Here is a scene from today’s stage of the Tour de France, won by Levi Leipheimer. The American rider averaged 32.97 miles per hour on the 34.4-mile course. Here is the story. Here is the New York Times report. Here is tomorrow’s stage.

Addendum: I predicted that David Millar would win today’s time trial. Unfortunately for him (and me), he had bike problems almost as soon as he left the start chute. He finished 87th, 7:53 behind the winner. As for my other predictions, I thought Levi Leipheimer would take the overall lead. He rode the time trial of his life, but it was not enough to overcome the deficit to Alberto Contador or Cadel Evans. Contador now leads Evans by 23 seconds and Leipheimer by 31. One thing we can say for sure is that Leipheimer will not attack his teammate tomorrow. The only question is whether Evans will attack Contador, for there are enough time bonuses on the course to put him into the yellow jersey. I believe that if he were within 10 seconds of the lead, he would try something; but 23 seconds is too much. It would be unseemly to make such a desperate effort. Alberto Contador, the 24-year-old Spaniard, will stand atop the podium tomorrow in Paris. There hasn’t been a Spanish winner since 1995, when Miguel Indurain won for the fifth time.

Addendum 2: To put Leipheimer’s accomplishment in perspective, consider that the 141st and last rider in the time trial, German Robert Förster, averaged “only” 28.03 miles per hour.