Day 1
t was a sight to behold voir and left no doubt there was plenty more where that came from as the Peloton contemplates another two days in the Pyrenees.
A day long break had seen Brice Feillu, making his Tour debut, win the longest stage of the 2009 tour and fellow escapee Italy's Rinaldo Nocentini profit by taking the yellow jersey, a fairly temporary arrangement one suspects. The real battle was behind the break in an elite group of GC contenders including Contador and Armstrong, not to mention Bradley Wiggins who, in the form of his life, produced his finest ever ride in the high mountains.
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Just when it seemed the main contenders concurrents had settled for the status quo – albeit that Fabian Cancellara, wearing yellow at the start of the day, had been dropped at the start of the climb – Contador launched an astonishing attack which demonstrated a God given ability on the steepest sections of road.
While Armstrong and his Astana colleague Andreas Kloeden were riding tempo at the front of the group and apparently talking tactics, Contador attacked from 20 yards back and left everybody for dead with only Andy Schleck reacting to the initial surge.
Contador, who started the day in third place overall 19 seconds behind Armstrong, put 22 seconds in the Texan a mis 22 secondes au texan before the finish and is now second overall. More importantly he has re-established the leadership of his team just at a time when some of the toughest stages beckon.
It was raw and compelling pur et impérieux to watch and no amount of PR spin from all concerned can negate what we saw with our own eyes. Contador, having definitely come off second best to Armstrong on Monday during the now infamous peloton split en route to La Grande Motte, hit back with a massive body blow coup of his own. He is standing up to Armstrong resister à Armstrong and not many have done that over the years.
The next two days should see much more of the same and, hopefully, the glorious sight of a British rider involved in the GC mix. Wiggins, having shed jeté a stone since the Beijing Olympics has been in sparkling form on the road for most of the season and showed in the Giro au giro that he is beginning to work out how to live with the best in the mountains. Now based in Girona and loving the lifestyle and improved training opportunities, he is beginning to fulfil remplir much of the early promise he showed on the road before the track claimed him.
Backing up a big day in the mountains with another just 24 hours later is always the acid test but if Wiggins can continue to ride alongside the climbing specialists for the rest of this weekend perhaps dreams of a top 20, or even better, finish in Paris can come true.
In the meantime he has played his part in the best ever week for Britain on the Tour de France. Mark Cavendish has claimed two Stage wins and a third place to lead the points competition, Wiggins has bagged a second and third in the team time-trial and individual time trial and is currently a heady fifth in GC while David Millar played a big part in Garmin's second place in the team-time-trail and rode with great élan in Thursday's solo break for glory in Barcelona.
Come July 26 and the peloton’s arrival in Paris, the past seven days may also go down as the week which saw Wiggins emerge as a genuinevéritable contender for overall glory in cycling’s most famous race.
The fear among those rubbing their handsse frottant les mains at the prospect perspective of a civil war in the Astana camp is that Contador’s brilliance in the mountains will render tactics and mind games irrelevant.
The six kilos that the Londoner has sheda perdu this year are suddenly the talk of the Tour.
he will be there or thereabout là ou pas très loin
The fortnight la quinzaine
the pain began in earnest sérieusement
a showdown une confrontation
No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery corruption,"
Day 7
A warden= garde
Day 8
Picky= pointilleux
Q: I'm an intelligent, talented and creative person, but I'm lacking motivation to perform my job to the best of my abilities,du mieux que je peux and it is starting to show on commence à le voir. I'm planning on leaving my firm for graduate school next year, but in the meantime, do you have any ideas on how I can regain my motivation at work? There are no upcoming projects which even hold the remotest level of interest for me, and based on my recent performance review, I would not likely be assigned them to begin with.
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A: The first step in getting your motivation back is admitting that it's missing in the first place. My next suggestion is to try to focus on the big picture of your career instead of the daily frustrations of your current job. If you're on your way to getting an advanced degree, then you have already realized a very important goal. Give yourself credit for this! Also, realize that nothing and no one have the power to control your attitude but you. For some help here, I recommend picking up Dale Carnegie's "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living," and "How to Win Friends & Influence People." Also, sign up for any personal development or leadership courses your company offers, and stay busy so you don't have time to sit around and think about how much better your job situation could be.
Q: A question I haven't seen addressed in your column is whether or not it makes sense to pursue an M.B.A. at age 54 à 54 ans. I am currently working overseas as an expat, so most likely I would have to enroll in a Web-based M.B.A. opportunity. Is that a good value and will it be accepted by prospective employers? If it takes me two to three years to complete, will it have value for me outside of personal satisfaction?
A: Online degree programs are becoming increasingly credible, especially if geography prevents you from attending a particular university in person. At 54, you could be working around 15 more years. This is a good bit of time, so you're right to think about what's best for your career in the semi long term. The question you should ask yourself is, what will the M.B.A. buy you in terms of expanded career prospects and income potential? Do you enjoy the field you're currently in, and will an M.B.A. help you move up there? If you feel that your trajectory will be similar whether you get an advanced degree or not, then you might want to skip it (unless personal satisfaction is enough of a reason for you, which it very well might be).
Q: Back in the late 90s when tech was hot, I left college after three years to make money at a start-up. Now in my early thirties, I am looking to make the transition from managing a technical team to real management. I am concerned that the lack of a degree may be a roadblock when competing with people who have a bachelor's degree or M.B.A. My college credits are no longer valid so I would have to start over to get a degree. To date, I have simply listed my time at school without listing a degree on my resume (which hasn't been an issue since my skills are more important than a degree at my level). Any suggestions on how to deal with this?
A: I think if you want to make the leap into general management, your lack of even a bachelor's degree is going to hold you back in most organizations. I can see why whether you graduated or not wouldn't be as relevant to IT departments, but I have a feeling that management is going to be a different story. Have you thought about taking classes part time while you continue to work and enhance your technical skills? The good news is, if you've already had three years of college, a lot of the courses should be pretty easy, and perhaps your company provides tuition (frais de scolarité) assistance. An argument can certainly be made that more schooling would increase your value in your current job as a tech team lead.
Many student groups go one step further to include individuals from even more diverse backgrounds. This year we have a concert pianist and a plastic surgeon chirurgien. As with every year comme tous les ans, we also have many other doctors, lawyers, military personnel and people from other ‘non-business backgrounds.’ Often our many incoming students from corporate business backgrounds will underestimate how much they will learn from their more ‘non-traditional’ peers…and then the MBA starts and they find out exactly why each individual was recruited.
We work hard to ensure that every single student will have something special to offer to his or her classmates. Our thorough and competitive admissions process helps us to recruit such talented individual
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