I believe Versus, née Outdoor Life Network, has the cable broadcast rights to the Toor Day France again with commentary by the usual suspects. I was at Adams Avenue Bikes picking up my Austro-Daimler Superleicht on Saturday. On the telescreen was unedited French feed from the prologue without commentary. I'm not sure where this was coming from, but I don't think it was Universal Sports. I don't have digital cable right now, so I don't know if they are broadcasting on the NBC cable channel as well.

Back in the Dark Ages during the era of LeMond supremacy we were lucky to get 20 minutes of TdF coverage for three Sundays in July on ABC Wide World of Sports. Cycling on television has come a long way since those heady days when American riders were making their first inroads into the Euro' peloton.

I am planning to upgrade to digital cable in September for the Vuelta a Espana. Universal Sports picked up the ball that Versus dropped several years ago and now broadcast excellent Giro and Vuelta coverage. For several years Versus provided complete coverage of all three grand tours. American tifosi howled in protest when they dropped the Giro and Vuelta, but were overjoyed when Universal filled the void last year.

Universal Sports will also be broadcasting coverage of Road World's on October 3.

Just after this frame the camera finds Ale-Jet in the green jersey taking advantage of the chaos to take a nature break. He waves the cameraman off and continues to relieve himself.

One of my favorite riders, Amets Txurruka of Euskaltel-Euskadi finished yesterday with a broken collarbone and failed to start today. Hope he's good to go for the Vuelta.

Talk about bad luck times three, eh Lance?

Stage 8 highlights

So where 's the photo of Evans having a hissy fit after being dropped on the Madeleine? He's a great rider and wears the world road champion's jersey, but he is such a drama queen!

I'd like to see Sammy Sanchez claw his way up onto the podium.

Today is Bastille Day. Maybe Charteau or Pineau can take the stage.

It was cool to see Chris Horner make 10th. He was left out of the tour last year and this year he was the highest finisher for both Team Radioshack and the U.S.

Ryder Hesjedal (Canada) was the highest placed rider from the western hemisphere at 7th, which was very impressive.

The crashes in the first week were brutal. They shaped the tour and not in a good way. There were a lot of good riders who went out because of them and some of the good riders who stayed didn't do as well as they should have because of the crashes.

I disagreed with the disqualification of Renshaw. The head butting was due to Julian Dean trying to push him into the barrier. That was more Dean's fault than his. However, after he was done leading out Cavendish, he did the same thing to Farrar that Dean had done to him, which was not cool. Points penalty and a fine would have been sufficient IMO.

Fabian Cancellara has 21 yellow jerseys, one less than Greg Lemond and four more than Alberto Contador, both three time winners. He's got the second most of any non-winner in history. René Vietto has the most of any non-winner at 26, which he won in only two tours. Cancellara could take that record next year. He'll never win the tour, but he can certainly lead it until it hits the big mountains.

With 15 stage wins, Cavendish is getting into some pretty rare company. One more and he'll match Anquetil. If he keeps winning this much, he could pass Armstrong (22) in two more tours and Hinault (28) in three. Theoretically, he could even pass Merckx (34) if he can keep it up long enough.

People typically don't refer to Canadians as americans, even though they technically are. It's just the way people talk.

Watched it on U.S. Didn't mention it since not many here seem to care about such things. The riders left after the final climb couldn't out sprint him. It was a perfect course for him.

wpstoll:He wants to win the 2011 Paris-Roubaix wearing the World Champion jersey.

This Sunday is the Paris-Roubaix!

Tour of the Basque Country is finishing up with an ITT tomorrow. Chris Horner is only 1 second back.

I have to referee the Cyclo-Vets Spring Criterium tomorrow on the Huennekens course. It looks like an 11 hour workday, so chances of watching PR for me are slim unless it is re-broadcast in the evening.

That's the only race on the schedule tomorrow. Are Cyclo-Vets going to show it? Or maybe Ralph Elliott? Not that I'll have any spare time to watch, I could still get updates.

I'm hoping that Chris Horner can defend last year's win of Tour of the Basque Country. He was the first American rider to win. All he has to do is pull back more than one second in the TT. That would be harrigarriro! Gora Chris!

AM? According to my Tivo, Vs. isn't showing it until 4pm.

billd:Vs. isn't showing it until 4pm.

So this means I have to stay of the internets all day so as to not accidentally seeing the result?!?

I have that problem all the time with Twitter. Drives me nuts.

Nicole and I are going to try to make it to Blind Lady. Not sure yet.

Not sure if anyone else made it. I didn't see anyone I knew by site when I was there. I walked in and they had it on every screen in the place which was awesome, but they had loud music on and no race sound. I'm a commentary person myself so it kinda defeated the purpose really. I have it on Tivo, so I bailed and will watch it tomorrow. Sorry not to see it with friends though :face-sad:
OK, I'm done whining now.

I really liked this photo (from bicycling.com):

A Sunday in Hell

Far from the victory ceremony, Dutch rider Dennis Van Winden took refuge in the historic municipal showers behind the Roubaix velodrome. After finishing in 88th place, more than 13 minutes behind the winner, he remained speechless from sheer exhaustion.

Giro started today with a TTT.

It was kind of odd to watch Radioshack. For a while there Robbie McEwen was hanging on the back of the team and guys going back would pull back in front of him. He appeared to be getting a free ride for a bit.

Oh no! That's terrible news! Fatalities are so rare at that level. He was a very talented rider.

I was watching this morning's live coverage on the DVR and they briefly showed him unconscious with blood streaming from his face. A couple minutes later they showed an overhead shot from the helicopter where you could tell they were doing CPR. It was heart wrenching.

He won stage 3 last year, and lost his life on it this year. :face-crying:

Right now I'm at the part just after the race and they still don't know that he died. They're talking about how he and Tyler Farrar are good friends and they trained together a lot.

Stage 4 reminded me of the last time something like this happened. The day after Fabio Casartelli died in the '95 TdF riders did not race and the UCI neutralized the stage. US Postal were allowed to go to the front and crossed the line together at the finish. Lance won the next stage with his now famous pointing to heaven gesture.

Yesterday's stage was thrilling with the sections of strade bianche. Riders were displaying their incredible bike handling skills on the unpaved descents.

Thanks for the reminder! At least I didn't post "Subaru-Montgomery!" I think I'm starting to suffer from CRS in my advancing age.

Stage 5 was gnarly, indeed!

Foul weather is going to dog the Tour of California again this year, in spite of the move to May. I think February was a much better place on the calendar. It didn't conflict with the Giro or with Bike to Work Week and the weather is going to be bad no matter when the race is held. As it stands we'll miss the antics of Cavendish this year as he has opted for the Giro instead. Like him or not he brings interest and color to any race.

Today's opening stage may be truncated if the snow is too heavy in the Sierras.

We're going to skip San Jose and drive up on Wednesday instead for Thursday's Queen Stage. I can't think of many situations more miserable than riding two miles to the finish on Sierra Rd. in the rain.

We're seeing a changing of the guard. The young riders coming to the fore represent the future of the sport. Last year Peter Sagan came out of nowhere to claim two stages of the ToC and continued to clean up back in Europe. Young CX World Champion Zdenek Stybar had a rough season last year. If he's in good form later this season we can expect another podium appearance at CX Worlds 2011

Yesterday's cancellation of Stage 1 was divine punishment of the organizers for hubris. February 2011 was beautiful and sunny with near record temperatures.

Sea Otter had the same thing happen. Organizers moved it from March to April to escape rainy weather, but it made absolutely no difference. Sea Otter without rain would be unthinkable!

We're off tomorrow or Wednesday to meet the race up north.

Go Chris! It's great to see him win! I hope he can take it the whole way; though it wouldn't exactly bother me to see Levi take it.

That's gotta hurt!