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.

A Tour like no other has started. What makes this Tour different is that it starts with a field that has no stand out favorite. In the past we have had riders that have won repeatedly, which would automatically mark them as a favorite, but this year is different. Many speak of Cadel Evans, who has cracked before in a three-week race, and some say is too inconsistent to be able to move to the top step of the podium. Others look for Alejandro Valverde to shine, but he has never even been on the podium at the TDF.

Carlos Sastre has shared the podium in Paris, and has had many top ten finishes in the Tour, but his age will count against him. The list goes on with riders that have many strengths but they also seem to have a few negatives which prevent them from getting a full blessing as the favorite to win.

For now the excitement comes from the field sprinters. The speed demons that are so aggressive it's dangerous to fight against them. They have dominated the first part of the race and it should be no surprise because every year between 1993 and 2007, except for 2002, the first stage of the Tour has always resulted in a bunch gallop for the line. Also changing from the Tour's traditional departure was the fact that this is the first year since 1966 where there is no prologue. To throw more change into the mix the Tour has eliminated the time bonuses in all of the intermediate and finish sprints.

All of this had no effect on Valverde, who showed an explosive uphill sprint that no one could match and put him in the Yellow Jersey one second ahead of a small group right behind him. This means that more than likely, unless he gets dropped which is unlikely, that he will keep the Yellow Jersey until the time trial (TT). It will be a miracle if he keeps it at the TT because that is his biggest weakness.

A couple of tech stuff. The new electronic Shimano gruppo is on many bikes here at the Tour. Also, the new mechanical Shimano (7900) looks awesome, with clean cut lines. It feels even better and everything about it is aggressive. Something I saw for the first time was Shimano electronic on Sebastian Lang's TT bike. Two little buttons are all he has to push to be able to shift--very aero and very cool.

Team Columbia also has a new TT bike. The top tube is flat and that goes into a flat stem. On the front is on oversized headset which is shaped like a fairing. The cables are internal but they actually come out underneath the front fork below the hidden brake. You actually can't turn that much, because of the tension of the cables, so it's lucky there are no 180's in the TT's.

Lastly, we saw the Liquigas bus filling up at a petrol station that we were at. Check out the price tag on one fill up (632 Euros). That will put a dent in the budget quick!