...and we need it now! I will not talk about Rasmussen this evening as everything has been said and written a hundred times. However, I think it’s time for me to share with you some very important facts.

First of all, it’s pretty obvious but there is an extreme tension on the Tour. All the riders are acting as if everything is normal. They go to press conferences, attend all the meetings planned and all that, but you can see in their eyes that the pressure is getting a bit too high for them. They are even a bit scared of this whole scandal...scared of what you will ask. These guys are passionate and they are scared for their sport. It’s that simple. I wish you could see the thousands of people along the road today who kept on cheering all the riders from the start to the finish line. The Tour is not dead and won’t die. That’s my feeling. The Tour is too big to die and one day it will be the place of a new start, a new cycling.

However, don’t expect me to say a cleaner cycling. Why? Because with 250 blood tests since the beginning of the Tour and only two of them positive, this sport is clean. There will always be cheaters. Always.

But what about soccer? Last year for the World Cup, do you how many blood tests they made? Well, it’s pretty simple: none. They didn’t process a single blood test. It’s pretty easy for the FIFA to say that soccer is clean.

I’m telling you if we were applying all the rules and tests that you in cycling to any other sports, you would see lots of athletes differently.

So, the first question that comes to my mind when I picture that is, why does the media talk about only drugs in cycling? Cycling doesn’t generate as much business as the NBA or the NFL, for example. Cycling is not just one hour like a basketball game. Cycling is not easy to understand if you don’t have an expert eye. So what do you “market," what do you talk about to get some audience and attention? Drugs and doping work!

THe media is just searching for the sensational news, the scoop as you say. Shall we let the media rule this sport and decide what is important or should we help them understand what makes cycling great?

I would go for the second option, if you don’t mind. Remember early this week: the Astana trick to cut the peloton in two parts, all these echappées and all that? This is what we need to spend time on.

Finally, I would like to end with a very positive fact. Riders and all the people who are involved in professional cycling shouldn’t be scared of stopping doping and drug-taking. If they ride from 45 kilometers per hour to 42 kilometers per hour, we won’t care at all. There is no global timing involved in cycling. A 100-meter sprinter doesn’t have that chance because if his times go from 10 seconds to 13 seconds, everybody will start asking: "What the **** is wrong with this guy? He was running way better last year." But in cycling, we won’t even notice. We won’t care because cycling should be and will be one day above all these dirty, useless things.

So enjoy the show because it’s not over!
Ronan

Ronan Pensec participated in 8 Tours, and wore the yellow jersey in the 1990. He now operates Ronan Pensec Events , an official Tour de France operator hosting VIP cycling tours for recreational cycling enthusiasts.

This is madness!! Vino positive...I just can’t believe it. I’m so disappointed.

How can they do something like that? How can he do something like that to cycling?

These guys are nothing without cycling. No one will ever believe in this sport again. This is the knock out of cycling.

I can’t believe this guy is taking drugs. He has naturally so much class. He honestly doesn’t need this to win. He is already a star in his country.

This situation is now so embarrassing, you will see that nobody will want to win tomorrow. It is such a shame.

I can’t say it enough, these guys are just killing the sport--and by that they are killing themselves slowly but surely now. Is it what they really want? They gave so much to get where they are.

I really thought cycling was on its way back, but now I just don’t know what to say or even what to think.

Who is behind all that? What is motivating these guys to take drugs like that?

Now the psychosis is on and yesterday evening the Rabobank, Astana, CSC and Discovery buses were stopped by the police to process a complete search--for drugs, of course.

I feel bad to be part of this. The only good news is that the tests and controls are becoming more and more efficient.
Ronan

Ronan Pensec participated in 8 Tours, and wore the yellow jersey in the 1990. He now operates Ronan Pensec Events , an official Tour de France operator hosting VIP cycling tours for recreational cycling enthusiasts.

Some of you may think that with today's stage, the Tour might be over. You could be right--there are still two major mountain stages and we all know how good Rasmussen is in these types of conditions.

However, I don't think the Tour is over yet. There are still plenty of guys who could make it. But it's true that it could be a mountain specialist--a climber--who could win the yellow jersey in Paris.

With yesterday's time trial, today has been a very tough day for all in the Tour and I kind of feel now that tomorrow could be an important day.

With Vinokourov, who is almost out now, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow are the last chances for Astana to get one of their riders in the race for the win, so it will be very exciting to watch.

What was also very interesting with the time trial and today's stage is that it was the first time that you had a mountain stage right after a time trial. All the riders gave a hundred percent of themselves yesterday, even if they knew how difficult today could be. It’s interesting from a strategic standpoint to see how teams have handled that. And this is why I can't for tomorrow's stage to begin: Because I'm curious to see how teams will play this stage.

And one more time, today has been very exciting and lots of surprises. It is great for cycling.

The fact I have really noticed today and that I wanted to share with you is that there is pretty much nobody in the Tour who wants to see Rasmussen win the yellow jersey in Paris. It's like even all the journalists and so on want to see him down so we can stop talking about this whole drug problem. I saw Rasmussen at breakfast this morning and this guy is so obsessed by his weight that he is even replacing milk in his cereal with water so there is less fat. He seems to be a bit on the edge, if you know what I mean.

Is that the kind of leader you want to see or identify yourself with? Not sure...

The next two days are very important for many teams, so stay tuned and enjoy the show!
Ronan

Ronan Pensec participated in 8 Tours, and wore the yellow jersey in the 1990. He now operates Ronan Pensec Events, an official Tour de France operator hosting VIP cycling tours for recreational cycling enthusiasts.

A classic day on the Tour if we just look at the stage, but what a busy day, actually, with the Rasmussen case!

On the road, we have seen a classic stage with an échappée and a peloton which came back strong to end up the stage in a massive sprint, and great work from the Quick Step team to boost Boonen to the finish line first!

The thing I've noticed is that Cancellara decided to step back and relax pretty much 25km before the finish line in order to prepare for his time trial tomorrow. This makes me think that Cancellara is no longer looking for the yellow jersey but simply for stage wins. Tomorrow's fight will surely be between Kloden and Cancellara, so keep an eye on these two fellows.

So, I was saying that it was actually a very busy day for cycling and not only the Tour.

One more time, and I insist, a federation has brought a declaration during the Tour for something that happened weeks--if it's not months--before the Tour. I'm talking about the Rasmussen case.

The Danish federation just showed up from nowhere to complain during the Tour about something that has nothing to do with it. It's like the Sinkewitz case. The German federation would have had a hundred times the time to bring the positive control to the press. Why did they wait so long when a test is made in one week and a "counter-test" takes only a week to be completed?

You may all know that these federations work under the ICU flag...And you may also know that the Tour de France is the ONLY international cycling race today that is not managed by the ICU, but a private company called ASO.

Then it all starts to make sense, and the ICU game is pretty clear and very unfair. The ICU has launched the Pro Tour as you also know and it's obvious that they would love to include the Tour de France in it. But if this happens, it will surely not be with cheap attempts like they are doing through the Danish and German federation. It is honestly ridiculous to act like this.

It's a pure waste of time for us, for cycling and for the riders. I think the event director did good by letting Rasmussen take the start. If federations really wanted to blame their riders, they should do it immediately and not later on unless the ICU is blocking them and forcing them to communicate during the Tour.

The Tour might be the only race that has so much exposure, so it's pretty much during this race that we should all work in the same direction to get a cleaner sport. However, the ICU doesn't think like that and I'm afraid that it looks like they have decided that the Tour will be their battlefield. You can bet on more scandals before the end of the Tour...

Finally, I love to answer your questions, as you know, but this time I would like to have your opinion on that. What do you think about the ICU strategy? How do you feel about all this?
Ronan

Ronan Pensec participated in 8 Tours, and wore the yellow jersey in the 1990. He now operates Ronan Pensec Events, an official Tour de France operator hosting VIP cycling tours for recreational cycling enthusiasts.

Where should I start? Lots of things have happened today on the race and in the backstage. Let’s start with the race...

Today was a classic transition stage where leaders could have a rest. Usually, you only have two scenarios possible. The first one is a big ending in a final mass sprint, and the second one, the one we had, is a serious echappée that ends up by making it till the end.

So, what you have to look at during these stages is the strategy of the leaders. How they manage their efforts and how they stick in the peloton to stay high in the rankings. Tomorrow will be pretty much the same thing I guess, so pay attention to leaders and how they manage the Tour. This is where you start wining the Tour actually.

Let’s go backstage now with an incredible fight (verbal one, of course) between Laurent Fignon and Christohpe Moreau just a few minutes ago. Everybody knows Laurent Fignon, the great athlete, but Laurent is also now working as a TV consultant for a French television and Laurent is used to saying what he thinks, if you know what I mean. So after the Tignes stage in the Alps, Laurent said clearly that Moreau got very stupid on that stage by launching lots of offensives without really putting what it takes to make benefit out of one (at least). Two days later Moreau heard that and when he saw Fignon this evening, he basically explained him that he should no longer talk about a sport that he had left quite some time ago now. Honestly, Moreau was not in a great position as you could feel that everybody was behind Fignon. Everybody has a huge respect for Laurent when we are still waiting from Moreau to confirm at the highest level, if you know what I mean. So it was interesting to see how Moreau could get on fire for what was the simple truth: he had not played his Tignes stage smartly. Team managers are not doing their jobs or are we getting into a cycling star system where you can’t tell an athlete when he is wrong?

The second today’s hot news is about Sinkewitz. You all know about his bike crash by now, but guess what? He has been tested positive for testosterone today...and this is not just that bad, it’s actually even worse.

The German TV that is broadcasting the Tour has decided to cancel the broadcast for today--so no show in Germany today, as well as tomorrow, and we don’t know yet about the day after tomorrow. They told the Tour that if any young rider was controlled positive during the Tour, they would cancel the show.

The problem here is that the control was made on June 4th (during a training in the Pyrénées) so pretty much a month and half ago, so it’s not fair for the Tour to be impacted by this control.

It’s a BIG shame that no one has been able to bring this test to the attention of the Tour before the Tour starts. If it happened before the Tour, it would have been a sad news but with the Tour starting we would have focused on the race and moved to something else. Everybody is talking about that here, and I’m betting that in two weeks, we will still be talking about it.

So, I’m very sad today for the sports of cycling. You all know that this sport relies on private partners and that these partners sponsor the cycling because you get an incredible ROI as you get on the air for hours for a very cheap price. So, if tomorrow for management problems and organisation problems the Tour has to stop because there is no more TV which wants to get into a “dirty” sport, then it’s the end of cycling...and I’m sure no one wants that.

So I don’t know what went wrong but it really is time to focus on the organisations that are ruling cycling or it’s just going to be the end of cycling. The upcoming days are very important and I’m not talking about the race here.
Ronan

Ronan Pensec participated in 8 Tours, and wore the yellow jersey in the 1990. He now operates Ronan Pensec Events , an official Tour de France operator hosting VIP cycling tours for recreational cycling enthusiasts.

I would like to start today by giving you an update on Sinkewitz’s crash yesterday:

Sinkewitz will not start tomorrow; he is out of the Tour. He has had an open fracture on the nose and has lost several teeth. The spectator has made an infarctus yesterday and is now in a deep coma. It’s a very sad news and we all appreciate the support that you gave to these guys.

As you know, today is a day off, so I have had some time to analyze all the stages and the configuration of this Tour.

This year’s Tour doesn’t have any “boss” as we say here, and as we used to have with Lance, for example. There is no strong team either as I told you yesterday, and I’m kind of feeling that we could see pretty much the same Tour as last year. I believe that any rider from the top 15 can win it, which is very exciting.

This guy will have to be very strong mentally and physically but there is definitely an opportunity for any guy from the top 15. And the biggest opportunity is definitely tomorrow. I’m surprised that no one tried to really take Vinokourov down when it was possible.

Tomorrow is the last day to take Vinokourov out of the race. If you let him pass the Alps without losing too much time, he will fully recover between Montpellier and Marseille and will then win the Tour for sure. I will bet on Vinokourov if no one takes big risks tomorrow.

Vinokourov has a very strong team and he has shown some very impressive mental strengths so far, so I’m pretty convinced that tomorrow is going to be decisive for him.

So, I’m already guessing what you think: What do they do on a day off like that?

Well, the first important thing is to keep the momentum alive by not changing your routine. Cyclists will wake up late and have a consequent breakfast as usual. Then, they will go for a two-hour ride just to keep the sensations and sweat a little bit. You have to keep your body used to burn energy, and even one day without respecting that would have an huge impact in a few days.

Then, they will keep a very light meal for lunch, probably a salad, and will rest. They surely won’t go for a walk or anything like that. The goal is to give some rest to your legs. They will finally end up by some massages at the end of the day and they will go to bed as they are used to do before race day.

If you have any question on preparations or anything that I could give through my experience, feel free to ask me and I will be more than glad to share my various experiences with you.

I can’t wait to tomorrow!
Ronan

Ronan Pensec participated in 8 Tours, and wore the yellow jersey in the 1990. He now operates Ronan Pensec Events, an official Tour de France operator hosting VIP cycling tours for recreational cycling enthusiasts.

What a great and exciting day on the Tour today. With this amazing weather and the bank holiday, we have had lots of people along the road to kick off the Tour.

Indeed, today can be considered as the real kickoff. Tomorrow is for sure the BIG day, but with a young rider who won the stage, lots of echappée and Vinokourov and Kloden who are still in the game, it is really promising for tomorrow.

Honestly, I was thinking that some teams will use this stage to make a little difference, but with a strong Vinokourov and a good Kloden, teams have obiously decided to hold on until tomorrow to strike their first shot.

I would suggest that you take a deeper look at Caisse d’Epargne Team which looks pretty strong to me. We will see how they play along the road but "so far, so good," as you say.

Finally, a little blame to the organisation today as riders are blocked in traffic jam with more than two hours and 15 kilometers to go to their hotels. It’s a bit sad to see that the organisation has not thought about doing something special like a different exit or something. Riders are stuck in traffic because of tourists...not good for their preparation.

Tomorrow is very promising so stay tuned!
Ronan

Ronan Pensec participated in 8 Tours, and wore the yellow jersey in the 1990. He now operates Ronan Pensec Events, an official Tour de France operator hosting VIP cycling tours for recreational cycling enthusiasts.