Rest day today. Whether is going to real nice and warm the rest of the work. Too bad I have family coming in town so I'll likely not be able to ride. Oh well, there are worse things. If Sunday is still nice, I will hit the road then.

News Item of the Day: 23 year old Sven Vanthourenhout, one of the world's top cyclo-cross riders, has broken off his contract with Patrick Lefevere's Quick.Step team. Citing a mutual lack of confidence in Lefevere, Vanthourenhout will ride for another, as yet unknown, team from January 1, 2005, despite having two years of his contract with Quick.Step still to run.

"We have made errors on both sides," Vanthourenhout told Sportwereld.be. "I carefully weighed up the pros and cons of my decision and then took the step. Together with my management agency SEM and Patrick Lefevere, the amount of the buyout has been set. We will keep that to ourselves, but it can never be more than my salary for the coming two seasons."

Vanthourenhout said that he will concentrate on 'cross for the next three seasons, with a team that will give him "110 percent chance to focus on cyclo-cross. With Quick.Step it was just 90 percent." That means he will not be riding for a ProTour team, as he does not wish to race a heavy road program.