Here's a brief entry in advance of the longer one I've got working for later in the day. First off, in my enthusiasm, I was off by a day on Paris Nice. It starts today, and Tyler Hamilton will be racing after being cleared by his doctor late yesterday afternoon (he had the flu). Check your local listings to find out what channel OLN is, then watch the tape delayed 1.5 hour coverage of today's opening time trial. Time trials are "against the clock" races, over much shorter distances than normal road races, wherein one rider at a time leaves a start house about every two minutes. Whoever crosses the finish line in the shortest time wins the day.

Two things to watch for when you tune in at 4:00 pm Eastern.

(1) Those crazy outfits. Time trials are all about, well, time, so the cyclists take every possible step they can to improve their aerodynamic profile. The best way to do that is to dress up like a superhero. That pic is of "Fast Freddy" Rodriguez, by the way, and I found it when I google image searched "tour de france time trial." Even better, I found this great shot of Tyler's top supporters, Haven and Tugboat, from a good Marblehead Magazine article about last year's Tour.

(2) The scenery. Today's time trial is over a hilly 13.2 km course from Chaville to Vanves in the southwestern suburbs of Paris. That's right outside the medieval gates, so expect some nice views of this older part of the city. Even cooler, at least one commentator has said the initial climbs look like the streets in the training sequences of The Triplets of Belleville.

That'll do me for now, but as to the title of this post--I like girls, I like bicyles, and I like good design. So of course I love this site.