130+ miles.
20,371 vertical climbing feet.
3.9 miles vertical climbing miles
one american in the top ten.
one of the most legendary climbs in the tour--alp de huez.
lance made this climb famous when he attacked mercilessly every time he rode it in the tour. on three seperate stages he won on alp de huez.
most famously when he looked back to challenge jan ulrich to follow him up.
one year lance had three stage wins in a row in the high mountains.
today's stage started at 3:30 am this morning on the west coast. if you didn't already wake up to watch then you have two options: watch the prime-time show tonight or come to my house and watch the recording. be sure to drop me a line if you choose the latter or i'm likely to erase it to make room for 'so you think you can dance'.
if aren't sure why you should watch since you don't know any of the riders, let me give you someone to watch. christian vandevelde from lemont, illinois. christian has ridden in support of other riders for most of his career. he is a humble, determined rider and really fun to watch. he has discovered himself in this tour as he has hung with the leaders from day one. sadly, he lost 30 seconds on the last climb yesterday and crashed on the way down the last descent. he got back up to only loose 2 1/2 minutes total to his closest rival--cadel evans.
if i haven't convinced you (and i probably haven't) then maybe michael in his yellow jersey might:
just like that...and stevie's not convinced. well i dragged this video out from a few days ago when michael was racing around the house like the british rider mark cavendish:
