I'd agree with you, but I didn't know who Honchar was either. So you know what I did? I looked him up, and you know what? He's worn the the Maglia Rosa and won three medals at the world time trial championships. He's only 'Honchar Who' because 1) You know even less than me about bike racing and 2) You didn't even bother looking him up.

I've been watching the TdF for almost 20 years. I'm in no way a geek or a racing expert - I just watch it for fun - but when I don't know something, I LOOK IT UP.

Now, to put road cycling into some sort of 'big picture' framework for you, let me just say this. Of the 200 odd starters, only 8 are Amercians, so 2 guys in the top 20 is actually pretty good. Landis' 2nd place is a damn good ride, despite his mechanicals (if your bike looks like a leper, you'd expect some bits to randomly fall off). Most of the other top 20 are guys you'd expect to be there - Rogers (World Time Trial Champ), Lang (won the prologue, durr), Kloden, Menchov, Evans etc. etc. - all guys you'd expect in the top 20.

It's cute and all that you would expect sans Lance that every other Amercian would naturally step up and of course, rule, but unfortunately you're forgetting about...um....everyone else, forgetting that riders can just have a bad day or 6 (See: Boonen), and that the pulling out of 24 riders from the startline this year has caused a fair bit of turmoil within the teams (Not that that has seemed to effected T-Mobile much yesterday!)

If you've been following the Tour for more than 2 years, you'd know that the Tour is blown WIDE OPEN this year with more true contenders for the Mailliot Jaune than there has been in recent history. The depth of talent is in no way diminished by the absence of Armstrong, Ullrich and Basso, it just makes the race that much more interesting.