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.

He's riding RAGBRAI this year.

Says his hip is pretty much shot. And he's in constant pain when he bikes. This could hurt his tour chances, obviously. But Landis is as tough as nails. But so far he's #2 in the Tour, and the American most likely to win it all. (Big George is 2:30 back, which hopefully he'll make up in the mountains).

All i got to say is, go America! I hope some American wins it, but I wouldn't be unhappy at all to see Aussie Robbie McEwen win (he's 5:50 back overall, not good, but winning stages).

The Tour has been riviting so far, but the key quote must be from this intreped journalist:

Then, at a press conference on Thursday, after Landis chased down an 11-man breakaway, killed them and ate them, built a new bicycle out of their bones, and roared away in a pillar of fire to win the stage to Morzine and jump back to within 30 seconds of the yellow jersey, he mentioned beer once again.

Go Floyd! A real American hero.

Heartbreaking, if true. Also, if true, point out that its hard to get away doping during the Tour, especially if you are the yellow jersey.