Searing heat, blazing sun and brutal mountain climbs — it's just another day of the Tour de France. The world's premier bicycle race headed into the Alps Saturday.
LYNN NEARY, Host: As Eleanor Beardsley reports, the blistering weather didn't wilt the fans or the day's winner.</s>ELEANOR BEARDSLEY: As expected, the day's six midgrade climbs in the brutal heat began to weed out cyclists. Former leader Fabian Cancellara cracked, finishing 23 minutes behind Chavanel.</s>ELEANOR BEARDSLEY: Team RadioShack is strong and loaded with climbers, says Pierre Callewaert, cycling correspondent for L'Equipe newspaper. Callewaert says he thinks Armstrong still has a chance to win the Tour.</s>M: He said he would be stronger in 2010, so - and he's right. He's stronger. You would say he's old because he's 38, but he has a lot of experience. The experience is very, very important in the Tour. He knows the techniques. He knows the road very well, the climbs. And he has the strongest will to win the Tour.</s>ELEANOR BEARDSLEY: Spectators joined the grazing cows on hillside pastures to watch the 101-mile stage that led up into the Jura Mountains, known as the foothills of the Alps.</s>ELEANOR BEARDSLEY: The beauty of the Tour is that it is a big, glamorous, international sport, yet it's so accessible to regular folk.</s>M: (French spoken)</s>M: (French spoken)</s>ELEANOR BEARDSLEY: Two couples in their late 60s have set up a card table in the middle of a field of wildflowers. It's laden with a picnic lunch of mountain cheeses and chilled rosÃÂ© wine. They can't seem to name any riders, but they are having a great time, say Odille Durant and Brigitte Pisante(ph).</s>M: (Through translator) The Tour is all about friendship and hanging out, and having a good time.</s>M: (Through translator) And it's about discovering France, too, because every July we follow it, and explore a new region.</s>ELEANOR BEARDSLEY: Others come to the Tour for the pure sport of it. Amateur cyclists and brothers Ulav and Aldam Dal(ph) have planted themselves under a tree, and hung a Norwegian flag from its branches. They got up early to ride the last part of the stage themselves before the race.</s>M: It's pretty cool to see the last bit of the course that they're riding to get the feel of what they are experiencing during the last miles or so, a better understanding of what they really go through.</s>M: Well, it's amazing. I can really not understand how they can do it. It's pretty incredible, yeah.</s>ELEANOR BEARDSLEY: And for others, the Tour is more of a party.</s>U: (Singing in foreign language)</s>ELEANOR BEARDSLEY: This group of boisterous friends from (unintelligible) Belgium say they come to the Tour every year without their wives. They're at an outdoor cafÃÂ© in one of the villages along the Tour route. Robbie Mannas(ph) sums up this group's Tour philosophy:</s>M: Each year, we come in to the (unintelligible) to view a little bit of the race and to party and to drink some beer. The good weather, holiday - it's all we need.</s>ELEANOR BEARDSLEY: Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Station des Rousses, France.