German Jörg Jaksche won Paris-Nice today, the first major stage race on the calendar.

Previous two-time winner Alexander Vinokourov also managed to claim three stage wins in the process.

The season is on!

Actually, it's been on for several weeks, although the first major one-day race--Belgium's Het Volk--was cancelled due to (really) bad weather.

It really takes a lot to keep these guys from racing so it must have been truly horrible.

Here's an example of what doesn't cancel races.

While you're there, have a look around the rest of the site--if you're interested in racing bicycles. The company was founded by American legend Andy Hampsten. He's the guy in the photo and that's the stage that propelled him to victory in the 1988 Giro d'Italia. His bikes look beautiful, and the geometry of them is as close to perfect for my build as I usually ever see. Perhaps, if I ever manage to drag my sorry fat ass back out onto the road, I'll buy one of his bikes. I'm still riding an old custom frame from around 1989, and it's really, really past its sell-by date.

Revealing myself as a potential retro-weenie, look at this frame. Check the lugs and that gorgeous fork crown in the close-ups. Richard Sachs designed.

Stunning.

Still, I'd probably buy either this or this. All of my previous bikes have been traditional lugged steel frames. One of them even fell into the artisan category of frames (an old Greg Diamond, with Sachs lugs). They're all beautiful, but given how low a priority cycling is for me now, it would be sensible to have a bike I wouldn't quite worry so much about nicking or getting dirty.

Then there's this, whose very purpose is to get as filthy as possible!