Today was the traditional time-trial (solo ride against the clock) prolog to the Tour de France, where media darling (and damn good cyclist) Lance Armstrong will be going for #7.
Over the next three weeks, the peleton will be riding over 2,100 miles at race pace on a high-stakes trip around Europe.
Check out this post and photo, showing Lance catching (and then passing) one of his major rivals, Jan Ullrich - who started the course one minute before him.
Lance finished second by two seconds to US phenom (and ex-teammate) Dave Zabriskie, with Lance's main defender George Hincapie in 4th.
It's going to be a great three weeks...check out the great TDF blog for frequent updates and be cooler than everyone else at the office.
Allez, Lance!
A.L.:
I'm addicted. Were it not for the fact that the TdF is on OLN I probably wouldn't own a satellite receiver. I even got out for a little 20 mile ride myself, through Quantico. One slight correction: No prologue this year. The TT was Stage 1.
The time trial was definitely a great start for Lance and he did manage to announce that he was still serious this year.