Yesterday I said:

Speaking of focus and dedication, though: Tyler had better watch out. Kirsten Gum basically admitted yesterday, in front of the cameras at the end of the Rest Day presentation on OLN, that has a crush on him. Phil, Paul and Bob were really teasing her about it. She gets all misty every time she says his name (Phil even offered her his hanky!), and lets out a little sigh. When she lists the standings, as she does numerous times every day, she always says, "And (little sigh) Tyler Hamilton, hanging tough at number seven."

Maybe next year it'll be Kirsten Hamilton as the anchor, instead of Kirsten Gum. :-)

During yesterday's stage, Paul Sherwen mentioned having spoken with Tyler's wife the day before, and then at the end of the stage Mrs. Hamilton was kissing and hugging Tyler quite a bit, on camera.

So, I'm sorry about that, Kirsten, Tyler, and Mrs. Hamilton. I tried to find out if Tyler was already married before posting that message, but came up empty.

Have I mentioned that Tyler Hamilton is a Super-Human Freak? I mean that in a good way, "freak" is not an insult in this case. He simply has a freakish tolerance for pain.

He won yesterday's Stage 16 in the Tour de France, by two minutes! (video)

Riders in the top 10 generally (like, never in the last 30 years) do not attack on stages that end on the flats, because it's a waste of energy. The Peleton will panic, because anyone high up on the leader board who is allowed to get away could easily climb up higher, pushing other teams down lower. So, those teams most in danger of falling a place will organize the peleton to chase him down, and the result is that the breakaway is caught and accomplished nothing but a big waste of energy.

Therefore, since riders don't do it, of course Hamilton did it. (You don't ride with a broken collarbone, either, remember?) With 140 km left in the race, Hamilton broke away from the peleton and caught up with an earlier breakaway. The Peleton actually didn't -- not just couldn't, but didn't -- believe he was really breaking away, so they let him go. He rode with the larger breakaway for awhile, and then left them behind too.

The gap kept growing. Three minutes. Four. Five. All the while, the distance to the finish line kept shrinking. Fifty kilometers. Forty. Thirty-five. Finally, the peleton truly panicked. Tyler was actually threatening to jump from seventh place all the way to third, so the teams with riders in places three through six finally organized a real chase, and rode as if their podium places depended on it.

(US Postal didn't help in the chase at all, because Tyler wasn't threatening the number one spot.)

In the end, he won by two minutes and fifteen seconds. He's only the sixth U.S. rider to win a stage in the Tour, and he's the first -- and probably only, ever, in the past or future of the sport -- to do so with a broken clavicle.

My favorite moment was as he neared the finish line, all alone. Not another rider anywhere in sight. He shook his manager's hand (it was his idea to try this tactic), and then started smiling so big... it was like nothing I've ever seen in sports. Paul Sherwen said exactly the right thing, Look at that smile, it goes almost across the Atlantic! (video)

My second favorite moment: the cameras flipped over to Frankie, for a quick interview with Tyler. Before they could get started, though, Lance came running over and gave him a big hug! Lance and Tyler have been friends for a long time, and that was another excellent moment in a tour that's been full of both excellent and horrible moments from day one.