Tour Tidbit du Jour - 7/15/2011

Even though the biggest and oldest Grand Tour is known as the Tour de France, one could hardly tell from looking at the nationalities of the 25 last overall winners. A big Norwegian beating two Frenchmen to the line on today's mountain stage, a heavy sprinter versus two light climbers, only underscores the fact that there have been no French stage winners at the Tour so far, and that in the French peloton, there does not seem to be any developing future Tour winners or dominant sprinters. The last Frenchman to win the yellow jersey, Bernard Hinault, whose 5th and last Tour victory was in 1985, had only this to say, in typical Badger style, about France's future prospects: "“Pffft. We’re on vacation here.”