2011 Tour De France Is Finally Here !

This year's edition of the Tour De France started today. Those of you who have been reading this blog for very long will already know that this is one of my favorite sporting events, and I will be posting about it daily. If you don't appreciate bicycle racing, then just ignore those posts. I will continue to post about politics and the economy also.

This year's tour will cover 3,430.5 kilometers (about 2,144 miles) from July 2nd through July 24th (when it finishes in Paris as usual). There will be 21 stages and two rest days. This year there are 10 flat stages, 6 high mountain stages (including 23 level 2, level 1, or unrated climbs), and and 3 medium mountain stages (with level 3, level 4, and level 5 climbs). There will be one individual time trial and one team time trial. There are 22 teams in the race (including four teams from the United States -- Radio Shack, Garmin-Cervelo, HTC Highroad, BMC Racing). Last year the Radio Shack team won the Team Championship.

Each day I will be posting the standings in four categories -- individual leader (yellow jersey), sprint leader (green jersey), best climber (polka dot jersey), and the team standings. I will also give you the top three finishers in each day's stage race.

Stage 1 was held today. It was a 191.5 kilometer race from Passage Du Gois to Mont Des Alouettes. This was a fairly flat stage with one category 4 climb near the end of the race. The stage was won by Belgian rider Phillipe Gilbert (Omega-Lotto). Australian Cadell Evans (BMC Racing) finished second, and Norwegian Thor Hushovd (Garmin-Cervelo) finished third.

Tomorrow the team time trial will be run on a pretty flat 23 kilometer course that starts and finishes in Les Essarts. This stage should tell us who the strongest teams are in this year's race. Here are the current standings:

YELLOW JERSEY (RACE LEADER)
1. Phillipe Gilbert, Belgium (Omega-Lotto)
2. Cadell Evans, Australia (BMC Racing)..........03"
3. Thor Hushovd, Norway (Garmin-Cervelo)..........06"

GREEN JERSEY (SPRINTERS)
1. Phillipe Gilbert, Belgium (Omega-Lotto)..........45 pts
2. Cadell Evans, Australia (BMC Racing)..........35 pts
3. Thor Hushovd, Norway (Garmin-Cervelo)..........30 pts
4. Jose Jaoquin Rojas, Spain (Movistar)..........26 pts
5. Jurgen Van Den Broeck, Belgium (Omega-Lotto)..........22 pts

POLKA DOT JERSEY (CLIMBERS)
1. Phillipe Gilbert, Belgium (Omega-Lotto)..........1 pt

TEAM STANDINGS
1. Omega-Lotto
2. BMC Racing..........03"
3. All other teams..........06"