By Chris Brewer
A day behind on my blog, sorry about that, but time and internet priority went to the videos from yesterday instead.  When you’re in the mountains, internet connectivity is spotty at best, so you have to go with the main priority first!

No More Mr. Nice (t-shirt) Guy: The Shack’s staffer / photog Glenn Kasin had a great time working the crowd and throwing team t-shirts at the Tour of California.  At Le Tour?  Not so much.  Glenn (thought he) was prepared for Round 2, but in Belgium he was essentially assaulted by the crowd grappling for the shirts.  “I basically threw the box as far as I could and ran, and then turned around and watched a near fist fight to get the free shirts.”  From now on, you have to know what he looks like and ask for one nicely.  In private.

Check out today's " Behind The Lines" as we go in front of the peloton, to show you the caravan the crowd sees before the racers. The caravan is about two miles long and is moving advertising that tosses trinkets and food into the crowd. Pretty amazing to witness, as they drive every single stage from start to finish. We ran into the devil too. 

Check out the photos from Stage 11 of the Tour de France.

Tour de France
Stage 11:  Sisteron to Bourg-lès Valence, 184.5km/115mi
By Cathy Mehl

With only three more chances for the fast men of cycling to win a stage, the teams of the sprinters wasted no time in setting up the group gallop in the first-time finishing town of Bourg-lès Valence. With the competition for the green jersey getting tighter and tighter, the sprinters were battling for every inch of road in the finale.  HTC-Columbia’s Mark Cavendish came off the wheel of teammate Mark Renshaw to take his third stage win in this year’s Tour, but with his victory came a huge blow to the USA-based team.  Renshaw headbutted Garmin’s Julien Dean not once but twice in the final 400m and was immediately relegated and then disqualified from the Tour for unsafe conduct on the race course.  Cavendish’s win put him at 13 career stage wins in three Tours, but the loss of his lead out could be devastating to the British rider.  Second and third place went to Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre) and American Tyler Farrar (Garmin), moving the Italian rider into the green jersey four points ahead of Thor Hushovd (Cervelo). 

Plain Stage
Thurs, July 15—starts at 1245 local time

About Stage 11
By Chris Brewer
Did you hear that?  That was a collective sigh from the majority of the peloton as the alps are in the proverbial rear view mirror.  We’re halfway through the race and the day is flat in the south of France.  Bring on the sprinters…