Back to doing the Tuesday Worlds again after three weeks away. During the absence I contracted a condition known as velo absentia dememtia. Symptoms are forgetting what hell you can and cannot do in a race after a period of time away from racing. In this case, I "attacked" on the first lap. So vicious was my attack that it would have dropped nearly 20% of grandmothers in America. The bad part was that I eat just before coming to the races and my effort promptly gave me stomach cramps. Half the race I was left taking partial breaths because of the cramps. Eventually they eased and I spent the last half generally hanging out in the top 10 with an occasional drift backward.

All in all I rode okay considering the layoff. My recovery needs work but I hung in well enough and the leg felt good so I'm satisfied.

News Item of the Day: Tour of Italy overall leader Paolo Savoldelli confirmed Tuesday that he would take the start of the Tour de France in support of Discovery Channel leader Lance Armstrong on July 2. The 2002 Giro winner takes a 25-second overall lead into the final mountain stages.

Earlier this month, Savoldelli was included in a shortlist of eleven riders to support Armstrong in his bid for a seventh Tour title. The others are past Tour participants José Azevedo, Manuel Beltran, George Hincapie, José Rubiera, Benjamin Noval, Benoit Joachim and Pavel Padrnos, as well as newcomers Savoldelli, Yaroslav Popovych and Leif Hoste.

After two disappointing seasons at T-Mobile, Savoldelli has risen from the ashes during this year's Tour of Italy. However, he downplayed his chances of retaining his slim 25-second lead over Liquigas' Danilo Di Luca after American Tom Danielson, who was to be his lieutenant in the mountains, withdrew on Stage 9 due to an injured knee. "I haven't raced at this level for a long time and I'm not sure I can hold out the third week," said Savoldelli.