AND THE LEADER IS.....

The 2009 Tour de France started on July 4^th with the top eighteen riders (including four American riders) finishing within a minute of Fabian Cancellara, the winner of this stage and both the yellow and the green jerseys! The overall leaders remained the same after Stage 2 was completed on July 5th For a list of the leaders go to: http://www.versus.com/tdf/standings/standings.php?ss=standings&t=ITG&e=0200

Stage 2 of the tour began at the front door of the Monte Carlo Casino in Monaco and ended 116.2 miles later in the medieval city of Brignoles, once the home of the counts of Provence. An exciting finish by Mark Cavendish of the Columbia Team gave him a Stage Win and the green jersey. For more information go to: http://www.versus.com/tdfstage2

Today is Stage 3 from Marseille to La Grande-Motte, 121.8 miles…

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The last of the four jerseys is the White Jersey (maillot blanc) that is awarded to the best place rider in the general classification who was 25 years old or under on January 1^st of the current year. Alberto Contador won the 2007 White Jersey.

For more information go to:

http://bikeracing.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_jerseys_of_the_tour_de_france

At the end of Stage 2 the right to wear the Jerseys are:

Yellow Jersey: Fabian Cancellara (best time)

Green Jersey: Mark Cavendish (most points)

Polka-dot Jersey: Jussi Veikkanen (king of the mountain)

White Jersey: Roman Kreuziger (best rider age 25 and under)

Top Team (total points): Astana Team

Our story continues in 2004 with a final day in Dinan before heading south to follow the 2004 Tour de France…..

Sunday, July 11^th, 2004: The weather is cool but dry; my coat feels good and I wore a sweatshirt under my windbreaker plus socks on my feet with my sandals. We carried umbrellas just in case; but never needed them.

Our first stop was the Castle and Keep, but since we’re in France it’s called the Chateau-Musee. The keep is the only part that is left of the huge Chateau. That part is a large building in good repair and housing a very interesting museum on several of the floors including one floor of weaving looms and delicate lace hats of the area. The traditional toilets of the medieval times were found strategically located in various levels. The entire building took about an hour to completely tour. We had great views of the city and valley from the rooftop of the Chateau.

Took a breather at the hotel and then headed over to take photos of the river area from the top of the Viaduct, built around 1850, that sends traffic directly to the newer part of the city. Then walked back a ways and down the steep cobblestone streets to the very old section of the city along the river. Passed on the Governor’s House and walked along the river to the home of an artist by the name of Yvonne Jean-Haffen. She was born in 1895 and died in 1993. This was her home and only opened a few years ago as a Museum. It’s almost as though she’s gone out for tea. Many of her original things are still in the home. We found one of the girls who spoke English and enjoyed sharing information about the artist and her home with us. We spent a very enjoyable hour touring the house from top to bottom.

Walking back to see the Governor’s House we were turned away as they had a concert in progress so we walked back to the hotel and the television for the bicycle race. Because of the weather, Jim decided not to try to drive to the race today. Good thing as on the television we saw that they had lots of rain today on their ride. I’m so glad that we decided to stay put and not drive to see the start of the race. We’re going to eat a light, early dinner as we have an early start tomorrow morning for our long drive to Treignac, southeast of Limoges. The bikers are flying south on their day off tomorrow. We will have heavy traffic on the road with all the vehicles with the Tour de France driving south. Soon the mountain rides will start and our Lance Armstrong should start to shine!