Today equals or even exceeds the excitment of any Tour day for me ever.

To see Landis' teammate help get him to the front of the peleton, get him in the position to start his attack and then have that same teammate have to abandon the race because he has given his all and can't continue is what gives the Tour so much character. What a race. Deborah

Vive le Tour de France! Much as I like to see Lance in the yellow jersey, I think this is the most exciting Tour ever. It's amazing just to see Landis climbing back despite his injuries and everything. Go, Floyd, go!

Yes miraculous comeback and Landis says after he gets a new hip he'll be back and hopefully at the same level - that's also incredible!

Today's scenery should have been enough to convince anyone to go to Burgundy. What a view of the church with the Burgundian tiles on the roof!

Yes i think the French countryside, especially in places like Burgundy, is perhaps the finest in Europe, though Switzerland's chalet and flowerbox-studded hills are neat too.

I am still watching even if Lance isn't in it! I just got back from Paris and watched it live a couple of afternoons as we came in for a rest from the afternoon heat! It is wild to listen to the color commentary in rapid fire French! I could only pick out a word here and there! Far from Bob Roll's pronunciation on OLN! Then to see the actual preperations going on on the Champs-Elysées and the souvenirs for it was fun too! Now that I'm back I woke up early and watched this morning and am planning to have croissants and café au lait on Sunday at the crack of dawn as we watch the final phase! It's the sport and endurance that is wonderful, when it is your fellow countryman, well...that is only icing on the cake!

Bob Roll's French pronunciation is actually pretty good--the way he pronounces "de" is just an affectation. Listen to the way he pronounces the names of French towns and you can tell that he really does know the right way to say things in French. His Italian better, though.

Underhill is right, Bob Roll's pronunciation of 'de' is only to piss the French and is a reflection of his quirky personality. He speaks French as well as Italian and his Spanish isn't bad either.He can even quote Dante. Quite the renaissance man, actually.

Landis in yellow!!! What a great day again for American cycling.

Congratulations! :-)
And you'll notice he won in Burgundy! :-d

Very hot days yesterday and today, my DH was working "sur le tour" in Macon and Le Creusot and came back this evening with a nice sunburn.:-] ((#))

Why do all those guys peddle so darn slow? Being so skinny, I'd think they could go a lot faster. I guess being puny really impacts your leg power.

I understand they pedal faster at night.

Peddle at night? That leaves very little time to eat, get drunk and "cat around" in the wee hours. Maybe those tight pants sap them of all earthly desires.

Just a dumb question, but--why is the overall winner and podium places declared today after the time trial when there is still another stage left? It would seem that with short amount of time separating the first three, there could still a lot of racing to be done tomorrow.

My understanding has always been that on the last day nobody really tries "to win" and beat out the leader from the previous day. I'm not sure if that is considered "bad form" or what.

Perhaps others have better information.

Tradition holds that the wearer of the maillot jaune is not attacked on the last day. Anyone who has seen Lance Armstrong's triumphal rides into Paris will remember that everythign was largely ceremonial until the race hit the cobblestones of the Champs-Elysées, when the sprinters roar out and take over, trying for the stage win.

Will Robbie McEwan do it again? And will see him this time around?

Thanks - I wondered about that since when I looked up the rules, they said that the overall winner was the one with the lowest time for the 21 stages.

I agree that there seems to be an agreement not to attack the yellow jersey, but this is the closest it has been in YEARS!! Interesting. I saw the year that Greg Lemond won in the time trial in Paris (on TV and NO clue how cycle racing was done). SO incredible--and it made me assume the next year that it was a "day by day" race!! Couldn't understand why they kept saying Indurain was the winnner--he was SO far back!!

Houston, we have a problem.