Tour de France

Today marks the first really serious climbing stage in the Tour de France. It was announced at the start that Levi Leipheimer had broken his wrist in a crash near the end of yesterday's stage. He'll need surgery and has left the race. This means that a key lieutenant of Lance Armstrong's is gone. His Astana team still is likely the strongest in the race, but by a less wide margin. The interesting thing will be watching the intra-team battle between 2007 champion Alberto Contador and Armstrong. Conditions today are lousy - heavy rain, so serious crashes during descents are a real possibility. As I'm writing this, the racers are descending from the first big climb. Both Armstrong and Contador climbed well, and it's not clear if one is stronger than the other. Time will tell.