Tour de France 2019 Stages 2 and 3

The photos above were taken while streaming the Tour de France during stages 2 and 3. 
I really had to share the top left photo of Mark Cavendish with the young man who tweeted Mark saying he would like to ride with him since he wasn't chosen by his team to ride in the Tour de France.  Mark is the kind of man who took him up on the offer!
I love the team time trials because of the importance of the "team" in order to win.  It reminds me of the sport of swimming when you are on a relay and the points you get by swimming on a relay and how those points affect the team who wins the event.  The helmets and bikes are designed for ultimate efficiency and streamlining over the 17 miles in this year's course.  Since Luke won Stage 1 their team went last (middle top photo).  Team INECO (formerly Sky) was in first place a good portion of the day and thought they had it won, but the excitement of their team wearing the yellow jersey carried over to the entire team and they ended up with the fastest time of the day (middle row left photo).  
I wanted to show you a couple photos from Stage 3 - Luke was wearing the ;yellow jersey and wasn't expected to be wearing it at the end of the stage.  (middle photo middle row). At the start of Stage 3 you see him and the other jersey winners lined up at the front of the cyclists waiting for the start of the race.  There was an expectation that Anaphilippe might win this stage -- and he did (bottom left).  He had a handshake from  Eddie Merckz at the start--hmmm.    He had a great ride and left no doubt he was at the Tour to ride into Paris.
The middle bottom photo is of Le Moulin de Verzenay in the middle of France's champagne growing region.  It is the last surviving 19th Century grain mill  on the windswept Mont Rizan. The mill served as an observation post in the 1914-18 war and as an observation post for the American army in 1944.
Ruinart is the oldest established Champagne house, exclusively producing champagne since 1729 and one lucky commentator got to give us a visit there.  Impressive area with mile after mile of vineyards.

Back to painting and my course........  have a nice day -- hope you enjoy the sport of cycling and the Tour de France.