Barely had Lance dismounted in the prologue before you could hear Johan yelling across the mix zone, “you f##king champion… Lance, I just reached level 100 of Mafia Wars”. Needless to say, he was equally as happy with Lance’s result from the prologue as well.

Levi and I had already started the celebrations with a few Jager shots. I mean, half the team was in the top 20. What a result. After smashing a few shots and a couple of beers, all attention was on tomorrow and how we were going to prank Lance. Dmitriy suggested the old prawn shells in his kit bag, which I have to agree, sounds like a bit of a winner.

I was very happy with my own result. It’s the first prologue top 20 in some time. I felt good, though would have been faster if it weren’t for some of the Dutch blondes standing on the bridge who gave me a traditional Dutch “welcome” as I passed. I couldn’t help but slow down for a look. Looking back though, I think it was just guerilla marketing for some Dutch beer company. The wet conditions going early didn’t help either and looking back, I wish I had worn underpants under the racing suit.

The only down side was that I did lose a lazy $5k. I ducked out the back of the start area after I’d finished to warn Lance about the blondes out on course and ran into Alberto. Despite all the bad blood between him and Lance, we still get along ok. I mean, the Spaniard does love a punt and with his limited English, it’s often easy money. I saw one of the spectators carrying those oversize novelty glasses that make you look like a fly and bet him $5,000 that he wouldn’t wear them while he rode. I could have sworn he didn’t have the nuts to do it, but the proof is in the photography folks!

Contador +$5k
Me -$5k

Even some of the AG2R boys got in on the act and in the end, I think Alberto wrapped up a tidy $20,000 when all was said and done.

Needless to say, it didn’t help his riding much and was beaten by Lance and even Geraint Thomas (complete pommy noofa).

So now looking onto the first official stage, and I feel pretty good. It’s real late here, but I think I’d almost be under the limit to drive, so I should avoid any type of hangover for the first stage. Can’t say the same about big Gregory Rast though. He passed out 2 hours ago. I remember him slurring something like “not much work to do for a few days”.

This first stage is posing as an interesting one with the crosswinds and the likes. Could be a few splits in the peleton if the breeze gets up. We’ll probably let a break get well down the road and leave it up to Saxo to set the tempo with “2 stroke” Cancellara in yellow and HTC to take over the serious chasing to put “the man from the Isle of Man” in position for another stage victory. I’ve already had a chat to Cav and we’ve got some great bets going about him doing some stupid victory salute’s over the finish line. We’ll see how he goes.

We’ll just stay out of trouble tomorrow and keep Lance in his primo position. A big night coming up, so don’t want to have to do too much work during the day. After all, the stage is as flat as a pancake. You can see speedbumps showing up on the profile.

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