Light blogging today, though with any luck the kids will be napping when the stage airs live from 2-4 out here.
- Update [2007-2-24 12:56:47 by chris]: Petacchi over Rebellin and Haselbacher at the Algarve today. Not sure what happened to Eisel, he seems to have disappeared.
- Today's trek to Santa Clarita looks pretty bumpy, but the real climbs are early on, with a long run-in and a few circuits in Santa Clarita when they get there. So, as usual, the power of the peloton will likely keep the GC from being altered that much. Unless Leipheimer blows up and the Discovery boys crack both mentally and physically, expect Leipheimer to play defense all the way home. But one of the nice things about Jens Voigt being the closest pursuer is, well, you never quite know what can happen. FYI, last year the stage starting in Santa Barbara saw Olaf Pollack win a field sprint in Thousand Oaks, over a different route.
- Six teams going to Paris-Nice? So says Reuters: Rabobank, Gerolsteiner, T-Mobile, Cofidis, Bouygues Telecom, and Francaise des Jeux. Through their union, the CPA, the riders won't boycott unless their teams choose to. In my earlier post I was right about one thing: there is a sport called Cycling. Other than that, my guess that the Pro Tour had contracts which would hold the teams together isn't looking so good. Yeah, I am an attorney, but I can assure you that in my day job I don't write briefs which include guesses about what's in a contract. And this is why.