...Sejr for Danmark!

Today was a great day for Danes everywhere as former danish national road racing champion (twice, once in 2003 and again in 2008), Nicki Sørensen, destroyed the breakaway with an attack at just over 5km to the finish of stage 12. Though this is the first Tour de France stage victory for Sørensen, he is no stranger to the podium as evidenced by his growing list of wins. Here he is celebrating as he crossed the line more than thirty seconds ahead of the breakaway and six and a half minutes clear of the peloton:


Of course, I can't rob you of the requisite podium shot:


This excellent cycling by Sørensen has moved him from 39th place to 26th place in the GC standings!

In other tour news, today versus' filler shots were not opulent chateaus as they were yesterday but instead they focused on the hay bale art along the route that farmers (I assume) put
together to commemorate the race passing by. Most are fairly standard fare, bicycles being the most popular subject matter:


Though I do tip my hat to some other crafty individuals who weren't content with using only bales of hay to show their enthusiasm. This one was crafted with not only hay, but matching threshers and a clever implementation of colored bale bags:


Well, At least there were enough of these that they could show us a different one each time.

No major crashes on my radar today, so stay tuned next week when I'll be sure to have found some stomach-churning gore (your'e fairly warned) for the next KIRT post. Hopefully by that point we'll also have a better idea of who will emerge as the overall winner in the tour, and will finally be able to get some sleep and stop worrying about Lance's time deficit.