Stage 2 It was another early breakaway. Another field sprint. Another day on the Tour. Unlike the first two days, it was absolutely glorious, perfect conditions to race a bicycle. It was just about 75 degrees, with puffy white clouds and a slight wind. The winds generally favored the progress of the peloton, and there were no crosswinds to blow the race apart. Thor Hushovd -- by events of being 2nd place on the stage -- has taken over the yellow jersey from the young Swiss, Fabian Cancellara. This is a huge accomplishment for the Credit Agricole team. Thor Hushovd has been having a good season. He has won stages in the Tour du Languedoc, and the Dauphine leading up to the Tour. He knew he was on great form. He did a great Prologue. He hunted the bonus seconds out along the course. And then finally with the time bonus at the finish line, he has taken the yellow jersey, which he hopes to keep for a couple of days at least. The next strategic rendezvous along the course – at least for the GC battle – is in the team time trial in two days. In the meantime, we have a fairly typical early stage of the Tour. However, there are some cobble sections close to the finish of Paris Roubaix – the famous one-day classic – along tomorrow's stage that could cause some riders to lose time, especially perhaps some of the Spanish climbers who aren't used to riding on the stone roads of northern Europe. Hopefully by the time the races get to the cobblestones, they will have sorted the peloton out, but there can be some big time gaps. We saw any of the climbers today that had trouble – especially Roberto Heras – having a very hard time getting back into the peloton after whatever problems they may have had. All of them however arrived in good order. The crash was marred by a very hard tumble right in the middle of it. We saw the same thing on the first day in last year's Tour. Luckily this year, only a couple guys have fallen. For the rest of the peloton, there was nothing really to report, as everyone else managed to get around the crash in good order. It never ceases to amaze me the agility of these bike races when they are going at 60kph and they are able to avoid crashes directly around them. Tomorrow, it's another day out on the Tour, and Lance Armsrtong is still looking solid.