[editor's note, by chris] I originally posted the Petacchi tidbit separately, but there are a few other small items worth mentioning, so I'll combine them here.
- Petacchi to skip Paris-Tour and shut down for the year, the final blow being his broken finger sustained in
a fallan altercation with a bus during the Vuelta. - Floyd Landis' hip surgery went as expected, and doctors are predicting he can race again. I hadn't seen this before, but apparently he didn't have a full replacement; he had the ball joint replaced and the rest "resurfaced."
- If you think the Italian squad can be hard to manage, dial back to 1960 and the French squad.
- Accused dopers' updates: Basso could be set free Friday; Switzerland says it has no reason to deny Jan Ullrich his license next year. So says CN and VN. Also, Liquigas is sticking by Luca Paolini after the fruitless search of his house.