The sixth race in the World Cup was held today in Hamburg, Germany. (Actually, the World Cup has been absorbed into the ProTour, but the ten World Cup events are the same.) The race was won by Italian Filippo Pozzato, who nipped his compatriot and teammate Luca Paolini at the line. What a finish! Pozzato covered the 155.6 miles in 6:00:59, for an average speed of 25.87 miles per hour. When you factor in the hills and the rain, this is impressive. Jan Ullrich showed well, as did aging sprinter Erik Zabel. Here is the story.
Addendum: While browsing the Cyclingnews.com site, I discovered that Chris Horner, who recently completed the Tour de France, kept a diary. He ends with this nice paragraph about Lance Armstrong:
And Lance, what a [sic] incredible finish to his career. To think that for seven years, he never had any real problems in the Tour and not only made it to the finish, but won seven straight Tours is unreal. He has an amazing amount of determination. And his luck over those seven Tours is truly amazing, but it's not just luck. Lance is a rider who knows the Tour so well he always manages to stay out of danger, always managed to give himself that extra second worth of space that might take more energy but keeps you safer. And Armstrong can do that because he is just so strong. Congratulations for a great career, Lance.
Well said. See here for the entire diary.