There is no doubt Lance is back to his absolute best despite what the doubters say. The “function” he put on last night was one for the ages. It was certainly the biggest and best night of the tour so far and if you look at the results from team Radio Shack today, they certainly reflect how the night ended.

We were all complete muppets on the bike today, but with good reason. Lance at his age was told by doctors this morning that with the amount of alcohol he consumed, he probably should be dead. I swear to god at one stage I thought he was. Of course all the doubters were out in force in the media today, but let’s be realistic here folks. At Lance’s age, there is no way you can party like a teenager and still stick with the likes of Contador and Schleck.

Speaking of the two GC leaders at the moment, the rivalry is overflowing. Last night’s poker tournament was epic and Andy and Alberto ended up heads up at the end of the night. When the game didn’t finish in time for today’s start, the rivalry spilled over onto the race, with Andy even quoting the poker game in the media. “He played poker, I played poker, we both played poker today,” said Schleck. They didn’t even really give a crap about the race at all.

One of the funniest things I’ve seen in a while was when they were busting up the field and decided to have a $5000 bet on who could stand still on the hill veledrome style without falling off. Contador just didn’t have the balance and Andy picked up a few K to throw around on the rest day.

I’m going to leave the discussion open for a few more days about a number 2 on the bike as I’ve been getting some great responses and also some really good ideas.

The only down side to today’s stage was the prank pulled on me by Johan. He loves a joke and after the ribbing I keep giving him over his tight pants, he decided to put itchy powder in my bike shorts for today. Made some great entertainment for him and the team but right now, I’m really paying for it.

The boys ended up letting another Frenchman get the win today, even though they could have smoked him at any point. It’s always great to give the French something to cheer about, because after all if we don’t, who else is going to give us Renault cars, Yoplait, French bread, arrogance and Celine Dion (she did say she wasn’t Canadian after all)? It was great to see the New Zealand cricket team sponsored Footon Servetto get a guy up the road again. Those beige outfits really do get the women’s blood flowing. It’s great for the sport. Needless to say, after the laugh it gave us all, we reeled him in too.

No big change to the GC if you don’t count all the Radio Shack boys going backwards. However we do have good reason.

Tonight we are all off to a local indoor soccer match with the Cofidis boys. A few of them are from this area and have invited us to come and play in a local league. Most of you know I have played at the highest level in the past, so I’m looking forward to reliving some of the glory days on the pitch for tonight.

Tomorrow’s stage is an interesting one. Interesting because I have absolutely no idea where we are off to. At this stage of the tour, you tend to pay a little less attention to the cycling itself and a little more attention to the podium girls or the daughters of the French dignitaries who without doubt are always sniffing around the athletes. I’m assuming we are climbing again in the Pyrenees, though I’m pretty sure there is no mountain top finish, so I should just bludge in a result and get set for the rest day coming soon.

Oh, superb. I just realised some idiot takes the time to insert the stage profile into the diary entries. Not sure why they waste their time, but looking at tomorrow’s stage, yes… it appears to be an up and down stage.

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