I was feeling the burning in my lungs and legs during that climb. I have a bridge here that goes over four lanes of highway and I have to petal hard to get up it. This looked crazy. I wish we could know speeds on some descents.

It was lovely to see the views of Provence. We were delighted to see images of Pernes les Fontaines where we stayed for two weeks in 2014. I am looking forward to the next stage which travels through country we stayed in last trip in 2018.

What endurance the riders showed to get through the day. Pogacar looks strong. The next stage could be Cav's moment.

Macross - I found this article about the speeds they reach in the Tour - over 100 kmh in some places. on a bike! some of those roads you wouldn't drive down at that speed.

https://www.bikeradar.com/features/t...19-in-numbers/

rhon - Mont Ventoux looks appalling even to walk up but it seems very popular with hobby cyclists. Yesterday's winner said that he first cycled up it aged 10! fingers crossed for Cav today - then he'll be able to say Merxck's name again!

Thank you annhig, That was what I was thinking. They were going crazy fast.

A very scenic day with the gorges of the Ardèche, Uzès, the Pont du Gard and a finish in Nimes. The French national tourist official will not need to spend money on advertising.

No, no need to advertise the area. Obviously, it has always been popular, but this year, it has gone mad.

https://www.ledauphine.com/magazine-...-proprietaires

It isn't just vacation rentals either. Houses for sale are going like hot cakes round here. Even dumps that would normally sit on the market for years are selling. I've never seen anything like it before.

<<No, no need to advertise the area. Obviously, it has always been popular, but this year, it has gone mad.>>

Same here in Cornwall. People are vey keen to move out of cities now working from home is far more accepted.

I became a bit emotional watching the race as seeing the area brought back wonderful memories. I am especially loving that there is not one team dominating and controlling the race as has happened in the past. This year’s race has been the best for years.

It is certainly a lovely region. We spent a week near Barjac in 2018 and drove along the Gorges in 2010 when we stayed near St Paul Trois Chateaux. So we loved seeing some of the places we visited .
It is good this year. While Pogacar looks hard to beat, there is still a lot of interest to be had in the different stages and we are seeing more of other teams. Should be another lovely stage tonight. We will need a week to get our body clocks back to normal after sitting up until 2 each morning!!

rhon we will need a week also. Sometimes I have even had a nap during the afternoon.

Off the road and into the ravine today for about 30 riders. That should wake you up!

<<Off the road and into the ravine today for about 30 riders. That should wake you up!>>

And three withdrawals including Simon Yates who started the Tour this year with high hopes, Kerouac. Not so Cav who against all the odds has now equalled Merxck's record. Simply amazing which includes his team of course. I just hope that he can somehow get to Paris along with everyone else.

Coverage today started at 40 k in. It is on NBC not NBCsn. Of course, they are showing all the crashes and not the race.

<<Coverage today started at 40 k in. It is on NBC not NBCsn. Of course, they are showing all the crashes and not the race.>>

really? That's a shame. Thank goodness for ITV coverage here. It's on live every day, more or less from the start, then an hour's highlights in the evening. they are usually pretty good at picking out the "best" bits, but i suppose that unless you'd been watching all day, you wouldn't know. I have to say that I admire the commentators - except in the most exciting stages they have very little to talk about for hours! One day we learnt that Richie Porte had not had access to Chris Froome's phone number for a while - bottom barrel being scraped there.

In France we get huge amounts of cultural information about every single village, château or ruin along the way when the riders are not doing much of interest. About half of the television viewers are watching just for that.

We also seem to get told every time a rider or group of riders stops for 15 seconds to "satisfy a natural need." (Ten years ago they would actually film them peeing but now it is absolutely forbidden.)

<<In France we get huge amounts of cultural information about every single village, château or ruin along the way when the riders are not doing much of interest. About half of the television viewers are watching just for that.>>

We get some of that too., but also a lot about the cyclists, sometimes too much.

<<We also seem to get told every time a rider or group of riders stops for 15 seconds to "satisfy a natural need." (Ten years ago they would actually film them peeing but now it is absolutely forbidden.)>>

Just occasionally we get some of that, but not often. I assume that your pics are the same as ours!

Well, just about all of the video feed is from France Télévisions, so it would be unlikely for you to see much different except for images of your local commentators. I have no idea about the variations of images that foreign broadcasters can select (since of course there is always a camera on the peleton, but there are also helicopters for the scenery and other things).

The feed is the feed. Lots of grumbling from Dutch commentators every time a Dutch rider is well placed, but the French director zooms in on a French rider as he passes his parents' village or some such. Also, Belgian commentary is better than Dutch.

The US feed has the scenic shots half obscured by promos for other NBC shows. Apparently, all ruined castles are covered by ads. Nice sky, though.

<<The feed is the feed. Lots of grumbling from Dutch commentators every time a Dutch rider is well placed, but the French director zooms in on a French rider as he passes his parents' village or some such. Also, Belgian commentary is better than Dutch.>>

I also assume that we all get the same feed, menachem, about which the UK commentators rarely complain as luckily, AJP, we get to see the pretty bits not obscured by promos and ads. There are ad breaks but not too long or intrusive, IMO. And as the brit involvement in GC is minimal this year, their focussing others is not so annoying. So long as they focus on Cav in the last 10km or so on the sprint stages, the UK audience is going to be happy.