Floyd Landis wins the 2006 Tour de France after the single greatest day of cycling ever!  An amazing job!  Hopefully Floyd will have a successful hip replacement and recovery, and we’ll see him again next year.

After having a terrible day on the bike yesterday, losing approximately 10 minutes and dropping to 11th in the Tour, Floyd Landis came back with a vengeance today.  He attacked about halfway through the stage and proceeded to destroy the peloton.  He regained almost all the time he lost, and is now 3rd overall with about 30 seconds seperating him from the leader.  He is more than capable of making that time up on Saturday, which is the last individual time trial.

He’s going to win, and it’ll be the most exciting finish to a tour since Lance won his first.  Today’s stage was so exciting, I can’t wait to actually see it.  I just followed it online while I was sitting at my desk at work.

I just can’t believe that Floyd was able to come back from such a shitty day yesterday.  It’s incredible.

Meg and I got back from Boston Tuesday night.  I had a great time up there.  We got to do a little sightseeing.  I didn’t take my digital camera (too bulky) but we did buy a cheap disposable camera, so when we get those developed, we’ll post some pictures.
Some highlights of the trip:  Got to take a Duck Boat tour of the Boston area.  Nothing like driving through downtown Boston in an amphibious troop transport from WW2.  It was wicked awesome.  Also got to visit the Newbury street location of ERC, my favorite coffee shop.  It was pretty good.

Best of all, we got to see a Sox game at Fenway!  It was even a good one, with the Sox coming back from 4 down to win over Kansas City 5-4.  It was amazing to see all the Boston fans going nuts.  Complete reverse from the Braves game we went to last month, where the fans basically were flatliners.

Last travel note, Philly’s airport is the worst.  We had a 2 hour weather delay and had to fly through the worst turbulence I’ve ever experienced.  It was like riding the Cyclone at Six Flags.

Check out this video compilation of Zidane headbutt animations.  You WILL spew milk out of your nose, even if you’re not drinking it.

Today was a defining day in the Tour.  The first mountaintop finish, with 5 categorized climbs on the day, meant that by the end of the day, the field would be seperated in to who was strong, and who sucked.  Here’s what I found out today.

First, Floyd Landis is the man.  With a bum hip, he managed to ride up those mountains with a quickness.  He came in 3rd on the stage and is now the yellow jersey!

Second, Levi Leipheimer is back and is looking to regain some lost face.  He finished second on the day and was super pissed at missing the win by 3 feet.  We’ll see him again.  I predict at least one stage win for him this tour.

Finally, Discovery Channel is having a terrible Tour.  George must have known that he would have had a bad day as he didn’t even really try on the final climb.  We’re gonna see a lot of the Discovery guys going for stage wins.  It’s really all they have left to go for.  I hope that George is able to win a stage.

For your enjoyment, you can play as Zidane and try to headbutt as many Materazzi guys as possible. You win if you get red carded.

Check out this article at ArsTechnica about free wifi at coffee shops.  I personally love the free internet access, especially at ERC downtown.  But I’m probably the exception to the article, which talks about all the freeloaders who sit and buy nothing, surfing for free.  I buy a lot and tip well whenever I go there.

Check out Bobby Julich’s new article on ESPN.com.  Even though he wrecked out of the race, he’s still offering his thoughts.  I really hate that he crashed.  I was looking forward to seeing him in action.

Italy wins!

I was rooting for France personally, but after Zidane pulled his bonehead move, I could only sit and wait for the inevitable.  I knew that after he got red carded for head butting that guy, that France would lose and it’d be his fault.  What a shitty way to end your career.  If I was on that team, I’d kick his ass.

OK, I watched today’s individual time trial.  It was a fucking disaster for the American riders.  First, Bobby Julich crashed out, which was a tragedy.  He was one of the good guys.  Second, Levi Leipheimer, what the hell happened?  I had him picked to win the Tour, and he lost 5 minutes over today’s race.  He must be sick or something.  I’m still trying to find out what happened.  Then George Hincapie came in losing a couple of minutes.  The only highlight was Floyd Landis, who came in second, but he still had a rough day.  The Tour authorities forced him to change his time trial position, which ended up messing his bike up.  After he changed bikes, he got a flat. 

 

Looks like Floyd is in the best position to take the Tour when it hits the mountains.  Who knows what is coming next.

Wow.  I just watched the World Cup Semi match between Germany and Italy.  Unbelievable finish.  Italy scores 2 goals in the last minute to absolutely crush the hopes and dreams of Germany and its fans.  They were all crying, the fans and the team.  Italy was ecstatic.  It was amazing!

Quick update:  Robbie McEwen won stage 2 in a bunch sprint and almost knocked Thor Hushovd off his bike.  That little Aussie bastard is tough.  Thor ended up snagging the yellow jersey from George by winning some time coming in 3rd.

Today, Michael Kessler from T-Mobile won by launching an attack 2 kilometers from the finish after cresting a steep short climb and getting the jump on the peloton.  This is a good morale booster for T-Mobile, who are suffering from losing Jan Ullrich to the doping scandal.

There were a couple of accidents that are going to have an effect on the race.  Alejandro Valverde, who was tapped as one of the favorites, broked his collarbone after going down.  Another accident claimed Erik Dekker, who was racing in his last Tour.  He’s had a history of getting injured, so this is bad luck for him.  The same crash also took out Freddy Rodriguez, who was Robbie McEwen’s main lead-out man, so we’ll see how that affects his sprints.  Also, Stuard O’Grady broke a vertebrae in his lower back and finished way behind the peloton.  He’s doubtful for tomorrow’s start.

There were a shitload of flat tires too.  Looks like the first week of this Tour is crazy just like the others.  I don’t see the peloton settling down anytime soon either.  Tomorrow will be another crazy day.

Interesting discussion taking place in the comments section of this DayJobs post.  I don’t really listen to regular radio anymore since I’ve got Sirius, but if WUOG would take some action and become less painful to listen to, I might give it another go.

Jimmy Casper (who?) wins the stage in a crazy mass sprint that had some surprises and an unfortunate incident.  Big George managed to make his presence felt in the sprint and was able to snag a time bonus that put him in the leader’s jersey.  I’m happy for him!  Now Discovery gets to decide if they defend the jersey.  I don’t think they will, but George is gonna want that back.

Also, Thor Hushovd, the winner from yesterday got injured by a fan’s cardboard sign.  He is getting stitches and is supposed to start the race tomorrow.

OK, the scandal is ongoing, but so is the race!  Today’s prologue was exciting, with Thor Hushovd coming out of nowhere to win the day.  Big George Hincapie almost took him, losing by less than a second.

 

My favorites were all in top form today, with George, Levi, and Floyd all showing they are capable of a good showing.  Although Landis had a bit of bad luck.  His team noticed a defect in one of his tires while he was waiting for the start and took a chance to fix it.  He was late for his start by 8 seconds, but could have potentially lost more time if the tire had blown during the stage.  So he’s down a few seconds on the leaders, but nothing significant.  He’s still in the running.

 

Levi looked good too.  It’ll come down to who’s team is stronger really.  To early to tell, but I wouldn’t bet too much against Discovery.  This could be George’s year.