(look for the pale blue dot as that is Earth)

Carl Sagan famously siad of this photo;

From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of particular interest. But for us, it’s different. Look again at that dot. That’s here, that’s home, that’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

In other news, the big climb up Mt Crostis tomorrow has been cancelled making for a rather easier stage than many had hoped for – probably further reducing the chance that Contador can be challenged at this point.

Stage Results

1             José Rujano Guillen (Ven), Androni Giocattoli, 4:45:54
2             Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo Bank Sungard
3             John Gadret (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
4             Hubert Dupont (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
5             Igor Anton Hernandez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
6             Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Pro Team Astana
7             Michele Scarponi (Ita) Lampre – ISD
8             Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale
9             Vasili Kiryienka (Blr) Movistar Team
10           Denis Menchov (Rus) Geox-TMC

Overall Classification

1             Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo Bank Sungard
2             Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale, 0:03:09
3             Michele Scarponi (Ita) Lampre – ISD, 0:03:16
4             David Arroyo Duran (Spa) Movistar Team, 0:03:25
5             Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Pro Team Astana,0:03:29
6             Kanstantsin Sivtsov (Blr) HTC-Highroad, 0:03:53
7             Igor Anton Hernandez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi, 0:04:02
8             John Gadret (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale, 0:04:06
9             Matteo Carrara (Ita) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team, 0:04:35
10        Hubert Dupont (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale, 0:04:38

Sierra Road is a tough climb on its own, but by the time the pros reached it they had already summited Mt Hamilton and a series of lesser climbs – a total stage distance of  81m.

Sierra Road itself has an average gradient of 9.1% (2000ft elevation gain in 3.5 miles), with sections at 14%!

Along with a fellow Pen Velo teammate we parked a few miles away to get in a decent warm up before attacking the climb. It was fun to ride up with so many others and scope out a good spot to watch the race come by.

After waiting for around an hour the volume of car and motorbike traffic started to increase, and along with it the anticipation of the fans. With two helicopters clattering overhead, a couple of police cruisers with lights blazing and around 5 motorbikes as escorts buzzing around him, Chris Horner climbed toward our vantage point and quickly flew past looking like the climb was a walk in the park!

A minute or so later the chase group comprising Levi Leipheimer, Andy Schleck, Tom Danielson, Rory Sutherland and Christian Vande Velde came toward us and I decided to run alongside and cheer them on….and sprinting to keep up drove home how amazingly fit these guys are – they were probably climbing at around 14mph!

Greg Henderson enjoying his last day in the Golden jersey.

The Peleton brings up the rear at a fairly sedate pace.

Got some great pics and after the race had passed us by we climbed to the summit to pose under the finish line and then headed off to enjoy our own mini-Tour of the foothills!

The playbook for Stage 12 was executed perfectly. HTC stayed on the front for pretty much the whole stage, with the ever-reliable Mark Renshaw delivering Mark Cavnendish perfectly with 200m to go. It probably ended a bit closer than he would have liked but Cav brought it home and can now quit the Tour to enjoy a few days downtime with his feet up before getting his head into prep for the TdF.

Final km’s in the video below:

Stage 12 Results

1 Mark Cavendish (GBr) HTC-Highroad 4:17:25
2 Davide Appollonio (Ita) Sky Procycling
3 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Lampre – ISD
4 Roberto Ferrari (Ita) Androni Giocattoli
5 Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Quickstep Cycling Team
6 Fabio Sabatini (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale
7 Manuel Belletti (Ita) Colnago – CSF Inox
8 Mirko Selvaggi (Ita) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
9 Mark Renshaw (Aus) HTC-Highroad
10 Manuel Antonio Leal Cardoso (Por) Team RadioShack

General Classification after Stage 12

1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo Bank Sungard 44:55:16
2 Kanstantsin Sivtsov (Blr) HTC-Highroad 0:00:59
3 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale 0:01:21
4 Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Team Garmin-Cervelo 0:01:28
5 Michele Scarponi (Ita) Lampre – ISD
6 David Arroyo Duran (Spa) Movistar Team 0:01:37
7 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Pro Team Astana 0:01:41
8 Jose Rodolfo Serpa Perez (Col) Androni Giocattoli 0:01:47
9 Dario Cataldo (Ita) Quickstep Cycling Team 0:02:21
10 Matteo Carrara (Ita) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team

Christophe Le Mevel (Garmin) had the most to gain from an 11-man break that escaped with around 80km to go – the possibility of reducing his 1+ miunute deficit to Contador for the GC. But the rest of the break knew it and made it clear they weren’t going to help – I felt for him as he must have burnt a lot of candles on a fruitless effort.

Daniel Moreno jumped from the break with around 20km to go and held onto a narrow lead until the final climb to the finish. With around 450m to go it looked like Moreno might stay clear but then John Gadret (AG2R) jumped from the peleton and closed the gap on Moreno, passing him at the 200m mark and taking a huge win.

At this point in the Giro it looks like Contador has an unassailable lead – 59sec to Sivtsov and over a minute to the nearest likely contenders: Scarponi and Nibali – so is the Tour now a foregone conclusion? From HTC’s antics on the podium at the end of the stage the questions begs: “Is anyone (except Contador) taking the Giro seriously anymore?”

Anyway for your viewing pleasure here are the closing km’s of Stage 11:

Stage 11 Results

1 John Gadret (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 3:33:11
2 Joaquím Rodríguez Oliver (Spa) Katusha Team
3 Giovanni Visconti (Ita) Farnese Vini – Neri Sottoli
4 Jose Rodolfo Serpa Perez (Col) Androni Giocattoli
5 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo Bank Sungard
6 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Pro Team Astana
7 Dario Cataldo (Ita) Quickstep Cycling Team
8 Michele Scarponi (Ita) Lampre – ISD
9 Pablo Lastras Garcia (Spa) Movistar Team
10 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale

General Classification after Stage 11

1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo Bank Sungard 40:37:51
2 Kanstantsin Sivtsov (Blr) HTC-Highroad 0:00:59
3 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale 0:01:21
4 Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Team Garmin-Cervelo 0:01:28
5 Michele Scarponi (Ita) Lampre – ISD
6 David Arroyo Duran (Spa) Movistar Team 0:01:37
7 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Pro Team Astana 0:01:41
8 Jose Rodolfo Serpa Perez (Col) Androni Giocattoli 0:01:47
9 Dario Cataldo (Ita) Quickstep Cycling Team 0:02:21
10 Matteo Carrara (Ita) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team

The firm favorite, Fabian Cancellara, showed us why he’s a marked man…again – with all the top contenders neutralizing one another to allow the break to stick. There was no way Hushovd or Ballan were going to help Cancellara catch the break as they knew he would just ride away from them as soon as they caught them.

My favorite parts:

• Watching Van Summeren over the last 10k
• Seeing Cancellera catch the remnants of the break as if they were standing still and then pile on the effort to take 2nd
• Feeling for Boonen, Chavenel and all the other riders that had more than their share of bad luck
• A nail-biting race that was never a foregone conclusion

The ‘Hell of the North’ is by far my favorite race of the year – all the classics are ridden like they are the World Championships, as there is no second chance until next year – but Paris-Roubaix is by far the one that generates the most excitement and anticipation.

Dutchman Theo de Rooij, who was in the lead bunch in 1985 when he crashed probably describes Roubaix the best. Afterwards he said, “It’s bollocks this race! You’re working like an animal, you don’t have time to p.ss, so you wet your pants. You’re riding in mud like this, you’re slipping…it’s a pile of sh.t!”

When asked if he would race Paris Roubaix again, De Rooij replied, “Sure, it’s the most beautiful race in the world…”

Paris-Roubaix: Beauty, pain, disaster and glory, all in the one day’s race.

Here’s a promo video to get you fired up:

..and check out the Rapha Challenge: http://www.rapha.cc/