Round and About and TDF - Part 92

I am still using pictures from my collection, but I hope this will be rectified when Nigel arrives on Tuesday with a camera for me to use.

Each summer in Chasseneuil-sur-Bonnieure, a team of wood carvers arrives from Canada for a week. It is amazing to watch these craftsmen and women at work, not only with hammer and chisel, but chain saws as well! I have put  some of the carvings in past posts; see my labels. It's amazing what one log of wood can be turned into.  At the end of the week of carving, the sculptures are then treated with preservative and positioned at different sites around the town for residents and visitors to enjoy.

This was a collection that had been finished the previous day. I did not have the camera with me while the carvers were at work.  (I did not have a blog then, and the camera did not travel everywhere with me!!)

TDF NEWS.

TDF - Thursday 8 July 2010 - Stage 5 - Épernay to Montargis 187.5 km The stage featured two category four (fairly minor) climbs in the first 36.5km and three intermediate sprints (at 27.5km, 126.5km and 169.5km). It was an extremely hot day with temperatures well over 30°C. (88°F). The temperature was 35/36°C in the Seine-et-Marne department where the stage ran - hot and  windless!

While I have been mentioning riders wearing the yellow jersey, there are also 3 other jersey colours of importance; the following will give those not familiar with the race a little more information:-

The yellow jersey represents the race leader.

The green jersey represents the leader of the points competition - points are won at intermediate sprints and for stage wins; these are often won by sprinters when the finish area is flat.

The polka dot jersey designates the race's finest climber. (King of the Mountains) - judged from points won by reaching the top of each climb first second or third.

The white jersey designates the highest-ranked rider in the overall competition, age 25 years or younger on the first of January of the year of the race.

The stage win went to Mark Cavendish (British, but in fact a Manxman- from the Isle of Man), I nearly shouted myself hoarse in the final seconds, once I knew Robbie Hunter of South Africa was not going to take it!

1. CAVENDISH Mark (Eng)

2. CIOLEK Gerald (Ger)

3. HAGEN Edvald Boasson (Nor)

Fabian Cancellara still holds the yellow jersey and no other positions have changed. For those of you who are not keen cyclists, you may be surprised that these positions have not changed. The reason; it is impossible for 190 riders to all cross the line simultaneously, so the Tour operates a rule that all the riders in the race's main peloton are given the same finish time as the first rider. But if a split forms and the gap is larger than one second, the next group gets the time of the first rider of that group. Overall, it saves a mad rush for the line and in most cases it's too difficult to allocate separate times. Once the tour gets into the mountains we should then see a number of changes in the main positions.

09 July - stage 6 - Montargis - Gueugnon 227.5 km- this is the longest stage of the tour. It is relatively flat, so I would expect  overall positions to stay much the same.