Something New for this Year's Tour

The Tour started out with 55-degree weather with rain causing many crashes, but now it is up to 100 degrees, "But I don't think anyone is complaining after the [cold and rain-sodden] first week," said Lance Armstrong, defending Tour champ. Because of this (and on-and-off back pain), Paris-Roubaix (a "Classic" with many cobblestones) winner Swede Magnus "Maggy" Bäckstedt, and also the heaviest rider in the peloton, had to call it quits.

As for the good things of the stage, there was a three-man breakaway that turned into a chase group when one the the three attacked (Frenchman David Moncoutié) and won the stage. The overall standings remained the same with the Texan ahead of all his rivals. As for Saturday's extremely hard stage, he said, "It's very nasty. I think they should take it out. It's a violation of our human rights. I love it," showing his Texan behaivor all around. But for tomorrow, Iban Mayo is expected to attack because it is in front of his home crowd (the Basque).