And on the 10th day we Rest!

It's been a few days since I last posted, but I'll touch on a few quick points:

• Last thursday's GCC ride turned out to be FAST! Five of us broke off after only a dozen miles or so and headed north into the hilly part of Alachua. Danny M. was having a great day and pulled like a freeking horse. We all managed to keep a very high pace for the 40 mile ride and even finished strong with a good sprint led out by Huan who joined us for the last 3k. I jumped around Huan and Scott but was overtaken by a hard charging Danny who rode like he had a big bowl of EPO for breakfast. Lil Joe Brew nipped me at the line too, so not a good sprint by yours truly.

• Stage 6 was won by an opportunistic Bernucci from the Fassa team. A huge pile up in the last corner took out most of the sprinters and held up everyone else. Everyone else except Vino, who jumped with 2k to go and ended up 2nd on the day taking 19 sec. out of Armstrongs lead.

• Stage 7, yadda yadda, long solo break yadda yadda, bunch sprint yadda yadda, McEwan wins again.

• Stage 8 saw Armstong isolated on the last climb of the day. Everyone attacked him like crazy, but he marked Vino and Ullrich and everything worked out in the end. Weening wins the stage by the width of a sheet of paper and Lance ratains the Yellow Jersey.

• Stage 9 was the first day of real climbing and Discovery took off thier skirts and rode like the men that they are! Rasmussen was off the front all day and took the stage win as well as solidifying his hold on the Polka dots. The great French hope, Moreau, and CSC rider Jens Voigt finished 2nd and 3rd respectivley. This was enough to put Voigt in Yellow and move Moreau into 2nd overall.
No need to worry folks, Voigt isn't a pure climber and Lance will have his opportunities to get the mellow Johnny back! This way Discovery won't have to defend the jersey when racing resumes on tuesday in the Alps.

• Today is a flight from Mulhouse to Grenoble for the riders during their first rest day. A chance to prepare for the pointy end of the race, they'll be resting up as much as they can and fuelling up for the gruelling road ahead.

• Tomorrow we separate the men from the boys on the 192.5 km stage from Grenoble - Courchevel.
- Will Disco take back the jersey or let CSC play with it for a while?
- Will T-moble see Vino become thier true team leader, or are they still going to pretend that Ullrich can win this?
- Will the sprinters be able to pull themselves over the big mountains and live to fight again when the road flattens out?
- Will Lance solo off the front at the base of the Courchevel and crush his rivals by 20 minutes?
- Will the Tuesday night ride see dry conditions or will another catagory 5 hurricane blow through dumping 15 inches of rain on us consequently blocking all roadways with downed trees and power lines?

- We will just have to wait and see...