With teammate Fabian Cancellara raising his arms behind him in the yellow jersey, J.J. Haedo beat world champion Paolo Bettini of Quick Step in a group sprint to the line to win the first stage of the Tour of California.

 So far, after the prologue and Stage 1, Team CSC is definitely making its California-based sponsor — Computer Sciences Corporation — happy. CSC is a ToC sponsor, and now it has two stage wins and Cancellara in the yellow jersey.

Considering CSC is an American company, 10 Speed considers Team CSC one of the United States’ four “home teams” in pro cycling. Doesn’t matter that it’s a Danish team. CSC’s an American company, so why not claim them? Plus, CSC is pretty good, too.

In addition to CSC, we have …

– High Road Sports, the old T-Mobile team, which has relocated to California with American Bob Stapleton in charge.

– Boulder-based Slipstream-Chipotle powered by George Hincapie’s H30, the upstart team with elite-level aspirations and like the new High Road, a leader in the anti-doping movement.

– Astana, which is managed by Johan Bruyneel and run by the former staff of the U.S. Postal Service/Discovery Channel teams of Lance Armstrong.

These are some of the best teams in cycling, and now they all have strict anti-doping controls. So, all hail the USA, a leader in world cycling.

On a down note today, 10 Speed fave Hincapie of High Road crashed hard in the final 300 meters. He got up and pedaled across the finish line with ripped shorts and road rash on his left leg. The ToC has not been friendly to Big George the past two years. Last year, he suffered a broken wrist in the same stage and ended up missing the spring classics.

This crash may not be as bad. We’ll see if Big George is at the starting line tomorrow.

On another note today, the streaming feed on the Tour of California website is far superior to the other one I had been using.

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