"It's a beautiful day in France, but I have to say it's a strange start to the Tour de France because unlike past years where the prologue stage starts and ends in the same town, today we're about 200k away from the start. It was like a ghost town compared to the usual deal...until  the riders arrived and then it was like a tidal wave!

"Valverde has done what many of the cycling pundits did not think he would do....he attacked the field and won the first stage of the 2008 Tour de France by going hard on the last climb of the day. Conventional wisdom suggests that in order to win the Tour de France, having to defend the yellow jersey for three weeks is not the ideal scenario. Time will tell, but it's tough on your guys to have them out on the front for three weeks.

"The sprint that Alejandro put in showed him to clearly be the best uphill sprinter in the race. For the time being, the toast of Spain is also the toast of the world. In the absence of Alberto Contador who is the world's best stage racer, today there will be another Spaniard talked about in equally high regard."