One thing I have learned from my many years as a journalist is that, especially at the start and finish of race stages, I should only ask a few questions and the total interview should be around a minute. This is for several reasons. First off, there are other journalists who also want to talk to the riders. If I tie up a rider for five minutes, when time is really critical, not only do I keep other journalists from getting their story, but I risk having competing journalists evesdrop on my interview and then I loose a bit of exclusivity. So to be fair and to keep my interview as exclusive as possible I get and get out and let others do their work as well.

The second reason is that these riders have a job to do. Yes, they need to make themselves available to the press, but before or after race stages when chaos and anxiety are at critical levels is not the place to start asking about career goals and how they feel about the war in Iraq. So, out of courtesy, I try to keep it short and simple.

Today at the sign in for the stage from Bourg d'Oisans to St. Etienne I talked to a bunch of the riders who have been lighting it up in the Alps.

Carlos Sastre rolled up in his first day in yellow. BTW, Sastre's time for the ascent of the l'Alpe d'Huez was 39'29" for an average speed of 13 miles per hour.


Jens Voigt has done just about everything in this Tour from pacesetting at the front to climbing to initiating breakaways to super-domestique in the mountains. I asked him if is there is anything he cannot do. "I am really shite on a rainy descent. That's the only thing where I am absolutely hopeless. Apart from that I think I am doing well."

Jens was asked to describe his teammate Carlos Sastre. "He is just a peaceful warrior. He's hard when it comes to it(racing), but he is friendly and loyal. He gives a lot to the team so that is why everyone wants to help him."

Austrian Bernard Kohl of the Gerlosteiner squad will wear the polka-dot jersey into Paris. I asked him about what it was like on the Alpe, where he finished in the lead chasing group and sits third overall 1'34 seconds behind Sastre and one second behind Cadel Evans. "Yeah, it was really hard. It was the hardest stage in the Alps and after two and a half weeks of racing and after 200 kilometers (on that day) the race was really hard."

Who was he keying off of on the Alpe? "I had to look for Cadel Evans. He needed to keep the gap from getting too big for the time trial." Can Kohl defend his podium position or even move up a place or two in the final time trial? "No, I am not really the time trialer like Cadel Evans or Denis Menchov. I am a climber. I will try my best in the time trial and we will see."

Kohl's Gerlosteiner teammate, winner of the first time trial and former wearer of the yellow jersey, Stefan Schumacher, was especially active in the Alps with long breakaways on the stage to Jausiers and also to the Alpe. I asked him if he was trying to make up for his sub-par performance in the Pyrenees. "Yeah, in the Pyrenees I was not so good, but now I have a lot of time(he was way down on GC) so I tried. Also, it was important for the team to ride an offensive race and work for the mountains jersey. Bernard had the jersey and I controlled it at the front."

Danny Pate was in the lead breakway on the stage to Prato Nevoso and in a position to snag Team Garmin-Chipotle's first Tour stage win. I asked him who he was watching on the climb to the finish. "I was just watching the Euskatel guy(Egoi Martinez) because he seemed like the best guy." Both Pate's and teammate Will Frischkorn's breakway moves were big pluses for the squad and proved their worth in the Tour even if they did not win a stage. Also, having a rider contending for the Tour podium isn't half bad, either!

Save for one bad day, the stage to Huatacam in the Pyrenees, Alejandro Valverde would be a heavy favorite for a podium finish come Paris in four days time. I asked him what happened down south and why he climbed much better in the Alps. "In the Pyrenees I had bad luck and my legs were not there. In the Alps I felt better and could climb better as well. I am happy with how things have worked out."

George Hincapie crashed hard on the stage to the Alpe and on the day after he was wearing extensive bandages on his left side which were already showing stains from his wounds. He looked like he was in a lot of pain and confrimed it when he succintly answered my question on how he feels. "Bad." I asked him if he would soldier on to Paris and he replied that he would give it a shot. George is a true warrior and I hope he makes to to Paris for his 13th Tour.

The last of the 150 remaining riders to sign in was one of the true revelations of the race, Garmin-Chipotle cyclist Christian Vandevelde. He was oh, so close to the podium, and has still has a shot, but the emerging star recounted what happened in the Alps. "I had one bad day two days ago but I made up for it yesterday."

Most likely referring to the clinic Team CSC Saxo Bank put on during the past three days, when asked how it felt to leave the Alps, Christian was not convinced that the race had truly left the Alps therefore allowing the riders to rest up for the showdown on Saturday. "It feels good, but we are still in the Alps. We have to go to St. Etienne first."

Well, there you have it.

Bruce

In the town where each stage begins there is the Ville de Depart or start village. Race sponsors set up booths and offer a whole wealth of products and services to VIP's, invited guests of the town, and begrudgingly, journalists. I took a tour of the start village in Embrun, where, for the first time in recent history, there will be two stage starts, one to Prato Nevoso, the other to l'Alpe d'Huez. Below are some of the more interesting happenings.

Race direct Christian Prudhomme is always there to meet and greet with the head honchos of the local organizing committee. Later on, I spotted him giving an interview to French radio; obviously, he feels pretty strongly about something.

Richard Virenque won the polka dot climbing jersey a record seven times. Evan after admitting to using drugs, he remains a favorite of the French fans. Now retired, he works for the French edition of Eurosport TV as a commentator and because of his climbing wins also does some PR for Champion supermarkets which sponsor the polka-dot jersey. Here his doing and autograph signing, but he appeared to be just going through the motions which is too bad for one of the more charismatic riders in French cycling.

You, too, can win a stage of the Tour. Here is active.com's own Rob Klingensmith celebrates a well-deserved win. The overall race leader was not even in sight.

Hey, if you just can't do anything with your hair or you want to try something new, you can visit the stylists right there in the village.

Ever wonder where Credit Agricole's Thor Hushovd got those sprinter legs? Here are his parents, all the way from Norway, to watch him race.

Yesterday, I talked about the scrum around Mark Cavendish as he announced that he was withdrawing from the race. Well, here is a photo of the scrum. Sometimes being a journalist is a bit dicey.

race notes

If Team CSC Saxo Bank want to take frank Schleck and the yellow jersey all the way to Paris, they are going to need much more than 8 seconds on Cadel Evans as the final time trial(TT) is 50km and Frank could easily lose 2 minutes to Cadel, or even Christian Vandevelde for that matter. Look for CSC Saxo Bank to have a few more tricks up their sleeves similar to the ones they played yesterday when they set up Frank beautifully. I don't know if it will come on the first climb,the Col de la Lombarde, maybe on the run-up to the Col de la Bonnette as the road from Isola to St. Etienne de Tinne has some ups and downs and a team could push the pace there.

How about Danny Pate almost winning the stage yesterday? By my tally that makes four close calls (Frischkorn on stage 3, Millar in the TT, Vandevelde on Super-Besse, Pate on Prato Nevoso) for the Garmin-Chipotle team. I think they have clearly proven that they deserve to be at this race. No doubt in my mind.

Christian Vandevelde looked good on the stage finish yesterday. That was a very tricky finish both physically and tactically. He held it together and did what he had to do to preserve his shot at the podium.

With six riders within 48 seconds and two mountain stages remaining, look for a lot of attacks. The better time trialists like Evans, Vandevelde and Menchov can wait for the last climb to make their move, but the others are going to have to find a way to take sizeable chunks of time.

Even though the stage to Jausiers finishes with a descent of the massive Col de la Bonnette, I still consider it a mountain top finish because, even though it is a 5500' descent, it goes right from the top to the bottom with no flat riding. All the top guys are good enough descenders to keep any time gaps they gain on the way up.

I talked with Jonathan Vaughters about Christian Vandevelde's gritty ride up Huatacam. As those of you who have ridden the climb know it is a stair-stepped ascent rather than a constant grade and requires a punchy style of riding to race it to full potential. So, when Vandevelde went with Bernhard Kohl's attack which would have netted him the yellow jersey, Christian decided since he is more of a steady tempo rider to let Kohl go and not try to punch it up the climb to gain time. That shows a lot of maturity from Vandevelde. The Tour is a three week race and there are times when you have to ride tour own style on the climbs rather than blow up and lose big minutes trying to do something you can't.

It turns out that while that statistically, Huatacam look very similar to l'Alpe d'Huez on paper. Both climbs are 8 miles (13km) long and climb 3700'(1100m). Not surprisingly, the record up l'ALpe is 36 minutes and on Monday, Leonardo Piepoli's time up Huatacam was 37'11".

I chatted a bit with Garmin-Chipotle rider Canadian Ryder Hesjedal on the differnces between the Giro and the Tour. He remarked that this year's Giro was very difficult because of all the logistical transfers which had riders getting to their hotels very late a night and then up early the next morning. When asked about how the racing compares he replied that they speed of the racing is very similar noting that in the Giro it seemed like everyday some Italian riders went up the road and here at the Tour is seems like everyday some French riders are heading up the road.

All the members of the Garmin-Chipotle team I talked to agreed that now that Christian Vandevelde's excellent riding has put him in third overall the team has a pretty clear mission to take care of their team leader for the remainder of the race. The extra motivation that this new mission provides should help the riders raise their game a bit and help them focus on getting through what is the first ever Tour de France for six of the nine riders.

Without a doubt, the best food I have had in France was at the Team Garmin-Chipotle burrito rest day party. The squad had the chefs at the Hotel Parc Beaumont (great digs if you ever need a place to stay in Pau) prepare a real-life American grilled chicken burrito complete with guacamole. The best thing about the burrito is that, save for the tortilla, all the ingredients were grown in France. All he riders partook in the feast as did a whole scrum of always-hungry journalists who were also treated to margaritas before the feats.

Thanks to Garmin-Chipotle riders Will Frischkorn and Trent Lowe for providing the hands in the burrito photo.

The founder of Chipotle restaurants, Steve Ells, was present at the party and hinted that he is looking to expand his very successful line of eateries to Europe. Steve is also an avid cyclist who is looking forward to riding l'Alpe d'Huez later in the race.

Tour organises released a lis of all the prize money won by the teams by the first rest day. Team Scott-Saunier Duval with three stage wins leads the pack with 50,000 euro. Team Columbia with two stage wins and some days with high stage placings and jerseys is second also with 50,000 euro. In last, with only 1,000 euro so far is the Italian Lampre team which has seen its hopes for the overall win, Damiano Cunego, struggle.

One of the hottest items at the Tour are T-Shirts emblazoned with the slogan "What would Jens do?" Clearly the German is a huge favorite with fans of all nationalitities who love his attacking style and happy-go-lucky off-the-bike personality.

There are many exciting aspects of the Tour de France. The team presentations is not one of them. In fact, I chose to watch the whole sordid affair on Eurosport. This of course is interesting in itself. In America, we can barely get bike racing on TV. If it isn't one of the biggest races on the cycling calendar, fuggedaboutit. We get some great races and a big thanks to Versus for standing behind cycling when they could be airing the Bassmasters Classic instead.

It just demonstrates how big bike racing is in Europe that they would put, arguably, the equivalent of cycling's answer to submarine racing on primetime live TV. There is no witty banter like Phil, Paul and Bob provide when presenting the teams at the Amgen Tour of California which is a great night and an incredible celebration of professional cycling that lasts well into the evening and is over way to soon.

No, the presentation of the teams today in Brest was pretty much a snoozer, but it is an integral part of the whole prelude to the start of the Tour. Speaking of the festivities, you have to feel for the riders. These guys are about to embark on the biggest race of the year with careers and team sponsorship on the line and while fighting a humongous case of pre-race jitters, they have to spend the last three days before the start getting poked and prodded, attending the team presentation and making themselves available to journalists...... basically just about everything except riding their bikes.

To be sure, they will get 2500+ action-packed miles of racing in the next few weeks, but when your nerves are at the breaking point, just heading out for a few miles is a great way to calm yourself down. I am guessing that parading around in front a some fans and a few journos at the team presentation doesn't have the same effect.

Let's light this candle and get everybody on their bikes racing down the road in France. Anybody else out there also ready for the dog and pony show to end and for the bike racing to begin?

Bruce

ps- what does everybody think of the new Garmin-Chipotle racing strip(that's UK-speak for 'racing kit')? Looks a little toned down from the 'total argyle" look. I am not a fan as of yet, but if the boys spend some time off the front it might just grow on me.