Good evening,
It’s a cool and clear evening ahead, with a low of fifty-nine.
If you’ve been following the Tour, it’s been a very good couple of days for Mark Cavendish. He had his second consecutive stage win on Stage 6, and Cancellara is still in yellow.
Here’s the list of General Classification leaders (that is, overall leaders) after six stages:
1 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team Saxo Bank 28:37:30
2 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Sky Professional Cycling Team 0:00:20
3 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:00:39
4 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin – Transitions 0:00:46
5 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Quick Step 0:01:01
6 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:01:09
7 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo Test Team 0:01:16
8 Alexander Vinokourov (Kaz) Astana 0:01:31
9 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 0:01:40
10 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto 0:01:42
11 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale
12 Johan Van Summeren (Bel) Garmin – Transitions 0:01:47
13 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank 0:01:49
14 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Professional Cycling Team
15 David Millar (GBr) Garmin – Transitions 0:02:06
16 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas-Doimo 0:02:24
17 Luis León Sánchez Gil (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne 0:02:25
18 Lance Armstrong (USA) Team Radioshack 0:02:30
19 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne 0:02:32
20 Thomas Löfkvist (Swe) Sky Professional Cycling Team 0:02:34
One hears that there’s much left — and there is, for if there weren’t the many stages ahead would be dull and insignificant — but I think one will find the probable top finishers in Paris near the top of this. list.
Versus, on which American viewers can watch the Tour, has embeddable video highlights of each stage, and there’s a sample from Stage 6 at their website. See, http://www.versus.com/shows/tour-de-france/.
Perhaps that’s not enough for them, just the Tour, for the ratings they need. I suggest as much because in their cable coverage and on the web, they offer other programming segments interspersed during the day and evening.
There’s an example, as sponsored from RadioShack, on ‘Training.’ An illustration, one imagines, of the many benefits of exercise, yet — or perhaps because — of this, RadioShack’s still in 18th place.
In Madison, there’s a bike-friendly, bike-exclusive restaurant proposal: “Proposed bike path restaurant would be inaccessible by automobile.”
A Madison restaurateur wants to pioneer the antithesis of the drive-in restaurant.
Chris Berge, co-owner of Restaurant Magnus, the Weary Traveler and Natt Spil and cofounder of Barriques and the Blue Marlin, plans to build a bike-path-bound cafe on the city’s Near West Side that would be inaccessible by car, serve local food, produce zero garbage and cater to the city’s burgeoning bicycle population.
Described as “a hobbit hole meets the American Players Theatre meets a 1950s National Park recreational area,” the “Badger Den” would be a “bike-in” bar and grill open from April through October.
Food would be served on plastic or ceramic dishes at seating made from tree trunks. Coffee and juice would be dispensed in purchasable mugs that would fit in a bike holder. And to capture the zeitgeist of the Wisconsin north woods, beer and wine would also be on the menu.
If the restauranteur can make this work, good for him. If it comes to pass, I’d stop in, to see what it’s like.
Seating on tree trunks, with beer and wine? Sure, I’m in.