Cool. Thanks for your answers! I moved us into the Stage 5 thread.
It appears that they really did mistake how long the stage would last, then. I didn't think that was possible -- at least not to this extent. At the beginning of the broadcast, they were saying it would be 6 or 7 hours -- so I guess it took 9+?
(Why would race organizers put the longest stage at 4, if 4 is well known to be difficult already?)
Versus coverage was actually extended, but you probably only DVR'd the scheduled time.
Yes. The grid showed the end of the broadcast, and that's where TIVO quit. I began watching late that night, so it was too late to watch the evening coverage once I realized. I'm just going to switch to the evening condensed show. It's shorter, anyway.
Vino's my pick.
Vino had a setback today - crashed and lost about a minute to the peloton. Kloden also crashed but didn't lose time, but may have a coccyx injury.
Which leads to my beef about the TDF: there are too many long flat stages where all the action takes place in the last two minutes, and where overall leaders run the risk of injury (as per Valverde last year). I say shorten the TTD to 10 days, with a prologue, 2 time trials, a team time trial, 3 flat stages, and 3 mountain stages.
Start the race on a Friday and finish on Sunday a week later. No rest days. The current format allows for too much time before the real contenders emerge; the first week is usually pretty ho-hum.