Are the top pro riders still cheating?

What we learned back in the Postal/Discovery days were that if it looks too good to be true then most likely it is. The dominance of Lance and his team was something to behold. I was sucked in, loved it, had my rose-colored-glasses on, I was a believer! Then that world came crashing down, and finally his confession on Oprah (of all places). Just like Floyd...he claimed, no, he swore he didn't cheat! He even wrote a book about it "Positively False" (I have it, and it's autographed btw). I certainly wanted to believe, and then HIS confession. It was Floyd's confession that really brought down Lance. Having the rug pulled out from under me, I am quite leery of believing again. Anybody who wins must be cheating. Wait...somebody has to win (except for those 7 years of Lance, where there is no winner, or 2nd, or 3rd...how can that be?)  

But now everybody is saying he (Pogacar) is arguably THE greatest cyclist of all time! Just putting him on equal terms with the great Eddy Merckx makes me wonder....if Eddy wasn't cheating, then it's possible for one person to come along, an outlier, that is far and away better than everybody else. And if there was one, then there WILL be another, and another. Michael Jordon, Lebron James, Tiger Woods all come to mind...athletes that pop up every now and then, and suddenly everybody else is fighting for 2nd place. It appears that the only real question is how far in-between we have to wait for the popping up of these mutant otherworldly athletes is all that is up for debate. Every sport has them. Gosh, think back to Mark Spitz, remember him? 7 gold medals in one Olympics! Michael Phelps...he was quite a while after Spitz, and even more dominant! Katie Ledecky, wow was she amazing! My point here is that there will ALWAYS be people that rise above the best. Are they ALL cheating in any way? How on earth would we ever know? 

So...that all said, IF Pogo isn't cheating, then he is that guy. If he IS cheating, then so are his top rivals. 

Everybody is forgetting: yes, Pogo set THE FASTEST KNOWN TIME up the Tourmalet by 2 minutes and 20 seconds! WOW, that's quite the smashing of the record for sure! Hmmm...sure sounds like he must be cheating. But wait...Vingo was only 30 seconds behind Pogo at the top of the Tourmalet...so HE ALSO BEAT THE FKT by a minute and half! But wait, there's more...the group of the top contenders Del Toro, Seixas and Lipowitz were only about 90 seconds behind Pogo, so THEY ALSO beat the FKT by almost a minute! And then, just 30 seconds behind them were the rest of the top 10, Evenepoel, Ayuso, Skjelmose, the Durango Kid Sepp Kuss, and finally Martinez! 

So the top 10 riders in this years Tour beat the old FKT up the Tourmalet. Thats pretty crazzy! Oh, wait, its also been the hottest Tour on record (and lets not forget that just a few stages later they set a new fastest average speed for a stage)! How is this possible? Are they ALL cheating? Or has the training and racers themselves adapted and are doing this fair and square? I certainly can't say they aren't cheating beyond the shadow of a doubt...I mean,, LA pulled the wool over most of us for 7 years in a row! But the Biological Passport that has been going on for a long time now, and would seem to rule that out. 

Consider that just 20 years or so ago it was pretty well established that young racers were physically unable to do well in the Grand Tours, that it was only possible by the more mature and established racers (in their mid to late 20s). And now the youngest rider in the Tour since 1939 (Paul Seixas at 19 years old) just beat the FKT on the Tourmalet. Pogo's teammate Issac Del Toro is only 22, and Florian Lipowitz is 25 (the old guy other than Pogo).

And finally, just 2 days ago (the final stage before the 2nd rest day) Remco beat Pogo across the line to win Stage 15! Is that a chink in the armor of the seemingly invincible Pogocar? It's surely the first time this year that he seems human! And Remco? Wow, good for him! To finally shatter that belief that he can't win in the big mountains. What a confidence boost that must be! And confidence breeds confidence! With Vingo out of the race, Remco, by winning that stage has put himself firmly into 2nd place overall! Now he just needs to use that confidence and build on it. Can he hold 2nd place into Paris? That remains to be seen, we still have a LOT of climbing to do, the Alps await!

And to close, I have to admit it was VERY sad to see Jonas crash out. He was really showing signs of life again, and had his entire team on the front totally dominating Stage 15, right up to that dreaded corner, and now hes out with a broken collarbone. But when one door closes another one opens, and Remco has the chance to hold his position on the Podium. 

OK, back to today's stage (the ITT, tho its an odd one, has a Cat 2 climb right out of the starting gate, a RIPPING descent, and finally a long flat to the finish). Who will win this one? Gosh, that's anybody's guess...its not a normal ITT, that's for sure. 

 Game ON! 

My first forray into night sky photography...cuz you know, I NEED another Hobby!

 

Milky Way Photography! 

So I took my new DSLR out Sunday night to try for some Dark Sky pictures (ie: Milky Way). I bought the camera very recently with my Las Vegas "Winnings" from 2 weeks ago. We went to LV for 4 days (Jeannie's brother/wife and nephew/wife and nephew-in-law/wife were there) and Jeannie loves to go to LV (and give them some of her money).

Whenever we got to LV, Jeannie saves a set-amount for each of us for gambling each day (if you lose it all you're done for the day, there's no hitting up an ATM or borrowing from tomorrows envelope of cash...it's a good policy!) However in recent years I've stopped GIVING LV MY MONEY! It's just stupid to me, they're GOING TO WIN in the long haul as they always do when I gamble! But we decided years ago that whether I gamble or not is my decision. So whatever I DON'T spend at the end of the trip is pure Winnings for the Mattster! It's a brilliant strategy IMO...I'm a WINNER every time we go there!!!! Usually I'd be whaling away on my recently updated Amazon list for Bike stuff...but this year I had a different plan. So that's how I got the camera (she did let me spend my money before the trip which us usually taboo, provided that I promised NOT to gamble, but that's really easy, cuz I had no money to gamble with).

So I'd ordered the camera a week before the trip so that I had it there with me, giving me something to do that doesn't involve being inside a smoky casino, woo HOO!  (I also have some nice shots of Hoover Dam and the Pat Tillman bridge, took the youngsters all with me one morning to get us out of the casinos for a while). And I also did some late evening walking around (when the temps dropped down to a chilly mid to high 90's), taking pics of the strip lights and such. The Bellagio fountains are pretty sweet at night!

So back to night sky pics... first and foremost, I need to switch the camera from "Auto" to "Manual", cuz apparently the camera can't do this in Auto...it needs MY HELP! Say what?? I thought this was a fancy camera with amazing capabilities, what did I just pay for? I tried once before about a week ago to get MW shots, and my stupid focus was off just a teensy bit and all I got were a bunch of blurry pics! (I didn't know that until I get home and looked at them on the desktop after uploading them from the camera). So...camera focus (specifically the lens): Challenge # 1.

Even on the fanciest cameras and lenses, AF just can't get the night sky focus right...so here's something that I found out: every lens has a focus ring (for doing Manual focus...in the AF setting it does the focus automatically when you press the shutter button half-way down)...so when looking up anywhere into the sky and press the shutter button (you know, to take a picture), you would THINK that the lens would just go to the "Infinite" distance, cuz, you know, unless there's a UFO that suddenly swooped into your shot, stuff in the sky is pretty far away right? And I'm looking at STARS...Technically NOT infinite, but realistically, yep...infinite. But NO! When focusing on stars at night, if I use AF it's blurry, and if I manually just turn the lens to Infinite, it's still blurry. I have to manually turn the focus back to something 'less than infinite' (just a teensy bit) to get sharp focused stars! Someone PLEASE explain that one to me! What in the WIDE WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS is INFINITE distance if not freaking STARS??) For crying out loud, this isn't ROCKET SCIENCE! It's not like we're trying to do the impossible and LAND ROCKETS ON THE GROUND AFTER THEY'VE LAUNCHED or anything...oh wait, SpaceX has done that MANY HUNDREDS of times now, and apparently China just did it too. Can't ANYBODY make a camera lens setting that WORKS without ME having to go in and manually do the focus? Great Googly Moogly!

And if THAT's not stupid enough, I now STILL need to make MORE changes (these are in the Camera menu)...such as taking ISO from Auto to an actual number (usually between 800 and 3200), Shutter speed from Auto to a number (at night that's usually 15 seconds, any more than that and the stars are starting to move and you have blurry shots), Aperture from Auto to a number (for really dark sky that's usually the lowest the lens will go, the lower the better for Milky Way shots), White Balance from Auto to Daylight (apparently Auto WB can't do Night sky either, how stupid are these fancy cameras these days? What, were they designed by ChatGPT?), and THEN I still need to go into the internal menus on the camera to turn off "Long Exposure Noise Reduction" and "High ISO Noise Reduction" (both of those settings are supposed to HELP with long shutter speeds and high ISO's, which is pretty much, no, it's EXACTLY what dark shy shots are doing, yet those settings are always recommended to be turned off by photo pros...Luuucy, I need some 'splain-in' please!) 

And after all that, how do I actually get a crisp and clear focus on a star on a dark night? (I'm standing outside somewhere in some pretty serious darkness btw), with my camera on a tripod looking UP at the stars I want to focus on, so now I can't even look thru the viewfinder, cuz it's looking DOWN)...so.. I have to turn on "Live View" which puts my camera lens view on my cameras little screen. Oh wait, that doesn't help either, as my entry level cam screen doesn't pull out and rotate around to SEE IT when you have the camera anywhere except level! Grrr....so now I have to now find a star lower in the horizon (where I can still see the little screen on the back of the camera) and then go to 10x zoom on the camera (it's because of the zoom that I need to have the cam on the tripod, as the stars are tiny and even the slightest movements make it all blurry). 

Once I get his far, I can adjust the focus ring to get a crisp looking star. HOWEVER, another thing nobody tells you: when you take the lens off of Auto Focus, the focus ring moves with the freaking WIND...I mean just the slightest wisp of a breeze, or even THOUGHT of touching it, and it moves! So now I need to tape my focus ring to the lens proper, and in the act of doing that the focus-ring yep...you guessed it...MOVES (GRRRR!!!!!!) and it's blurry again! So now I'm peeling the tape back off the focus ring IN THE DARK, and doing my utmost to get it taped to the ring AND STILL BE IN FOCUS! It's harder than it sounds (and I think it sounds hard). 

After ALL THAT, I'm FINALLY READY to take some Milky Way pictures! Oh wait, now it's close to dawn as I spent all night TRYING to get READY to take night sky pics and the Milky Way is no longer visible! Ok, not really, but it does take some extra time for sure. And so...after all that (seriously, it's quite a learning curve to use a fancy-schmancy camera and take pictures of THE SKY!), here are 2 of the shots I took Sunday night (I did move my tripod several times IN THE DARK around my area looking for anything to be in the foreground, cuz it turns out a shot just looking into the sky is just boring...but having something dark in the foreground makes it all better...thus I found trees. The first shot is with the camera Verical, and the 2nd is when it was horizontal (I couldn't decide which would look better in a picture). I took like 100 shots, and these were my 2 best (tho I'm not truly sure, remember there were are about 100 of them...how on earth can I compare that many? What am I, a CIA Satellite Photography analyst or something??  (note: I sent these 2 shots via email to my brothers and Dave, the one of us that's had a DSLR for a while so has some experience here) did some Hocus-Pocus Harry Potter "Pictureisimo FANTASTICO" magic spell on them (ie: post-processing), really bringing out the depth of the Milky Way compared to my untouched jpg shots. (I do still have all those thousands of shots also in the professional RAW format, which are enormous files, and supposedly, if I knew ANYTHING AT ALL I'd be looking at THOSE files and doing Hocus Pocus stuff, getting the very best of what the camera is capable of). 

Yeah...that's not happening (yet). So...well, here they are (the Hocus Pocused versions)!

The white streak in the upper left corner is a satellite passing thru, not a shooting star. That's what satellites look like in a 15 second exposure. (I took one shot looking up with no foreground, and there were FIVE satellites passing thru in that timespan!)
 

Basically this is the same shot with less trees in the foreground and no satellites passing thru.

I was pretty pleased with this first serious attempt to get MW shots...they aren't for beginners (or are they?)! And this is with a fairly cheap 'entry level' lens! Good lenses for these kind of pictures range from between $250 (which is still 'low end' in the big scheme of lenses) to over $1000. The lens I used cost me $109 on Amazon (didn't come with the camera package)...so that tells you where it falls in the big scheme of lenses. I have my eye on one that's $330, which is a lot considering I got the camera bundle for $500 (the camera, battery, a carry case and 2 lenses: a 18-55mm zoom and a 75-300mm zoom).

I just don't get it...it's not like there are just 3 or 4 people on the planet taking night sky shots...the camera has Auto settings for all kinds of things: Flash Off (forcing the camera to change settings knowing there won't be any 'extra' light), Creative Auto (fancy stuff, like background blur and lots of other stuff EXCEPT Milky Way picture stuff), Portrait, Landscape, Close-UP (Macro), Sports, Food, Night Portrait (which is not even in the same Milky Way as you know, Milky Way shots btw), and finally Video. 

And let's not get started on the settings done by rotating the knob the other direction from the ones I just listed above: there's P (for Program AE, where you can program some stuff into a Semi-Auto mode with certain constraints, primarily it DOESN'T WORK with MILKY WAY pics of course), Tv (Shutter Priority, which basically means the Shutter speed is set manually and Aperture is Auto set), Av (Aperture Priority, where Aperture is manually set and Shutter speed is Auto set), and finally Manual mode where you set pretty much everything important. And oh, let's not forget the BASIC Auto setting, where it cooks and serves me food and then takes a picture.

So to recap: in any of the Automatic camera settings, there's no Automatic dark sky settings for the Milky Way (cuz it's so small and hard to find, and even on a dark night when it's RIGHT THERE, why on earth would anybody even want to TRY to take a picture of it?). And not to kick a seriously dead horse around some more here, but we get a FOOD setting to take pictures of FOOD! Seriously???? FOOD, but no NIGHT SKY? REALLY???

So yeah...I've still got a TON to learn, but this is going to be fun (and sometimes frustrating, like driving 35 miles out of town for nice dark sky photography, taking a bunch of pictures, and having them ALL BLURRY, that I don't realize that until I drive 35mi back home to look at them on the computer). And hey....just know that daytime pics are QUITE EASY in comparison...just don't forget to CHANGE BACK ALL THAT CRAP I JUST DID FOR NIGHT SHOTS, or guess what..BLURRY PICTURES!

And maybe I can plan us an LV trip soon (so that I can get that lens)!! 

2026 Tour, Stages 2 and 3

 I originally thought I was going to try to post after every stage, then I decided that might be a bit much considering things (and how VERY quickly I fell behind in that endeavor). 

But SO FAR, I'm excited because it's an amazing race! So much going on, so much to cheer for, and boy howdy are the guys going thru a bit of Hell out on the road! (I heard it hit 107F out on the road today, that's INSANE!) 

First off, here are some more thoughts on Stage 1 before I move on. After what I believe was the most exciting TTT I've ever seen (THANK YOU to the organization for adopting the new rules) I admit that I'm a fan! As the 2nd to last rider, Visma's Vingago won the day AND the Yellow Jersey, and along with that his team taking the top Team spot (I have to admit that it's maybe a bit weird to have the entire teams position in the Team standings dependent on the 1st guy from each team across the line, rather than the time of the 4th rider from each team across the line). But I get it, really it's not really any stranger than choosing the 4th guy across the line for the teams time in the prior rules...why not the 3rd, or 2nd, or 5th/6th? 

The old rules punished any GC rider who was on a team that isn't a top contender and is supporting sprinters or stage hunters, as that team will likely not have 8 guys (or even 4) who can TT well, and will add significant time to that GC 'hopeful' no matter how good he is in ITT"s. Only the top teams bring enough guys to do a really good TTT. This new format rewards (and punishes) each rider based on their own time just like any TT in the pro peleton. That's fair, and that most TTT's are shorter than some of the really LONG ITT's they throw out there sometimes, it's more than fair. That it's on Stage 1 I really love, it's the perfect place to do a GC sorting right from the get-go. And sure, teams that have several good TT'ers will do better than those with less, but the GC guy can break away anytime he wants from a team who's dragging him down and go get his own time. It's almost like a sprint-stage leadout, except it's for the GC guy and from a LONG ways out.

So, on to Stage 2. Vingo in Yellow, Pogo in Polka dots (pretty rare we've seen THAT), What did they call it, a 'Hilly' stage, that's right. Tho when France is smack dab in the middle of a heat-wave, I think Hilly becomes pretty difficult, ESPECIALLY when UAE moves to the front (Vismo had been riding tempo all day as holders of the Yellow jersey). They put Brandon McNulty on the front and he just destroyed the Peleton, knocking it down to about 30 riders by the time he pulled off after the end of the 1st finishing circuit (it was impressive)! UAE still totally controlling the group, all that's left are basically a who's who of GC Contenders (pretty much the Top 10 in the GC Standings). With Del Toro on the front and about 700m to go to the finish (climbing all the way) he accelerates, Pogo on his wheel, Vingo behind him with Remco and the other GC guys hanging on. As they near the top a gap opens behind Pogo who is now on IDT's side holding pace and looking back, watching to see if anybody from the group can challenge for the line). Remco has passed Vingo and they both valiantly try to close the gap but can't. Pogo does NOT sprint around for the win like he normally would (obviously capable of it) and as they are coming to the line he's got his hand on IDT's shoulder urging him on, and as they cross the line IDT does a "George Hincape wins the Stage" thing!

I vividly recall when Big George won the Queen Stage several years (during Lances rampage of 7 Tour Wins), and amazingly enough, it was his FIRST Tour Stage win EVER! When he crossed the line he saw all zeros on the clock for the first time in his Tour career...he sat up and held his hands over his face in pure astonishment...it was a fantastic moment, and IDT did just that same thing! (only he did it in his very first Tour on day 2). And Pogo seemed even happier for IDT's win that he was! Hugs, teammates and competitors coming to congratulate him, and then Pogo PICKED HIM UP in a crazy man-hug thing, and held him a few feet in the air! I've certainly never seen THAT before in cycling! I was just waiting for the entire Team to get him on their shoulders and start parading around the finish line,  chanting "RUDY, RUDY, RUDY"! (if you've never seen the movie Rudy then you've really missed something that you need to rectify this very instant). 

So Pogo GIFTS a stage win on DAY 2! (granted it was one of his own guys, and actually IDT is wearing the jersey-number 2 btw, making him the top 'Lieutenant' on the Tour team...not bad at 22 years old!). The boyz in the booth(s) and CVV were astounded, they'd never seen anything like that before either! Lots of discussion about it, but if nothing else, it's a gauntlet thrown in Vingo's face declaring that HE is so freaking STRONG and CONFIDENT (and his team is SO GOOD) that he can already give away Stage Wins (and don't forget the time bonus, there was 10 seconds for 1st and 6 seconds for 2nd and 4 seconds for 3rd, and with Remco passing Vingo before the line, HE took the 4 seconds over Vingo)! So Pogo gained 6 seconds back on Vingo's lead of 16 seconds from Stage 1 and was 2nd on the Stage, and honestly I don't recall EVER seeing him SO HAPPY! It was actually a really great moment!! (and just think to the future, whatever number of Stage Wins Pogo has when he finally retires...that number means something...I think Eddy Meryx has 55? Will Pogo beat that? What if he comes up short by ONE?) Obviously none of that nonsense was going thru his mind when he did that, and I personally think it was AWESOME! To both IDT and the ENTIRE TEAM! Boy, they'd ride thru gunfire for him after that! OK, that's all on Stage 2. 

Woo Hoo, it's TOUR TIME once again! Stage 1, a TTT with the new format! NICE!!!

 Ahhhh....July....a hot cup of tasty coffee in the wee hours of the morning, and the days Stage is up on the big screen! What could be better? Having a bulldog snoring away on my lap, that's what! (Sophie is coming up on 12 years old in August)...she's doing GREAT, but 12 is definitely getting up there for Bulldogs, and she's doing much shorter walks now, and boy howdy, she sleeps like the DEAD! Her vision is sharp tho (she can spot a gecko sunning themself on the sidewalk 10+ yards away, tho her hearing is certainly not what it used to be). I've been making the food myself for our monsters almost since I retired (now that I have that kind of time)...and what a difference it makes. It takes me an entire afternoon to make a 2 week batch (half goes in the freezer and the other half lives in the refrigerator). Sheesh...our monsters eat better than I do! (seriously). OK...back to the topic at hand!

I'm pretty excited about this years Tour....Both Vingo and Pogo have had amazing seasons thus far, and neither is coming here off a big crash and in any kind of recovery mode, hooray! Vingo is coming off a dominant Giro win, and Pogo, sheesh, where do we start there? He's done 16 races this season and WON 13 of them!!! He finally got the Monument Milan San Remo this year, it's been on his radar for a while now. Also it's a very unusual win for a 4 time TDF winner (unless you're Eddy Mercyx that is).

So both of them are looking to be in the best condition of their careers right now. And both have really great teams around them, possibly they best they've ever had. I think Pogo still has the nod as he's just not human, but I'm really REALLY hoping Visma can keep Vingo in the hunt. Something a bit different this year is that Pogo has a possible podium contender riding with him!  He's only 22 years old, but Isaac del Toro is already looking like the heir-apparent to Pogo on team UAE! Depending on how things work out, he seriously looks like he could make the podium! And Remco of course is always a threat for a podium spot, and HE even has another podium contender on his team: Florian Lipowitz (who actually made the podium last year over Remco)! And even tho Sep Kuss is riding for Vingo, he's a Grand Tour winner of his own right, and if the situation allows it, he could also be a podium contender! Not counting the TTT, there's only the one ITT this year and it's not a huge one, so Remco's superpower is pretty much negated, as he is pretty much the best TT'er in the world right now. And hey, let's not forget Mateo Jorgenson on Visma...he's just getting better and better every year...if he were on any other team he'd be the team Capt and a seriously possible Podium threat, certainly a teams GC rider. But with him and Sep riding for Vingo, their chances of that are pretty slim (as long as Vingo stays healthy and competitive that is...if for any reason that changes I'd think they will get full team support to see what they can do). 

And then...there's maybe the next Pogo (that's not already on Team UAE that is), 19 year old Paul Seixas of Team Decathlon! This kid is seriously looking like Pogo was in his early days (which seem like SO long ago, when he was wearing the White Jersey from pretty much start to finish, back when he was just "Babyface"). He's a fantastic climber AND a great TT rider...both of which are pretty much required for a Tour podium (you don't have to be the BEST TT'er to win, but if you suck at it you have very little chance).

And I'm so excited for the TWO Alp d' Huez finishes at the end of this years route, boy if that isn't a recipe for gaining and losing time in the GC then nothing is!)

 I'm watching the opening TTT right now as I type...nice to see the NBC/Peacock crew is the same tried and true group of recent years. Visma is getting ready to start with UAE 5 minutes later...I love the new TTT format where the fastest man of each team sets the teams slot (for team placement) and that each rider gets his own true time across the line....that forces all the GC guys so play it right and have a good day...like the old saying goes, you can't win the Tour today, but you can sure lose it. I love the largest crop of true podium contenders that I can remember riding this year. I think more than any year I can remember, today any GC hopeful has to have a decent or better day. And this isn't like a normal ITT as the GC riders can be protected as long as the team has guys that can do it...so it's actually more like a not very crowded road race finish with 2 small climbs at the end...so top TT capability isn't really required for a good finish here. 

I'm sad that Wout is out for Visma, he's always so exciting to watch, climbing, springing, Spring Classics monster, and just all-around fantastic rider that Vingo will surely be missing. But other than that both UAE and Visma are stacked with a well rounded support group aiming at a Tour win.

And WOW, Vingo just took the lead by 7 seconds! So now it's all up to UAE and Pogo! Normally it would be smart to let Visma have the yellow and the duties that fall with it, but Pogo isn't a normal rider, he just wants to WIN every single day...so all bets are off. He obviously knows what Vingo did...so the ball is in his court so to speak. I'm betting the house that he wants to stamp his authority on this race right here right now, possibly go wire to wire wearing yellow if he does it today. Wouldn't that be something! Right ow Pogo and Del Toro are out for the win...boy Del Toro looks fantastic! Gads, Pogo just left Del Toro like a motor-bike! He is FLYING! And he's across...holy smokes, VINGO wins by 11 seconds!!!! I would not have predicted that (in fact, I'd have just lost my house if I had truly been betting!) 

WOW, Vingo in Yellow on day 1! Boy, I'm actually happy to see that! Confidence is EVERYTHING, and to take the Yellow in a head to head race w/ Pogo is an amazing result! And not just 1 or 2 seconds...11!!! Well done Vingo and Team Visma!!!! OMG, what an amazing start to this years race! I have to say, I LOVE the new TTT format!!  

So the Stage results are on the screen, they're calling it 12 seconds between Vingo and Pogo (and Pogo didn't even get 2nd, he got 3rd, tho Filippo Gano who is only 4 seconds back of Vingo won't be a contender at the end). And Remco...slots in 5th today at 19 seconds back from Vingo...yeah, not really the start he hoped for. If he has GC contentions, he can't be giving away 19 seconds on day 1. As far as the other GC contenders, Del Toro slots at 6 place only 26 seconds back, Lipowitz is 8th at 35 seconds, and Sexias is 10th at 39 seconds.

So WOW, what a fantastic crop of GC Podium contenders we have this year! There aren't any 'sprint' stages until Stage 5, so tomorrows hilly stage (that has a 10 second time bonus at the line) should ensure fireworks from the start! Vingo would LOVELOVELOVE to snag those 10 seconds over Pogo, and all the Contenders would also love to have them to cut their losses from today. 

So I guess the question of the moment: how long will Visma hold onto the Yellow? He's got a great team but it's a LONG HARD RACE (as it is every year)...I won't be watching the Podcast, but I can guarantee Lance and George and Bradley will be saying it's very smart of UAE to not be in a hurry to take the Yellow. But Pogo doesn't abide by normal tactics. Normal tactics say do NOT go out on a 20-40 k solo flyer when you are truly hoping to win the overall...yet Pogo does things like that again and again. He's SO Meryx like...he is the New Cannibal for sure! 

OK...that's it for Stage 1, what a doozy! And on the 4th too! Happy 250th Birthday America! Susie and Rae, I hope you're still out there and doing well, I'd love to hear from you!

As for now, it's "Game ON"!