Monthly Archive for June, 2009

Samuel Abt of the New York Times reports…

No jokes, please, about that extraordinary bicycle race, the Penal Tour de France, that is wending its way around the country in a pack composed of convicts, prison officials and policemen. Hold the wheezes about how, if a low-ranked rider wins, it will be highway robbery, or, as a tumultuous sprint to the finish develops, somebody will get away with murder. Nothing about how, instead of a yellow jersey, the leader will wear one with black and white stripes. Above all, no references to a breakaway, in French an echappée or, shudder, an escape. Well, maybe one. It comes from Daniel, a 48-year-old prisoner in Nantes, whose last name was not given when the Tour de France Pénitentiaire was announced there last month. More…

More than 700 rooms will be based below the podium level of the Stadium, including eight changing rooms and an 82m track in the west stand for athletes to use when warming-up. Since last May, construction has included installing more than 4,500 reinforced concrete columns into the ground, up to 20m deep, to provide the foundations for the Stadium structure. Twelve of the 85-tonne steel roof sections have been lifted into place and the remaining 16 will be in place by the end of 2009. The first permanent footbridge to the Stadium ‘island’ has been lifted into place and work on the supports of the other four bridges has begun. More…