Rasmussen's climb into yellow

Only 23 of the Tour's 189 riders finished behind Michael Rasmussen after the Prologue stage in London nine days ago.

His ascent into the yellow jersey has been almost as clincial as his tackling of yesterday's category one climb at Montee de Tignes.

Link: Rasmussen's mighty climb

Brit-watch

The mountains have thrown our riders down the overall classification, though David Millar remains in the top-half.

In total, 172 of the 189 riders who started Le Tour are still riding.

Link: Brit-watch

Rest day comes at last

A blessed rest day for the Tour de France allows riders a great chance to recuperate around the relative luxury of trainers, masseures, and vehicles that are powered by pedals.

It has been a tour littered with crashes thus far, and none more so than yesterday after a number of riders crashed out on high-speed decents.

Stuart O'Grady could still manage a smile though:

Link: Aussie grit

.. while the likes of Vinokourov and Kloden will be hoping that their bodies can recover in preparation for a return to the saddle tomorrow. Vino, in particular, was clearly struggling on yesterday's climb up to Tignes.