Saturday, July 23  Ullrich, the 'Infernal Second' PARIS  Poor Jan Ullrich. Another year, another disappointment.

By Laurent Emmanuel, AP Jan Ullrich is comforted by a team trainer after placing second in the 20th stage. Second to Lance in the time trial and probably third overall. "I'm dead, I'm completely dead," he said after yet another defeat by Lance Armstrong.

Der Kaiser is the German version of Raymond Poulidor, the "Eternal Second" and lovable loser of French cycling lore. Poulidor came in second three times and third thrice. Ullrich has now finished second five times, three of those to Lance. He was injured in 1999 and suspended for recreational drug use in 2002. No wonder why he was taking ecstasy.

He would be another Poulidor except for the fact that he actually won the Tour in 1997, when Lance was making a comeback from cancer. Poulidor's nickname is "Poo-Poo." They have a similar moniker for Ullrich now in Germany, but it's not as cute.

Perhaps we should call Ullrich the "Infernal Second," for there must be a special Hell on Earth for his luck in coming into his peak years just as Lance was reaching cosmic highs. Lance even offered Ullrich a little advice for 2006: Show up in shape, lose a few pounds. Ach!

I saw this statue just off the Avenue de Charles de Gaulle in the Paris neighborhood of Neuilly. It is Sisyphus, the poor sap of Greek mythology who was fated to forever roll a boulder up a mountain, only to have it roll back down just as he reached the top. It made me think of Ullrich. Maybe now that Lance is retiring, Ullrich can finally get that rock to a mountaintop finish. Friday, July 22  Crow finds her way in cycling world CLERMONT FERRAND, France  Sheryl Crow has become the feminine face of American cycling at the 2005 Tour. Lance's rock star girlfriend has taken to the sport, and the sport is really quite taken with her.



By Sal Ruibal, USA TODAY Sheryl Crow works the crowd at the Discovery Channel Team bus before a stage begins.

At the daily scrum around the Discovery Team bus at the start area, Sheryl is there answering reporters' questions, waving hello to the many friends who are following the Tour, signing autographs, chatting strategy with team director Johan Bruyneel and making last-minute contact with her man before he jumps on his bike and goes to work.

European TV reporters have no qualms about asking her technical questions, perhaps testing her cycling knowledge. She's smart and has absorbed quite a bit of expertise from Lance and his posse.

Fitness is important to her, so she also goes for long runs in the Tour towns, an iPod providing the soundtrack. At 43, she could easily be mistaken for a twentysomething athlete.

When the race started in Agde, I asked if she was going riding that day. "We're going, for sure," she said. "To the top!"

She may be the most glamorous grimpeur to scale the 21 switchbacks of the Alpe d'Huez. She rides a custom Trek with special gearing that lets her climb like Lance while singing all the way ... to the top.

Thursday, July 21  Regions use Tour to market themselves MENDE, France  The Tour de France is many things: a bike race, a cultural and gastronomic adventure and a global television series. It is also an economic development project. Because the Tour is seen by more than a billion people around the planet, the race coverage becomes a great platform for regions seeking to market themselves to international corporations and tourists. The last week of the Tour is showcasing the Massif Central area, which is somewhat like the USA's southern Appalachian region.



By Sal Ruibal, USA TODAY Toulouse is known as the Space City. The ideal French space mission would be a trip to the moon to bring back green cheese. This region was featured early in last year's race, as well. Regional governments as well as localities paid the Tour to come to their area, as do almost all of the host towns. The Massif Central promotion is also being helped by the French national government, which has improved roads and other infrastructure. The modern and beautiful A75 superhighway now links this area with the northern Paris area and the southern Mediterranean cities.



Before the A75, magnificent towns such as St. Cloud and Mende were hard to reach. In the same way U.S. federal spending on Interstate highways and national parks in our southern Appalachians has spurred economic development in those areas, the Massif Central is beginning to blossom.



I like the Massif Central because it is relatively unspoiled, with large rolling hills and small mountains, which are dramatic in their own way. For cyclists, the Massif Central is much more rideable than the Alps or Pyrenees. Depending on the route, riders of all fitness levels can have fun riding over or around these pine-covered ridges, many of which are topped with ancient castle ruins and fortifications.

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Provence is drop-dead gorgeous, but also overpriced and overrun by summer visitors; The Alps are amazing, but the roads are steep and sometimes dangerous; the Massif Central is just waiting to be discovered and the French government thinks the Tour is the perfect venue for encouraging that development.

Wednesday, July 20  Fine art at a French truck stop REVEL, France  There's no doubt that France has the most beautiful truck stops in the world. There are always very clean restrooms, lots of parking, espresso for a Euro-buck a cup and sometimes even cool art.



By Sal Ruibal, USA TODAY This three-story-high sculpture is a roadside attraction on the Tour route near Pau. The "Aire" (as they're called here) sell Ferarri race jackets, a wonderful selection of fresh sandwiches, cell-phone rechargers, bug spray, peanuts, Pringles, Pepsi and four kinds of Orangina. This year I found one that sold wine from three of Beaujolais' finest village appellations. You don't get that kind of service at the Sheetz in Haymarket, Virginia.



There are always big, highly detailed maps which come in handy if you are lost, which for me is often.



The artwork is local in theme and origin. Today I got to check out the huge "Tour de France in the Pyrenees" sculpture just outside Pau. You can see it from a mile away and it looks like someone created a shiny aluminum roller-coaster for giants on bicycles. A 20-foot-tall guy on a bike is quite impressive. Wouldn't want to go against him in a sprint.



Leave it to the French to take something as commonplace as a truck stop and give it style, taste, culture and food for the mind as well as the stomach.



But I do miss those little cinnamon rolls they sell at Sheetz.

Tuesday, July 19  Getting out among the real race fans PAU, France  Want to know a dirty little secret about covering the Tour? The press doesn't have great seats to watch the action.



If you're on a press motorcycle, you can get up close and just a bit too personal, especially when it comes to the various bodily fluids emitted by riders during the race. Don't ask.



By Sal Ruibal, USA TODAY View from a bridge: A chase group passes the four-kilometer-to-go mark in Tuesday's stage. Most of the reporters watch the race in the press center near the finish line. When the peloton approaches, there's a mass exodus to get quotes that come out on tape like heavy breathing with a few ... words ... like ... this.



The stage winner and Lance, er, the overall leader, give more bodily fluids to the doping control folks, then give quick press conferences  by video link. Sights, sounds but no smells. Sometimes the Discovery media folks come in with an i-Pod and two tiny speakers, which they set up in the press center. Everyone crowds around and tries to record the pre-recorded quotes from Lance. Maybe next year they'll just put them in iTunes and we'll have to pay a buck to download them online.



The key is to get away from the press center and watch the race with the real fans. You have to be a real fan to drive a camper to the top of a mountain a week before the stage begins to see your heroes pass by in a three-second blur. Allez! Allez! Bye-bye!



Once in a while you find just the right spot. In 2003, I found a perch on a cliff overlooking the final steep kilometers of the famous Luz Ardiden stage. I saw Lance come out of the mist and climb, climb, climb. It was an amazing spot from which to witness one of the greatest stages in Tour history.



Today I walked a few hundred yards from the press center to a bridge I scoped out earlier in the day. I took out my digital camera just as the leaders passed beneath me. I even shot a little video of the peloton.



That's when I feel like a reporter and not an educated television viewer in a stuffy press tent.



That's when I really love my job.

