Apparently Discovery Channel’s strategy in the 2007 Tour de France is paying off; instead of winning stages, they’re just waiting for everyone ahead of them on the tour to get kicked out of the race. The latest doping casualty: none other than the maillot jaune himself, Michael Rasmussen.

þ: Nick, who classifies the news as “huge.”

Gotta love Lance Armstrong, who is considering coming out of retirement—not to try to win a ninth an eighth Tour de France, but just to piss off the Gauls:

“I’m thinking it’s the best way,’’ to anger the French, he told the newspaper. “I’m exercising every day.’’

I think it’s more likely that a Lance return will piss off his heirs-apparent like Ivan Basso, Alexander Vinokurov, and Jan Ullrich, but if it annoys the French too it should be a nice bonus.