Discovery Cycling Team to Disband

Back in February the Discovery Channel announced that they would not be sponsoring the Discovery Channel Cycling team after this year. Today the team announced that they would disband at the end of this year. Apparently it is harder to find a sponsor for one of the best cycling teams in professional cycling over the last ten years than I thought it would be.

Citing fractious leadership in the sport, constant doping allegations and the struggles of finding a new sponsor, Armstrong and the owners of his former Discovery Channel team said Friday the squad will disband after this season.

So apparently all the doping allegations has all the big dollar companies in the United States too scared to attach their name to a professional cycling team.

I have a potential solution to this problem. What do you think of a team sponsor who agrees to sponsor the team under this one sole condition:

Every rider on this team will agree to train and compete clean. An rider who tests positive for a banned substance will result in the immediate canceling of the corporation's sponsorship of the team.

In other words, if you cheat - you screw not only yourself but every rider and the entire staff of your team.

Of course this extreme measure would require that the entire cycling program be able to prove that their testing procedures and labs are trustworthy. A situation that I don't believe exists today.

I'm going to miss having an American team in the Tour de France next year. I'll watch anyway, but I'll have to cheer for the individual American riders.

Tour de France Stage 16 - 17

I don't have much to say about yesterday's bicycle race. However what happened after the race is big news. Yesterday after winning his second stage in this year's tour Danish Rabobank rider Michael Rasmussen who was leading the Tour by just over 3 minutes was pulled from the race by his team.

At this time it is hard to know what Michael Rasmussen's status really is. Is he still a member of the Rabobank team? The media keeps using words like "sacked" and "kicked out." But it is not clear whether he has been fired from the team, or just pulled from the race. But the important thing is that the race started today without a yellow jersey holder.

So why did Rabobank take this drastic step? Rabobank claims that Rasmussen told them he was with his wife in Mexico in June while he has been reported as being seen in Italy.

"Rabobank is shocked and enormously disappointed that Rasmussen has lied about his whereabouts,"

the team said.

Rasmussen denied being in Italy.

"I am shattered," Rasmussen told Danish tabloid BT. "I am on the verge of tears. I was not in Italy. Not at all. That's the story of one man who believes he recognized me. There is no hint of evidence."

I really have to respect the Rabobank team for taking this step. But what I really don't understand is the reactions of the race commentators. Al Trautwig, Paul Sherwin and Phil Ligget when this mornings broadcast started were crucifying Rasmussen for being caught up in the doping scandals. All they talked about for several minutes was Rasmussen and doping. Yet, no one has officially accused Rasmussen of doping. He has not failed any of the 17 drug tests that he was subjected to so far in this year's race. Rabobank claims that Rasmussen was removed from the Tour for violating internal team policies.

Each cyclist is required to report where they are training before the tour and Rasmussen apparently didn't do this. But to automatically assume that he was doping is ridiculous, at least this early in the whole situation.

So I am pleased to see Rabobank take this drastic step to send a message to all their riders that they must follow all the rules. But I am very disappointed in the four race commentators that they were so quick to jump on the doping bandwagon and start convicting Rasmussen of doing something that so far, no one has accused him of doing. I am also disappointed in the race officials. The race continues today without a yellow jersey on the road. The did not make Alberto Contador put on the jersey when the race started. Contador, to his credit has been reported as saying that he didn't want to wear yellow today. Most cyclists will not want to inherit the leaders jersey because of a rider crashing, abandoning, or being pulled from the race. But several years ago, when David Zabriski crashed while wearing the yellow jersey he was left laying beside the road by his team and as a result lost his yellow jersey to Lance Armstrong. The next day Armstrong reported for the race without the yellow jersey claiming that he didn't win it the day before, but had inherited it when Zabriski crashed. At this point the race officials told Armstrong that if he didn't wear the yellow that day he would be disqualified from the tour. Funny how things change if you aren't an American rider. Armstrong tries to be a good sport and he is threatened with disqualification. But when a Spanish rider does the same thing, he is allowed to be a good sport.

2007 Tour de France Stage 1 and 2

The 2007 Tour de France started on Saturday with a short time trial prologue. The prologue usually is just an introduction to the tour and a chance to start the Tour with a rider in the yellow jersey.

Day one was a day for the sprinters, a 125 mile run from London to Canterbury. Oh, did I forget to mention that this year's Tour de France started in England?

The first stage was won by Australian Robbie McEwen. I have never been a fan of sprinter Robbie McEwen. No particular reason why, I just find myself rooting for whoever he is racing against. However my dislike for him has not stopped him from becoming one of the top sprinters in professional cycling.

But Sunday's performance had me sitting in my chair cheering for Robbie McEwen. About 5 miles from the end of the race Robbie was in a crash in the peloton. He suffered a minor injury to his wrist, which can be critical to a sprinter. Power sprints at the end of a race require a lot of pulling on the handlebars. Robbie's team dropped three other riders back to help him catch up with the peloton. Since the peloton was running fast with all the other sprinter's teams positioning their guys for a win Robbies "mini-train" had their hands full trying to get back into the pack.

With 2 miles to the finish Robbie and his escorts finally caught up with the rear end of the peloton. Now all Robbie had to do was work his way through 180 other riders to get near the front and position himself for a sprint to the finish. With the peloton traveling at about 30 mph McEwen had about 4 minutes to accomplish this almost impossible feat.

With about 200 yards to the finish the lead-out men started peeling off and the race was turned over to the sprinters. Suddenly out of the pack came Robbie McEwen. Robbie shot past the leaders and cruised to an almost easy looking victory. Not even Lance Armstrong ever crashed in the last five miles of a race then blew past the entire peloton to blow his competition away for a stage win. Robbie Mcewen's final 5 miles of this race was truly one for the record books.

Today, day 2. The Tour rode from Dunkerque to Gand Belgium. This was another day for the sprinters. Belgium rider Tom Boonen had his eye on this stage as a chance to win a stage in his home country. Unfortunately for Boonen, Australian native Robbie McEwen lives in the part of Belgium also.

The day played out like most standard sprint stages. A long breakaway of three riders that is caught by the peloton with less than 10 KM to ride. As the pack was readying for the final sprint there was a pile up in the front of the peloton that blocked the road and separated the front 20 riders from the rest of the peloton.

This situation played right into Tom Boonen's hands. Suddenly he found himself with 4 of his Quickstep riders as leadout men and most of his major competition piled up or trapped on the road behind him.

So the Quickstep boys accelerated to the finish line each man peeled off as he ran out of steam until there was just Tom Boonen being led by his number one leadout man - fellow Belgium Gert Steegmans. Steegmans main job is to accelerate the pace of the race right up to the end and then let Tom Boonen shoot around him to win the race. Today it worked like clock work, except for one thing. Gert Steegmans didn't run out of steam, Tom Boonen didn't shoot around him to win the stage. Instead, Steegmans then Boonen shot across the finish line for a 1-2 Belgium/Quickstep finish in their home country.

Boonen didn't seem too bothered by this turn of events as he celebrated with his fellow countryman.

Tomorrow is day three, I can hardly wait.

Yellow Floyd

(I wrote this on Sunday July 23)

It took me a while to find out the results of this years tour. The not knowing was driving me nuts. But I’m stuck in Cheyenne WY where most folks have never heard of the Tour de France and those who have don’t care. Since I don’t have a regular internet connection here, I’m dependant on a little coffee shop near my Dad’s house to my connections.

The tour had finished in the Pyrennes Mountains and had a couple days of rolling hills to get thorough. Then Phonak did what I consider to be the bone head decision of the tour. They let Spainard Oscar Pereiro, a known climber and pretty good all around cyclist, who was hanging around over 25 minutes back of Floyd Landis get out on a break away and the peloton did nothing to try and reduce his 29 minute lead on the stage. So one day after taking over the lead in the tour Floyd Landis lost it to Pereiro.

Then the tour reached the fabled climb up Alp D’Huez. Landis lost the stage but finished far enough a head of Pereiro to take back the yellow jersey. So with a slim 10 second lead over oscar Pereiro Floyd Landis and the rest of the tour entered the second day in the Alps. The hardest day of the tour. This stage was a 182 km run that included two above category climbs a cat 2 climb and ended on the top of the category 1 La Toussuire. Demarks Mickael Rasmussen finally decided to defend his polka Dot jersey from last year and got out on a breakaway. He took maximum points at the top of all four climbs, won the stage and secured the polka dot jersey for the second year in a row. The big news though is that Floyd Landis cracked on the final climb and finished almost 10 minutes behind the stage winners. This stage should have ended Floyd’s Tour. Coming back from an 8 minute deficit with only one mountain stage to race seemed impossible.

I guess Floyd should change his name to impossible man. Race Director, Jean Marie Lablanc, had this to say about Floyd’s ride in stage 17.

"the best performance in the modern history of the Tour" — adding that only a day earlier, he was "gone, finished, condemned."

Floyd won the stage by over 5 and a half minutes. He ended the day only 30 second out of first place and in striking distance to take over the race lead in the last individual time trial on Saturday. Which is exactly what he did.

Today, Floyd Landis became the third American to ever win the Tour de France, the 8th in row and the eleventh in the last 21 years to win this fabled race. Way to go Floyd Landis and good luck with your hip replacement surgery later this year. I hope we get to see him defend his championship next year or the year after.

The rest of the Americans finished:

Pos.  No.  Name                  Team   Nat.     Gap
1     071  LANDIS Floyd          PHO   USA   
13    041  LEIPHEIMER Levi       GST  USA  19' 22"
24    016  VANDEVELDE Christian  CSC  USA  50' 19"
32    003  HINCAPIE George       DSC  USA  1h 11' 14"
64    064  HORNER Christopher    DVL  USA  2h 12' 25"
74    018  ZABRISKIE David       CSC  USA  2h 33' 46"

Tour de France 2006 Stage 11

Ok, one last Tour de France posting before I leave on vacation. I should be sleeping but I can't. Choas and I and her two friends got home from the volleyball camp in Bakersfield that my daughter and her friends were at all week. I didn't get to see today's result until I got home and watched the OLN coverage I had TIVOed.

This was a great day of racing in the tour. 206.5 km of mountains. The climbing started with the col de Tourmalet. I think Lance Armstrong had the best comment concerning the Tourmalet when he said that he really didn't like that mountain.

Following the "beyond catagory" Tourmalet the race climbed over 4 more catagory 1 climbs.

This was the kind of stage that Armstrong used to use to take over and eventually win the entire tour. Floyd Landis used to ride for Armstrong on the Postal Service team and he learned his lessons well.

When the day ended Floyd Landis is the 5th American to ever wear the yellow jersey in the tour de France. The two Americans who have won tours have both retired - Armstrong and LeMonde. The other three are all still racing this year - Zabriskie, Hincapie and Landis. Now we will have to see if Landis, who is going to have his hip replaced after the tour can join Lance and Greg as the third American to win the tour. But that is still 10 days away.

Landis took over the yellow jersey by a slimmist margin. The 8 second time bonus he received for finishing the stage in third place.

So how are the remaining Americans doing?

Pos.  No.  Name                  Team   Nat.     Gap
1     071  LANDIS Floyd          PHO   USA   
13    041  LEIPHEIMER Levi       GST  USA  05' 39"
28    016  VANDEVELDE Christian  CSC  USA  13' 41"
40    003  HINCAPIE George       DSC  USA  23' 01"
71    018  ZABRISKIE David       CSC  USA  41' 33"
102   064  HORNER Christopher    DVL  USA  55' 47"

Levi Leipheimer who finished second on the stage is probably really kicking himself for the 6 minutes he lost in the first time trail.

The next three days, are smaller mountains and some sprints then there are 3 days of big Alps mountains.

Tour de France 2006 Stage 7

Stage 7 is a 52 km individual time trial from Saint-Gregoire to Rennes.

Today was the day when the overall race favorites were supposed to step up and make themselves known. However someone forgot to tell the race favorites that. At least the guys who the OLN broadcasting crew have been pushing as race favorites didn’t show up today.

OK, Floyd Landis who has been presented as a race favorite showed up, but the rest of the “favorites” seemed to struggle with the wind on the course today. Floyd had some handlebar problems early on and needed a bike switch. But he really put in good ride after that.

Discovery channel dropped from 1st to 4th in the team competition. Overall as a team they didn’t perform well.

Early in the race American Bobby Julich went down on a curve and had a nasty crash into the curb. That crash ended Bobby Julich’s tour. Preliminary reports are that he damaged his wrist. Based on the way he hit the ground I would have thought that his shoulders and ribs had taken all the damage.

The time trial was won the first ever Ukranian to win a stage in the Tour. Serhiy Honchar who rides for the T-mobile team blew everyone’s doors off the entire race. When the day was over Serhiy Honchar won not only the stage but the overall leader's yellow jersey.

So how are our Americans cyclists doing after today’s stage?

Pos.  No.  Name                  Team   Nat.    Gap
2     071  LANDIS Floyd          PHO   USA     01' 00"
10    018  ZABRISKIE David       CSC  USA     02' 03"
17    003  HINCAPIE George       DSC  USA     02' 30"
22    016  VANDEVELDE Christian  CSC  USA     03' 25"21   
62    041  LEIPHEIMER Levi       GST   USA     06' 17"
126   064  HORNER Christopher    DVL   USA     12' 19"
      011  JULICH Bobby          CSC  USA     Abandoned

Two more days coming up for the sprinters then the Mountains start and then we’ll find out who the contenders for the tour really are.

Tour de France 2006 Stage 6

Stage 6 is a 189 km sprint from Lisieux to Vitre.

One small little cat 3 climb about 28 km into the stage and then nothing but flat land sprint points all the way to Vitre.

Narrow roads and several flat land riders who are running out of chances to win a stage or some points made for a day of beautiful scenery and some fast and awkward cycling.

After several breakaways it came down to a big sprint again. Australian Robbie McEwen won his third stage of this tour. Not much changed in the general classification or the green or polka dot jersey standings.

So how are our Americans cyclists doing after today’s stage?

Pos.  No.  Name                  Team   Nat.     Gap
5     003  HINCAPIE George       DSC  USA  00' 25"
8     071  LANDIS Floyd          PHO  USA  00' 36"
17    018  ZABRISKIE David       CSC  USA  00' 43"
21    011  JULICH Bobby          CSC  USA  00' 45"
24    016  VANDEVELDE Christian  CSC  USA  00' 48"
25    041  LEIPHEIMER Levi       GST  USA  00' 48"
139   064  HORNER Christopher    DVL  USA  08' 42"

Tomorrow is the first individual time trial. Expect these stats to change. Hopefully 5 of these seven men will be moving up the standings.

Tour de France 2006 Stages 4 and 5

Stage 4 is a 207 km sprint from Huy to Saint-Quentin.

The stage starts with an early cat 3 climb and then cat 4 bump about 40 km later. Then it’s flat to the finish about 150 km later.

The only interesting part of most of this stage was that the Spanish Discovery Channel rider Egoi Martinez got into a breakaway with 4 other riders. Egoi jumpd on several of the sprint bonuses and managed to work his way all the way up to 5th place in the overall classification which helps Discovery Channel keep their lead in the team category.

Late in the stage there were two surprising incidents both involving Thor Hushovd. Thor’s race finale escapades continue. So far he had his elbow sliced open by a spectator, he has lost a pedal in the final sprint, then today his lead-out man for the sprint Julian Dean crashes in the last 200 m. Hushovd was swerving to avoid running over Dean and he ended up squeezing another rider against the baracade. Since Hushovd did make and maintain contact with the other rider the race officials had him relegated.

Relegated means he was put in last place for the stage. This cost him 20 green jersey points and makes his repeating as the Points leader a much tougher task. I think the relegation was pretty strict after seeing the incedent on video, so did a couple of the announcers. But we’re not in charge and Thor is just going to have to get those points back wherever he can.

The stage was one rather convincingly by Australian Robbie McEwen.

Stage 5 was a 225 km fairly flat stage from Beauvais to Caen. There are 4 small cat 4 clmbs and several sprints.

Two riders got out early on a breakaway and stayed there until inside the last 2 km. The big boys of the race seemed to take a day off. There was very few attempts to get any of the intermediate sprint or climb points.

Late in the race Egoi Martinez crashed with only 10 miles left to race. He got back on the bike and finished the race but he lost over a minute that dropped him all the way back from 5th in the overall classification to 88th.

At the end Oscar Freire from Spain out sprinted the sprinters to win a Tour de France stage for the second time in his career. Boonen finished second and retained his yellow jersey.

So how are our Americans cyclists doing after today’s stage?

Pos.  No.  Name                  Nat.  Team  Gap
4     003  HINCAPIE, George      USA   DSC   00:00:17.000
8     071  LANDIS, Floyd         USA   PHO   00:00:28.000
16    018  ZABRISKIE, David      USA   CSC   00:00:35.000
20    011  JULICH, Bobby         USA   CSC   00:00:37.000
23    016  VANDEVELDE, Christian USA   CSC   00:00:40.000
25    041  LEIPHEIMER, Levi      USA   GST   00:00:40.000
141   064  HORNER, Christopher   USA   DVL   00:08:34.000 

Chris Horner is racing with a damaged hand that makes holding the handlebars difficult. But he is staying with it. The other six Americans are all within 40 seconds of the lead which is a good place to be.

Norwegian Thor Hushovd is still in 5th place only 19 seconds back, but he trails the in the points jersey by 41 points.

Tour de France 2006 Stage 3

Tough stage today, 216.5 km from Esch-sur-Alzette to Valkenburg. The temperatures were high and so were the crashes.

Hot days in on the road tend to lead to careless riders and careless riders lead to accidents. There were several little dustups along the road where no one got hurt. Nearing the third climb of the day American Fred Rodriguez and Eric Dekker from the Netherlands crashed into a spectator. Reports are that Rodriguez broke his wrist and Dekker several teeth. Fred Rodriguez has never been a threat to win the tour. His job is to lead out Australian Sprinter Robbie McEwen. I think this will be interesting to see how McEwen does in the sprints over the next few days without his favorite leadout man.

Eric Dekker is a big loss to me. Over the last several years Dekker has been part of many group and solo break aways. While he is getting older you still never knew what he was going to do next. Dekker is one of a few riders in the tour who could say that they won stage races against both Lance Armstrong and Miguel Indurain.

Later in the stage with about 20 km to go there was a small peloton pileup that took Spanish rider Alejandro Valverde out of the race with a broken collarbone. Valverde was one of the young riders that many people thought had a shot at winning the tour this year.

American Chris Horner was injured when he was “shooting the gutter” and ran into a section where the gutter wasn’t paved. He and Stuart O’Grady crashed. Chris suffered a dislocated finger and O’Grady a small crack in his fourth vertebra. Both are racing today.

In the end this stage was won by German Matthias Kessler. Yesterday Kessler escaped from the peloton with about 7 km left to race. He tried hard to stay away but was caught by the sprinters with less than 50 meters left to race. Today he tired the same tactic and it worked. He managed to get across the line about 50 km ahead of the rest of the pack.

So how are our Americans cyclists doing after today’s stage?

Pos.  No.  Name                  Nat.   Team    Gap
3     003  HINCAPIE, George      USA  DSC  00:00:05.000
7     071  LANDIS, Floyd         USA  PHO  00:00:16.000
15    018  ZABRISKIE, David      USA  CSC  00:00:23.000
19    011  JULICH, Bobby         USA  CSC  00:00:25.000
23    016  VANDEVELDE, Christian USA  CSC  00:00:28.000
25    041  LEIPHEIMER, Levi      USA  GST  00:00:28.000
143   064  HORNER, Christopher   USA  DVL  00:08:22.000
      066  RODRIGUEZ, Fred       USA    DVL    abandoned

All serious contenders plus a few extras all within 30 seconds of yellow is good!

Tour de France 2006 Stage 2

Today was the second longest day of the Tour de France. A 228.5 km ride over two category 3 climbs, three category 4 climbs, and about 140 miles of north eastern France. The race started in Obernai and ended in Esch-sur-Alzette Luxemburg.

At the 1 km point of the race two riders got away on a breakaway and managed to stay away for most of the day. These two guys swooped up most of main sprint and mountain points that were available out on the course. In the end one of them, David De La Fuente, ended the day in the Polka Dot Jersey.

Mostly it was a long hot day of riding. George Hincapie and the discovery team did not make a effort to defend the yellow jersey. This tells me that they have decided that they are in this race for the long haul and not looking for single day glory. This is good news to me.

In the end this was another mass sprint at the end. There was a pile up about 2 km from the finish that split the peloton apart. In the end, the stage was won by the Australian Robbie McEwen.

Thor Hushovd the Norwegian who had his right arm sliced open on the final sprint yesterday had another mishap this afternoon when he slipped his left pedal in the final 30 feet and had to pedal across the line with only one foot on the pedals. He still finished 3rd. This third place finish coupled with a 2 second time bonus out on the road put this scrappy Norwegian back in the yellow jersey for tomorrow.

So how are our Americans cyclists doing after today’s stage?

Pos.  No.     Name                 Nat. Team    Gap
4    003     HINCAPIE, George      USA  DSC  00:00:10.000
5    018     ZABRISKIE, David      USA  CSC  00:00:16.000
11   071     LANDIS, Floyd         USA  PHO  00:00:21.000
20   064     HORNER, Christopher   USA  DVL  00:00:27.000
29   011     JULICH, Bobby         USA  CSC  00:00:30.000
34   016     VANDEVELDE, Christian USA  CSC  00:00:33.000
35   041     LEIPHEIMER, Levi      USA  GST  00:00:33.000
99   066     RODRIGUEZ, Fred       USA  DVL  00:00:50.000

All serious contenders plus a few extras all within 30 seconds of yellow is good!

Tour de France 2006 Stage 1

Today was the first official day of racing in this year’s Tour de France - Stage 1. Yesterday was the prologue which basically gives them a back to hang the yellow jersey on.

Today’s ride was a 184.5 km ride in the park from Strasbourg to Strasbourg. I’m not sure why Strasbourg got to host two stages of the tour this year. Apparently they have a better PR department than many of the other French cities. Additionally I probably shouldn’t refer to a 184.5 km ride as a ride in the park. I could probably ride 184.5 km if I had to. Of course it would take me several days and I'd need motel reservations along the way. But if I had to ride at the same pace as the tour riders race, I would be lucky to get from the grand depart to the starting line before my heart would explode.

Today’s race had one small category climb that Bob Roll the OLN commentator described as a freeway overpass.

The main excitement of the day happened at the 175.5 km sprint and at the finish line. At the last sprint of the day, George Hincapie sprinted out of the peloton and grabbed the 2 second time bonus for third place in the sprint. This was a brilliant move on George’s part, since he was in a dead heat with Thor Hushovd for the yellow jersey. Eventually those two seconds put George Hincapie in the yellow jersey at the end of the day.

The other bit of excitement came at the finish line. Thor Hushovd the current yellow jersey holder was in the final sprint to the line when he was struck by a large green cardboard hand that one of the tour advertisers had passed out to spectators to wave. This harmless souvenir sliced Hushovd’s right elbow open and ruptured a vein in his arm. Hushovd finished the race with blood rapidly covering his entire right arm. He was eventually taken to the hospital where is arm was stitched up. Hushovd says that he is not sure if he will be able to grip the handlebars as needed in order to sprint for a day or so but he intends to continue racing and see how he fairs in the next few days. You gotta love those tough Norwegians.

So how are our Americans cyclists doing after today’s stage?

Pos.  No.  Name              Nat.   Team  Gap
1   003  HINCAPIE, George    USA    DSC  00:00:00.000
3   018  ZABRISKIE, David    USA    CSC  00:00:06.000
9   071  LANDIS, Floyd       USA    PHO  00:00:11.000
20  064  HORNER, Christopher USA    DVL  00:00:17.000
31  011  JULICH, Bobby       USA    CSC  00:00:20.000
36  016  VANDEVELDE, Christian USA  CSC  00:00:23.000
38  041  LEIPHEIMER, Levi    USA    GST  00:00:23.000
114 066  RODRIGUEZ, Fred     USA    DVL  00:00:40.000

George Hincapie in Yellow and two other riders in the top 10 - wonderful.

Tour de France 2006 Prologue

The big news of this years tour is the “sending away” of nine riders on the day before the tour was scheduled to start. While this would be big news for any sport, the fact that 4 or 5 of these riders were expected to be main competitors for a podium finish in Paris.

I have always liked watching Jan Ulrich ride so I was a little upset to see him gone. I have never warmed up to Ivan Basso. Lance Armstrong seemed to like and respect him but I never really cared one way or the other. So Basso being gone doesn’t really matter to me. Well, actually it does. With Ulrich and Basso gone the riders that I have decided to cheer for this year have a better chance of winning.

I’m afraid that I am going to be pretty nationalistic this year. I’m cheering for the Americans - Hincapie, Julich, Landis, Leipheimer, Zabriskie, Horner, Rodriguez and Vandevelde. I’m going to put Hincapie first because he is riding for the American Team of Discovery Channel. Realistically Landis and Leipheimer are the only other two that have a shot at the podium in Paris. But I’ll pull for them all anyway.

The top results for the day are:

Pos.    No.  Name                Nat. Team Time 
1       118  HUSHOVD, Thor       NOR  C.A  00:08:17.000
2       003  HINCAPIE, George    USA  DSC  00:08:17.000
3       018  ZABRISKIE, David    USA  CSC  00:08:21.000
4       044  LANG, Sebastian     GER  GST  00:08:21.000
5       091  VALVERDE, Alejandro ESP  CEI  00:08:21.000
6       013  O'GRADY, Stuart     AUS  CSC  00:08:21.000
7       026  ROGERS, Michael     AUS  TMO  00:08:23.000
8       009  SAVOLDELLI, Paolo   ITA  DSC  00:08:25.000
9       071  LANDIS, Floyd       USA  PHO  00:08:26.000
10      096  KARPETS, Vladimir   RUS  CEI  00:08:27.000