Jens Voight takes his first win in the U.S.
At breakfast at the lovely Holiday Inn we were staying at we ran into Lance Armstrong eating at the hotel restaurant. As he was leaving I called over to him and we briefly chatted. Just small talk about eating at a hotel restaurant. Al and Tim had their laptops out and he commented on them working during breakfast and then he was gone…
I briefly spoke to Tony Cruz as he signed in this morning and asked about the chances of Levi taking the jersey all the way to the finish. Tony told me that Levi is riding strong and the team could take it to Long Beach. So what was promised to be a race that the leader’s jersey was traded around each day has turned out to be not entirely true. Tomorrow’s stage is not hard enough to shake up GC, so it is all down to Friday’s time trial. Voight disclosed at the press conference that at their recent training camp he was only three seconds slower than reining time trial champion Cancellara. Another rider sitting close to the top is Michael Rogers. Friday’s stage will be the one to decide the overall winner.
Tim Johnson’s pre-race face
Okay I just got done watching the stage and man now that was racing. I have to admit that I was just mediocre excited about the TOC because last year while cool was also just kind of blah…..
But that stage was great. No shock that Jens was powering at the front looking to get a win. I really think that Riis is keeping him as the darkhorse leader of the team. Everyone is always looking at Bobby J but Jens can ride him off the wheel ( No dig to Bobby but Jens just doesnt know when to quit.. ) Jens is a class act – I remember last year at the TDF when he refused to win the stage (which he clearly could have) because he did not feel that he wad taken his fair share of the pulls in the break….
That said man I have to give props to Levi. He seems like a different kind of racer that he was last year. Maybe teaming up with Lance, Johan, and Ivan has made him much more motivated this year knowing that he wont be stuck “man out” in the race as he was with Gerolsteiner. I think its interesting that Robert Foster wrote on his website how bad the day was with no teammates to help him make a big move – Duh – why do you think Levi left Gerolsteiner????
Lastly NEIL!!! This is a blog man – When are we going to see some pics of you trearing it up Rock Star style in CA? You know you and Odessa doing the shop till you drop dance…. (Why is it every picture I see of her lately she is toting some shopping bags? – Can you say overall winner? – Cha-Ching!)
Thats my rocking beat for now…..
I’ll be honest, I’ve been too tired to be a rock star! Maybe tonight. And if we do anything stupid we’ll take pictures.