The 2012 Tour de France was the 99th edition of the race, one of
cycling's Grand Tours. The 21 race stages, including the prologue,
covered 3,496.9 km (2,173 mi), from the Belgian city of Liège on 30
June to the Champs-Élysées in Paris on 22 July. Bradley Wiggins
(pictured) from Team Sky won the overall general classification,
becoming the first British rider to win the Tour. Wiggins's teammate
Chris Froome placed second, and Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas–Cannondale)
was third. Wiggins maintained leadership of the race after stage seven,
the first mountainous stage. The points classification was won by
Nibali's teammate Peter Sagan, who won three stages, as did André
Greipel of Lotto–Belisol and Team Sky rider Mark Cavendish. Team
Europcar's Thomas Voeckler won the mountains classification. BMC Racing
Team's Tejay van Garderen, in fifth place overall, won the young rider
classification. The team classification was won by RadioShack–Nissan,
and Chris Anker Sørensen (Saxo Bank–Tinkoff Bank) was given the award
for the most combative rider.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Tour_de_France>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1802:
Gia Long conquered Hanoi and unified modern-day Vietnam, which
had experienced centuries of feudal warfare.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gia_Long>
1894:
Despite finishing in first place in the world's first auto
race, Jules-Albert de Dion did not win, as his steam-powered car was
against the rules.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules-Albert_de_Dion>
1944:
In opposition to the Polish government-in-exile, the Soviet-
sponsored Polish Committee of National Liberation published its
manifesto, calling for radical reforms, a continuation of fighting in
World War II against Nazi Germany, nationalisation of industry, and a
"decent border in the West".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Committee_of_National_Liberation>
1992:
Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar escaped from his luxurious
private prison and spent the next 17 months on the run.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Escobar>
2011:
Two sequential terrorist attacks in Oslo and Utøya claimed the
lives of 77 people in the deadliest attack in Norway since World War II.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Norway_attacks>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
pave the way:
(idiomatic, often followed by for) To make future development easier.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pave_the_way>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
When we're incomplete, we're always searching for somebody to
complete us. When, after a few years or a few months of a relationship,
we find that we're still unfulfilled, we blame our partners and take up
with somebody more promising. This can go on and on — series polygamy
— until we admit that while a partner can add sweet dimension to our
lives, we, each of us, are responsible for our own fulfillment. Nobody
else can provide it for us, and to believe otherwise is to delude
ourselves dangerously and to program for eventual failure every
relationship we enter.
--Tom Robbins
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tom_Robbins>