2008 Route
Brest to Plumelec

A bit of wind on a beautiful day to start the 2008 Tour de France from historic Brest, Bretagne, and then a crash takes out Duclos-Lasalle. Cadel Evans, Tour favorite, and Robbie McEwen, sprint master par excellence, led the peloton into the last few kilometers to the finish at Plumelec, and another crash nearly claims another rider. Then we saw Team Columbia (High Road) push forward causing us to believe we may be singing “Hail, Columbia!” Up pops Erik Zabel with less than a kilometer to climb. Kim Kirchen led briefly until Alejandro Valverde dominated the finish.

Congratulations to Valverde for taking the first yellow jersey of this Tour. Good for Columbia, Kirchen (place 4) may have more to show us as the Tour continues. It’s going to be a very interesting 3 weeks. At least I can find one set of blue jerseys in the pack (yellow band on Columbia sleeve). As for Chipotle, I’m still trying to identify their jersey as they fly past cameras!

Anyone out there have photos to share?