Got to Het Volk late. Unfortunately, I was one of the “few” who had pin number access problems and kept getting error messages and being showed some little kids on trikes riding a mini playground cross course and falling on their faces. Cute, but give me the damn race! I actually sent them an email, and they responded! Wow - real live-time customer service..

I guess the pay server screwed up on some pre-paid accounts. How many? - Not just me, I hope. So I missed about a half hour of the race. But, when the race did come on, I thought it was great. A couple of freeze-ups, but other than that, I’d pay $10 any day to get this kind of coverage. I’d rather listened to Phil and Paul, but hey, the guys did an OK job. I want to see it anyway, not listen.

The thing I noticed was that the Discovery team kits were almost indistinguishable, on the long and even semi-long shots, from the two or three other teams with the same bright blue and white/grey color theme. At least Rabobank has the bright orange on the blue that lets you spot them right away. The yellow band on the D-kit sleeve isn’t that visible until the cameras get closer, either. And the D-Team helmets are not visually distinctive. At least you could spot the Postie kits and helmets.

The guys were looking good and riding well - not sure what happened in those last 10 or 12 kilometers. When Nuyens went away at about 8k or so, everybody was just looking at everybody else, waiting, and nobody did anything, including George, Max, Roger or Stijn. Max came in at 8th. Boonen looked kinda fried, but came in second and was knocked down by another rider right after the finish line. He fell really hard on his shoulder, but seemed OK.

All in all, I liked the cycling.tv coverage. I liked how the cameras went right back behind the podium to show the podium guys getting cleaned up and interviewed, etc. I hope that the cycling.tv organization makes it and we can see European races just like the rest of the world! The announcers said it was being broadcast to 59 countries. And for the couple of people who wrote to me during the race - what you have to do is click on the little 4x4 inch live screen and it maximizes the size to your full monitor. Hit escape to go back to the teeny, mini screen... You’re welcome..

Tomorrow's blog (Sunday) may be later in the day, or evening. I'm gonna watch KBK on cycling.tv and then drive like mad to the Sea Otter meeting. No time to blog in the morning, for sure....