Tour de France REST day

Well, we're into week 2 of the Tour. The TT on Saturday offered its share of surprises: T-Mobile takes the yellow; Landis has another mechanical problem; the Americans collectively disappoint.

It's been fun to watch so far - the absence of LA has been a good thing. Also, although I don't want to admit it, I think the withdrawals of Basso et al have been good for the race as well. If they stayed, that's all we'd hear about. I don't know whether the allegations are true against any of these riders, but they would be a distraction if they were involved in the race.

The commentary this year has been sporadic with Trautwig and Roll's "enhanced" evening experience again ranking amongst the worst sports commentating I've ever heard. Seconds of silence at key moments in the race? I don't get it. If you want to hear reasonably good commentary, you have to hear either the live call from Liggett and Sherwin or the repeat of their work. The evening commentary is terrible. Telling is the fact that they always shift to these guys for the final 20 KM or so. It's as though OLN is acknowledging, "hey we know Roll stinks, but we have to give him a job because he's married to the sister of the guy who owns this station."