Very cool win for Zabel at Paris-Tours: his record third victory there. Zabel cleaned clocks in the bunch sprint - a great way to end his years with T-Mobile. AFP has a great finish shot of Zabel and Bennati, showing the half-wheel-length victory. I took the above fuzzy image of Zabel on the Champs Elysees at the 2004 Tour, which turned out to be his final Tour de France ride for T-Mobile. I think that OLN is going to show an hour of P-T this afternoon. I watched the live report on Eurosport this morning. I was cheering when Stijn took off on the climb, but pretty much knew that he wouldn’t be able to hold it all the way to thru the sprint finish..

And I vote for Prentice Steffen as Mr. Braindead Stupid Mouth of the Year. I was waiting to see what would happen - I was sure that Jonathan Vaughters would be absolutely livid and infuriated by the remarks, as well as the team sponsors and guys on the TIAA-CREF team. What an insult to that team of young, dedicated riders, and to Jonathan, who has devoted himself to producing a clean, proud team that wins... They didn’t waste any time telling him to not let the door hit his butt as he was leaving.... The guy is gonna be lucky to not be working at Jack in the Box till he's 90 to pay off his lawsuits. Can you imagine somebody in the cycling world dumb enough to trust L’Creep with an interview that has anything to do with doping?

Thanks to Patricia, from San Jose, for the nice shot of me and Chris Brewer at the Sheryl/Lance Austin Concert. I’m bummed that Sheryl will be giving a concert in Berkeley at the same time that I will be back in Austin for the Ride for the Roses... Cruel fate for me....