Peter Sagan has been one of the revelations of the Tour, claiming three stage victories and putting his mark on the green jersey.
But is a blast of Motorhead every day putting the spring in his sprint?
"Loud heavy metal music is his worst habit. When you wake up at seven in the morning, it's the first thing you hear," sometime-roommate and Liquigas
teammate Dominik Nerz told CW.
"It's not the perfect wake up call. Maybe it works for him," he added.
Sagan: he's shown some heavy mettle this Tour
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What the papers say: The passions of Bradley Wiggins
In Wednesday's edition, L'Equipe led with a photo of Wiggins drinking from a Union Jack mug with the headline "Attack him!"
The traditional rest day interview with the maillot jaune produced a pleasant profile of Wiggo, talking about his passion for Paul Weller, guitars, boxing souvenirs, Adidas and scooters. Here's a few snippets:
Wiggins on technology: "I've never liked it... I don't like being able to be contacted all the time on Blackberry or e-mail. These days, if you don't respond to your e-mails, you come across as a weird guy.
"I always says how did they cope when they wanted to get hold of Bernard Hinault. They couldn't send him a Blackberry message in 1982."
Wiggins on his first vinyl: "I think the first one I bought was Michael Jackson's Bad in 1988."
Wiggins on his favourite beer: "It's Delirium Tremens. It's got to be about 9%, it's rocket fuel. I discovered it when I was 19 and went over to the Gent Six."
More seriously, a poll was published in the paper asking "Is Bradley Wiggins going to win the Tour?"
55% said yes, 39% no with 6% unsure.
Michael Morkov: four breakaways and counting
The most active breakaway artist of the Tour has been Danish rider Michael Morkov (Saxo Bank-Sungard).
After getting in three consecutive breaks from stage one to three and holding the polka-dot jersey for six days, the Dane popped up again in yesterday's 25-man lead group before being shelled on Le Grand Colombier.
McQuaid and Verbruggen visit the Tour
Notorious UCI officials are like buses: you go half a Tour without seeing one, then two come along at once.
As the Tour strayed near the Swiss border, current UCI president Pat McQuaid took the opportunity to hop from his Aigle office to pay a visit.
He attended the Tour de l'Avenir press conference on Tuesday and was at the start in Macon yesterday morning.
CW spotted him saying a quick hello to David Millar (Garmin-Sharp) before heading to the start village.
Then, that afternoon, at the finish in Bellegarde-sur-Valserine, we saw former president and honorary IOC committee member Hein Verbruggen rushing through the finish area.
We can't confirm whether either had enjoyed any of the region's Beaujolais wine the night before.
Rest day wrap-up: Sky's Mamil ride and bored girlfriends
On Tuesday's rest day, Team Sky's riders had a high cadence competition. But the most competitive ride was probably the MAMIL ride with management personnel Dave Brailsford, Servais Knaven, Sean Yates and press spokesman Dario Cioni.
Knaven informed CW that Cioni was the unofficial winner.
During
Radioshack Nissan's spin, Tour debutant Tony Gallopin was accompanied
by his girlfriend, French road race champion Marion Rousse.
Nicolas Roche (Ag2r-La Mondiale) was also visited by his partner. "Although Chiara had travelled all the way from Italy to spend the day with me, I couldn't do much walking around so I think she was pretty bored by the end of the day," he recounted in his Irish Independent column.
Related links
Cycling Weekly's Tour de France coverage index
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‘There's no point to race for 50th place’: Peter Sagan explains why he’s a cycling esports ambassador but won’t compete
