JULIE BLANC & THE 2009 TOUR DE FRANCE PODIUM GIRLS

The 2009 Tour de France comes to a close this weekend.  Unfortunately, it’s not looking like Lance is gonna pull this one out.  He’s riding for Team Astana along with race leader Alberto Contador.  If you didn’t know, Astana is a sponsored by Astana group, a coalition of state-owned companies from Kazakhstan.  Alberto Contador currently owns the maillot jaune (yellow jersey) as the overall leader and he’s also had the dotted “King of the Mountain” jersey once.  Below is an explanation of the jersey classifications from Wikipedia:

General classification Maillot jaune	Points classification Maillot vert	Mountains classification Maillot à pois	Young rider classification Maillot blanc	Team classification Classement par équipe	Combativity award Prix de combativité

It turns out that each jersey in the race has a corporate sponsor. Luckily for you, the sponsors employ beautiful women to present the jersey along with water, flowers, (awkward) kisses, and a stuffed lion for Contador. In the case of Carrefour girls (pictured below), they also get outfits designed by Agatha Ruiz de la Prada. There’s an American among he podium girls or “Hôtesses” in French and her name is Laura Antoine. She’s been featured in a couple of video interviews recently (Sporza, Versus). However, our favorite podium girl is Julie Blanc of Carrefour.

Yellow means "You're Effing Awesome"

MEET JULIE BLANC, HOTESSE EXTRAORDINAIRE

Witness the beauty of Julie Blanc. She represents Carrefour as a hôtesse in the polka-dress. You wouldn’t guess it by looking at her, but Carrefour is basically a Wal-Mart. She’s 21 years old and I suspect that she’s French. She’s set to be on the French game show Fort Boyard which is pretty much the same thing as Fear Factor. Julie will star alongside a former cyclist, former boxer, a rugby player, and another model (Jessica Sow). I scrounged dem Internets and figured out that Julie is represented by Conmia Model Management. Below are pictures of her rocking polka dots and her portfolio. Don’t blame me for the smallness of pictures.

She's real perty

2009 TOUR DE FRANCE PODIUM GIRLS

If you’re not into blondes, there are a handful of other corporations that have employed beautiful women to generate exposure. The other companies giving out fashionable cycling jerseys are: LCL (French bank), Vittel (French water), PMU (horse racing company?), Brandt (zweiback and chocolate producer), and Skoda (subsidiary of Volkswagen). Below you will find images of the 2009 Tour de France podium girls and 60+ more pictures of the festivities.

LCL

VITTEL

CARREFOUR

PMU

SKODA

BRANDT

ACTION SHOTS