On Monday, Christian Vande Velde spent time the way a lot of recreational cyclists do.

He took a leisurely two-hour ride in Limoges, France, that included a coffee stop.

Of course, that came after nine days in which the cyclist from Lemont had covered 831 miles of the Tour de France, climbed breathtaking (literally) Pyrenean passes that tickled 8,000 feet above sea level, landed in nettles after he flew over the guard rail in a crash last Thursday and put himself eighth in the race's overall standings, 1 minute 24 seconds behind the leader.

On the Tour's first of two rest days, Vande Velde, fourth in the 2008 Tour, looked ahead to the 1,319 miles that remain -- including three mountain stages in the Alps and a fourth with the formidable climb of Mont Ventoux.

Speaking with the Tribune from Limoges on Monday, Vande Velde found things looking up as the race heads into several flat "transition" stages.

Because you lost fitness after the May 11 crash in the Tour of Italy, you went into the Pyrenees stages with some uncertainty, but they turned out not to be as killer as expected. How much did they take out of you?

Not that much. I feel like I'm stronger now than when I started the race. If anything, it has been a positive.

Your Garmin-Slipstream teammate Bradley Wiggins was a surprise in the mountains. That must be a huge positive for your team.

Bradley is flying. No one knows, including Brad, what he can and can't do. People talk a lot of b.s. about the third week and that he's unproven. But no one knows what they are going to do in the third week, and there is no reason why he can't perform the same as he has up to now (fifth overall, 46 seconds from the lead).

Some cyclists would say at this point in a race, a rest day is a mixed blessing.

It can be. People who are reaching peak form would like to have the harder stages right now. People who are beat up or have crashed need this day to heal niggling injuries and mentally just disconnect for a day.

You have been riding virtually shoulder-to-shoulder with Astana team leaders Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador for several days. Do you sense any tension between them?

From the outside looking in, they ride really great together. It may be more so in the last week after 2 1/2 weeks of living and racing together.

phersh@tribune.com