Observations

After watching the final stage of the Tour of California, a few observations: #1. If you podium on a race, don't bring your kid (s) with you to the presentation, period. #2. NBC Sports needs to stop dumb-ifying the sport for the none cycling fan. It doesn't matter how much you water it down ("Pro Continental is like a 2A team".), it just sounds stupid to a bicycle racing aficionado. #3. Peter Sagan. Enough said! #4. The future of american cycling is secure with a fresh crop of new, young talent. (i.e. Van Garderen, Talinsky, Dombrowski, to name a few) And the first of the Grand Tours is shaping out to be quite the battle. After today's first "big" day in the mountains, everyone is pointing the finger at Ryder Hesdejal to take the final pink jersey home. Joaquim Rodriguez is riding with inspiration and bravado, but unlike everyone else, he hasn't had the usual "bad day" most riders have in 3 weeks tour and the pending ITT could be the breaking point for the Katusha leader. After all, 32 seconds lead ahead of Hesdejal is not a comforting distance, and the Canadian is well within striking distance. Yet, he (Ryder) plays it cool, avoiding any pressure saying that he's taking it "day by day". Basso and Scarponi together with Pozzovivo will probably go nuts on the next two mountain stages, trying to drop each other and everyone else, especially Hesdejal, hoping to build a lead that will help them during the time trial. But only the road will tell.