Tour de France 2010

The 2010 Tour will be launched from the south side of Rotterdam, for a prologue time-trial. The launching pad will actually be set up in Zuidplein, from where the riders will move north.

The choice of Rotterdam, a vast urban centre with one million two hundred thousand inhabitants, is directly in keeping with the special start of the Tour in London in 2007. The proposed project – “Rotterdam and the Tour, a new energy” – seduced us. It fits into an overall policy that aims to an even bigger place for the bicycle in the city’s heart, while leaning on the popularity of the biggest cycling race in the world, the Tour de France. From the banks of the Thames to the biggest port in Europe: the same desire, the same will.

Lance Armstrong believes he can win an eighth Tour de France title, well aware that after 4 years of retirement, his ageing legs are not as strong as they used to be.  The 37-year-old Armstrong won the last of his record seven straight Tours in 2005, and his unexpected comeback has fans worldwide eager to see if he can add another victory to his cycling legend.

Born in Belgium, Brussels based Cathy Pill completed her studies at l’E.N.S.A.V. de La Cambre and has worked for A.F. Vandervors and Vivienne Westwood.

After winning a slew of awards, including in 2003 the Collection of the Year contest It’s-Two in Trieste, in 2005 two awards of the Foundation Pierre Bergé and Yves Saint-Laurent and the fashion house Yves Saint – Laurent Andam contests in France, the price in Italy Fabio Inghirami and the Prix Modo Bruxellae Belgium, Cathy Pill launched her first collection of ready-to-wear during the Fashion Week in Paris in October 2005.

Now aged 27, recently married and with her first baby on the way, Cathy already has everything lined up for spring. She gets a jump on the season by showing her ready-to-wear ahead of her peers during Paris Couture week and what she’s up to is getting better by the season.

She belongs (in spirit, if not geographically) to the cohort of young modernist print talents that has been on the rise in Europe, like Josh Goot and Peter Pilotto.

Pill also has a mathematical brain that approaches the draping of a dress like a geometry problem. She aims to have dresses that are as easy as T-shirts to put on and says  “I’ve gone through everything, thinking what I want to wear.”

Collections Cathy Pill is distinguished by the clever use of printed fabrics and shapes, to create modern feminine silhouettes.

Video: Fédération Française de la Couture

The French plan to rescue the financial industry do not disrupt competition, says EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes .

The European Commission on Thursday cleared French and Dutch plans to preserve their lenders from the global credit squeeze.

Both were judged to be in line with EU rules on community aid and with guidelines reported by the European Union’s executive arm on 13 October.

These say that any rescue package should be limited in time and range and must not discriminate against foreign-based banks operating in that country.