Singing for Lance in the Alps

I would like to say that the Tour de France isn't over until a certain lady sings, but she'd already sung for Lance Armstrong on the stage to Courchevel. Of course he'd had some help from his team to get there, but it was Lance's legs that did the damage on those 21 kilometres to the ski resort.

Even after seven years, Lance Armstrong was able to use the same tactics that he has used in previous years. Staying out of trouble for the first week, he was able to get to the first high mountain stage and inflict damage against his rivals. He wasn't able to win the stage from Grenoble to Courchevel, and in the same way that Indurain wasn't able to shake off the climbers, the Spaniard Alejandro Valverde took the stage win from Armstrong. However, look what happened to the likes of Ivan Basso, Levi Leipheimer, Floyd Landis and Jan Ullrich. They all lost over a minute and have been looking to see how they can play catch up ever since. The Texan is as strong as he's ever been.

We've seen some epic and deserved stage winners this year. Austrian Georg Totschnig has been through the highs and lows during the race. Falling ill before the start of this year's Tour de France, Totschnig suffered from a lack of motivation and a desire to return home. His health steadily improved on the early stages, before he finally found his legs on the stage to Ax-3 Domaines and rode to an emotional stage victory.

We also saw the American George Hincapie ride to his first individual stage victory in a Tour de France. After selflessly working for Lance Armstrong over the last seven years, Hincapie was able to get into the breakaway group and win the stage on a tough day through the Pyrenees. His role was to be up the road for Lance, but when the break reached over 18 minutes, he was on his own and given the green light to go for the stage victory. Riding to the win on the Pla d'Adet is certainly ample reward for the all the work he has put in for his captain and makes up for the disappointment he has faced on the mud-covered roads of northern France in the Paris Roubaix.

With Lance wrapping up the Yellow Jersey early in this year's Tour, we also had the Dane, Michael Rasmussen, riding to a great stage victory through the Vosges mountains to Mulhouse. Before we'd even reached the high mountains of the Alps, he had taken a commanding lead in the mountains classification and he has continued to consolidate his position on every mountainous stage.

Once tomorrow's mountainous stage is over, we will still have the points competition that will be decided over the final week of racing. Robbie McEwen has been playing catch up from the start of this year's Tour, but with three stage victories, he certainly has the legs to take green in Paris. Thor Hushovd is currently leading the competition, with Stuart O'Grady and Robbie McEwen only a few points behind. None of the stages on the run towards Paris are really a day for the sprinters, but we may see O'Grady in a breakaway over the last weeks racing. He will be looking to take advantage of a sprint in a small group, and he has already shown us that he can do this. He won the Tour de France stage from Valreas into Grenoble in 1998, and he showed us in last year's Dauphine Libere that he can climb and descend when he wants to when he won a mountainous stage that started and finished in Grenoble.

So what questions do we have left now? Will O'Grady take the Green jersey, will Ullrich stay on his bike and then find the legs to overtake the Dane, Rasmussen, in the final time-trial to reach the podium, and finally, will you come back for number eight, Mr Armstrong?

The Olympic decision and British food

Over the last few days we've had some fun in the office following the French president's comments on Monday that British food and agriculture. As reported on the BBC website, Chirac's is quoted as saying that Brits shouldn't be trusted as the food is so bad over there, and the only thing we'd done for agriculture was mad cow disease. I have found that it is true that the French percive the food in the UK to be bad.

All this has been alongside the build up to find who will host the 2012 Olympic games, with Paris and London, had created some friendly rivalry here in the office in Grenoble. London won the vote to host the games, and I then found notes on my desk to ask me not to sit there, and that London cheated, and that all Brits should go home. All good and harmless fun, of course.


Now, the files have started arriving on the internet, and these have of course been sent around my colleagues here in France.

Le Tour kicks off and Lance leads

The holiday season has arrived and the Tour de France is now rolling through the French countryside. The Tour comes to Grenoble early in the race, and we have a rest day next week in the city before the first high mountain test on Tuesday.

I was hoping that we'd see a close race from the start, but already Lance has showed us he's as well prepared as he's ever been. In the 19 kilometre first stage time-trial, he was two seconds off the pace on a stage where the stage winner, David Zabriskie, was taking a minute out of Vinokourov, Landis, Ullrich and friends. Only Lance remained competitive, and he was only a couple of seconds off the pace of the stage.

I followed the whole Dauphine Libere race this year, and Armstrong looked composed and strong. It was part of his training, and although he wasn't winning the stages, he was always near the front. We've seen from today's team time-trial, his team are one of the strongest in the race and they are there for one purpose, to protect Lance.

Lance also seems to have some luck on his side already. Jan Ullrich crashed and put his head through his team car windscreen on the day before the first stage - which must have affected his performance. Today, the yellow jersey David Zabriskie crashed in the last kilometres of the team time trial, and this may have cost his team the stage, and it certainly cost him the race lead.

It's difficult to bet on anyone other than Lance Armstrong winning this Tour de France, but hey, we knew that before the start of this Tour de France, didn't we?