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Huge day in progress at Le Tour

Wow. Legendary climb today up the Tourmalet, down in the Pyrenees in southern France (Basque region). The Tourmalet’s been climbed in something like 73 of the 90 Tours since 1903. 2,100 something meters above sea level. 17 kilometers (1.1 miles give or take) at 7.5% grade. Your car would be screaming. And the killer is that in today’s stage, there’s another big climb, Luz Ardiden (13.4 km at 7.6%) left to go.

Halfway up the Tourmalet (where Greg Lemonde blew open his first? TdF win), Jan Ullrich, the German with the checkered (wanted to say checquered while listening to Phil Sherwin and Paul Liggett on OLN (Click to listen)) past decided to attack. Big jump. For those who don’t ride too frequently, when you’re cruising up a climb, about the hardest thing to do is to accelerate when you’re already climbing quickly. Lance Armstrong jumped, pressed hard to keep Ullrich’s wheel, and is stalking him. I’m wondering if there’s going to be another ‘Look’ on the Ardiden like there was on the Alpe d’Huez in 2001.

Tyler Hamilton, the Cinderella Story of this years TDF, is hanging strong just behind Armstrong and Ullrich. Hamilton, you’ll recall, broke, as in Fractured, his collarbone in the first stage this year. Hamilton is leading a group just behind the two leaders.

Days like this are why I dig cycling. Makes me want to skip work and go put miles under my tires…