Welcome to The Broom Wagon, Cycling Central's brand new weekly column that will take a look at cycling from the back of the pack.

If the air smells a little more like liberty this morning, that would be because France’s second-most anticipated stage race is underway. We speak of course of the Penal Tour de France, a new and exciting cocktail of prisoners, fast bikes and 2400km of open road.

Sadly, breakaways are forbidden, making Le Penal Tour a spectacle about as promising as peak hour, or the Champs Elysees in late July. And the killjoy presence of 124 guards discourages riders from carving maps of Switzerland into their handlebars, or emerging from toilet stops disguised as French peasant women.

It’s a testament to the human spirit that none of that appears to have put off Daniel, a 48-year-old starter from Nantes. "It's a kind of escape for us, a chance to break away from the daily reality of prison," he said, slipping a chisel into a sponge cake.

Meanwhile, on the other side of France
Unless you count Benny Hinn, there are few things as enticing in the wee hours of Friday morning (Australian time) as the prospect of Cadel Evans arriving at the foot of Mont Ventoux.

Bald, over-exposed and unaccountably popular with the public, Ventoux is the David Koch of international racing (discuss). Evans will tackle it along with Alberto Contador and Alejandro Valverde in stage five of this week’s Dauphiné Libéré.

If organisers' plans work out, Ventoux will also be the climax of this year's Tour de France – the only decent mountain finish after three weeks, in a race with just 55km of individual time trials, which will work fine if the gaps are close, but if the leader is five or six minutes clear will prove a 1912m limestone anti-climax, with magnificent views of the Rhone Valley.

Having clearly enjoyed a month’s break since finishing seventh in the Tour de Romandie, Evans preserved his eight-second lead over Contador after stage 2. And not only is he riding strongly, he’s relaxed enough to begin the popular summer pastime of baiting Team Astana.

"What happens between [Armstrong], Leipheimer and Contador at the Tour, that I really don't know," Evans said last week, before returning to his copy of Macchiavelli and the next chapter headed ‘How a prince may really give Johan Bruyneel the willies by smashing Contador on Ventoux’.

Let the climbs begin.

Trawling the Twitswamp so you don’t have to
@CadelOfficial's big race chef works with only the finest in hazelnut spreads

Not for @mickrogers the Tate Modern, or an enjoyable afternoon goading the guards at Buckingham Palace. No, he travels to London for the wind tunnel

Cops is improved immeasurably when dubbed in Italian, reports cervelo rider @iamtedking

Bad news for @mcewenrobbie's kids, with their injured dad passing the hours between rehab sessions with some serious Wii time

@lancearmstrong is off to inflict 93 mins of Will Ferrell on his week-old son, Max, who is also on twitter

Do not let proverb-happy commentator @PaulSherwen near your local library

@philliggett is out of Africa, having collected three weeks' worth of exciting new metaphors for mid-July. We look forward to Tour riders sprinting like flamingos, descending like hippos and riding out of the peloton with the exhilarating mental fragility of a young Lance Klusener.

Classic youtube
It's a beautiful summer's day on the Alpe d’Huez. You’re there with your 1999-edition box brownie, tinkering with aperture and shutter speed, wondering if the light’s just a little too harsh for the caramelised onion effect you’re after. Just as you’re checking the horizon is straight and you haven’t got your thumb in shot, along comes stage leader Giuseppe Guerini, barrelling along in the middle of the road like a maniac. From 4.45.

Finally
Is Bernard Hinault the grumpiest badger alive?

The Broom Wagon was compiled by Matthew Price