t.o.crappy.

lots of differing opinions on the toc. check it out:

smithers:

In regards to GC, all the credit to Leipheimer for working hard to maintain his lead. But if he goes door to door in the lead then they are going to need to make the race harder for 2008.

sickyboy:

The race is as hard as it's made.... other teams have to mount a decent challenge...
I'd suspect that if you make the race ridiculously hard... you'd have a difficult time drawing the big PT teams from Europe to race. Bettini, Basso, et al, have made it a point to say that they're here for the "training kilometers", and I suspect you'd have fewer guys wanting the training kilometers if they were all at the redline the entire time.

(dis):

levi should not have held the lead "door-to-door", but the rules were severely bent for him. i am not sure why.
i would think that to have a domestic based pro in the lead for a day at the toc would be huge for cycling in the usa.
plus, the tt was 2 days later, (bjm was bested by over a minute by levi), and levi would have had the lead back, and the race would have been so much more interesting.

also, i think the race is plenty hard for this point in the season, but i do have to disagree with [sic]boy as well... and not just on principal, but because he is wrong.

just because some pro tour riders are using this race for training absolutely does not mean that it is a training race, and should be (relatively) easy.

the pro tour riders have been racing in austrailia and asia already this year, and will be racing in europe very soon. riders who hope to do well in paris-nice or terrino-adriatico will need to be in shape already and should be racing, not training at this point.

also, to say bettini is here solely for training miles is retarded.
he won a stage. as well as podium finishes.

doesn't sound like training to me.
sounds like someone wants to be spot on for milan-san remo.
getting some hard racing in the legs at or above threshold. not just some easy training miles.

but that's just my opinion.

all in all, the tour has sucked. but not because it was too easy, or too hard.