We have entered into the last week of the Tour de France. Is this a good thing? For the riders, I'm sure they are happy. For the cycling fans, I'm sure it's a bad thing. For the sport, I'm sure it's a good thing.

No other cycling race is covered more then the Tour, and when there are problems, that coverage just escalates. This TdF, the sport has had its problems and we hope that they are over, but honestly we don't know. I want the last week to be about bike racing and the final day to be remembered as a great finish to an exciting Tour de France.

Right now it's shaping up that way, with the top 6 riders all within fifty seconds of each other. That's crazy close, and with two huge mountain days coming up the pressure is on. No one has shown their dominance in the mountains. CSC is strong but they have three guys to gang up on poor 'ol Cadel. Denis Menchov is strong, as well as Bernhard Kohl, but only at the right moment can any of them drop each other.

The gaps only open when they look at each other, playing tactical games, trying to force the other to chase. Cadel will continue to follow and close tiny gaps; all he has to do is stay close to clobber everyone in the final time trial. Menchov will follow some of the leaders but he is a big guy and will struggle on the super long climbs.

CSC's Carlos Sastre and the Schleck brothers (Andy and Frank) will have the advantage to play off each other. Kohl and Christian Vande Velde can play off this CSC tag team as well. If a CSC rider goes then either Kohl or VDV should follow. You know the CSC riders in the back will just sit on and not work. It's not about who wins the stages, it's about time gaps. The more time on Cadel and Menchov the better and for Cadel and Menchov, the less time lost the better.

At the start of stage 15 I noticed a do-it-yourself homemade portable pump. This was out in front of the Liquigas bus to top off the riders tires in case they needed it. What the pump didn't have was a gauge, so I have no idea how the mechanic knows what he's doing. The mechanic just took a portable drill and changed the end to add a valve.



Monday's rest day was in Italy. It was a well-deserved rest day for the riders and everyone else. Stage 15 was pretty much a nightmare doing the transfer from the start to the finish. I had to drive 1.5 hours to the start, then from the start to the finish took five hours. I arrived at the finish when the riders had only 10km left to race. I then ran out onto the course to do interviews and then after the race we were stuck in traffic at the top of the mountain and that took three hours to get to the hotel.

The reward was the rest day, and a great Italian breakfast. I polished off that 5kg barrel of Nutella.