This just came our way from Mark Johnson who’s spending July in France with the Garmin-Cervélo squad. Mark offers a nice look at a day in the small town of Bordessoule, along the route of the 2011 Tour de France.

Until you’ve seen the crowds, it’s difficult to appreciate just how much the Tour de France is part of the fabric of French life. Here’s a peek.

Stage eight, a 117-mile run from Aigurande to Super-Besse Sancy, passes through the rolling, wooded countryside where the Loire Valley meets the mountains of the Massif Central. We roll out of our rustic hotel in Nohont—which is where one of France’s most famous writers, George Sand, wrote the bulk of her 19th-Century work—and drive down a two-lane road toward the hamlet of Bordessoule.

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When I was just a wee lad I would watch Peanuts and often wonder how it was possible that Charlie Brown wore the same yellow shirt day after day. It seemed weird, if not stinky. Well, it seems like Thor Hushovd has a little bit of good ol’ Chuck in him these days, for tomorrow he will pull on the Tour de France’s yellow leader’s jersey for an amazing fifth straight day.

Although wearing the leader’s jersey for five days is remarkable in its own right, what makes it even more special is how Thor has ridden while in yellow. Generally, a Tour leader is content to simply sit behind his teammates and let them do the work of marking moves and chasing down the day’s breakaway, and this is especially so during the first week of the race.  That’s not Thor’s style, though.

After riding like a maniac in the team time-trial to gain the jersey in Stage 2, Thor then played the role of ultimate teammate, leading out Tyler Farrar to set up Garmin’s second stage win in as many days. 

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We hope you’re enjoying the first week of the Tour de France.

Garmin-Cervelo fans are no doubt thrilled with the team’s success during the first few days of the race. On this end, it’s been a thrilling start to the race.  Watching the guys win the Team Time Trial; then seeing a perfect lead-out help Tyler take the win on Sunday; followed by the remarkable efforts Thor made to hold on to the yellow jersey during Monday’s stage – it’s all amounted to plenty of smiles over here at CB&C.

While you’re following the race this week, we thought you might enjoy this piece from Mark Johnson about the Tour de France Kick Off. As Mark points out, in France the race is so much “more than a sports event, the Tour is a ritual marking the true start of summer and the freedom it

Enjoy Mark’s report from the roads of France.

Well, let’s begin with this year’s official team introduction. While you might imagine ridiculously fit guys in Lycra tottering up a set of metal stairs in their cleats, standing on a stage and wincing into a hail of camera flashes, think again. 

Think Las Vegas meets the History Channel. 

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Can you feel it? Summer is finally upon us, and just in time for some outdoor fun in the sun. To inspire some epic adventures of your own, I thought it might be apropos to share a little bit about what some of the good people we work with here at Team Clif HQ get themselves into this time of year.

These two, along with their community of friends and furry ones, seem to make the most of every minute of every day; rain, or shine. And below are a couple of “days in the life of “ as told by Chris, to get you thinking about what’s next on your tick list of adventurous to do’s Enjoy the read (and some great photos by Chris himself, as well as a few by Pep Fujas) and then get out there and meet some moments of your own!

It’s no secret. Summer in Mammoth has as much, if not more, to offer than the winter. It’s also no secret (if you follow my social networking shenanigans/blog) that I take full advantage of everything Mammoth has to offer. 

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In her first-ever attempt at the 100-mile distance, Montrail’s Ellie Greenwood won the Western States 100 on Saturday, setting the second-fastest women’s time in race history, and treeing a bear in the process.

Conditions for the 2011 edition of the most famous trail run in the US were ideal, as temperatures rarely spiked over 80 degrees. Although late snowfall in the Sierra forced a course change and had the competitors running in snow for the first 13 miles, the pace was still generally high, and Ellie found herself in 6th place and suffering from leg pain early on.

She was able to hang tough, though, and reminiscent of Geoff Roes’s victory last year, slowly began to real in the runners ahead of her in the last 25 miles. Amazingly, Ellie did not take the lead until the 94 mile mark. 

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