Tour de France 2008

Incroyable! Google has created a virtual Tour de France 2008, using Google Maps Street View feature, the first use of that imaging in Europe. All 21 stages of the race are available, covering > 3500 kilometers.

As of today, July 17, the race is at stage 12: Lavelanet à Narbonne.

Mark Cavendish won the sprint finish at Narbonne, garnering him his third stage win. Cadel Evans keeps the maillot jaune.

Stage 12 results;

1 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Columbia

2 Sébastien Chavanel (Fra) Française des Jeux

3 Gert Steegmans (Bel) Quick Ste
4 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Milram

5 Oscar Freire (Spa) Rabobank

6 Francesco Chicchi (Ita) Liquigas

7 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Crédit Agricole

8 Leonardo Duque (Col) Cofidis

9 Julian Dean (NZl) Garmin Chipotle - H30

10 Heinrich Haussler (Ger) Gerolsteiner

General classification after stage 12:

1 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence - Lotto 50.23.05

2 Frank Schleck (Lux) Team CSC - Saxo Bank 0.01

3 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30 0.38

4 Bernhard Kohl (Aut) Gerolsteiner 0.46

5 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank 0.57

6 Carlos Sastre (Spa) Team CSC - Saxo Bank 1.28

7 Kim Kirchen (Lux) Columbia 1.56

8 Juan José Cobo (Spa) Saunier Duval-Scott 2.10

9 Riccardo Riccò (Ita) Saunier Duval-Scott 2.29

10 Vladimir Efimkin (Rus) AG2R La Mondiale 2.32

And, in a Tour de France newsflash:

Italian rider Riccardo Riccò of Saunier Duval has tested positive for blood
booster Erythropoietin (EPO), French sports daily L'Equipe reported on its
website on Thursday. According to the paper's Damien Ressiot, one of the
climber's urine samples collected by the French Anti-Doping Agency AFLD showed
traces of a third generation EPO called CERA (Continuous Erythropoietin Receptor
Activator).

The team's buses and cars were reportedly stopped by gendarmes and
searched, and the police were seen taking bags of items away.

The Saunier Duval team has voluntarily withdrawn itself from the Tour
de France, and said it would not compete in any races until further notice.
Directeur sportif Joxean Fernandez Matxin said he was as surprised as anybody.
"We only found out ten minutes ago. The entire team will stop racing, not only
in the Tour de France. We suspend the activities of the team until we understand
what has happened."

Riccò, who won two stages in the Tour de France (the sixth and ninth),
was ninth on general classification before the news broke on Thursday morning.

The Italian's impressive performances have in
the past been explained by his naturally high hematocrit
level. hacking cough hacking cough . (bolded and
italicized hacking cough, mine.)

At the official Tour de France website, tucked in near the bottom is the Code of Ethics, which contains some great words, like unswerving, values, the test of time, and -- always my favorite -- intrinsic moral virtues. Also mentioned:

Illicitly favouring anyone runs counter to the sporting ethic. It is in this sense that doping, too often present at an ordinary social level, is inadmissible in sport.

La Belle Bianca Castafiore, decked out in fitted bicycle shorts (not quite long enough to cover her voluptuous quadriceps) snorts and sings:

"Ah, je ris de me voir si belle dans ce miroir..."

erythropoietin that, bay-bee