Holy cow.

Oh well, life goes on. No team Discovery names on there. The Aussie Robby McCewen (sp) isn't on there. So this tour will not see hardly any of the heavyweights. Vino might or might not be there. One question: why did they wait until two days before the tour to do this? It's pretty much killed the tour; who has interest in seeing a bunch of also-rans? It's like replacement football or whatever.

Update: Bad news for the euro teams, means good news for Americans, including Team Disco. Heck they might even get someone on the podium this year. The race is certainly wide open right now. Vino is likely gone from the race, as 5 of his 8 teammates are disqualified. (And as team Disco has shown, unless you have a very strong team, your champion is dead).

Discovery Channel's Paolo Savoldelli and George Hincapie are both candidates for the prologue podium. Savoldelli won the more difficult TT opener at the Giro d'Italia in May, while Hincapie was second to Zabriskie in the recent Dauphiné prologue, conceding two seconds in 4.1km. But that was Hincapie's first race in two months following his rehab from a separated shoulder.

Also expect inspired rides from Hincapie's former teammates Floyd Landis (Phonak-iShares) and Levi Leipheimer (Gerolsteiner), although the prologue's 7.1km distance is somewhat on the short side for these two. Landis might not be able to make full use of his high-hands aero' position on a course that has nine right-angle turns and just as many curving bends. As for Leipheimer, he showed his resolve by rolling into Strasbourg on Wednesday half a day ahead of his teammates so he could go training on his TT bike for two hours.