[*btw* humour again again: "les etapes sont brulees" french-joke...] le 14/08/2003 9:33, Stephan Schumacher à SSchumacher@gmx.de a écrit : (Les Étapes sont brulées) well, could be that i´ve missed something on the list, but could you PLEASE explain what this means in german or english? le 15/08/2003 11:27, Der Automat à automat@offcampus.net a écrit : Would you mind explaining it, please? As far as we (non-speaking French) are able to understand. Thanks a lot in advance.
ok, ok, but for me, even in french it's not so easy to explain... oups! ;-) "brûler une étape" ("to burn a stage" / les étapes sont brûlées = the stages are burnt) is an idiomatic expression that has definitely *nothing to do* with cycling jargon and the TdF... Often translated to English by "to press on"... More precisely (I'm trying!) it means something like: breaking a normal and logical (stage after stage) evolution by progressing "faster" than expected and/or by passing on (missing) a stage. Back to the Tour de France lyrics, this *odd-in-the-context* expression sounds there like a *wanted* subtle *word*joke :-)) Therefore you may interpret it like you feel: stages ridden at high speed, stages that change "nothing" (no attacks, no modification on the general classification of the race...), 'one more stage finished!' etc etc... or eventually you may just appreciate the clever use of the words/expression and smile: :-) Maybe, perhaps, _ /o o\ Filtre4Pole \ ~ / I I - -