I arrived in Saint-Fargeau yesterday, a beautiful little town where today's Stage 11 will end: it's one of those places deep in the middle of France in which you're never quite sure where you are.
I'm told we're a couple of hours from Paris. It's the smallest town on this year's Tour and this is a very big day for the locals. Look out for a lingering helicopter shot of the Château de Saint Fargeau in today's coverage.
We're doing a feature on the local area and some of its characters in tonight's highlights show - 7pm on ITV4.
Presumably with the radio ban finished - for the moment - the riders will end their strike today. There was a rumour that the ASO might drop the second radio-free day on Friday, between Vittel and Colmar, but it looks like they will stick to their guns. And so they should.
The finish to yesterday's stage was entertaining but before that it was a pretty poor spectacle. I think the teams should have been a bit bigger than to ride like they did.
Of course the directeur sportifs want their radios. Being without one is a bit like a touchline ban for a football manager: what are they doing other than driving a car from A to B if they can't talk to the riders?
But Friday's stage will be different, radios or not. It's very lumpy and I expect GC riders will attack, so the option of another go-slow strike will be removed.
Team Columbia organised that stage win superbly yet again and Mark Cavendish, again, was right to thank his team-mates for their brilliant lead-out efforts.
But I also think Thor Hushovd is right to mention the mixed messages that Cav has been sending about his designs on the green jersey.
The green shoes, shorts and bike computer indicated that Cav was rather keen on winning it. I think he'd be unwise to compete for intermediate sprints and climbs the way Hushovd can, because he's never finished a Tour and he needs to save energy just to make it to Paris
As for today? Hushovd insisted last night that he's confident of beating Cavendish and the finish in Saint-Fargeau looks perfectly suited to his strengths. It's really quite steep towards the end, just like in Barcelona where he won last week. I'd expect Oscar Freire to be up there again too - should make for an exciting bunch sprint.
Talk Tour on ITV.com's forum
Check out the news & video section
And don't forget the podcast ...
