Another hot and grueling day down in the south of France for stage 4 of the Tour saw the Australian Team Orica-GreenEdge take the day’s spoils for a second day in a row. After Gerrans managed to edge out Sagan (2nd again) on stage 3, the team must have been on a high. It was a real team effort culminating in them grappling the yellow jersey away from the Radioshack squad.

Enough about what happened…Like all good cyclists I’m a geek, so while the race was on I wandered the pits looking for fancy new kit. Unfortunately, this proved a bit tough as most of the team bikes were either under the riders or out of spectators’ reach.

One thing that a few keen cycling geeks may have spotted this year is a crazy pair of shoes that Australian rider Adam Hansen has been sporting. They’re homemade as well – the pro is a dark horse and clearly has many skills away from racing. He plans on having these lightweight, all-carbon shoes out next year so keep your eyes peeled.

The BMC squad from a distance looked slightly overweight at first glance. When we got up close though, it turned out they were all wearing vests holding ice water to cool the body down. They wore these while warming up and on the way to the start, very flash. No doubt we’ll be seeing these vests more often in the years to come.

As is the case when you head down to a sporting event in the fancy part of France, you’re likely to spot a few celebs. I managed to spot cycling’s answer to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, the British cycling stars Adam Blythe of BMC and Olympic Silver Medalist Lizzie Armistead. With them was their chauffeur, a certain Mr. Jensen Button. I will admit I did try and get an interview with Jensen but he declined, saying it was his day off from PR stuff, fair enough. I’ll just have to catch him tomorrow.

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