I came up with the idea of combining Dora the Explorer (which, by the way, doesn’t rhyme) with the Tour route announcement. Clearly I’d been watching a LOT of children’s TV.

Toto is the monkey, LeBlanc is the guy calling him monkey boy, and Moreau is the baby dinosaur.

That’s Manolo Saiz in the first frame in the second row, followed by Floyd as Swiper the Fox and then Vino as Dora.

I think Saiz really did run over a Basque Euskatel fan.

Floyd had just released his doping defense to the public in PowerPoint.

Vino had been excluded from the ’06 Tour because too many Astana riders were implicated in Puerto, leaving them without enough riders to start the race.