Castle Shima

Its the Race of Truth -- Phil Liggett during Stage 16 of the Tour de France

Tower View
Now The Moment of Truth
Phil, one of the best commentators in professional cycling, was absolutely correct. Today's stage was the individual time trial along the legendary mountain of L'Alpe d'Huez.

For those who dont know the sport, this means that a rider has to get from point A to point B as fast as possible. The one who gets there the fastest wins the stage. That means there is no help from teammates, no drafting off of any other rider, and pedaling yourself uphill for ten miles.

Lance Armstrong won the stage by going up a mountain with a 7.9% incline and through a crowd of 900,000 spectators this in 39 minutes. Hell, it takes me 20 minutes just to go up the crowded stairwell at the office and I'm on the second floor!

As a testimony of how dominate Lance was today, Ivan Basso, the rider that left the starting point 2 minutes prior, could only watch helplessly as the Texan not only caught up with him, but left Basso in a trail of dust.

And Basso was a serious contender since he is in second place. Well, not any more.

The German powerhouse, Jan Ullrich, has worked his way up from 5th place to 4th place in the overall catagory by taking second place in today's stage. He was going so fast that, if he had started after Basso, Ullrich would have have passed the Italian as well.

A few people at the office must have thought I was nuts because I was sitting at my desk, giving the muffled cheers of excitement while listening to the race on OLN TV's website.

At one point when someone came up to my desk, I had to wave them away. My comment was "Cant talk now. Lance just took off."

Apparently some fans were so incensed at Armstrong that they decided to spit at him while he was racing.

I guess that is to be expected after the chalk writing seen on the international broadcast as Armstrong rode over it: Rip off their balls Lance!

Who let Robin Williams out on the road?!
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Out In The Yard
Neal Cavuto tells Linda Ronstadt to shut the hell up and sing. Eric Cartman chimed in: "Hey, woman! Go in the kitchen and bake me a pie!"
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Cop opens fire at jaywalker. He tried to warn you, but would you listen? Noooooo...
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Dodge Ram symbol is very similiar to female organ. To be filed under "Unintentional pron."
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Background Noise
Today's stage replay is on the telly. Feel free to listen here. Just click the Listen Live link at the top of the page.

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