Video replays show Spaniard Carlos Barredo (QuickStep) taking off his front wheel and passing his bike to a team aid. Barredo then charges three metres at the startled Portuguese rider Rui Alberto Costa (Caisse d’Epargne), wielding the wheel over his head.

Video available here. I haven’t been following the tour closely; it’s hard to do because the stages all take place at about 8 a.m. my time and that’s not a good time to sit in front of a live video stream for a few hours. It sounds like there’s a lot of excitement this year, though. Lance Armstrong is sitting at 18th 14th overall, if you care about that.

UPDATE: If you don’t understand why people get excited about cycling, watch this video of the Stage 6 finish. Amazing strength, athleticism, and teamwork put Mark Cavendish across the line first. It’s fun to watch.

What could be more mundane than what John F. Kennedy called “the simple pleasure of a bike ride?” And yet even on the simplest ride, so much happens: We feel things, see things, think things, and say things that we otherwise might not. It all adds up to something more powerful, and more ineffable, than a few sentences can express.

I biked to work two days this week for Bike to Work Week and loved loved loved it! for exactly the reasons mentioned here. There’s something about a bike ride, so simple, so pure… The two days I rode to work I arrived refreshed and energized, and both of those were overall just great days all around, thanks in no small part to the fact that I started and ended them on my bike.