Non, Armen, je suis Allemand. Mais quand je parle du Tour, je pense en Francais.
I even prefer to look at the French language internet site of Le Tour. And that's why words like equipier, bonification, echappes, contre-la-montre are predominantly in my mind.

I was completely sure there was an English word 'bonification'. I even could pronounce it without difficulties. Take a French word and pronounce it the English way is quite a good heuristic. It often works, but not always.

Bill, but you should hear me. I often envy Susanne who even can fool English speaking persons to think she is a native speaker for a couple of sentences. I couldn't with any sentence longer than 'yes'.

Bonification is time bonus. Ullrich today took 2 s off of Armstrong's advantage.

Just in case someone wonders what happens if both have identical overall time when in Paris. Then the winner is the one with more points in the points 'classement' used for determining who gets the green jersey. At the moment, that would be Ullrich.

Wolfgang