Team HTC-Columbia (Page 2)

More stage 3 pix -

Ivan Basso of Italy, Sylvain Chavanel of France, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, and Jerome Pineau of France, wearing the best climber's poker dotted jersey, left to right, wait to take the start of the third stage

Thor Hushovd (Cervélo TestTeam) wins Stage 3

I'm lovin the pics!  Thanks for posting them.

spreadsheet is here https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=t0eeHK669zaffldWySLSVfA&authkey=CPz226II#gid=0

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pw: challengeforum

Recap - July 7.  Stage 4 - 153.5 km Cambrai > Reims- Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre) sprinted to his second victory of the 2010 Tour de France on Wednesday in an exciting conclusion to an otherwise-leisurely and the shortest stage.  Saxo Bank’s Fabian Cancellara held onto his overall lead, with Team Sky’s Geraint Thomas second at 23 seconds and Evans third at 39 seconds.

The time bike gives the peloton the gap as Sivtsov leads the chase. (Photo: Casey B. Gibson)

Radioshack's Lance Armstrong of the U.S cycles with team mates during the Stage 4

Petacchi notches his second stage win in the 2010 Tour. (Photo: Graham Watson)

Welcome Christina, glad you are feeling better and way to go on that ride!  Most of my rides, including todays, are just commutes to work.  Home to get a few longer rides in starting next week though.

I have been trying to avoid any TdF coverage until I watch my DVR, but I can't seem to catch up, so I surrender.  I will be watching when I can and try to catch the mountain stages.  Beyond, I will be logging in some hours for our challenge this weekend.  I have gotten off to a slow start, but looking to turn it around as we get into the second week.  

Hi Christina, glad you're feeling better.  The weather is looking really good for my long ride on the weekend.  In fact the  whole Tour looks so much better after Mark Cavendish won stage 5 yesterday.  I'm soooo happy to do this Stage 5 recap, after all, Mark Cavendish is the reason I'm on this team for the challenge.

Recap - July 8.  Stage 5 - 187.5 km Épernay - Montargis- Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia) finally ended his losing streak on Thursday, sprinting to victory in the sun-splashed, sedate fifth stage of the Tour de France.  There were no changes in the overall standings — Saxo Bank’s Fabian Cancellara retained his yellow jersey.

The pack of riders cycles during the the fifth stage of the Tour de France cycling race between Epernay and Montargis

Riders get bidons with water at the team cars during the fifth stage of the TdF

It was an emotional Cavendish who spoke afterwards in a manner that suggests that in private recently he has been nearly as self-critical as his public tormentors.

“The team never gave up on me, they kept believing in me,” Cavendish said. “It’s incredible to win a stage in the most important race in the world. I had a bad start to this Tour. I set myself up so high after last year, and things haven’t gone as I would have liked."

"Finally in the last few days I came crashing down to earth very hard and it hurt. I had a great group of people around me who picked me up and helped me get back on my feet. I'm so happy I could win for them today. I have learned a big lesson and I want to thank them.

Emotional: Mark Cavendish ended his wait for a win at this year's Tour after winning stage five's sprint finish

"It's a special, special moment for me. It's a great relief and a great sense of achievement. The guys did an incredible job for me on Wednesday as well, but then I let them down and it was a hard thing to live with. They could have given up today but they didn't."

“I want to thank the people who stuck by me. A lot of people said bad things about me, I am sure I gave them reason to. The pressure was really high.” 

Hope I am not spoiling it for you with my recap.  I do abide by the 24hr ban, so my recap is always a day late.  But I can't help myself wanting to post all the neat pix.  I'm finding it hard to catch up too, so I just end up watching the last 30min to see who wins.  

Nope this is perfect.  What I have been doing is watch the beginning of the next day's broadcast and they recap everything.  I got another stage in today.  One more tomorrow.  Have a good weekend everyone.

A slow start is better than no start at all!  I ended up paying for the Versus Online coverage so I can watch it whenever but I still struggle to sit down and watch it every day.  I think I'd really prefer about an hrs worth of highlight coverage.

3rd stage done for me.  Another 2 hours.  I need to start swimming and running at some point.