Day 4 - Form & Grace

07 July 2009

Kind of upset about not being able to spend any time in Montpellier. But oh well, such is the course of the Tour. I saw plenty of nice scenics and aerials of the city in which I wanted to hang out, but nothing more. I will say, being in HD for the first time is very, very nice. It’s really night and day compared to SD; plus I wonder how good it looks back home, and how much compression the signal has.

Great to see: the Team Time Trial return to the Tour. There are two things that I haven’t experienced yet in my years of July’s in France. I started in 2006, and neither Mr. Armstrong nor the Team Time Trial have been present since the year prior.

Great to see: Astana cleaning up shop in the Team Time Trial. That team has reassembled and proclaimed its dominance of speed in this special event. Not quite enough to put Lance in yellow, but that will likely change in the coming days.

Great to see: one of our reporters, Frankie, get snubbed by Fabian Cancellara because he abandoned him during an interview when Lance walked over. Serves him right. If you’re going to start to interview someone then just walk away when Lance shows up, how do you think that person feels then? Frankie went back to try to make amends with Fabian, but he wanted no part of it. The sad thing is, that very morning they had an ENG shoot together and got along as well as brothers. Snuffing the Yellow Jersey to get a sniff of Lance? Bad move in my book.

Great to see: the celebrity status back at the Tour. Today featured Ben Stiller and his wife, Christine Taylor (whose name we had to look up – she’s been in a lot of movies with him). Where Lance goes, so too do his celebrity friends.

Great to see: a couple of teams staying at the same hotel as us. That's a first for me, as I've never stayed the same place as a pro cycling team. Saxo Bank, Bouygues Telecom, and Liquigas are hanging with us. What's interesting about that is, because of all the doping controls in the Tour, the rooming list must be posted in a visible place so random screenings can be made possible. So posted to the wall is each rider and which room they're in. If you're a pro rider, you can be tested at any point; even in the middle of the night.

Great to see: my bed.