The Chain Letter
2009
December
November
October
September
August
July
65
June
1
May
April
March
February
January
Quick Round Up
Well, that’s it for another year. Don’t panic, we always have the Vuelta. I’m...
Jul 27th
Stage 21 - Contador wins le Tour de...
Le Tour is over. Contador claimed his second victory, Cav maintained his amazing ability to...
Jul 27th
Cav takes Stage 21.
Mark Cavendish was, yet again, perfectly lined up by his team mates for his 6th stage win this tour....
Jul 26th
I would bring you updates but i have no...
Title says it all really! If you want atmosphere, come to Paris, if you want to know who crosses the...
Jul 26th
I’m going to go out on a limb and say Danish...
Jul 26th
One for Cuddles…
Jul 26th
Jul 26th
Technical Glitches!
Apologies for the horizontal pictures and cut off text, i’ve never updated a website from my...
Jul 26th
The Nike store on the Champs Elysee, giant Livestrong band...
Jul 26th
Crowds are already gathering on the Champs Elysees.
Jul 26th
Ventoux 3 - Stage 20: battle for the...
In only one previous visit to the Mount Ventoux has the victor of the stage ever arrived at the top...
Jul 26th
Paris Baby! - Stage 21
After a huge overnight slog from down near the south coast up to Paris, the riders will be greeted...
Jul 24th
Montelimar to Mont Ventoux - Stage 20
Didn’t that come quickly? The penultimate stage of the 2009 Tour de France is upon us. Montelimar,...
Jul 24th
Cav takes Stage 19. I'm off to Paris.
Wow, didn’t see that one coming. The Category 2 climb at the end of today’s stage...
Jul 24th
Bourgoin Jallieu to Aubenas - Stage 19
A hilly stage travelling south west from Bourgoin Jallieu (twinned with Dunstable, for those keeping...
Jul 23rd
Contador takes Stage 18.
Alberto Contador blew away his nearest rivals by coming first in three of the four checkpoints...
Jul 23rd
Annecy to, erm, Annecy - Stage 18
The final Time Trial, usually the penultimate stage, in the Tour de France is usually where the GC...
Jul 22nd
Schleck (Snr) take Stage 17.
Bradley Wiggins was a marked man in today’s stage of the Tour de France, from Bourg Saint...
Jul 22nd
Bourg Saint Maurice to Le Grand Bornand...
Stage 17’s course heads north east for 75km before doubling back southwards for the remainder...
Jul 21st
Astarloza takes Stage 16, Jens Voigt...
Spanish Euskaltel-Euskadi rider, Mikel Astarloza crossed the line in Bourg Saint Maurice after a...
Jul 21st
Martigny to Bourg St Maurice - Stage 16
After a rest day in the Alps, the riders are back on track, starting in the canton of Valais in...
Jul 20th
Contador takes Stage 15.
Alberto Contador disappeared up the hill like a mountain goat as the end of Stage 15, a summit...
Jul 19th
Pontarlier to Verbier - Stage 15
Phew, after Stage 14’s fireworks, what does Stage 15 hold? Well, mainly a summit finish in...
Jul 18th
Ivanov takes Stage 14. Nobody notices.
Russian team Katusha rider Serguei Ivanov reached the finish line in Besancon in a stage rife with...
Jul 18th
The Polka Dot Jersey
With all this talk of mountains, you might wonder why the riders bother. It’s rarely the first...
Jul 18th
When does a hill become a mountain? A...
After the upcoming rest day on Monday, the Tour de France really gets exciting. If exciting means...
Jul 18th
Colmar to Besancon - Stage 14
Starting in Stage 13’s finishing town, Stage 14 sticks pretty close to the French border with...
Jul 17th
Velodrome Vs Tour de France: Dave Le...
Commonwealth games silver medallist Dave Le Grys has represented Great Britain on the track at the...
Jul 17th
Haussler takes Stage 13.
Aussie German, Heinrich Haussler couldn’t hide the tears as he crossed the finish line over 4...
Jul 17th
Vittel to Colmar - Stage 13
A few interesting facts about today’s finish? Okay. Colmar’s ‘Old Town’...
Jul 16th
Sorensen takes Stage 12.
Saxo Bank’s Nicki Sorensen was lost for words upon winning Stage 12 of the Tour de France in...
Jul 16th
I am reliably informed this photo demonstrates the...
Jul 16th
Belgian Stijn Devolder is entertained by fans during Stage...
Jul 16th
Fan Photos
In an attempt to give you something pretty to look at, I’m welcoming your fan photos of this...
Jul 16th
Tonnerre to Vittel - Stage 12
Stage 12 sees a jaunt through the Bourgogne (that’s Burgundy incidentally) region of France to...
Jul 15th
How Stage 10 made 1 second feel like...
As previously mentioned, Bradley Wiggins and Levi Leipheimer moved up places in the GC overnight by...
Jul 15th
Cav takes Stage 11
It says something when the suggested text box that pops up under where I enter the title of each...
Jul 15th
Vatan to Saint Fargeau - Stage 11
Today we are almost literally in the centre of France, and just over halfway through the stages of...
Jul 15th
Cav takes Stage 10.
In what was essentially a nice gentle ride to protest against the decision to ban race radios, the...
Jul 14th
Limoges to Issoudun - Stage 10
Harking back to Henri Desgrange and his “add a new rule everyday” approach to the tour...
Jul 13th
An interesting addition..
Due to the Gods of cycling shining upon me, I am pleased to announce the useful addition of an...
Jul 13th
Fedrigo takes Stage 9.
An unsurprisingly mundane stage today was finished off by a ray of sunshine for Pierrick Fedrigo of...
Jul 12th
Saint Gaudens to Tarbes - Stage 9
Heading West, South, West and North through the Pyrenees today, we work towards Tarbes in the...
Jul 12th
Sanchez takes Stage 8.
Spanish Caisse D’epargne rider Luis-Leon Sanchez was first across the line in Saint-Girons...
Jul 12th
The Tom Simpson Memorial on the ‘moonscape’...
Jul 11th
Famous climbs
As the Tour De France heads into the Pyrenees, I thought this would be a good chance to look at the...
Jul 11th
Andorra Le Vieille to Saint Girons -...
We start in Andorra’s capital city today (I knew that without checking, do I get a cookie?)...
Jul 11th
Feillu (Junior) takes Stage 7.
Tour de France virgin Brice Feillu (younger brother and team mate of Agritubel’s Romain...
Jul 10th
Barcelona to Arcalis - Stage 7
And we’re in the mountains….. Today, the tour travels from Barcelona almost due north...
Jul 10th
Thor Hushovd takes Stage 6.
It’s been approximately 20 minutes since Thor Hushovd crossed the finish line in an overcast...
Jul 9th
Girona to Barcelona - Stage 6
The Tour de France hits Spain. Todays stage starts in Girona, the home away from home for many...
Jul 9th
Thomas Voeckler takes Stage 5.
Following a breakaway of five or six none-GC riders (basically domestique riders who were chancing...
Jul 8th
Le Cap d'Agde to Perpignan - Stage 5
After the carnage of yesterday’s course, the riders (and spectators!) will be hoping for a...
Jul 8th
Mark Cavendish works the green jersey. Has he been taking...
Jul 8th
Astana take Stage 4, Armstrong loses out...
Team Astana crossed the line 18 seconds faster than nearest rivals Garmin Slipstream who put on a...
Jul 7th
Overall GC so far, how timings work, and...
Whilst the riders negotiate those couple of awkward corners at the start of the TTT course (one...
Jul 7th
Montpellier - Stage 4
Tuesday sees a 39km Team Time Trial around the capital of Languedoc-Roussillon. A team time trial...
Jul 6th
Cav takes Stage 3.
Today it was the turn of Thor Hushovd to be two bike lengths behind Mark Cavendish as he crossed the...
Jul 6th
Marseille to La Grande Motte - Stage 3
Marseille. Just the name of the place makes me shudder. A grotty, smelly town full of grotty, smelly...
Jul 6th
Cav takes Stage 2.
Team Columbia-HTC’s Mark Cavendish has started his quest to hold more Tour De France stage...
Jul 5th
The Green Jersey
I realise that I wanted to write this blog for people who didn’t understand cycling - like my...
Jul 5th
Monaco to Brignoles - Stage 2
As the riders set off for the 187k near-coastal ride from Monaco to Brignoles, Bradley Wiggins is...
Jul 5th
Phew
That was exhausting. Cancellara takes first in the Prologue of the Tour De France 2009. No...
Jul 4th
The eve of the prologue
Jul 4th
5.... 4.... 3.... 2....
So, Le Tour comes to our screens in 1 minute (on British Eurosport) or 4.30pm on ITV4. The first...
Jul 4th