Awesome Time Trial - Levi was just outstanding - this guy has the horsepower, plus he has so much class.... Evans and Contador put in the ride of their lives, and so did Popovych. I'm sure that Lance being in the follow car sure gave wings to Alberto. And that Popo is gonna blossom into a great rider as he matures. Tomorrow will be a Discovery Podium. Hope that Johan can hold onto Contador, Popo and Levi for the next few seasons...Huge cheers for Joahn, Dirk and all the guys on the DC support team....

"...Keep the lash knotted; keep the brand and the faggots in waiting, for prompt work with the next "n-----" who may be suspected of any damnable crime! Wreak a swift vengeance upon him, for the satisfaction of the noble impulses that animate knightly hearts, and then leave time and accident to discover, if they will, whether he was guilty or no."
Mark Twain - August 26, 1869

Vino is my hero... Yes, I think Alberto Contador is awesome, and I agree with Johan that his talent will likely be as close to the next Lance Armstrong that any rider could be. But Vino has suffered so much and has risen from the ashes in such a fierce, undying way that he deserves hero status in my book.. I so totally admire his courage, perseverance, and just plain guts. I swear, anyone else but Lance would have called it quits with all those stitches and pain. What a guy - he has really pulled off the impossible.

Wait, hasn’t that happened to another rider in the past year? Another rider at the Tour de France? Didn’t another rider came back from the arms of defeat to win a stage in the Tour last year? And didn’t I hear braying voices saying that it absolutely proved that he had taken testosterone the night before? Are any of these voices now saying, “Golly gee whiz, maybe it is possible after all that a rider can come back from total depletion and injury and win a spectacular mountain stage”. And a spectacular Time Trial...

Does this give any of the nay-sayers food for thought that the human spirit, unbelievable courage and the ability to endure suffering can bring an injured rider to the winner’s circle? Could any of these folks (and you know who you are) maybe say that it could be true that Floyd won that stage last year clean. Yes, clean riders do perform miracles and do the impossible... Ask Vino, and ask Lance, and believe Floyd...

Bravo Vino and, as I watched you on the Podium this morning, I couldn’t help but think that, in a way, you were standing there and standing up for Floyd, too...

Here we go again...Song of the WADA - second verse: same as the first. Now it is Patrik Sinkewitz from T-Mobile. Has the Cesspool at Chatenay Malabry struck again? Is that where the testing was done? I kinda think so...

His A sample results released to the press, with the non-specific information, only that the testosterone level was something like six times normal. That kind of result is nearly impossible, from what we’ve read with the Floyd Landis situation. And they have not even tested the B sample yet. But Sinkewitz, who is in a hospital awaiting surgery from his accident with a pedestrian at the Tour, is now tried, convicted and condemned, not only by the Media, but by his own team management...

And German television has immediately stopped their telecasts of the Tour.. McQuaid is already talking about Sinkewitz giving back his salary, Stapleton is talking about what they did wrong, and the Media is reporting that T-Mobile may pull their sponsorship... Thumbs down to Bob Stapleton, who is showing no support for his T-Mobile team guy at all.

All I can say is thank God we don’t hang the guys who dope, or poor Sinkewitz would already be dangling from the end of a noose... Lynch mobs in the South didn’t care if the guy (usually black) was guilty or innocent, did they? Now the guy is symbolically lynched in the Media and it is usually a cyclist at the end of the rope.

Every rider left in the Tour should be should be shit-scared that if they are tested, they will get some off-the-wall result that will be the death of their career.. Nobody is immune from shoddy and inept testing, and antiquated, poorly-operated equipment, by poorly trained “technicians”.

DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM SEES SUCCESS IN CHINA, AUSTRIA AND FRANCE

(Tignes, France) – Over the last 10 days, the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team has had teams competing at the Tour de France, Tour of Qinghai Lake (China) and Tour of Austria, and has four stage wins, one overall win and seven days in the best young rider jersey to show for it.

At the Tour of Austria, Gianni Meersman and Stijn Devolder both captured stage victories while Devolder also took the overall victory. In China, Allan Davis won the first and third stages, took second in stage two, and leads the overall race. While at the Tour de France, the young Russian Vladimir Gusev wore the white Best Young Rider jersey from the opening Prologue through Stage Seven. As a result of Gusev’s success and as a part of the team’s “green” commitment the Team will plant 210 trees (30 for each day Gusev wore white) in the Mendocino forest in California.

Team Discovery Channel has 26 victories to date in 2007, and Sports Director Johan Bruyneel appears happy with his team’s success. “Just two years after Lance’s retirement we are proving that we can adapt to life without Armstrong and I am quite pleased with how quickly we have adapted to the change. So far this year we have won races in the U.S., Europe and now in Asia, and already have as many wins in 2007 as we had in all of 2006,” stated Sports Director Johan Bruyneel. “Our program will always have a focus on the Tour de France but we are showing that we are not only focused on the Tour. I expect continued success the remainder of 2007.”

The Discovery Channel Team continues to have high ambitions at the 2007 Tour de France for both stage victories and a high overall placing in Paris. Alberto Contador and Levi Leipheimer currently top the overall standings at 8th and 13th respectively.

Rasmussen rocks on Stage 8 - Rogers is robbed by a crash. It was awesome to see Rasmussen take off like he did. His victory is well-deserved, but so very sad to see Michael Rogers abandon. One minute a potential stage victor and maillot jaune - the next he is crashing into a guard rail and DNF. He struggled so valiently and suffered so much to try to finish the stage and have a chance to recover tomorrow. But it was clear how much pain he had and that he was injured, in spite of what the race doctor said.

And Contador was a pretty sight, flying up the hill after his ill-timed mechanical with his back wheel - Mavic was there with one of theirs. If not for that time loss, Contador might have given Rasmussen a run for his money. And Popo worked hard, then pooped out on the last climb. George worked hard, and Levi continued to save himself for bigger things later in the race... Like the Pyrenees...

Bummer for Stuart O'Grady to have another crash and head for the hospital in an ambulance. This Tour is full of crashes and mishaps...

Without a real Patron this year, so that everyone knows where their place is, and to keep everyone in line, this Tour is chaotic, nervous nd dangerous to all riders...

The real heroes today were Vino and Noval, who both courageously started the stage and suffered so much through to the finish. Vino was in the back with his team supporting him the entire stage. Right near the end, the cameras caught Vino pulling the side of his hand across his throat, making that universal sign that usually means the end. I hope he was only commenting on his order in the stage, and not meaning that he was done...Bravo to both Vino and Noval, and also Kloden for riding through their injuries.

Disorganized, chaotic sprint in the finish today of Stage 6. Boonen powered through from way on the side. Then Friere and then Zabel. I really like Zabel, as we all do, but I’m still trying to figure out why Erik Zabel is welcome at the Tour and Bjarne Riis is not, given they both had similar disclosures about their past Tour history.

Have to miss watching the Tour tomorrow morning , as I’ll be out on a photo shoot, but you can bet that I am catching this first bit of climbing on my DVR...

Sending our best to Benjamin Noval, who went thru the window the Bouygues team car. Serious cuts under his arms... He's out, leaving Discovery down to seven guys....

No joyride today in Stage 4. They really were moving along. A super exciting finish, although the sprinter's teams seemed a bit disorganized. A fantastic leadout by Julian Dean for Thor Hushovd - Julian is quite a sprinter, himself...Robbie Hunter was visibly swearing away at himself in second spot. Boonen couldn't get into sprint position, but still stayed in Green. Tom was very gracious about his team in the interview - said it wasn't the team's fault that they couldn't get organized.

Tomorrow will be the start for the climbers, and the sprinters will start hanging on for dear life until the next flat stage,...

Was that an awesome finish for Stage 3 this morning or what? Cancellara surprised everyone with his long sprint. He blew past those guys who had been in front for almost the entire race, and out-sprinted the sprinters for the win. Fabian's grin on the podium was one of delight, for sure. Interesting that Zabel, the guy who caused the big crash yesterday, took second.

Most of the race was just a joyride for the guys, with everyone chatting and joking - looked like a mellow club ride until they finally decided to get serious. And almost too late with the chase. And Auge hung in to take the polka dot jersey away from Millar, who appeared a bit disinterested, or without energy, to try to keep it...

I think the Tour is a lot more exciting than some of the naysayers have predicted, and the mountains should be good. It will be a real challenge for Discovery with only eight guys. Good luck for a speedy recovery to Thomas Vaitkus. I think it was him I saw yesterday coming in with one arm on the bars instead of George...

Horrible, huge crash at the front of the peloton in the last 3 km of Stage 2 today. Saw George Hincapie not using one of his arms as he finished, neither was Freddie Rodriguez nor Fabian Cancellara. Hope it's not bad, we'll have to wait to hear, but all three guys looked to me to be injured.

Exciting finish, with huge joy for Belgium - Boonen's lead-out guy, Steegmans, takes the sprint, with Boonen second... Well done...

Keeping my fingers crossed for those guys who went down when a Millram rider swerved to the right and started the chain reaction of crashes...

Here we go again with the usual Tour frenzy, however, it seems rather subdued, in spite of the media’s attempts to infuse everything and everyone with doping crap. And, as usual, press writers who don’t know their arse from a hole in the ground write about the Tour without doing their homework.

My favorite stupid headline, written after the Prologue, was: “ Hincapie Disappointed, But Not Defeated”. I received so many Google Alerts for that headline that I don’t know who was the original author. Yeah, a real Tour expert journalist wrote that one. It was the Prologue, dummy! Jeeze, “not defeated” - Like this was a major telling incident of the Tour, and an ominous indicator of the outcome for George Hincapie.

The other headline was from a newspaper, I think maybe it was in Charleston, and the writer called it La Tour...

So the Discovery guys look great in the new Go Green theme jerseys. Sure makes it easier to spot them in the peloton. Of course, there is the to-be-expected buzz that the green color may be an indicator of the 2008 sponsor. And the AMD logo is the prime candidate, but that is a whole lotta bucks for the sponsorship for that Silicon Valley company. It would be great to have the hub here, but I don’t know... The other speculation is a sponsor in China, and the team is scheduled to race there for the first time... Fuyu Li, the pride of China, could be bringing more to the team than his racing skills.

In Stage 1 today, Robbie McEwen hauled A at the last minute to take the sprint. That guy came out of nowhere and was flying. I don’t think he was carbon neutral in that sprint - He was smokin’. Was especially surprising since he had just been knocked arse-over-teakettle by another rider as he was standing by his bike with a mechanical. He seemed to be having a bit of trouble with his wrist afterwards. He’ll need it for his sprint tomorrow after a totally, pancake-flat stage.

Fireworks last night, and expect more fireworks when the USADA decision about Floyd Landis is announced on Friday. This particular display is called Smiley Face in pyrotechnic speak. I hope we will all have smiling faces after the announcement, but honestly, I’m scared... There’s just too much good ole’ boys CYA and corporate CYA involved here to maintain hopes that Floyd, or any other rider, will be given a fair shake. I so hope I’m wrong and a rotten pessimist. I actually did a typo and originally wrote “pissimist”, and Jeeze, maybe that’s a better word...

And, will we suddenly see a Le Creep sensational leak about the findings? Or maybe nobody at USADA wants to be paid off in Euros? Or Le Creep doesn’t have any buddies there? Or USADA actually has control to prevent “anonymous sources”.

Anyway, I am so lucky to have a good friend whose boss is in charge of all the pyrotechnics at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, here in California. We got to go into the restricted area and shoot fireworks from about 30 yards behind the launching area. It was so awesome to be that close! I had one camera on a tripod with a remote release, and handheld another camera. Looking up through the lens, it looked like the fireworks were falling right on our heads. Hopefully, I’ll find time to put up a few shots in my Smugmug gallery, but remember this was my first serious attempt at shooting fireworks.

From Tours long past.... Just got a quick note from Carlton Reid of Bike Biz, UK. He has used my Tour de France 2002 posting about the Sloggi thong campaign in his latest article. Follow the link to get all the cheeky information, my silly leetle poem, and more...

Funny story is that when I wrote zee silly leetle Podium Girl Gone Bad, my plan was to have that image on page one. However, my publisher wouldn’t allow it because I didn’t have a release from Sloggi. Even though the image was from a billboard on a public bus stop and Sloggi posters and billboards were plastered all over Luxembourg.

Sloggi’s campaign is still as outrageous this year and you can see it via links on the Bike Biz page. My image is the Bike Biz link to the large size view...