This change to https involves a lot of prep work. It turns out that browsers will not act nice if you have anything on an https site that isn’t from another https site. Links to non-https sites are fine, but graphics that are used on the pages must have an https source.

The big offenders in this regard are my weather bug and the Feedjit list. I’ll have a weather link, but it won’t display the temperature and current conditions like the weather bug does. I don’t have a replacement for the Feedjit, so it is going to have to go.

I’m sure there are other things that I’m going to have to remove or change to get things working properly, but things will probably get a bit strange here once the transition starts.

Bastia to Ajaccio

Distance: 156 kilometers.

This is not going to be nice. The first half of the stage is a gentle uphill run that includes a sprint, but then it is mountain time with two category 3 climbs and then a category two climb to the top of Col de Vizzovona. After the top it gets dangerous as it is downhill until about 10 km from the end where there is another category 3 climb before the coast into Ajaccio. The top ten should look very different today.

The BBC has a video look at the history of the Tour, if you have the time and resources.

Marcel Kittel got to keep the Green, but the other two Jerseys are gone after today.

Jan Bakelants took the stage and the Yellow today, and there are now deficit times to be made up, 17 minutes and 35 seconds for Marcel Kittel, and those, like
Geraint Thomas, who were injured yesterday. It was a stage for all-arounders.

Jan Bakelants ( Bel – RLT – 042 ) [Yellow] 08h 40′ 03″
Marcel Kittel ( Ger – ARG – 197 ) [Green] 47 points
Pierre Rolland ( Fra – EUC – 051 ) [Polka Dot] 5 points
Michal Kwiatkowski ( Pol – OPQ – 153 ) 7 [White]

Team: RadioShack-Leopard ( RLT – 041-049 ) [Yellow numbers]
Stage winner: Jan Bakelants ( Bel – RLT – 042 )
Combative: Blel Kadri ( Fra – ALM – 087 ) [Red numbers]

Top Ten:

1 Jan Bakelants ( Bel – RLT – 042 )
2 David Millar ( GB – GRS – 176 ) + 00′ 01″
3 Julien Simon ( Fra – SOJ – 218 ) + 00′ 01″
4 Daryl Impey ( RSA – OGE – 185 ) + 00′ 01″
5 Edvald Boasson Hagen ( Nor – SKY – 002 ) + 00′ 01″
6 Simon Gerrans ( Aus – OGE – 181 ) + 00′ 01″
7 Michal Kwiatkowski ( Pol – OPQ – 153 ) + 00′ 01″
8 Sergey Lagutin ( Uzb – VCD – 206 ) + 00′ 01″
9 Christophe Riblon ( Fra – ALM – 089 ) + 00′ 01″
10 Cadel Evans ( Aus – BMC – 031 ) + 00′ 01″

The Rest of the Top 30:
[Read more →]