Alejandro Valverde | schwingeninswitzerland

I know that I have posted a lot about the Tour de France. I love it and know that my fellow cycling friends would be disappointed if I didn’t post some pics of the big riders. If you aren’t a cycling fans, we’ll be back to normal programming tomorrow as the Tour ends. Feel free to notice the slender arms and the shaved legs. I like that I was able to get this close to the riders. Above is Marcus Burghardt of BMC. Sandy Casar of Francaise Des Jeux (FDJ is sponsored by the French lottery) is below.

Cadel Evans (BMC) with Janez Brajkovic of Astana, Vincenzo Nibali of Liquigas Cannondale, and Alejandro Valverde of Movistar.

This is Chris Horner of Radioshack-Nissan. I like that he looks like he is having a good time.

The new BMC General Classification (GC) rider Tejay Van Garderen. He’s wearing the white jersey as the leader of the best young rider competition. His tweets are pretty hilarious. They include:

“Woke up this morning and found a married women in my bed.” – after getting married
“Tony Martin is making a call to his girlfriend. I can tell because his voice just went 4 octaves higher.”
“I’m really liking the ‘Young, Wild and Free’ song. Maybe that’s because I’m not allowed to do any of the things they sing about.”
“Non-flush urinals are good in theory, but every time I use one it wreaks of week old stale piss. And that is my 1000th tweet.” Words to live by.

Alexander Vinokourov of Astana. After testing positive for blood doping in the 2007 Tour de France, it was alleged that he had used his father’s blood. Vino responded, “I heard that I made a transfusion with my father’s blood. That’s absurd. I can tell you that with his blood, I would have tested positive for vodka.”

Big George Hincapie of BMC a cycling legend from neighboring South Carolina (who married a podium girl) and is retiring after this season.

David Millar of Garmin-Sharp won a stage in this year’s Tour. He is known for testing positive, admitting “yes, I did it,” serving his suspension and now willing to be quoted on the subject. Interesting quotes of his include:

“To be brutally honest, it’s simple economics. If they want to come into cycling, sponsors need to know the team they are funding is clean, otherwise the risk is just too great.”
“In fact cycling has always been ‘saved’ by judicial investigations and not by the anti-doping controls we put in place. That’s the harsh truth. We have relied on them to clean the sport up.”
“My epiphany came in that police cell: I realised I was about to lose everything and it didn’t bother me, not in the slightest. I’d come to hate cycling because I blamed it for the lie I was living.”

Our Norwiegan friend cheered on the Norweigan National Champion Edvald Boasson Hagen. In case you were wondering whether to address him as Mr. Boasson Hagen or Mr. Hagen, he said, “In my passport it says Hagen as a surname, and Edvald Boasson as first names. Boasson is a kind of middle name. But I prefer to use both as a surname.” If you are still confused, you could try calling him Eddie Boss instead.

Nicki Sørensen of Saxo Bank-Tinkoff and Manuel Quinziato of BMC (I think) having a bit of a chat. Christian Vande Velde of Garmin-Sharp (gotta love a Chicago boy of Belgian descent).

How ’bout them ‘burns? The yellow jersey holder and likely winner, Bradley Wiggens. Apparently he has not heeded the advice on my sign to “shave the ‘burns.”

One of my favorite Swiss, Fabian Cancellara, who abandoned the tour after this stage. He plans on competing in the Olympics, but before he does, it is his wish to be present and there for his wife at the birth of their second child. Aaawwww. What a sweetie.