In an amazing ride, Jan Ullrich of Germany, riding for Team Bianchi, rode the 47 kilometers in 58′ 32″! Incredible. Lance came in at 01′ 36″, almost two minutes behind. Armstrong keeps the Yellow, but today’s victory brings Ullrich to within 34 seconds of catching up.

Holy broken collarbones, Batman! According to Lance, Tyler Hamilton, who broke his collarbone in 2 places during that terrible pile-up in Stage 1 yesterday, will ride today in Stage 2, and will ride as long as he is able. What an amazing desire to compete! Here’s a bit more on this over at Bicycling.com. This story also mentions that Jimmy Caspar, of the FDJeux.com team, will be riding with a neck brace! That’s dedication to the craft, I must say.

There was a serious accident during the first stage of Le Tour de France today, with only 400 meters to go before the finish line. American Tyler Hamilton is out with a broken collarbone; Levi Leipheimer has a broken hip (read his journal about it here) and several others were also hurt, including Lance Armstrong although he says on his website that he is OK and it was “nothing serious.” That would have sucked big-time for him to lose his shot at 5 Tours in a row in the first stage. Let’s hope this is the one big accident for this year’s Tour, eh?