TdF stage 18 - Andy Schleck, Stage Winner!

It's raining heavily in England this afternoon, so I had to stop work, come home, and put the computer on. Oh look! The Yahoo ticker is on, I can follow the race - yay!

I've come in at just the right time, with 60km to go, Andy attacks. Quickly, I sign in to Twitter so that I can squee "Go, Andy!" with everyone else.

As I don't have any pictures of the stage (and I'm having to make up the visuals in my head, always a dangerous thing) here's a great pic from yesterday, when Andy was descending with some style, and with his tongue hanging out in concentration:

Hey, look at his socks! I have a pair just like that! (proud).

The squeeing on Twitter has reached huge new heights, even Tom Stamsnijder is saying "Go Andy!". Poor Nim is having nervous breakdowns watching Andy descend, and Gnasher wants someone to hold her hand, it's so scary. I tell you, I can't wait to watch this footage tonight!

Have you encountered the Eurosport Yahoo ticker ? It's brilliant if you can't get live footage - which I can't - and it's even better if you sign in to Twitter at the same time, so that you can get more information from all those crazy people who watch it live, but manage to Tweet at the same time.

This is what it looks like:

And the little cycling figures are animated! They even have the right jerseys on.  And every so often, they lean forward as though putting in a bit of extra effort. Adorable.  The red bar shows you whereabouts in the race the leaders are, which is very helpful.

Underneath, you get a text description of the action, which is automatically updated, so you don't need to keep refreshing the screen. Like Twitter and blogging, the newest one is on top.

They've just commented on Contador calling for a new bike partway down this final descent, in preparation for the final climb. They say "He changed his bike a lot before the final descents in the Giro. Then, the tactic paid off. Will it today?"  I am now struggling not to bring up the subject of mechanical bikes again!

A lovely little touch on the Yahoo ticker: as the stage was won by Andy ("Yay!") look, his little avatar has it's hands up in triumph!

Well, I'm emotionally exhausted now, from all that squeeing, but well done Andy, well done Frankie,  well done all the fangirls who contributed virtual pushing for the last 15kms: Yar Boo Sucks to all the critics (who are now shrivelling up inside their holes, as Gnasher said) and let's hope there's a bit less Schleck-bashing now.

And tomorrow I will be watching it live! No, on TV, not "live", live. (Although I do now have a passport, great news and look out world.)  So fingers crossed for an equally exciting day,  I probably won't be back here to comment until after the weekend, so good viewing, one and all!