A few extra Tour links

Levi Leipheimer still trying for a spot on the podium.

USA Today says Armstrong has changed sports as a whole.

Steve Hummer wonders if Americans will forget about the Tour after Armstrong retires. I like the following passage:

There are four other Americans in the top 20 of this Tour de France. Go ahead, name them. And we spotted you one already.
That would be Levi Leipheimer (currently sixth), Floyd Landis (ninth), George Hincapie (17th, and the winner of a Tour stage) and Julich (18th). All fine riders, along with Tour de Georgia winner Tom Danielson, who was too hurt to attend. But a successor has not raised both hands above his helmet when the call for a replacement went out.
Nor is one of them likely to want to make the kind of commitment to drama that America's two most famous cyclists have. Armstrong, of course, returned from cancer. Greg Lemond won two of his three Tours after almost dying in a hunting accident. It is difficult to find volunteers for that sort of duty.