Greig Leach

After the peloton has rolled onto the Champs Elysees and the team with the Maillot Jaune has had there processional lap the racing can get underway in earnest. Those who have made it all of the way to Paris covering over 2,000 miles on their bicycles make 10 laps of the heart of Paris from the Louve to the l'Arc de Triomphe and back. So that the fast men know when it is all almost over, there is a bell wrung as each man enters the final lap of the day. The French Air Force joined the announcement of the bell lap by flying low over the race trailing their tricolore of con air. The fly by usually announces the arrival of the peloton, but this timing seemed to stir the passions even higher.