Magnificent TdF 2011 images

photo credits: Koen van Weel / Veeral Patel / Joel SagetThe Boston Globe just ran a two-part series with some of the best photos from this years Tour de France. These are absolutely fantastic images and truly inspiring (as a photographer, cyclist, and traveler). I'm totally breathless.

Click here for photo set #1.

See photo set #2 here.

I've been watching the Tour for about ten years, but it still always amazes me (a) how tough the riders are, (b) how close the fans get to the riders, (3) how high the mountains are, and (4) how beautiful France is. We were in Paris for a week a couple of years ago, but I'd really love to travel all around the beautiful country.

The prologue for the 2012 Tour starts in Liège, Belgium, on June 30th. Can't wait 'til then!

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As an aside, maybe NBC will get their act together in the next year and work out all the bugs in their streaming service. While it was really convenient to be able to watch from your computer, it was exceedingly frustrating to have the video cut out or freeze at all the critical moments of the race.

Tour de Thor

I'm writing this while watching* stage 18 of the 2011 Tour de France (Pinerolo ~ Galibier - Serre Chevalier). Today's stage has the makings of an exciting day in the mountains, but so far the highlight of this year's Tour has been the performance of my favorite rider in the peloton, the Norwegian Thor Hushovd. Thor is the reigning World Champion, having won that title in Australia towards the end of the 2010 season, is a two-time green jersey winner at the Tour de France (for points/sprints; not overall in the race), and to date has won ten stages at the Tour. He's been the undisputed star of the TdF so far this year, winning two stages, including one in the mountains (which is really impressive given that he's better known as a sprinter), and wearing the yellow jersey (for leader of the race) for a week. No, Thor is not going to win the Tour (this year or ever), but he's been the star of the race so far this year.

*BTW, it's fantastic that you can stream the Tour on your (office) computer (at least when you can get it work). While you'd think this would decrease my productivity, it actually has increased it. Rather than stay at home watching the Tour every morning for three weeks in July, I can go into the office and work while I watch! Maybe I can write my Tour subscription off as a work-related expense?