I missed yesterday's events, when DS Little Bear cashed in an old promise to teach him skiing. [Went well, though kids only seem small til you try to arrest their momentum on snow.] Hopefully I'll have time to catch the recording today. Paco Mancebo/Rock Racing stealing the race? Boy is this getting interesting in a hurry...
Fill in the random-thought bubble: ____ are the third base coaches of cycling, nobody knows their name til they screw up. I'm going with support vehicle drivers. Dunno why I thought of this, maybe because the Fiorentina bus ran over a Genoa fan yesterday.
Sprint time today... maybe. Sounds like the race is due for one last blast of really lousy weather, followed by mediocre weather, followed by things getting pretty nice for maybe the rest of the race. Anyway, if the rain is truly epic today, the peloton might not feel like chasing breaks, but I'd assume otherwise. Hopefully we'll get some pictures from the San Francisco portion of the stage, a rare urban jaunt... though the entire race scene will be rather lovely, to the extent anything can be seen
Rock Racing? Trying to ride the front of the ATOC and protect a lead?
If there is an aspect of the race not covered by a comment, photo, post or other element of the Podium Cafe, I'd like to know about it. Great work all! I think we've already surpassed 2006 for annual comment totals. Enjoy the stage today.