With the Tour well underway...

Not that any of you really need recapping, but just so we can all get caught up after the long 4th of July weekend.

****Stage one****
Dave Z of team CSC kicked some butt and placed himself atop the leader board on his first ever day at the Tour de France. Lance rolled through the time trial just 2 seconds slower than the young American. Did he sit up a bit in the home stretch so as to not have the burden of the Yellow Jersey so early in the race? We may never know. Either way a great finish as Lance is ahead of all of his rivals and there is still an American in yellow; as a matter of fact, 4 of the top 6 finishers were American!


****Stage Two****
Typical flat stage for the sprinters. Tom Boonen (former US Postal rider) now of team Quick Step showed his power once again this season and took the sprint finish. Boonen gets the green jersey as the leader of the points classifacation.
Fan favorite Thomas Voeckler was able to do enough to get the opportunity to wear the Polka dot Jersy (mountains classifacation)
Lance's team keeps him out of trouble and onto the next stage.


****Stage three****
Another stage for the fast men in the peloton. Boonen proves to be deserving of the Maillot Vert (green jersey) by winning his 2nd stage of this years tour. Robbie McEwan gets relagated to the back of the field for gettin physical with fellow countryman Stuey O'Grady. McEwan claimed that his actions were just part of racing...what do you think?
Erik Dekker earns the Mountains jersey by one point during a long break that didn't get pulled back in until the final few kilometers.



**** Stage four (TTT)****
Lance and the Disco boys three-peat the TTT stage!
In an ironic twist Dave Zabriskie crashed 1.5k from the finish line consequently losing the yellow jersey and arguably losing his CSC team the stage win by a mere 1.79 seconds! Team Discovery averaged a record setting 57.324 km/h (35.619 mph) over the 67.5km TTT course.
Now, I've gone over 35 mph before; but only when I'm sprinting for the line or decending the I-75 overpass on Millhopper Rd.. I can't imaging holding that speed for over an HOUR!
...anyway, the team win today puts Lance Armstrong in the all too familiar color of Yellow for the 67th time in the Tour de France. Of course, as is usually the case following the TTT, the entire Discovery Channel Team is placed very highly in the overall GC. George Hincapie is currently in 2nd place 55 seconds behind Lance. Yaroslav Popovych has also earned himself the White jersey as the best young rider.


Will Lance attempt to defend the jersey all the way to Paris?
Do you think that Johan will let George try to go up the road tomorrow in order to possibly take the Leaders jersey? Ya know, kinda like "hey, thanks for helpin Lance win the Tour for the past million years."
I think it would be awesome if George gets in a break and crosses the line 56 seconds before the field does. George would wear the yellow jersey while still riding in support of Lance, and then when the roads turn upward, Lance does what he does best and crushes the competition.

•IN OTHER NEWS•
I rode with the GCC on Saturday. A nice 60 mile ride with wet roads awaiting us as we got back into G-ville. The rotation back into town started a bit too early for me so I stayed near the back with Lambert. The fast pace started to wear on the guys in the rotation and things got very unorganized. I went to the front and contributed for the last 10-12 miles. Huan was glued to my wheel and I could tell he was motivated for the finishing sprint. As we came down 43rd St. I was looking for a strong lead out and sat on the wheel of Lambert. Unfortunatly, I hesitated too much and Huan came around me soo fast that I never had a chance to jump on his wheel. I sprinted in vein taking 2nd and kicking myself for not initiating the sprint. Maybe I'll get it right this evening on the Tues night ride?