Stage 10: Good Brakes Make For Good Neighbors

Hold onto your butts...

Chambery-->Gap, 179k/111 miles, same distance as Eugene to Portland, Oregon.


This was something of a high-planes adventure. Though the route is officially out of the alps, there was a startling difference between the lowest and highest elevations, ranging up to 2,000 feet at times. I shot the above video of the lead riders as they descended the Col du Noyer. When the numerous riders of the peloton followed, you could hear their brakes being applied from quite far away.

The winner of the stage was Sergio Paulinho (POR, Radio Shack). After all those miles, and all those thousands of feet in elevation, his win was a matter of inches.





Sergio, beating out Vasil Kiryienka (Belarus, Caisse D'Epargne) by such a small amount my tv had trouble freeze-framing it. This was Radio Shack's first win of the tour. With this being Lance's last year, I'm wondering what will happen to the team.





There are no substitutions allowed in the race. If you can't keep going, you're out. Yaroslav Popovych (Ukraine) here got injured at one point, and the race doctor simply dressed his wound as he rode along. They do this sort of thing all the time.





Seems an odd place for windmills. I guess it works though.




The smallness of humanity...


Anyway, it was another hot day on the tour. And interestingly enough, they were following the same path Napoleon took when he returned from exile on Elba and retook the crown.

100 Days