Riding and Eating in France: First Rest Day in the Tour of France

Winners

Vincenzo Nibali and Astana. He has won two stages and had a fantastic ride on the cobbles. It's still a long way to Paris, but the yellow jersey is his to lose.
Germany. Between Greipel, Kittel, and Martin, the Germans have won five stages.
France. Four of the top 10 riders are French. Bardet is currently in the white jersey for the best young rider, Tony Gallopin belt the yellow jersey for a day, and Blel Kadri won Stage 8.
Omega Pharma Quickstep. Tony Martin and Matteo Trentin both won stages. Kwiatkowski has spend quite a bit of time in the white jersey, although he over reached a bit on Stage 10. This helps ease the pain of losing Cavendish on the first day.
Lars Boom for winning on the cobbles.
Lotto Belisol. Greipel won a stage and Gallopin held yellow for a day.
AG2R. A stage win and the white jersey.
Giant-Shimano. Kittel has won three stages and won yellow on the first day.

Froome and Contador for crashing out.
England. Both Froome and Cavendish are out. In fact, for all of the hype about British cyclists, Yates and Thomas are the only two British riders left in the race.
Garmin. Talansky has spent some time on the deck and has dropped out the top 25. He needs to learn to control his temper.
Trek. Andy crashed out, Cancellera is dropping out, and their highest placed rider is Frank (#25).
Tinkoff-Saxo lost Contador.
Cannondale. They can't get Sagan across the line in first place. Rumor has it that Cannondale will sponsor Garmin next year and that Sagan and Basso are going to Tinkoff-Saxo.

Sky may yet salvage their race hopes with Richie Porte. It was a really dumb move to leave Wiggins at home.
Sagan. He is a ahead in the Green jersey competition, but he has yet to win a stage.
BMC. Not much to show for a lot of high priced talent. Van Garderen has fought his way back into the top ten, but he needs to stop complaining about the cobbles.
Belkin. Mollema is now in the top ten, and Boom won Stage 5. Now if Belkin could only find a sponsor for next year.
Movistar. Valverde is now in third place.
Katusha. Rodriguez has the points jersey. Can he keep it?
Lampre. Costa is in the top ten and Horner is show signs of life.
Europcar. Rolland is fighting back.
Orica GreenEDGE, Cofidis, IAM Cycling, Netapp-Endura, and Bretagne-Seche have pretty much been pack filler so far, although a few riders have shown some life.

Contador for crashing twice, getting up, and then riding 10 km on a fractured tibia before throwing in the towel.
Froome for trying to race on a fractured wrist.
Martin for a great solo win on Stage 8 and then pulling the break for most of Stage 10, the next day.
Lars Boom for winning Stage 5 on the cobbles.
Nibali for third place on on Stage 5.

There were 50,000 fans on the final climb of Stage 10 yesterday—in the rain!
The owner of the Au Cheval Blanc, where I stayed for the last four nights has a cousin in the race—Christophe Riblon. Riblon won the Alpe d'Huez stage last year.
I spent the last three days riding in the Vosges and doing some of the same climbs as the Tour. The Vosges are not the Alps or the Pyrenees, but the climbs are hard.