Yes, Sunday will bring us De Ronde. And a fine time that will be. But what about Saturday? Especially for those of us on the East Coast who are facing more @()*@#@ snow this weekend, and can't (okay, won't) use it as a training day?

The U.S. Open Cycling Championships should be able to keep your interest for a couple of hours. A 112 mile race, Velo News tells us that it:

will begin in colonial Williamsburg, Virginia and follow the route along the historic Jamestown Plantations and Civil War battlefields, ending with eight 5.5-mile circuits in downtown Richmond including a brutal cobblestone climb up Libby Hill.

As a UCI 1.1 event, the race is required to draw a minimum of five international teams [, all of which] hail from either the USA, Canada or Mexico, hence the true North American Championship.

However, given the riders expected to start the race, an American may not prove to be the winner. Toyota-United, the hottest North American team thus far in 2007, brings two heavy favorites in Australian Henk Vogels and Cuban Ivan Dominguez.