Notes:  (latest notes always appear at the top)

- For the latest in our live race coverage listings, please visit our homepage.

- Tuesday's Tour of the Basque Country Stage 2 departs Ataun at 13:15 CET (7:15am U.S. Eastern) and is expected in Villatuerta between 17:04 and 17:28 CET (11:04 and 11:28am U.S. Eastern).  Tour of the Basque Country live video streaming on universalsports.com is scheduled to begin at 9:35am U.S. Eastern.  Live coverage on ETB Sat is scheduled to begin at 15:55 CET (9:55am U.S. Eastern).

2009 Tour of the Basque Country:  The peloton during Stage 1
photo courtesy diariovasco.com

- There are quite a few Vuelta al Pais Vasco Stage 1 photos posted on the official site here.  (Don't click if you do not want to know the stage winner.)  There is also a set of Alberto Contador photos here.

- Tour of the Basque Country LIVE also on Denmark's TV2 Sport. (Denmark only)  Thanks, Thore!

- Tour of the Basque Country LIVE now on ETB SAT.

- Universal Sports tell us the race commentators will be Todd Gogulski and Steve Schlanger.  At the moment there is no commentary.

- Tour of the Basque Country LIVE now on universalsports.com. (U.S.)

- Tour of the Basque Country live video streaming on universalsports.com is scheduled to begin at 9:35am U.S. Eastern.  Live coverage on ETB Sat is scheduled to begin at 15:55 CET (9:55am U.S. Eastern).

- Race is underway with the first breakaway who, according to the translated ticker, just had their rent raised.  (switched to Babelfish translation for now as ticker wasn't updating under Google)

- As the Google-translated ticker says, the official site ticker will allow us to know which riders are running away and which ones have been dropped from the bike.  Should be a fun week for translations and hopefully great racing.  Alberto "The Accountant" Contador (Astana) is the big favorite.  His top rivals from last year, all of whom finished within one minute of the champion, are back:  Cadel Evans, Thomas Dekker, Damiano Cunego.  Throw in a couple of Schlecks, Sanchezes, a Kreuziger, and a strong Garmin-Slipstream team with Danielson, Vande Velde, Pate and Zabriskie leading the way, and the attacks are assured.  Pate has probably already attacked...and the race hasn't begun yet.  Oh, and a certain Tour champion, Carlos Sastre, is racing too.  Lots of mountains and then a final stage time trial where Danny Pate seals a stunning overall victory, the first ever by an American in the Vuelta al Pais Vasco.  Probably not, but anything can happen.  -Pete

- Thanks to Jafet for the Tour of the Basque Country live radio feed.

- Tour of the Basque Country Stage 1 departs Ataun at 13:42 CET (7:42am U.S. Eastern) and is expected at the finish back in Ataun between 17:05 and 17:27 CET (11:05 and 11:27am U.S. Eastern).

- We recommend you open our Twitter feed in a separate window now.  If ever we have a server outage, we will update on Twitter and direct you to a live coverage page on another server.

- Welcome to our live coverage guide for the 2009 Tour of the Basque Country.  (Also known as Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco (Spanish) or Tour du Pays Basque (French)).