This Week in Lateness: June 30 to July 6

This is a great week folks. On Friday the world will celebrate the 12th anniversary of that one time we defeated alien invaders, the US will celebrate it's Independence, and then on Saturday the Tour De France will start. Aliens, the birth of a Nation, and bike racing all in one week. It's so much goodness that my brain might explode.

Welcome to This Week in Road Cycling.

Local Racing:

Week in Review:
-Tortilla Flats RR, Tuesday June 24: I was too scared to go, so someone else will have to tell you about how terribly hot it was.
-Summit Center Stage Race: Some of us went up to Flagstaff for a weekend of high altitude bike racing. Here's how everyone did.
CAT 3: Will Allender: 14th on stage 2 (84 mile RR), 11th on GC
CAT 4: Anthony Molieri: 11th on stage 1, 25th on stage 2, 16th on GC
CAT 5: Alan Brown (Team Badass): 2nd on stage 1, 9th on stage 2, 7th on GC
CAT 5: Nikolai Skievaski: 18th stage 1, 18th* stage 2, 19th on GC
*Niko sacrificed his chances at a stage win in order to lead out Alan(Badass) for the bonus sprint.

Races in July:
-Tortilla Flats RR (Series): Every (Except the second Tuesday of every month) Tuesday starting May 20 though August 12. http://www.azcycling.com/08cal/FLYERS/tft_08.pdf
-Picacho Time Trial Series: 7/6. 7/27: Picacho, AZ http://www.saguarovelo.org/infopicacho.htm

Pro Racing:

Over this past week many European countries held their National Championship races here are the ones I care about enough to inform you of.

Belgium: Won by 22 year old Jurgen Roelandts. Poor Tom Boonen.

Netherlands: Who cares about the Netherlands right? Right now, everyone should. Lars Boom has won I think his billionth race this year. Here is a short list of things you could currently call him: National Champion of the Netherlands, WORLD Cyclocross Champion, WORLD Under 23 Time Trial Champion, Destroyer of Dreams. Look at his Wikipedia page he's won 4 different world championships and he's only 22 years old.

Spain: Alejandro Valverde won and will switch kits with his teammate Joaquim Rodriquez who won last year. I will say it right now, Valverde is my pick to win the Tour de France this year. My Spanish Grandmother would agree.

Italy: 2nd-4th place were a trio of pretty awesome bike riders (Visconti, Pozzatto, Rebellin). To bad they were defeated by Lance Armstrong's old buddy Fillipo Simeoni. Here is a little something from back in 2004 to refresh your memory on their great relationship.

The CSC Group:
Norway: Kurt Asle-Arvesen
Denmark: Niki Sorensen
Luxemburg: Frank Schleck
Switzerland: Fabian Cancellara (TT)
-Could it really be anyone else but Cancellara at this point? He won by over 1.5 minutes.

Non-Bike racing news:
-Landis Loses
-So does Rasmussen

I can't think of anything else at the moment, so I guess I'll leave as it is. Starting next week it will be all Tour all the time.

-Anthony