Alberto Contador; any man that can win the three biggest stage races in the world is special - today he put a line under, boldened and italicised the word 'special."

The thing about what we do is that you don't see much of the race on TV; but I believe that Lance was big enough to admit that he didn't have it and that the skinny man from Madrid is the best - respect to you too, Mr. Armstrong.

We see Craig at the feed zone, waiting to give Contador his lunch, whilst brandishing an SRAM bottle opener!

The parcours were tough, today - to average 25 mph on a course like that, with a nine kilometre climb to the finish is extraordinary.

It was a long day, today.

A Swiss meadow, with Tour 'copters in the sky.

We had around 1:45 to drive from the digs in Dijon, to the start.

During the drive I began to rough out the piece about Lance's bike, on the BlackBerry.

Driving the course is always fun, but you have to be paying attention all the time and make sure that you take sufficient pictures to support the piece.

I write most of the words as we go.

At the foot of the Verbier climb they halted all traffic not directly involved with the race; we could have chosen to take the cable car up, but I've done that before, at the Giro, a few years ago - getting of the hill was terrible.

We settled for walking up a bit, taking some pics, then watching the finale on the TV in a little outdoor bar.

The Livestrong guys are out very early these days, painting the roads with their messages. We just wonder if they help wash them off again.

Our parking was good; we were one of the first cars off the hill, but it was still a fair trail to the digs on difficult roads.

Nocentini has enjoyed a week in yellow, but that's over now.

By the time we reached them, I had the day's piece and the Armstrong bike piece away.

The words are only half the battle, though - the pictures have to transferred on to the laptop, culled, edited, labelled and sent, then the "label holders" have to be inserted into the text.

And, of course, there's always the pallava to get on-line to send the images.

I can't imagine how it must have been in the old days; photographers had to develop their pics in the bathroom and arrange for couriers to collect and deliver them - I guess we have it easy, when I think about it.

That's our view from outside the chalet hotel.

We're in a chalet hotel in Megéve, high in the Alps, near Chamonix - ski country in the winter; walking and mountain bike country in the summer.

Our hotel for the next five days (unheard of on a Tour!). It's a really beautiful spot in the French Alpes called Mégeve.

The wi-fi wasn't too much of a struggle and the guys that run the place are helpful, so again, "musn't grumble!"

Rest day today; we're working our way towards an interview with the Schlecks, this morning - wish us luck!

Breakfast calls.

Al Hamilton

“Casi Hincapié”

That’s the headline in AS this morning, nearly Hincapié; the American missed it by five seconds. Winner Ivanov.  It has been eight years since the Russian champion won in 2001 in Aix le Bains.

Poor old, popular, likeable George.

Hincapié “Una lástima no ser lider” - 'it's a pity I’m not the leader' is a bit of an understatement. But you have to feel sorry for the man who was so close. He said;

“it’s a pity I didn’t get the yellow jersey by only 5 seconds. It was hard work in the break to get the gap on the peloton, Garmin and Ag2r didn’t give me anything”.

“Rocky” is now how AS sees Lance Armstrong, at a hotel on a crossroads in Vosge a man with no less than 40 guards making a imaginary police cordon.

Lance Armstrong is the mysterious person waiting, dressed in a grey sweat top with the hood pulled over his face; it’s Rocky Armstrong. “They will never find anything ever” that’s what Lance has to say to the UCI, referring to the dope controls.

Mother and father (and uncles and aunts) of Alberto Contador are at the race to see their son take the race in Verbier. Paqui and Francisco have made the trip from Pinto, near Madrid, to see Alberto, as you would expect from a mother she said he (Contador) “has no rivals”. Aunty Esther sums it up with “Contador, El Mejor”, The Best!

Before the stage to Colmar we heard Evans and Schleck say they were going to attack and nothing happened. Well they are both saying it again about today’s stage to Verbier. Andy Schleck says “we have a plan” lets see.

Oscar suffered from pellet wounds after being shot with an air rifle!

“The Tour is exposed to lunatics…” those were the words of Tour director Pescheux after the incident of Oscar Feire and Julian Dean being shot. The police are questioning two 16 year olds who had an air pistol. The Tour is guarded by 55 moto police and a total of 25,000 police covering the 3,459 kilometres of road and over 1,000 other members of safety organisations.

The back page of AS thinks team Columbia were the big losers yesterday, no points for Cavendish and no yellow jersey for Hincapié”.

Marca opens with the abandonment of Tom Boonen, maybe he shouldn’t have started?

Also top stories are the declassification of Cavendish for irregular riding in the sprint. Alberto Contador is quoted saying “today things will change, there cant much more possibilities for movement, this is a very beautiful stage”:

So there you have it, let’s hope something happens today!

¡Vamos a ver! Let's see! Al.

We spent the night in Freiburg - just across the German border, the hotel room is huge, if a tad Spartan; but that didn't stop us from sleeping like bricks.

It's very difficult to get digs close to the stage town; best to book around an hour away - which is what we did.

After the sleep deprived living death that was Thursday, we were "fully kindled up" - as we say in Fife - yesterday; a good kip makes all the difference.

Ed imagines what it would be like to ride in brown shorts. Again.

Martin and I got three pieces away yesterday, usually two is the target, but we had Tyler Farrar to catch up with.

Today we're targeting two stories; "the riders' view of the first two weeks" and "Lance's bike" with a piece on the caravan as our "banker."

We spoke to some cool guys this morning - Danny Pate seemed like a really good guy.

We gave Charley a bottle of Drambuie as a wedding present. He was disappointed it wouldn't fit into his bottle cage.

Breakfast was fine; 08:50, nearly time to go - more tonight.

It's 15:50 now, we got our caravan pics and ten riders' worth of sound bites and headed off to find Lance's hotel, to pester the mechanics.

But there's no escaping le Tour; round a corner we came and it's route barré (I think that's the right spelling).

So, we're sitting in this wee village - name unknown! - waiting on le Tour to streak through.

The word is that Big George Hincapie is in a break which has gone eight minutes clear and he's maillot jaune virtuelle.

The sun's oot, we've got two pieces in the bag and two cameras full of good pics; no need to panic.

The 'speaker car' zooms past; Martin reckons they said the gap is 8:30 from the peloton to the break of 12.

You never can tell in this Tour, we thought a break would be let go but be controlled smartly by AG2R; or it would end in a sprint - this wasn't scripted.

But we're at 45 K to go; maybe there's time for AG2R to hang onto that jersey.

As we were told this morning by his teammate, eventual stage winner Ivanov made it into the break. He's here in second place as the leaders hurtle past us at 40mph through a corner.

There's a tail breeze rising as the motor bikes hurtle past - cops, photos, service, official - and Jeez! they're here! motoring!

Partners in crime, brothers in arms all with a common goal - until the sprint, when they'd cut each other's throat for a stage win.

There aren't too many stages left to win; the Heads will take the mountain top finish stages and time trial; there are only three men in the race on the Champs Elysées - but there are an awful lot of teams desperate to justify the expense of dragging 30 or 40 folk round France for most of July

A Francaise des Jeux, a Lampre, Ivanov - Stijn Vandenbergh told us that was the Katusha tactic - Hincapie, Maaskant and others that I couldn't register.

It was nice just to watch the break there and not to worry about taking pictures.

It's a big gap; and whoosh! a tide of blue, yellow, brown and white - Astana and AG2R.

One more day of hard work for Nocentini's faithful servants and one more move on Johan Bruyneel's chess board.

The bunch streak past us in less than 30 seconds.

And then they're gone.

Usually I never ask about moving barriers or the like - I "just do it!" but for some reason, this time, I ask the head cop.

'Jobsworth' doesn't do him justice; he doesn't even look at me as I make my polite request; "Non! Vous attendez!" - "No, you wait!"

Despite showing him our creds and pleading, he's adamant; then I realise: he's loving it - why are people like that?

Martin takes us on a half hour loop through the hills to get onto the course further up, looking forward to passing the cop, but on the other side of the barriers back at where we started; but by which time the damned road is open - oh well!

Dave texts to say that the gap is 6:42 with 27 K to go; on GC, George is at 5:25 - it might be close.

We get the Tour on the car radio - Ivanov has jumped the break and taken it.
He's been a pro since '96, Lada, TVM, Fassa Bortolo, T-Mobile, Astana and now Katusha; that's what you call "experienced."

Now it's 8:30 and we've just left the Astana hotel where we were talking to Lance's mechanic, Craig Geater and playing with Lance's Trek.

We catch up with Craig as he works on the Astana bikes.

Dirk Demol (Astana DS) was telling us that it was Garmin who hauled the Hincapie/peloton gap down enough to deny him the jersey. Dirk said he couldn't think of any tactical reason other than one American team seeking to deny another the yellow jersey.

Martin gets the chance to play with Lance's gorgeous bike, a 2010 Madone. It's light, full of trick bits. And they have the paint scheme spot on nowadays too. (click for the full image)

The Trek has SRAM computer compatability built-in. Nice.

Clever cable routing - why has no-one thought of this before?

Astana were happy to let George take the jersey; it would have kept the pressure off them.

A text from Dave, more scandal - Cav declassed for riding big Thor into the barriers; this could make it very difficult for Cav to take the green jersey at the end.

There's only one sprint stage to go - the Champs Elysées and with an 18 point buffer on Cav, it's hard to bet against the big Norseman.

We're on final approach to the digs at Dijon and there are a lot of pix to edit and send, so best say "bon nuit" and "au demain."

Tour 09 Stage 14 Map.

Tour 09 Stage 14 Profile.

Al Hamilton

“Nadie se mueve” Nothing moves.

“Los favoritos no se atacaron. Haussler ganó y Txurruka, secundo” sports daily AS reports today. The favourites don’t attack. Haussler wins and Txurruka, second.

All a bit disappointing as the stage to Colmar was to be the first appointment with destiny for the Tour favourites, but a big nothing!

AS says 'nothing moves' - it does seem like when you watch it on tv...

Other news starts with the shooting of Oscar Friere and Julian Dean. There are photos of the bullet marks on the leg and arm of Oscar Freire, he and Julian Dean were shot at around the 155 kilometre mark of yesterday’s stage to Comlar with 4.5 mm shot. “I felt a very strong pain and there was a lot of blood” Freire said back at the hotel after the team doctor had removed the bullets. Rabobank and Garmin teams have put the case in the hands of the French Gendameria, who have opened an investigation - and I thought that only happened in Drumchapel!

Shooting riders with an air rifle!? What next?

Alberto Contador said;

“This is the Tour with the least attacks. The cold and rain had much to do with yesterdays disinterest in action from the favourites, very quiet. My biggest rivals are Cadel Evans and Andy Schleck. Sastre is a little behind, but a great racer and the last week is good for the complete rider”.

What about the loss of Leipheimer? Alberto thinks;

“He is a big loss for the team. I hope he recovers soon”. Levi said “I couldn’t move my hand. I’m going home to convert into the No.1 fan of Astana”.

On the same page as the bad news of the “positivo por CERA” for Landaluze and Serrano is Lance Armstrong complaining that he has suffered another analysis by the UCI dope controllers. He and team-mate Andreas Kloden were requested at the control at the end of the stage at Colmar.

Armstrong;

“This is one of the hardest sports and I had to get up at seven in the morning on a mountain stage!”

Serrano and Landaluze maybe felt the same way about their dope controls, but they are guilty.

Never mind innocent until proven guilty, the feeling with some riders is 'you're not guilty until your caught.'

Just so you don’t think that the Tour is the only cycling at the moment, AS reports on the Vuelta a Madrid. Alejandro Valverde was second in the first stage time trial, 23 seconds behind local rider, Hector Guerra, who rides for the Portuguese Liberty Seguros team. Oscar Sevilla of Rock Racing was 4th and team mate Mancebo was 10th, tomorrow they race over a hilly 180 kilometre course.

That’s the news from Iberia.

Mañana, Al.

I just noticed that the Rolex ad on the back of yesterday's L'Equipe is a picture of Turnberry, with Ailsa Craig in the background - ah ! the Auld Country !

The footwear of choice for Tour journos this year is 'basies,' as we used to call them - baseball boots; I'm gonna stick with my deck shoes.

Vosges Matin, the local paper, has a Tour pull out, all the riders, all the stages and with a great pic of Sorensen, winning in Vittel, yesterday - the French do embrace the race.

Right, we'll try some joined-up stuff.

The smell of the bakeries in Vittel this morning was wonderful, as Martin and I ambled round to find the team buses.

Ale looked cool at the start, as usual.

But first, we took 10 minutes to watch the publicity caravan roll out; you would have to be really cynical not to manage a smile for the caravan.

We had four goals today: interview Tyler Farrar; get the DS's opinions on what could and should have been a turning point in the race; watch the race live on the last climb and give Charly Wegelius his wedding present, a bottle of Drambuie.

Tyler is a joy to talk to, polite, lucid and insightful - that was an easy job.

As they say on "The Fast Show", Tyler is a "good guy".

We caught up with Charly, he larked about, trying to put the Drambuie in his Canyon's bottle cage - the TV crews appeared, as if by magic; "do that again, Charly!"

Talking to the DS's was cool, especially Konyshev - a legend.

He was second to Lemond in the Worlds, 20 years ago and still winning pro races up until a year or two ago.

Most of the DS's thought today would see a shake-up, but Dimi was spot-on: 'nothing will change'.

Jobs done, we headed off to drive the course.

It was wet, twisting, turning in the early part with savage climbs from half distance onwards - hard to imagine that it wouldn't be a decisive stage...

I'll give you one fact that sums this day up - 6th Thor Hushovd, Cervelo-Test Team; yes the "built like a hoose-end" sprinter.

As Dave texted me, "they're riding like it's a sportif!"

The focus is on Nocentini, who must be thanking his lucky starts that the GC contenders seem to be scared to attack Astana. Was it Shakespeare who said "A brave man dies but once, a coward many times"?

Haussler's performance was excellent; but the GC bonfire is proving reluctant to catch light.

One happy German, er, Australian.

We've ranted about it before, but it looks like ASO have not got it right with the "final Saturday up the Ventoux" ploy.

Jonathan Vaughters told us today that Garmin will be defending up until the final TT, next Thursday.

JV had time to chat, and Frankie Andreu asked after you, Brian.

A "baroudeur's" stage, tomorrow - maybe a sprinters; but that depends how mad Cav is about Hushovd snaffling the green jersey.

OK, time to watch le Tour on German Eurosport - why German?

Tell you tomorrow.

Ciao, ciao.

Tour 09 Stage 13 Map.

Tour 09 Stage 13 Profile.

Al Hamilton

“Batalla en los Vosgos”

I couldn’t get my hands on a copy of AS this morning so had to make do with Marca.

They lead with today’s battle in the Vosges mountains; there are many riders who say they will be attacking on the roads to Colmar. Alberto Contador is expecting attacks, but said it was up to the others, he would be waiting.

Martin and Ed think they might have been at the wrong race, only seeing a few boys battling today, and lots of laughing and chatting as the three big groups went past on the last climb, the Firstplan.

The big problem for all the riders could be the weather as “tormentas, frio y viento” (heavy rain, cold and wind) has been predicted for the stage.

Armstrong is saying “it could be a shit stage with many difficulties, lots of attacks from rivals and a crisis in my team on the final climb. We will have to analyse the situations as they arise”.

“Es una de las etapas más duras y decisivas del Tour” (this is one of the hardest and decisive stages of the Tour) said Giovanni Lombardi, the manager of the Schlecks.

The Devil gets his photo right in the centre of the report, which shows there wasn’t much to say about yesterday’s stage to Vittel. “Pellizotti, a bone for Egoi” refers to the chase for mountains points which enlivened the breakaway as Marca puts it, “making a beautiful pulse in the hills”, but the quote of the day has to be the jump of Nicki Sörensen, “like a cat out of water”.

Banzai!

“'Banzai' hacia Paris". Historic, two Japanese riders might finish the Tour for the first time ever! Tomoharu Masuda, producer of J-Sport, the TV channel that retransmits the Tour in Japan says “there are many young road cyclists in Japan”.

“Contador no quiere ‘gorilas’” Alberto does not agree to Lance having three “gorilas” bodyguards with him. The madrileño (Contador) is simply a cyclist, not a person of fiction or a Hollywood artist.

They do keep picking away at each other, do these "teammates".

So that’s today’s news through the eyes of Spanish sports daily; Marca.

Hasta mañana, Al.

Four hours sleep, as Barry White would say; "it's just not enough!"

It's 14:19 and we're on the motorway, near Metz; we just got lost - no excuses, but the signage is grim.

A town will be clearly marked, then it disappears at the next roundabout and being on the correct route has a large element of luck to it.
 
It's not until you fly over Northern France again, that you remember how much a part agriculture plays in the structure of the French economy.

Nicki Sorensen.

Fly over Scotland and it's not long before the patchwork of fields gives way to the hills - moorland or fores, but in France, the barely crumpled green, brown and golden quilt covers the land to the horizon and beyond in every direction.

Paris has hi-tech La Defense and Toulouse spawned Concorde, but make no mistake, much of France is still "profond."  Rural, deep, real.

But, enough of my blethers - "what about the race ?"

"Cavendish quatre à quatre" says the heading above the postage size picture of Cav, tucked into the gutter of L'Equipe's front page.

On the cover of Monday's edition, the whole front page was devoted to a colour picture of Fédrigo getting the better of Pellizotti at Tarbes.

The French are obviously getting bored with the ease with which Cav is hoovering up stages.

There was a piece in the Guardian, this morning that the French are also peeved about the young Manxman's getting a bit "eggy" (as Terry Wogan would say) and making use of the "F" word, to quote L'Equipe's headline, our Mark is alleged to have been 'going off' thus; "Asshole" and "F***ing Frenchies" - ah yes, I can see Viktor raising Cav even higher on the pedestal, now.

Ironically, right beside those eight column inches, he gets 10/10 to Tyler Farrar's 8, Hushovd's 4 and Freire's 3.

They also analyse Cav's train, "Le TGV de Columbia"... Grabsch and Eisel control the breaks and start the chase, at 50 kph.

Monfort, Kirchen and Rogers prevent breakaways and launch the final part of the train - 60 kph.

Hincapie, Martin and Renshaw bring Cav in, alone, as fast as possible and as close to the line as possible -  70 kph.

Doesn't sound that difficult!

And across the top of the page above, a picture of him getting the better of Tyler Farrar, it proclaims; "Un sprint parfait" so, I guess they can't be that pee-ed off with him. 

The Salle de Presse in Vittel.

It's 17:30 CET now, in the press room, Vittel - we were met with the usual indifference when we went to get the creds - fat, bald and old doesn't cut it with the ASO lovelies. [Ed's not describing me! Martin].

But eventually the White Knight arrived; a helpful lad who spoke English - job done!

Sorensen just won, he jumped the break then jumped his co-escapee, Calzati to win in the grand manner.

Cav skooshed the bunch sprint to stay in green.

That's it, then, game on - best do some work !

Ciao !

Tour 09 Stage 12 Map.

Tour 09 Stage 12 Profile.

Al Hamilton

AS starts today’s news with the fact that Cavendish wins stages with or with out race radios. “Dictadura del sprint” and “Con pinganillos o sin ellos, se repite el final: gana Cavendish”, remember pinganillos are race radios in Spanish. So “Cav” is the dictator of the sprint, which if you think of it, that’s quite strong in a country that lived under a dictator (Franco) as recently as 1974!

Cav is the talk of the race.

Cavendish is the star of all the Spanish sports papers, “Cavendish equals the record of victories in 11 stages”. The man from the Isle of Man is being mentioned in the same breath as: Petacchi, Cipollini and Freddy Maertens in that they have all won 4 stages in the first eleven stages.

The other big news is that Leipheimer and another 106 riders, including Wiggins and Menchov, are to be given back the 15 seconds they lost on Tuesday. Possible good news could be that Bouygues may stay on as a sponsor for another year costing 5.5 million euros; the win by Voeckler seems to have helped.

Andy Schleck has said: “Seria estúpido no atacar al Astaná en los Alpes…” so it would be stupid not to attack Astana in the Alps, fairly obvious.

We can't wait, Andy.

Contador and Armstrong are his main competition and Alberto has the form, but Lance has to be given a lot of respect. And Friday to Colmar? “I would be stupid not to attack; I have a plan, maybe an early attack!”

So the last week will be all go, bring it on!

Más Tarde, Al.

It took Barry Hoban a whole career - two decades - to notch up eight Tour stage wins - but they didn't all come from bunch gallops.

It's taken Cav just two-and-a-bit Tours to equal Barry's record - but every one of those has come from a mass purge for the line.

Mark Cavendish.

Pro cycling is a sport where "ifs," "buts" and "maybes proliferate, but if Barry had Renshaw and Co. to support him, who knows how many he might have won.

But it was different back then; it wasn't until Post's Panasonic team started to make a science of it that we had lead out trains, "as we know them, Jim."

The Bill Gates of the sprint train was Cipollini; on his day, few were the men who could come round him at the end.

Barry Hoban.

When he won the Worlds at Zolder, every bike rider in the pro peloton had known for a whole year that all they needed to do to wear the rainbow jersey was to come off Cipo's wheel, at the end.

Neither Robbie McEwen, Erik Zabel or anyone else could do it.

Cav can win the Worlds, if the parcours suits him. And it wouldn't have to be pan flat; his win in Milan-San Remo proved that.

It's impossible and improper to demean Cav's achievement, but I think Lady Luck has paid her part in the rise of Super Cav.

He's on the scene at a time when there's not a proliferation of rapid finishers.

Hoban was grazing his elbows against all time greats - Van Linden, Sercu, Karstens, Maertens.

Freddy Maertens.

Not just fast men but madmen - Van Linden and Karstens were of the "win or crash" school.

It's all a lot more PC, clinical and much less physical these days.

In this Tour, Cav is only being troubled by Hushovd and Farrar.

Hushovd is a great pro but suffers from the "too many cooks" syndrome at Cervélo - the same one that Zabel used to succumb to at Telecom; if you have a GC guy to look after (Ullrich or Sastre), there can't really be enough horse power left for your sprinter.

There's no such confusion at Columbia - just like Bruyneel would never contemplate wasting his time with a sprinter at Disco and Postal, when the GC was to be won - there are no overall or KOM notions with Stapleton's team. 

You won't see Columbia (or Astana) 'up the road'  there's only one job to be done; leave the show boating to AG2R, Agritubel and BBox.

Tyler Farrar.

And what about Tyler Farrar? He doesn't fit in with the typical "hyper" sprinter image; he's cool, calm, polite and laid back - 'til the flame rouge, that is.

He's in the Cipo mould, a 'drag racer' he needs it to be long and fast - no one knows better than Farrar that if you let Cav get his kick in first, then it's over.

Farrar's Garmin guys are fine on the run in; Wiggins, Pate, Zabriskie, Hesjedal - all big strong chrono guys.

Bur when it comes to those vital last couple of kilometres, he doesn't have a Martin or a Renshaw or a Big George.

Matt White, DS at Garmin says that building a train for Tyler is a priority at Garmin this winter, let's hope so - we want to see Cav challenged and not making crass statements about; "how easy it is to win."

Anyway, enough of my sprint based rant - that's Vik's job!

Ailsa Craig has just disappeared under the wing tip, off to the right;  next stop France - and le Tour.

We'll be there, live and in full effect 'til Cav wins the last stage on the Champs Elysées - and I promise to try and not rant too much.

Ciao, ciao.

Tour 09 Stage 11 Map.

Tour 09 Stage 11 Profile.

 Al Hamilton

The back page of AS sets the pace for all the “race” reports, yes the ban on race radios, or as they are called in Spain “pinganillos”, of course the photo is quite nice to look at also!

AS' back page today.

Fourteen of the teams were against the decision to ban the race radios, six were in favour of the ban, but in the end they rode till the last 30 kilometres and then they raced for “Cav’s” stage win, this didn’t stop the fans coming out to enjoy the spectacle.

Carlos Sastre enjoyed the day; he said “today was a journey of tranquillity in the Tour. Without attacks. Without nerves. Without orders.” Maybe he was referring to the fact that they didn’t race till near the end, than not having a radio?

The yellow jersey wearing Rinaldo Nocentini was visited by his girlfriend Manola. She says: “Me llamo Manola y soy la mujer del lider” (my name is Manola and I am the woman of the leader). She has been his girlfriend for five years, likes to wear cowboy boots, rides in the AG2R bus and waits near the sign-on area to be there to the last second.

"La mujer del lider."

Nocentini has been sharing a room with Spaniard, José Luis Arrieta. Rinaldo says of the man from Navarro “he is very Italian” and “on the day in Andorra he paid for the cava”. The Tour leader loves his football and is a big fan of Milan and of Ronaldinho, the Italian press announced that “Rinaldinho is the leader of the Tour”.

Contador has reiterated that Friday’s stage to Colmar will be the “dangerous” stage, so more wins for Cavendish and then ¡BANK! Looking forward to Friday.

Mañana, Al.

Cav wins Stage 10, before saluting his sunglasses, or something.

That said, stage win number three was no surprise; I didn’t see it myself and had to rely on Vik updates... don’t worry, I’ll spare you.

Suffice to say that Samuel Dumoulin may be creeping up to challenge Davide Moncoutie’s status as ‘Vik’s least fave coureur.’

This one's for Viktor - Samuel Dumoulin.

It’s 9:30 pm and I haven’t done my Pez interview for the day, yet. Tonight is Scott McGrory – ex-Olympic champ and six day star, who now works for the Australian Fox TV sports channel.

Dave and I bumped into him at the Giro and I thought his would be a good view to get as le Tour approaches half way.

Scott McGrory interviews the great Eddy Merckx for Fox TV.

The trouble is, on the Tour normal time frames don’t exist –you do what has to be done, when you need to do it and often end up scraping about for restaurants at ‘dark o’clock.’

It was like that for Scott tonight; he had just sat down to dinner at 10:00 CET; I have to phone at 11:00 CET – being an 05:30 alarm man, that’s getting late for me.
 
There was more colour in the Guardian again today, and gossip that Lance will ride next year’s Tour before coming back with team Nike/Livestrong/Trek/SRAM to win in 2011 as DS; if he’s not too busy with running Texas by then, that is.
 
Meanwhile, the gossip from the other side of the Astana Gorge is that Bert is headed for a new outfit in 2010 – Banco Santander (so, that’s where all our dosh went!).

This is surprising news; I thought Contador would be with Johan and Lance until it was time to ride his farewell criterium circus around Spain, in about eight years time.
 
And Nocentini rolls on, serenely, in yellow – respect, Rinaldo.

Nocentini just keeps his head down and lets Astana do the talking.

But Big Brad missed a split and dropped 15 seconds to go seventh; I’m intrigued to see how the big chap will do in the Alps.

Brad must be hoping to stay in touch with the capo's in the Alps and do something in the Time Trial at Annecy a week on Thursday.

OK, gotta bell that man en France, au demain!

Tour 09 Stage 10 Map.

Tour 09 Stage 10 Profile.

Al Hamilton

“Calma tensa” are the headlines above a nice picture of Tour leader Rinaldo Nocentini enjoying his day off with a “capuccino” outside a traditional café in Limoges.

On the same page is a photo of Contador and Armstrong out riding - and again Lance wears his own kit, mmm so I wonder what that tells you of team solidarity?

AS reports that Bert and La are okay with each other.

The talk is of Hollywood and the films that could come out of the Tour. Matt Damon would be the star to play the life of Armstrong and Contador would be Tobey McGuire; well, whatever!

Alberto Contador held a press conference yesterday and said (again) that he has no problem with Armstrong, they all travel in the bus together etc.

Alberto said “I can’t win the Tour solo, I need a team”. Where will the race be decided? Contador; “in the Alps and on Friday to Colmar, also Sunday in Verbier and the day of the Grand Bornard and La Colombiére. The time trial to Annécy and the Mont Ventoux are the keys”. Who are your rivals? “Andy Schleck and Evans, and Sastre has great experience”.

Talk of a new team, and Bert switching to it.

On the Formula 1 page there was a photo of Fernando Alonso out on his Colnago with Carlos Sastre and speculation that his present sponsor Banco Santander would be having a ProTour team built around Alberto Contador.

No-one is confirming or denying the rumour, but it is not just a plan but a project in motion, said manager Luis Garcia-Abad. The boss of the bank, Emilio Botin is said to have a good relationship with the bike champion.

Friday’s stage to Colmar seems to be everyone favourite for action. “Va a ser un dia peligroso” confirmed Evans that it will be a dangerous day. Andy Schleck says “nothing has been decided” so he will be looking for action as will Sastre, who has not given up, but said it will be difficult for him to win this Tour.

So a stage without radios has not gone down very well, riders' president Jens Voigt has suggested a day without helmets or brake cables! The organisers of La Vuelta a Esapña have said there will not be any experiment on their race...

Roll on the Tour!
Hasta mañana, Al.

I bought L'Equipe today - it was Friday's, but what the heck?

The front page ignored the then yellow jersey, Cancellara, and concentrated on the favourites: Armstrong on the same second as Fabian; Contador at 00:19; A Schleck at 1:41; Sastre at 2:44 and Evans at 2:59.

Bert goes "against the plan" according to LA.

It just goes to show - apart from Bert stretching his legs to gain time up Arcalis on Friday - how little happened over those three days in the Pyrenees.

Albeit we had good stage winners and exciting finales.

The gaps are now: Contador at 00:06 on Nocentini; Armstrong at 00:08; Schleck at 1:49; Sastre at 2:52 and Evans at 3:07.

Like Lance said before the start and Brian Smith said to me when I interviewed him for Pez the other day; "it's all about that last week!"

Charley knows the score.

Friday's edition.

I was fortunate enough to get a chat with Charly Wegelius tonight and he described the Pyrenees as "shadow boxing," and endorsed that it is indeed, 'all about the last week.'

I guess on the one hand that the organisers want to build suspense to the finale on the Ventoux; but if that means days of negative racing in the meantime, well...

Charly also said that this week has a lot of stages which according to the press and the stage guides are "sprinters stages" but which are actually very tough.

I remember at the Giro, on Sardinia, two years ago, Dave and I drove a "sprinters stage" - eventually won by McEwen.

The thing that amazed us was that there was a damned big mountain in the middle of the thing!

Anyway, time for bed - only three sleeps 'till Martin and I are at le Tour!

Again, I only saw the finale; maybe not a bad thing, I have a tendency to nod off during long, uninteresting breakaway stages.

I caught the last 20k or so, and it was uncertain as to whether they would stay away; if it had been a flat stage and Columbia had been in full effect, then Fedrigo and Pellizotti would have been swamped.

Pierrick Fedrigo takes Bbox's second stage of the Tour.

But despite the best efforts of Caisse D’Epargne – with a little help from Rabobank – the two fugitives held out.

Oscar easily wins the sprint for third.

Oscar Freire must have been frustrated, he took third easily; it could perhaps have been the win if Denis Menchov had set the cruise control a little earlier – he has all day tomorrow to recover, after all – and Oscar is certainly the Orangemen’s best chance for Tour glory.

The last 10k was good bike racing, a frantic bunch, in a long, long line against the two foxes – and like Charly Wegelius says; “it’s good for the dogs not to catch them, sometimes.”

Pello did all he could, he’s no sprinter but he made the right move, diving into the right hander first and making the Frenchman come the long way round – he could have done little more.

Pello took the Combativity award as small compensation for second place.

It’s not been a bad Tour at all for the Motherland; but what I’m really hoping for is a Moncoutie win in the Alps – Viktor will just love that!

And there’s the email from Brandt, who sponsor the combativity (le coureur qui a anime la course avec panache) prize; Pello today; that’s fair and he’ll be a boy to watch on the Ventoux.

Rinaldo Nocentini (AG2R La Mondiale) is rising to the challenge of riding in yellow.

Nocentini takes the yellow jersey into the rest day – shows you what I know!

Ciao, ciao!

Tour 09 Stage 9 Map.

Tour 09 Stage 9 Profile.

Al Hamilton

"El león del Tour".

The lion of the Tour is the headline today in AS and Luis León Sánchez makes (as you might expect) the front and the back pages.

Luis León won the stage in to Aurillac in last year's Tour, now a year later he made the assault on Saint Girons for his home: “Va por mi hermano, mis padres y los compañeros” - For my brother, my parents and my friends, and he adds “for Alejandro Valverde”.

Luis León is the toast of Spain today.

His brother was a famous footballer, Pedro León; he played for Valladolid, but tragically died in 2005 in a fatal quad bike accident. Who does he think will win the Tour? “Contador!”

Contador has been selected for more attention than just by the fans; he has been tested three times in two days. “Análisis ‘selectivos’ para el madrileño (Contador) y Armstrong." First on Friday, then in the morning at the Novotel of Andorra la Vella and then at the finish line there was a Chaperon from the UCI.

Contador goes about the parts of his profession that are less pleasant quietly and with dignity. Lance twitters.

Armstrong sent a message on twitter saying he was at another anti-doping test too.

After 90 kilometres on the stage to Saint Girons, 2006 Tour winner, Oscar Pereiro called a halt and abandoned.

The Galician said his body had had enough; his pulse would not go over 160 when normally it would be 185 bpm. Most of last year he was recovering from his crash in the 2008 Tour and had raced 52 days before reappearing in this Tour.

“El Tourmalet es la gran esperanza ‘anti-Astana’” - Andy Schleck predicts attacks as does Evans.

AS' front page today.

The problem is that the Tourmalet comes a long way from the finish in Tarbes, 60 kilometres to be exact, so this will make it very difficult to stay away from a chasing Astana team. Should be exciting stuff anyway!

Nos vemus mañana! Al.

The stage today had three climbs, and began almost right away with the Port d'Envalira. Here, we saw lots of riders willing to give the race a shake, none more so than Sandy Casar, who jumped across to an earlier group of escapees then continued on ahead by himself to cross its crest first.

With groups forming and reforming until the third climb, the Col d'Agnès (12.4 km at 6.5 percent) some 40km before the finish in the valley, we saw a group of three riders, Sánchez (Caisse d'Epargne), Efimkin (Ag2r La Mondiale) and Astarloza (Euskaltel-Euskadi) crest the summit first, and Casar getting back on to make four.

Luis Leon Sanchez wins stage 8.

Around four kilometres from the line, Efimkin attacked and looked very much like he'd stay clear and win the stage, but with 500 metres to go, the Russian (who never really got more than 100 metres in front) was caught by Sandy Casar.  Sánchez played it as if he was spent, and Casar went past, not realising that Sánchez  had slotted onto his wheel, able to get a quick breather, before sprinting past him. Astarloza did enough for third place, a few seconds later.

Sánchez said afterwards;

"I knew Efimkin had no choice but to attack. I know him quite well because he used to be one of my teammates.

"He isn't that fast a sprinter though, so I knew he was going to attack from a fair distance.

"I said to Astarloza and Casar that we had to work together to get him back, and once we had I needed a bit of luck.  I know I have a decent sprint, so I was able to win."

Sánchez also took over the role of leader of Caisse d'Epargne after team-mate Oscar Pereiro, citing poor form, and is now quite well positioned on the overall classification. He started the day at 4:10 down on race leader Rinaldo Nocentini (AG2R La Mondiale), and was for a time the yellow jersey on the road, finishing today 11th overall on GC.

Meanwhile, Cervélo's Thor Hushovd used his racing savvy and strong legs to move into the lead in the green points jersey competition by getting into the break and winning two intermediate sprints in front of George Hincapie, who was trying to take the points to protect Mark Cavendish's lead.

Getting green was Thor's mission for the day.

As soon as he won the second intermediate sprint, Hushovd sat up and waited for the peloton to catch him, job done for the day.

Tour 09 Stage 8 Map.

Tour 09 Stage 8 Profile.

Tomorrow...

The Tour will wave goodbye to the Pyrénées tomorrow, in the ninth stage from Saint-Gaudens to Tarbes. The relative lack of distance will be compensated for with two of the most difficult climbs during three days of racing across the Pyrenees; the first-category Col d'Aspin before approaching the eastern side of the famous hors-category Col du Tourmalet at 90km.

After a long descent, the final 45km are down a long, wide-open valley to the finish in Tarbes.

Ed Hood

“Nocentini should savour his day in yellow,” said me – I got that one wrong, and now it’s looking like the “I-tal-an” (as Sean calls them) could be heading for quite a few days en jaune.

In fairness to myself, I don’t think the Pyrenees have been as hard as perhaps we expected; the ‘heads’ minds are very much on the last week, and that Saturday on the Ventoux, in particular.

I managed to get the work, driving and hospital visits completed in time to see the last hour of the stage.

Viktor doesn’t like him, but I have a soft spot for Sandy Casar, two years ago he saved the Tour for the French with a great stage win – the man wants to win so badly, and you have to admire that.

One of the main animators of the stage, Sandy Casar.

But he was up against Sanchez on top 'Al Pacino method acting' form; “I’m finished, I can’t come through!” the Spaniard pleaded as he shook his head, in best Belgian style - but like Brian Smith says; “he won’t get away with that again!”

Brice Feillu’s stage win on Friday was a good one and it was nice to see a young French rider in the climber’s jersey; but socks and shorts too? – when I first saw him and all those dots, I thought, “jeez, my eyesight is getting even worse!”

Talking about jerseys, ‘nice one’ by Hushovd to nick the green one from Cav – the wee Manxman won’t like that, and that can only be a good thing for those of us watching the race.

Wiggins is very impressive; but why ride on the front, yesterday? It’s down to AG2R and the Kazakh Happy Gang to do that – best save that energy for the Alps, Brad.

Again, to quote Brian Smith; “A lot of guys get carried away because it’s the Tour.”

The Observer does us proud again, today - as has the Guardian, all week; there are colour pics, race report, diary, stage analysis; it’s not L’Equipe, but it’s a world better than we used to get.

I’ve never been a Daily Record reader, but I well remember how they did Robert Millar proud, back in those heady Vuelta-leading days of the 80’s.

OK, I'm getting nostalgic, best go and write up those Scottish 50 championship interviews.  Ciao, ciao.

Al Hamilton

“Ruge Contador. Atacó y sacó 21 segundos al grupo de favoritos, Nocentini, lider”

“Roar Contador. Attack and gain 21 seconds on the group of favourites, Nocentini, leader”. That was the head lines in this morning AS.

Roar Contador!

Alberto said “Ningún favorito atacaba, asi que decide hacerlo yo” - he thought that if none of the favourites were not attacking, then he should.

After the finish he said he was pleased with how it went, but the next stages in the Pyrenees are complicated and the climbs on Saturday are harder than Arcalis.

Evans is complaining that “Astana are controlling the race, they have four of the strongest riders in the Tour”.

Contador no siguio el plan, no esperaba que lo hiciera.

Armstrong was accused of sarcasm over the attack of “compañero” Contador in AS; “Contador no siguio el plan, no esperaba que lo hiciera” - he said "Contador's plans were no secret, he couldn’t wait to go, it was no surprise to me". Lance’s last statement; “El equipo no sera un problema”. Well if you say so Lance!

Nocentini was pleased to take the yellow jersey as it has been nine years since the last Italian to wear it, Alberto Elli in the Tour of 2000.

One of the headlines in Marca was a quote from Astana director, Johan Bruyneel “Contador y Armstrong tienen el mismo status”.  So now they have the same status in the team? This seems to change from day to day and it looks as though it will have to be the legs that do the talking and if Bert shows the same speed he left the leaders yesterday then that might stop the in-house arguments.

Should be more action today as there are three hard climbs, the first is from the gun, ouch!

Mañana, Al.

The 23-year-old Frenchman, waited until the 6km to go banner before attacking the others in the break and hammering into the headwind to the summit finish.

Race newbie Feillu wins Stage7.

Said Feillu;

"I believed I had a chance, as it was a finale to my taste, with four kilometres to go the gap was still the same, about 10 seconds, I think.

"Then it increased about 10 seconds every kilometre, but in the last kilometre it went down again and I got really frightened. I really dug deep then."

Italian Nocentini finished 26 seconds behind.

Here at VeloResults, we have a weakness for fraternal storylines, and the Feillu clan are both the sort of appealing underdogs that make for great brotherly drama. One is a feisty, fearless sprinter with a great backstory of overcoming a severe leg injury requiring five operations to correct, the other a spindly young neo-pro climber in his first Tour.

Together on the tiny Agritubel team, they are thumbing their noses at the might of the big teams with a yellow jersey and now a stage win between them. "It made me cry....I believed in him," said an emotional Romain after Brice's unlikely triumph thrilled the French fans (among others) today.

Brice wants to take the polka dot jersey to Paris, and we hope he does. It would hopefully provide quite a refreshing contrast to the sleazy polka dot jersey winners of recent years like Kohl or Rasmussen.

It's also interesting to consider how some young riders arrive in the pro peloton and just deliver wins right from the start, while others who seem fully capable and talented enough, take years of time to "develop." Are the truly talented riders the ones who can just win from the start? Or is it normal for great riders to take years to mature and grow into their potential?

Ed Hood

Rinaldo Nocentini, will know to savour the maillot jaune experience this morning; it will only last one day.

His legs will still have that breakaway in them and the ‘Heads’ will be sniping at each other, again – it’s unlikely he’ll survive on that slender margin.

But a rider can dine out for a long time on a day in yellow; no probs with a contract for 2010, then.

He’s not a bad rider, 3rd at the Junior Worlds in ’95; 2nd at the Espoirs Worlds in ‘98; stage wins at Langkawi in ’99; Giro della Toscana ’03; Tour of Poland stage ’04; Subida al Naranco in ’05; three Italian semi-classics in ’06; GP Indurain in ’07; GP Lugano in ’08.

And another rare bird; an Italian on a French team – Italian or not, the sponsor will be delighted, a French team in yellow doesn’t happen every day.

Brice Feillu – brother Romain blew it in Barca on Thursday with a ludicrously early effort in the sprint which resulted in his nearly stopping dead in the middle of the road.

But young Brice’s effort was perfectly timed; if you have to pick one race to have your first pro victory in – make it a Tour mountain stage.

Let’s just hope that he keeps his feet on the ground and the French Media retain some sort of balance; not touting him as another Hinault.

Instead of easing into the weekend, I was running aboot daft on Friday afternoon, but I caught the last 20 minutes or so of the stage on le box de goggle.

Cancellara is dropped and loses yellow.

Fabian accepted the end of his tenure en jaune with dignity; Evans attacked, albeit too close to the finish to have any real effect - but maybe he’s working on the old Scots principle that “monay a meikle maks a muckle” - and Alberto showed his mettle.

It was too close to the finish to be a Merckx-like imposition of will, but it sent a big message to a certain gentleman from the Lone Star State.

Bert’s attack was “majorly impressive” (copyright Sean Kelly) – dancing light on the pedals, quick, clean, oozing class; he even had to freewheel on a corner because he was going so fast.

Wiggins continues to impress me, the change in him is simply amazing – from the gruppetto last year to jousting with Lance and his Astana Happy Gang, this year.

Nothing settled, but good stuff and it's early days yet.

And remember that the only thing in the mini bar fridges these days is water; there are no ‘oil changes’ in 2009– we hope!

Ciao, ciao.

Al Hamilton

600,000 people on the route of the Tour in Cataluña yesterday.

That’s the headline in AS this morning - that, and the start town of Gerona doubled its population from 94,000 to 180,000 as the workers on the new AVE (fast train) line stopped work to watch the race and wave at the camera.

"It was my day, but..." says Óscar.

On a sporting front; the other headlines are “Se cruzó Hushovd. El noruego impidio la Victoria de Oscar Freire en Barcelona”. It says the cut or cross of Hushovd, but they don’t mean that he switched Freire, just that he impeded the chance of Oscar Freire victory. Freire thought it was his day, but just didn’t have it in his legs.

Hushovd: “Voy a pelear por el maillot verde” - I’m going to fight for the green jersey, it was a nervous and without a moment of rest. Everyone at Cervelo will help Sastre to reacquire the yellow jersey.

Happy Birthday Frederico.

Winner of the Tour 50 years ago; Frederico Bahamontes, was celebrating his 81st birthday in Barcelona. Homenaje al “Aguila de Toledo”. He was presented a large birthday cake by Bernard Hinault and Thevenet.

Today’s stage should show who has it and who has just been showboating on the flat stages, bring it on!

¡Hasta luego! Al.

Tour 09 Stage 7 Map.

Tour 09 Stage 7 Profile.

Gordan Cameron

You go all the way to Arcalis and then just below the summit of the climb you meet someone who knows Ed Hood. It takes the biscuit.

Having missed out on scoping the climb yesterday, we made it today, and in good time too.

It was a gorgeous day for the climbs to make their first real appearance this year, but we’ve seen plenty of the Norwegians and their numbers seem to be multiplying all the time.

Some climb!

Long after the race had finished, we could still hear the few of them who were still capable of standing belting out their raucous anthems. I wonder if Kurt-Asle Arvesen’s ears are still ringing? They made quite a racket when we passed them on the way down from the summit.

We went over to check out some Lion Rampant flags and found Norman Skene, from Aberdeen. Some of you will probably know him, and in fact Ed and Martin used to race against him. I reckon Norman would be happy to take on the guys once more … have I thrown down the gauntlet on his behalf?

Feillu showed fantastically well for a first-time Tour rider, hanging on to win the stage.

The press room was 4.5 kms from the top so we saw a fair chunk of the race on TV then went out onto the climb to see the riders go by. Brice Feillu had just attacked and was pulling clear out of the tunnel – AG2R had two in the break deciding whether to chase him or just try to get Nocentini to the top with a sniff of the yellow jersey.

Then the big boys loomed into view, hunched together like a coven of multicolored witches. Lance with his poker face at the front, Contador just behind, Andy Schleck looking like a primary seven kid on the senior football team’s pitch, and Andreas Kloden gliding silently along behind.

The sprinters were having a day off, and there was plenty of laughing and joking as they cruised the final climb. Cav was happy to keep his green jersey as Hushovd was with him in the same group.

The autobus knows it's going to make the time limit okay.

It was another few minutes before Angelo Furlan crawled past … last man in the race. The small pocket of teenagers wandering back down the road paused to give him a chorus of ‘Allez! Allez!’ – Furlan couldn’t even move his eyes from the road, and probably couldn’t even hear them.

This is the Tour de France – the strong thrive and survive, the rest just wait for a better day. I’m just hoping I can get over the horror of watching one guy, dressed as a gendarme from the waist up and an on-duty stripper from the waist down, tottering up the final kilometres.

What a start to the hills.

Less than one week into its debut Tour, the  Cervélo Team scored a sprint victory today with Thor Hushovd in the 181.5km sixth stage to Barcelona.

Hushovd battled through rain and slick roads that saw team captain Carlos Sastre fall without major consequences early in the stage before attacking up a climbing finish to Barcelona's Olympic Stadium to claim Cervélo's first-ever Tour stage win.

Thor takes a very hard finish up the Montjuic climb.

Hushovd positioned himself perfectly in the uphill sprint, relegating three-time world champion Oscar Freire to second place with Spanish rider José Joaquín Rojas trailing across third.

Dave Miller and Sylvain Chavanel in the break.

Scot Dave Millar (Garmin) made a brave move, attacking after just 20km of the stage completed, and then 30 km from the finish from the three other riders with him in the break, then time-trialling to the finish, only being caught with 1.2km to go, once he had started the Montjuic climb.

On occasions, Millar had been maillot jaune virtuele, but ended losing over a minute in the last kilometer as his battery drained completely;

"I knew when I got to the city and the big 4km-long, wide boulevards, that any advantage I had on the wet, narrow streets would be gone. I wasn't able to build up enough of an advantage, and I knew the bunch were bearing down on me.

"I tried not to look behind me, and then on the climb I was aware they were on me and glanced round - and it was like someone had pulled the plug out, the energy just went completely."

Cervélo lead the bunch between the showers.

Overnight leader Fabian Cancellara retained the yellow jersey.

Thor was understandably chuffed.

A delighted Hushovd said;

"Of course, winning makes me very happy. It's always important to win a stage at the Tour de France.

"I knew that today would be a good opportunity for me. I was able to get on Freire's wheel and that was the perfect place to be.

"We wanted to win a stage in the first week and now that we've done it, I'll work to help Carlos in the mountains."

The 31-year-old's seventh career Tour victory brought him within one point of Mark Cavendish in the fight for the green points jersey.

The victory certainly helped take the sting out of a painful day for some of the Cervélo team riders, as scores of crashes and accidents marred the rainy and slick stage along Spain's rugged Costa Brava.

Sastre slipped in a pileup early in the race, but was not seriously injured. The 2008 Tour champ finished safely in the main bunch and didn't lose any time relative to his main GC rivals.

Beautiful Barcelona.

Tom Boonen came clattering down on the run-in, his front wheel washing out on a painted zebra-crossing and bringing several other riders with him.

Spanish climber José Angel Marchante and Heinrich Haussler also crashed, with Haussler hitting the deck twice in the closing kilometers.

Haussler reckoned;

"I went down on a slick spot coming out of a roundabout. It was just so wet there, my front wheel just slid out.

"I took a lot of risks to catch back to the front group to try to help Thor in the sprint, but then I fell again when a huge crash took out 30 riders. I don't care, though, I'm just glad Thor won."

Laurens ten Dam and Yukiya Arashiro hit the deck.

Tour 09 Stage 6 Map.

Tour 09 Stage 6 Profile.

Tomorrow...

The Tour continues tomorrow with the 224km seventh stage from Barcelona to Arcalis in the principality of Andorra. The stage features the first major climbs of the race and we will surely see a major reshuffling of the overall standings.

The route opens with two relatively minor climbs in the first half before the Cat. 1 Col de Serra-Seca at 127km, ahead of the long approach to the hors-category climb to the Arcalis summit high in the Pyrénées.

Ed Hood

I just made it today; the remote control is too smart for me and it takes an age to find channel 521.

Eventually, there it was - Barca, one of my favourite places on earth.

The long, straight boulevards, the plane trees and - David Millar.

I'd caught a glimpse of him on a "box' somewhere, earlier in the afternoon in a four man break, now here he was, two hours later riding 'la course en tête, en seulle.'

Tall, loose, stylish, urging his Felt across the slick tar of the Catalan capital.

Dave won the most combative rider today, and well deserved.

There were eight kilometres to go and his lead was around 40 seconds - "not enough" I thought, but maybe there would be a lull or a big stack up in the peloton on a bend and he could pull it off.

Past the exhibition halls, the museums, the fountains at the foot of Montjuic through huge crowds, braving the rain.

A right and he was on the climb, the "easy" side of Montjuic, the famous Escalada ascends the brutal hairpins from the port side.

Not steep, but one man - however stylish, strong and brave - is no match for the rampaging beast that is the peloton.

In a blink, he was washed away; Feillu went suicidally early, Freire countered, Pozzato showed, Feillu died and Oscar was left in the middle of the road looking for a wheel; in that moment, the stage was gone for Spain.

Hushovd is a big man but somehow it's the uphill sprints that suit him - on the right, sure and true he propelled that Cervélo to the line.

Hands high, beaming - sweet, sweet victory.

Freire was second, Cav 15th - and still in green.

I tried hard to get an interview with David Millar last night, but no dice - texts and emails came to nought.

Never mind; but if you are reading this David - "Respect!"

Mountains tomorrow - a different Tour begins.  Ciao.

Al Hamilton

¡Bon Dia i benvinguts a Catalunya! Good day and welcome to Cataluña!

Today the Tour comes to Barcelona and as Oscar Pereiro says: “The finish in Barcelona is especially big for all the Spaniards” and Antonio Flecha, the classics-man of Rabobank says he will be working for his team-mate, Oscar Freire.

Freire was up there, today, but didn't take top spot.

Antonio said “the finish in Montjuic is ideal for him (Freire)”. The course is not flat with a few little hills and the last 3 kilometres have a rise of 3%.

The last time the Tour came to Barcelona, Spanish rider, Pérez Francés won the stage on the 2nd of July 1965, and he was 44 years old at the time.

When asked who he thought would win the Tour he says: “I like Contador very much, he’s extraordinary”.

Armstrong, what of him? “Not in the category, he’s part of a show!” So he won’t win? “No, or be on the podium”.

Astana's internal wars, reckons Meta2Mil, we're not far away from finding out who is the rightful team leader.

Also in AS today the old report has risen again of “the new English team, Sky which will début next year, has signed Bradley Wiggins and David Millar”, we'll have to wait and see!

Yesterday we had the token French stage win to keep the home fans happy, but it seems that wasn't the Columbia team plan - they were annoyed that no-one was helping them to pull back the escapees. With the form of “Cav” what’s the point?

The weekly cycling paper, Meta2Mil, came out today. It has all the old news from the first week of the Tour, but they do add the padding we miss from the dailies, but, of course it’s out of date by the time it’s in print.

The front page has to be Cancellara “First leader of the Tour’09” and “Contador the best of the favourites”. This was before the break and the TTT.

Big double page spread on the success of the Columbia-HTC team, 37 wins last year and 49 so far this year. “Columbia is a machine for winning races and money.”

Back page on AS today has the sad news of the abandonment of Gesink (Rabobank) with a broken wrist. Oh! And Claudia...

Adéu, fins després. Al.

The back page of AS - sports paper.

Gordan Cameron

So, I’ve been a little bit tardy the last couple of days, but not without good reason. Some technical problems with a major broadcaster wasted a couple of precious hours in the press room in Montpellier on Tuesday. The problem last night was a long, long walk from the finish area to the press centre in Perpignan.
 
And now, Thursday night, it’s late again and after a madcap drive to Andorra, I’m just about to crawl into bed.

They start reading the papers young en France.

I saw the last 20kms of Dave Millar’s brave, doomed bid for victory this afternoon on TV … which mirrored my own problems.
 
The idea was to miss out the 400+ kms of driving to Barcelona then up to Andorra, that I’d check out Arcalis today. Never happened. Not even close.
 
To go back to Tuesday, I’d been supposed to meet up with a press rep to go and have a look at Specialized’s new TT toy, the Shiv.

QuickStep and Saxo Bank were using them, but Bjarne Riis’s guys were locked down for the day and we couldn’t get close.
 
It seemed to work for them though, hanging onto the steaming Astana express just enough to keep Cancellara in the lead.

Cervelo about to start the TTT.

Montpellier was a hard day for us, just waiting in the heat. The word back from the guys who’d ridden the course in the morning was that it was super-hard, and very dangerous, with a lot of road furniture and awkward corners. And we saw for ourselves what happened to Skil-Shimano, BBox, etc.
 
Yesterday was an off-course day, driving through from Cap d’Agde to Perpignan, and my girlfriend’s first time in the press space just beyond the finish line.

Total chaos, we could hardly have chosen a more ‘real’ day.

The cops were super aggressive, shoving people every which way - but still not clearing the bottleneck that got all the riders stuck tantalizingly close to the buses.

Gordan took a photo of this cop's badge number - he was so aggressive, shoving him out of the way, between two cars without noticing that Efimkin (AG2R) was trying to get through the same space.

It was a real up-close-and-personal day. Someone, not sure who, grabbed my arm as a support to get through the crowd. A rider with good English, politely saying ‘Excuse me!’ and using me as a lever to get out of the finish. His gloves were wringing wet with sweat …. You don’t get that close to footballers or other sportsmen do you?
 
Today, over the stress of our close encounters with the police, we had an abortive drive to Andorra. It seemed we weren’t the only ones with a similar plan to get to Arcalis, and most of them were lorry drivers. After four hours or so, we just gave up and went to hang out in the local bike shop in Andorra La Vella.
 
The general view from the guys in the shop, our new pals Manuel and Dot, is that it’s between Lance and Alberto to sort it out tomorrow. In 24 hours, we’ll have more of an idea who is the real boss of Astana.
 
And hopefully, I’ll have had a more successful day.

Today's fifth stage saw the first successful breakaway of this year's Tour.

Thomas Voeckler held off the chasing peloton by seven seconds to win out of a five-man escape in the flat but windy 196.5km course from Cap d'Agde to Perpignan. Russian rider Mikhail Ignatiev also held on from the break to claim second with British sprint phenom Mark Cavendish leading the pack snapping at their heels for third.

Thomas Voekler takes the stage, after attacking the break with just under 5km to go, a gutsy and intelligent ride.

Thor Hushovd led Cervélo Test Team across the line with 10th while Carlos Sastre finished in the main bunch to remain 29th overall at 2:44 behind race leader Fabian Cancellara.

Robert Gesink was obviously in pain as he chased after a fall with two teammates - now we know why, he had a broken wrist.

There were no major shake ups in the overall classification.

Carlos Sastre said;

"The fifth stage of this Tour was nervous from the beginning. It was open country, with narrow roads, crossing from left to right with a lot of cross winds and headwinds. During the stage there were some splits.

"Once again I felt very protected by my teammates and we didn't have any problems, always staying at the front and in good position. We've cleared another important day of this Tour and we're getting closer and closer to the Pyrenees."

Pippo has been told to change his Italian Champ's jersey - it's not what the Italian Federation reckon represents the tricolore porperly.

Brett Lancaster also commented;

"From the start, with the quality of guys in the break, we knew it was going to be hard to pull them back.

"Thor is quite happy when he's been up there in the sprints. It was a bit of a mess of a sprint, but that break stayed away in the end.

"There was a tense moment when the course turned into strong crosswinds and the pack split into four groups as it braced against the fierce winds.

"We knew it was going to split right there at the lake where it was windy, so we did a good job keeping Carlos at the front. The team felt good today and took it easier after the team time trial. Carlos was real satisfied with how the team rode yesterday."

Tour 09 Stage 5 Map.

Tour 09 Stage 5 Profile.

We're looking forward to tomorrow now, as the Tour continues with the 181.5km sixth stage from Girona to Barcelona in Spain.

The undulating course hugs the spectacular coast road along Catalunya's Costa Brava before turning inland and looping around toward Barcelona, one of Europe's most dazzling cities.

Cav keeps his green jersey today, after taking the points for third on the stage.

There's a relatively easy Cat. 4 climb at La Conreria with 22.5km to go, but that shouldn't slow down the peloton.

The stage finishes atop the short but steep Montjuic hill overlooking Barcelona's main harbour.

The road is steep enough - with ramps as steep as 6 percent - to split up the main pack and give the peloton's punchy climber's a chance to win the stage.

Should be good!

Al Hamilton

Yesterday’s team time trial was a show of domination from the strongest team on this years Tour; Astana!

AS front cover this morning.

AS starts with “Por 22 centésimas” [for 22 hundreds], Astana win and Armstrong is not the leader by a fraction of a second. All fairly obvious, but there must have been words in the Astana camp as it seems that the plan was to put Lance in yellow yesterday and then Bert can take over later, mmm, well!

On the second Tour page we have quotes from Armstrong; “Astana si que puede tener a dos lideres” - so it is two leaders again.

Who really knows what's going on at Astana - perhaps they don't even know themselves.

We also have Contador: “El veiernes (Ordino Arcalis) llega ya mi terreno…” - on Friday we enter my terrain…

Andorra here we come. Is that the plan now? Lance for yellow in the next two days and then Bert takes over later? I think when the Texan has that jersey he won't want to loose it, and we will see more Astana team fall-out.

AS also run all the headlines form around the Sporting World along the top of two pages, not unexpectedly they all say much the same thing, the headline “¿Armstrong y Bruyneel le estan hacienda la cama a Contador?” Basically are Bruyneel and Armstrong in the bed of the house of Contador? Not the way I would put it, but we know what they mean.

Carlos Sastre thought the result was positive and was happy with the work of the team, which was not what Cadel Evans thought of his team; “The team was not prepared for this kind of race - except Lloyd and Wegelius, Silence has very young cyclists”.

Today's edition of World Press.

Looking forward to the Tour entering Cataluña today and for the next few days [Cataluña covers a large area of France, Spain and Andorra], the ERC (Catalan Independence Party) are encouraging everyone to fly the flags of either Catalonia or the Independence flag, and even the old pre-Franco Spanish Socialist flag with the purple stripe at the bottom.

Also to celebrate the Tour coming to Barcelona and the 50th anniversary of Bahamontes winning the Tour, the Mayor of Barcelona, Jordi Hereu, with the help of Miguel Indurain, unveiled a commemorative town square.

The return of the back page lovely today was with Brooklyn Decker, wife of Andy Roddick -  see, there is a sporting connection!

Mrs. Roddick.

¡Hasta Luego! Al.

Ed Hood

‘Tommy’ Voeckler is that rare bird – a French rider that Viktor can tolerate and who can actually win races.
 
Shame about the nick name; “Le Chou-Chou”...  excuse me, I have to throw up – ahh, that’s better.
 
His win in stage 5 was good for the race; it is Le Tour de France after all, the heady days of Hinault and Fignon have gone, so stage wins are as good as it gets for the French fans – and maybe a day or two in yellow.
 
I’ve managed to catch all the finales live on TV thus far and I saw Voeckler arrive in solitary splendour, shake his head, smile, wave to the crowd, kiss his wedding ring, blow kisses to the crowd then wait for his team mates to cross the line; cuddling them one after another.
 
Call me a sad old fool, but I like all that stuff – its part of what makes our sport special.
 
Skil-Shimano have been trying hard; they’ll suffer for that in the mountains but full marks to them for enlivening the race whilst they can – it was Albert Timmer’s turn yesterday, to show the jersey in the break of the day.

Kenny van Hummel is no slouch - he's won five races this year.

Their sprinter, Van Hummel is quick, not Cav quick (but who is?), but quick nonetheless – he’s won five races so far, this year including a stage in the Four Days of Dunkirk; he was also second in the Scheldeprijs – let’s hope we get the chance to see him in action.
 
I’ve been chatting to their “Man From Japan,” Fumy Beppu; he’s just so enthusiastic, you can tell that he loves the sport and is having the time of his life in this Tour.
 
Talking of talking to people; after the TTT I thought it would be good to talk to one of those heroic Garmin guys – I thought that Ryder Hesjedal would be a good bet, with him being Canadian I figured that the Pez Meister might have a number for him.

No dice, so he got hold of the Garmin PR, but it was all taking too long, I had a deadline.

The Garmin DS, Matt White is a good guy and very approachable, so I rang him and had a little chat with Fumy.
 
Last night I had an interview set up with Tyler Farrar – another polite, approachable, feet-on-the-ground but fast man.
 
But then Hesjedal’s mobile number arrived from Slipstream – you can’t not take advantage of that; I rattled my questions together and picked up the phone.
 
At this stage it was looking like I wasn’t going to be talking to Tyler – sometimes riders can’t get back to you; transfers, late dinners, team meets or Media OD all contribute.
 
I got my piece with Ryder – another sound, pleasant, articulate guy; “That’s fine," I thought, "that’s worked out well!”
 
Then the red light blinked on the BlackBerry, it was Tyler; “Hi Ed, sorry, would now work?” – again, when a guy who is jousting with Cav asks you to call him, you don’t say; “no!”
 
Anyway, I was up at 05:30 to convert all those squiggles into copy and write this.
 
I hope you’re enjoying our efforts, Gord seems to have slipped off the radar but we’ll see if we can get him back.

We asked Al to to buy all the Spanish sports newspapers, but we don't think he minds really!

Al’s still there though, down at Javi’s Bar in Polop, wading through them Spanish sports papers and drinking café con leche – all just for you! 
 
Barca, today – wish I was there!