I think I blew my chance to be president of the Svein Tuft fan club. I lost him after a stage or two of the Tour of California and am only now checking back in. But wait: Maybe that flakiness qualifies me to be president. In any case, the update.
Tuft was in 20th place in the overall when he crashed on the seventh, and next to last stage, and suffered a concussion. That put him out of the race. According to the Denver Post, his next race begins this Wednesday: Tirreno-Adriatico.
Two more Tuft-related readings:
Denver Post, February 26, 2009: An Example of Tuft Love (kudos for the truly dumb headline)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 6, 2009: Four teams commit early to Tour of Missouri (Tuft finished third there last year; this year Garmin-Chipotle teammate Christian Vande Velde will be defending his 2008 title).