Tour de France - Stage 8 - The French get their second stage win with Sylvain Calzati staying away in a long break-away that started at 46k into the stage. Dave Zabriskie was in the group, but Calzati went solo at 30k from the Finish. The peloton didn’t show much interest in chasing him down until too late.

Calzati sat up and hi-fived his DS at 3.6k to go... He took a small photo from his jersey (his daughter) and kissed it, celebrating all the way through the Finish. I think he dropped out of the Tour last year in Stage 8, so how sweet must this have been for him. And winning in cycling-crazy Brittany is choice...

So Gonchar (or Gontchar - he said NOT to Honchar in an interview yesterday by VeloNews) remains in Yellow. Discovery is just a tad demoralized - Johan said yesterday that if Jan was in the race, the Tour would already be over... It’s gonna take a lot to get any of the Americans or DC racers on the Champs Elysees podium after yesterday.

Floyd is still chugging along, and he has the best shot of finding a podium spot. Phonak needs to get over their mechanical glitches. Maybe Floyd does need to go over to Discovery - their wrenches are the best in the business - rarely is there a screw-up. Yeah, Lance’s rubbing brake was a major screw-up, I know. The wrenches showed it to me the next day, and I saw the cremated brake pad. If anyone says that didn’t happen, they are full of crap, ‘cause I saw it...
George’s ender over his bike in Paris-Roubaix was a defect in the bike, not an error by the wrenches.

Levi looked so downhearted in his interview - you can tell he is just sick about his ITT showing. The Gerolsteiner DS said yesterday that it is all over for his team in terms of a Tour victory. Poor Levi - he has worked his arse off all year in training - The Tour giveth and the Tour taketh... No mercy...

Tomorrow is “Rest Day”. HA - A seven hour trip to the start of the next stage... That is death to the racing legs - they’ll all get on the bikes as soon as they arrive, for a short ride, to keep their legs fresh....

I fried and died at the Coyote Creek Crit yesterday. Hot as Hell, no shade - those guys suffered, and damn it, so did I! I missed the first three races because I had to watch the Tour...Pix are up on Smugmug - follow the link...