tour de france

Today's 18th stage of the Tour de France may have been a 123-mile ride but the flat route through France's renowned wine region was considered a respite for the weary riders. The climbs through the Pyrenees over the last four days were especially brutal.

A little bit of Hollywood sunshine dropped by to brighten the yellow jersey ceremony. Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise presented overall leader Alberto Contador with the yellow jersey, aka maillot jaune. Contador's lead over rival Andy Schleck is narrow — eight seconds after almost 90 hours of biking all over France. Even with his slim lead and two more stages left, Contador is favored to win le Tour. Saturday's 19th stage is a 32.3-mile time trial, and Schleck tends to perform poorly in this type of race. In the prologue time trial Andy was 40 seconds slower than Alberto.

Take a look-see of more photos when you read more

The Amgen Tour of California kicked off yesterday. If you're unfamiliar with the cycling race, it's America's version of the Tour de France but on a smaller scale. Over an eight day period the world's top cycling teams will race on a course beginning in Nevada City and ending in Thousand Oaks, CA. What a lot of people don't know is that there is also another important bike race going on at the exact same time called the RIDE for LIVESTRONG.

The difference is that the RIDE for LIVESTRONG is a virtual cycling race that anyone can join — users create virtual bikes and dedicate their ride to a cancer survivor. Like the Amgen tour, the RIDE for LIVESTRONG riders compete with one another while riding through the California landscape, and along the way virtual onlookers — like yourself — can log in cheers for specific riders. In July at the Tour de France, Team Radio Shack (led by Lance Armstrong) will ride for the cancer survivors who received the most cheers during the virtual race. Most importantly, as the race meets specific goals, companies like Radio Shack and Trek bikes will contribute money towards the LIVESTRONG Foundation. The ultimate goal is to have 25,000 readers that will inspire 100,000 cheers. While the race is still 10,000 riders away from reaching the 25,000 mark, there are still 8 days left. Will you help join the cause?

I have been watching le Tour, catching up with the race early in the morning, café crème in hand. My breakfast TV benders will be ending this Sunday, when the final stage of the race enters Paris.

Lance Armstrong's Astana team member, Spaniard Alberto Contador, still wears the yellow jersey of the leading rider. Contador is 4 minutes and 11 seconds ahead of Luxembourg's Andy Schleck after the 19th stage — 178 kilometer ride (110 miles) on flat terrain considered a sprint. Brit Mark Cavendish won the stage, his fifth.

Learn what place Lance is in, when you read more

Are you following the Tour de France? Admittedly, I'm barely brushed up on the race but Tuesday's ride for Stage 16 included two major mountain passes of special importance to me — Grand-Saint-Bernard and Petit-Saint-Bernard! The greater climb is 8,100 feet (the highest pass on the tour), followed by the little one at 7,180 which is more long than steep. As history would have it, the pass gets a name from Bernard of Menthon, an 11th-century monk who established a hospice over the pass, where the slobbery breed would help travelers cross with the aid of the iconic barrels of whisky.

Nowadays, there aren't really any working dogs at the monastery but Saint Bernards still have a presence for tourism's sake. It was only fitting that the (then) leader, Alberto Contador, would pose with the Working breed before continuing up the doggie passes, the first time in over 40 years that it's been included in the cycling challenge.