Greetings from Redlands - Talk about windy! My flight bounced around in the gusts of wind and everything that wasn’t nailed down was blowing across the freeways. My rental car was covered with dust and the guys said the cars got dirty as fast as they could wash them. It took me all of three seconds to decide to upgrade from the cheap-o car that I had reserved to something a bit more substantial in the wind. Alamo upgraded me to mid-size for only $5 more a day - can’t beat that..

So the time trial was up Mt. Roubidoux, where there were wind gusts of 40-50 mph, I was told. I took shots of the gals at the TT start, and then got distracted by a bunch of cops following a gal with a huge bloodhound on a leash. No, I’m serious... They came right across the park, with the huge nose-hound at full tilt. The big dog snuffed it’s way right bedside the start chute and slobbered all over some old guy in plaid Bermuda shorts. After sniffing his knees, the entourage took off again.

Too much for my curiosity, so I abandoned the TT and chased after this bizarre scene. I discreetly followed for a short distance (both the dog and me lumbering along), trying to get some shots (and did). I found out from one of the Security guys that someone had been murdered just a few hours before the race set up in the park. Bizzarro - Cyclists in spandex beside a bloodhound and cops chasing a killer. Loved it!! And... Man, that big ole hound was hot on some scent - I wouldn’t want him chasing me - he could have pulled a semi-truck behind him.

I finally got back to the race, but I must say it was a little dull compared to chasing after cops, dogs and bad guys.... Oh - who won? I dunno... I do know that Eki took the final stage of Three Days of Panne, which is so cooool! And Stijn took the overall win, which is awesome, since he has been riding his arse off since the season started. Nice reward for two hard-working Good Guys...

Stage 2 of the Three Days of Flanders didn’t show any D-C men in the top ten finishers, but Stijn is second in the GC. Tomorrow’s time trial may just give him the chance to take the jersey. He’s gonna have to fly!

I’m heading down to Redlands real early tomorrow morning, so look for the blog updates to be done at night the next 4 or 5 days. I ordered a Sirius Starmate to take along to Redlands, but unless it comes today, I may not be able to do a Monday update on Lance’s radio show. I’ll get someone to set my PVR - but, so far, the Faction schedule isn’t out about when the show will actually be on - I have it set for 6 pm, my time, but it’s been a few hours earlier the last two Sundays.

Spent the morning doing final reviews of my photos and captions, plus the first five chapters for the Tour de France for Dummies book. It’s all good, so far! All authors review all chapters of the book and away it goes to Production....

So hang in with me, I’ll post what I can, when I can, and put pics up in my smugmug gallery. It will be weird without any Discovery team there....

A whole lotta D-Men racing today. Lance finished with the pack at Paris-Camembert, placing 24th. Stijn just got pipped at the finish sprint and took a second in Stage 1 of Three Days of Panne. I think that Lance is getting the Fire in his Belly, and is gonna be a tiger again this year - once he gets fired up - he’s relentless. I think after Flanders, the guys will head back home and on to the Tour of Georgia. Lance is feeling real good and his form is coming along right on schedule now.

Got interviewed this morning by a freelance writer for Mountain Bike Mag for an article on overcoming fear and anxiety. Don’t know when, or if, it will be published. It’s always funny: I’ve been interviewed several times and the interview will last for 15 or 20 minutes, and then there will be two sentences from me in the article. And, if I’m lucky, I won’t be misquoted. Being a freelance writer, myself, I always like to cooperate with someone who takes the time and persistence to contact me a couple of times. Often when you contact someone for a story, the don’t even bother to respond to say no...

And speaking of writing, the final deadline for the Tour de France for Dummies book was yesterday, and now I’m waiting for the final PDF version to be sent to us for review. After that, it goes into production mucho pronto, and the release date is set for May 8th. I am looking forward to seeing how my images look in the book! And, I think the release for Michael Barry’s book (containing a few of my photos) is set to be in a couple of weeks. I guess some of my shots will still be in it - I haven’t heard anything different. This has been quite an experience, and I hope to continue writing more books. But... it's a ton of work and time, for sure...

Monday morning Lance Armstrong Live Strong Sirius Radio report. Lance was in Belgium and Higgs was in Austin. They had problems with the phone connection in the hotel where Lance was staying in Kortrijk, I think. Lance said that he had just flown to Belgium the day before. He said there was a huge carnival outside, celebrating Easter, and he wished that his kids were there to see it.

Lance said that he felt better than at P-N, bit it was a rough transition back to the race scene after being sick. He said he was caught in a crash (cycling.tv said yesterday that he had a puncture when he stopped), but Lance said his wheel was messed up and that’s why he had to wait for the wheel change. He talked about the Italian team car that almost hit him and said that his return gesture was the talk all over now. Said he hadn’t realized it was an Italian team car. (I saw him say something and raise his hand, but I wasn’t sure that he had given the one-finger salute or just a wave of his hand). However, I guess it was Texas sign language, and folks all over Europe are talkin’. Now I’m sure that Lance isn’t going to ride in Italy!

Sheryl was there and did her DJ thing - she said she is gaining all the weight that Lance is losing - Belgium is famous for french fries (frites), mayonnaise and beer. Sheryl said she and Odessa Gunn (former racer and Levi Leipheimer’s wife) have been doing a lot of riding. She said her recording of her new CD is finished, but the release is delayed until August or September, because she wants to be with Lance for the Tour de France.... because.... this may be the last one he does. Lance gave what sounded like some agreement to that statement in the background, but then kinda said one never knows....

Lance said he’ll be riding Paris-Camembert on Tuesday, and then Flanders, He said that P-C is hilly, hard, with short steep climbs on real narrow roads, that are worse than B-P. Lance said he’s done P-C 4 or 5 times and first did it in 1993. Lance said that George, after being sick for a week, was in the front most of the time at B-P and really surprised them - he said that George “is a machine”.

Lance congratulated Bobby Julich for his win at Criterium Internationale - he and Higgs want to have Bobby on the show. Sheryl played a cut from a Cracker album, and Lance said that he first saw Cracker in a concert in Austin when he was 18 or 19, and David Lowery played the whole set wearing only a Speedo and cowboy boots.

Lance took a some questions. One was about the lack of awareness about testicular cancer, and Lance responded that it is one of the more rare cancers, compared to other cancers such as breast cancer, but it is very curable. Problem is that it often occurs in young men from 15 to 35, and the stigma in talking about it often delays treatment and also awareness. Another question was what technology (since he started racing) has helped him the most, and his answer was the SRM that measures watts, instead of the older measurement of heart rate, etc. Also the light and lighter weights of bikes from when he started riding on 21 or 22 pound bikes.

Third question was did he see all the stuff that is painted on the roads at the Tour, like on Alpe d’Huez. Lance said that it is usually so painted over by multiple people that it is hardly legible. He said that the riders mostly see it on the evening television recap each night, when the overhead shots from the helicopters show the road painting. Higgs brought up the “Rip their balls off” sign on Huez last year. They joked that Higgs still had the white paint on his hands at the end of the stage.

Lance said that the sales of Live Strong yellow bands had reached 40 million about ten days ago. He said he saw them on the Belgian fans along the race route yesterday, and also saw other teams wearing them. Very cool for him to see that.

So Sheryl played some of her favorite songs and talked a bit about them. She played a cut from a Loretta Lynn and Jack White track. She and Lance joked about Loretta dragging Jack up on stage during the Grammies and how uncomfortable he is in the limelight. Sheryl thinks Loretta is a “cool lady”.

Sheryl played a couple more tunes that I missed ‘cause I was also figuring out my taxes, but it was a cool show and she will be doing the DJ thing again soon. Higgs was, as always, so cool and smooth on the show, and knows just the right moment to come in and say something, and how to keep the show moving along.

Just got an email from Bart, in Belgium, who sent a link to his shots of the Brabantse Pijl, with some shots of Lance. Check it out and thanks, Bart!

Oh Yes! - A morning watching cycling is a good morning. Cycling.tv came thru with flying colors so I sent them a thanks, and got a hello back on air from Anthony, the race commentator. I think he does a fine job. Wish they could give us a race every weekend - it’s well worth the price to me. Today was 4.14 euro, that was $6 and change here, I think.

Yesterday, I heard from a fan in Belgium saying the weather was warm and wonderful. Today, it was 9 degrees centigrade, wet and stormy at the start. The weather in Belgium is so unpredictable, but then that is what makes it such a great place to race... I really love Belgium - been there twice, just following the Tour, and I’d love to go over for the Spring Classics - it’s a real dream of mine to just go over for a month or so and follow the races there.

So it was fun to see the guys signing in on the wall - here, we see the sign-in sheets out on tables, and I think at the Tour, too. Lance was interviewed and when asked what he’d been doing, he said hanging out drinking beer and eating pizza. Nah - just being a bit sarcastic... he’s been in the Canary Islands, training hard. He’s looking forward to the Tour of Flanders next week. (I don’t think that will be on cycling.tv - I hope I’m wrong). Lance said that Flanders is the “King” of the Spring Classics, and he is looking forward to helping George and Stijn there.

As the race came on, with about 75-80k to go, Lance punctured and had to wait a bit for the team car - once it got there, he had one of the fastest wheel changes I’ve ever seen. I couldn’t see clearly who the wrench was, bit I betcha that it was my buddy, Chris Van Rooesbruck. He is tops, and really changes a wheel at flash speed. Lance worked his way back to the peloton solo, he didn’t ask for any of the guys to drop back and bring him up. He almost got nailed by a lime green team car - it’s fender was just inches away from him - I don’t think the driver was paying attention. Lance had a word or two for them....

Heads Up! Lance’s radio show will be on at 3 pm Eastern, so that should be noon here where I am.... Says it’s a special Easter show, and Sheryl will be the DJ.

Waaah! I did not get to see E3 Prijs Vlaanderen. Some weird glitch happened - I signed in and paid via PayPal (last time I paid, I used a credit card) and my payment never showed up - so I couldn’t watch. I emailed the guys at cycling.tv and they responded, but couldn’t seem to fix the glitch. I knew better than to wait till this morning to pay, but I was out late last night, blah, blah, blah...

So there I sat, watching the re-run of K-B-K, waiting, waiting, waiting.... Rather ironic, don’t you think, that I tell everyone to watch cycling.tv and then I am the one who couldn’t? This better work tomorrow when I want to watch Lance!!

Well the guy at cycling.tv emailed me to say that Tom Boonen won - He said Devolder punctured trying to get into the breakaway and that Roger is saving himself for tomorrow. It’s an $8.44 update, but where else does the commentating team actually email back to you? I’m cool with it... He said that there was a problem with a handful of people who didn’t get their PayPal purchases validated. Unfortunately, I was one of them... I looked at the brief results and didn’t see any D-Men listed. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.....

The DC men finished the last stage, a time trial, at Setmana Catalana, with Tom Danielson at 2nd, Chechu at 9th and Jurgen at 10th. Tom flew in to move from 10th in the GC up to 4th and Chechu ended up 6th in the GC. These guys are riding so well together... What a great team we have this year - the Spring Classics guys (when they all get well again) are so fine - both teams are tops....

The Tour of California is the big news right now - lotsa publicity at the World’s Track Championships in LA. I guess the big official announcement will be on Friday afternoon. I sure hope that a sponsor steps up - a title sponsor is so difficult to find in the cycling world. The two elements that a major cycling event has to have, absolutely has to have, are a major sponsor and major live television coverage. If the organizers can come up with those two elements, then the race can go... Sponsors with that kind of deep pockets are few and far between.

It would be an incredible event, and has been in the wind for months, now. Likely will start in Southern Calif and wend it’s way north. I originally heard it would be up thru Sacramento and into the Sierra foothills and then back down toward Napa and on to San Francisco. I don’t actually know what the route will be, and likely it’s in the planning stage right now. Maybe Lumpy, the guy I worked with in planning the first Tour of Georgia, will (or already is) involved in the route planning. Hope I get to work this event, if it happens!

Love hearing from you fans! Thanks, Ann, a Flemish fan, who wrote to say that it is Brabantse Pijl with an "s". And I hear that Lance is really looking on form right now, so it should be a great race!

Sweeet! Lance will ride Brabantje Pijl (spelled Brabantse by some folks, I haven’t a clue) and we can see the entire race for $5! Yes, cycling.tv changed it from free to a minimal charge to cover the cost of the bandwidth. I can’t imagine what the bandwidth must cost them with the viewer numbers they have. I know that during July, I really get slammed with bandwidth charges on the Unofficial Lance Armstrong Fan Club site. So for me, that’s cool - we pay $8.50 here in the US to see some crappy movie in a theater, and pay $5 for a bag of popcorn.

Gotta take off now, maybe more later...

Very cool to watch Dwars door Vlaanderen on cycling.tv. My picture stuttered along, but maybe it was my dsl. Know what? I didn’t even care - I got to hear it live and see it, even if it looked like a slide show. This race is incredibly tough! There were eleven climbs, some had 18 and 20% grades in sections, most were above 10% grades in many places. They were pavé (cobblestone), really rough, and the road looked about as wide as a city sidewalk in the US. Those guys must feel like they’ve been hit by a semi truck when they finish that race across Flanders. It’s 202 kilometers, and the tough climbs came along in the last 60-65k of the race.

Roger Hammond and Stijn Devolder were just powerhouses - it was hard to tell for quite a while who was going to be the designated leader at the finish. But it became clear that Stijn was riding for Roger, and man, did he do his job - he was relentless in this attacks. It looked like Roger was gonna take it - he was just powering down the finish, but he started his sprint a bit too early, and Eeckhout went by him at the very end. Looked like he took it by about three bike lengths ahead of Roger. But great, super riding by the DC team. The teams averaged 42k an hour over this grueling course!

Cycling.tv will show two more live races in Belgium, as I posted yesterday, on Saturday and Sunday morning. One is free and one is $8 - I’d pay that any day to see the races in Europe...

Heads Up!! Here's an email that I received this morning from cycling.tv. I'll be watching tomorrow morning..

2005 CLASSICS SEASON CONTINUES ON CYCLING.TV:
We have 3 great races LIVE (with on going highlights) in the coming weeks.
Our LIVE Cycling Schedule is as follows:

DWARS DOOR VLAANDEREN (Across Flanders):
WEDNESDAY 23rd MARCH 13:30 HOURS GMT/UNIVERSAL
14:30 HOURS CET
08:30 HOURS EST (USA)
05:30 HOURS Pacific (USA)

Approximately 2.5 hours live. FREE TO VIEW.
Available Worldwide except Belgium, Holland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

E3 PRIJS VLAANDEREN
SATURDAY 26th MARCH 13:40 HOURS GMT/UNIVERSAL
14:40 HOURS CET
08:40 HOURS EST (USA)
05:40 HOURS Pacific (USA)

Approximately 2.5 hours live.
Available Worldwide except Belgium. Pay to View at $8 (or equivalent).

BRABANTJE PIJL also know as FLECHE BRABANCONNE:
SUNDAY 27TH MARCH 13:00 HOURS GMT/UNIVERSAL
14:00 HOURS BST
15:00 HOURS CEST
08:00 HOURS EST (USA)
05:00 HOURS Pacific (USA)

Approximately 2.5 hours live. FREE TO VIEW
What a great way to spend Easter Sunday!
Available Worldwide except Belgium, Holland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

The applications to ride on the 2005 Tour of Hope Team have just opened up. The TOH ride across the country in support of cancer research will start on Sept 29th and end in DC on October 8th. The ride will start in San Diego this year, not Los Angeles like the past two years. Application deadline is April 20th. It is an incredible experience, so if you think you want to do it - get your application on its way. Need I say that Lance will be there?

The team is riding this week at Semana Catalana - Volodymyr Bileka took a fourth place in Stage 1. This guy is really riding like a champ for Discovery Channel. If you take a look at the races he’s done so far, he’s showing up in the top ten or top fifteen real often. He is gonna be a cycling star in his future - and the DC Directeur Sportifs are just the guys who can bring him along in the right way. I think the DC team will get stronger as the stages progress, but they have some tough competition there.

I almost forgot to tell you that I ordered the Sirius Radio special from the icon that is up on my Lance fan site, with the $30 rebate. I went one up from the $99 car only offer, and I got the car and home plug and play package for $169 and a year’s subscription - isn’t that what a plastic cc is for? I will be able to listen to Lance’s show whether I am driving at the races, or in some crummy motel. Plus the music choices are endless. I have to find out if I will be able to use it in France...

And I saw a press release that says Subaru is not going to feature Lance in their all new ad campaign with a completely different focus - they say they are going to utilize him in other ways. I dunno what that means, either. OK, I’m tuning up the last of the chapters that I worked on, so I gotta hit it hard right now.

Time for the Monday morning Lance Armstrong Live Strong Sirius Radio report. It’s kinda long - they talked a lot yesterday, and it did come on at 11 am here in the Bay Area. Lance was in Girona and Higgs was in Austin. They took several live calls...

Lance said his training is going along “amazingly”. Said he had thought that his training hadn’t been that good, but now that his health is better, he sees that his training was right on track. Lance said that his SRM watts show that he’s putting out a good number. Said he’s been riding with Tom Danielson and Levi Leipheimer and a lot of guys, and he is doing amazingly well, considering he had the fever and virus. Lance said that he will be hitting his training hard this week - Flanders is in two weeks. Said that the weather is inconsistent there - it’s an epic race, hard, hilly and cobblestones. The weather could really be a factor.

Lance asked Higgs what was going on in the Austin music scene - seems that the South By Southwest Festival is going on, and Higgs is so with the local music scene - he cruised around the local venues and caught the scene.

They took a phone call that asked Lance how he gauges his passion for cycling, since he had said in the past that when he lost his love of cycling that he would quit. Lance said that he questioned it when he was 140th and sick at Paris-Nice, but now he is totally focused and lovin’ it - he is kicking ass now. Said he’d rather go out on top, and if he wins the Tour, this might be his last one.

Lance said he is tailoring his schedule to be with his family as much as possible again this year. Lance said he is committed to providing jobs for his team and staff for the three-year contract with Discovery Channel - they’ve been loyal to him and he will be to them for the length of the team contract.

Guess that Sheryl’s bike disappeared there in Girona, but Lance said she got it back. Gave no other details,(and I am curious about what happened - whether it was ripped off or what). Lance and Higgs said that next week, Sheryl will be guest DJ on the program and select the music. She’s been giving them grief about not playing more stuff from women artists. So send her questions or comments or voicemails for next week.

Lance congratulated Bobby Julich on winning P-N, and said that it was one of the biggest victories of the racing season - it is huge for Bobby and for America. He said, “Hats off to Bobby”.

A caller asked how his 1993 Core States victory in Philly ranked in list of wins. Lance said it was one of his sweeter ones, and it’s hard to believe it was twelve years ago. Said he had “no chain” on the Manayunk wall that day - it was a beautiful day and beautiful crowds. Lance said he wanted to do Philly this year, but it coincides with Dauphine Libere, and D-L is better training so close to the Tour.

Another caller asked Lance if any MTB stuff was in his future - the caller had seen Lance at Deer Valley. Lance said he had the worst leg cramps there that he’s ever experienced in his life. Lance said he will probably do MTB races in the future, when he is not risking his cycling racing with injuries, but that it will be local stuff, not NORBA events.

Question about his Orange County Chopper, and is he riding it, or what does he ride? Lance said his Live Strong Chopper is on Tour - he’s only ridden it twice and nearly took a dive off the stage on it, in front of 5,000 Nike employees. (If you remember, at a Nike employee presentation, he came up the ramp to go onstage, going too fast, and nearly flew off a five-foot drop). Lance said that was scary... He said he’s had a ten-year old, inherited Harley that he had reconditioned, but that he is sending it to Belgium. Seems that a top boss at Berry Floor is badly wanting it, so Lance is giving it to him.

A caller asked about Rex, Lance’s lab puppy who has a heart murmur. Lance says that things are on hold while Rex (and his heart) are still growing. Lance said that he’s never had his own dog before, so to have this dog that Sheryl gave him be sick is pretty devastating to him. He will do whatever he needs to do to get the best care for Rex.

Finally, (I told you that they talked a lot!) a caller asked about the Tour de Georgia. Lance said that it’s really a great race, he loves the course and the crowds, and there should be a big battle on Brasstown Bald this year - Lance will make a change and be using a 27. Heads Up! Lance said that he will make an announcement at the end of the Tour de Georgia that people will be interested in. Hmmm... quite a teaser. What do you all think he’s gonna say?

Very cool report from Christian Vande Velde on VeloNews. He talks about that popular training climb in Girona called Amer, and how all the guys have this competition for time. Says that it is about 8k long, and my buddy Michael Barry now holds the record for 22:20. But Floyd Landis just might have moved him out of the top spot. Check it out, very funny.

Also funny is a news item I read a few days ago, and I totally forget the source, but it was by a writer who didn’t know crap about pro cycling. It always amazes me that somebody would write an article in a newspaper and not know a damn thing about the subject. Anyway, (among other things) the guy said that Lance and the Discovery Team guys stayed in 5-star hotels during the Tour de France.

Dude, do some research! The Amaury Sport Organization makes the lodging reservations for all the teams and support staff... and the teams stay where they are booked. No favoritism and no elite lodging for Lance. Sometimes the guys are in tiny, crummy rooms and sometimes they are in a really nice place. But mostly they are in the chain hotels like Accor and Novotel, etc. A lot depends on the size of the town or village.

Actually, I just saw in a recent interview of Lance in cyclingnews.com that Lance and the guys were staying in a 2-star Kyriad motel near Cleremont-Ferrand for the Paris-Nice. The Discovery Channel Team guys do not travel in luxury, as Mr. Big Shot Press reporter hopes to make us think.

OK, gotta go and see if Lance is really on Sirius at 11 am my time.

Well, my blogging got aced out by Tour de France for Dummies duties again. As I said, we are doing the final Author Review and it is chapter by chapter - just checking to make sure that everything is in place. Phil Liggett, being the busy (and I mean busy) world traveler, is finishing his review in GB before he heads out to the boonies in South Africa. From what he says, his internet and phone connections are iffy at best when he is home. James and I have the luxury of being able to reliably connect from home or travel.

I guess we all take our phone and internet connections for granted - yeah, there are minor glitches and disconnects. But when I hear Phil’s unreliable communication resources in South Africa, and then hear from the Discovery Channel Team guys about how long it takes to get phone and internet service in Spain, I think we’ve got it pretty good!

Speaking about the Discovery Team, Milan-San Remo was real tough on the guys who rode. Max didn’t start - had a toothache and a cold, George didn’t start due to a respiratory infection. Hayden Roulston came on the roster last minute. Both Leif and Pavel went DNF - wouldn’t be surprised if they were coming down with something, or fighting it off. Roger Hammond, who is so tough and feisty, came in at 21st, with the same time as Petacchi, the winner.

Heads Up for Sirius Faction Lance Armstrong Live radio show. It is indeed live from Europe tomorrow, Sunday, but the time has changed to 2 pm Eastern. That will be 11 am, my time. I was trying to set the changed time to record, but it wasn’t working on Thursday night - My PVR only gave me the choice to tape the whole day. I’ll try today to set it for one hour, but I now I’m gonna add an half hour before the show and a half hour later to make sure I catch the entire program. I am thinking that it may be iffy for me to tape his show while I am at Redlands, Sea Otter and Georgia. We’ll see....

This post is going to be short and sweet this morning - we are in the middle of the Author Review of the Tour de France for Dummies book. All is going well, and the final deadline for the book is rapidly approaching.

It’s actually very interesting to be involved with the production of two different books with similar deadlines, from two different publishing companies. Although my role in Michael Barry’s book, “Inside the Postal Bus” is simply providing Postie images, there are still lots of last-minute questions: who, what, when, where type things... Michael’s book is with VeloPress and the TdF for Dummies is with Wiley and Sons Publishing Company.

Counting zee leetle Podium Girl Gone Bad book, I am amazed to think that I am directly involved with three books on the market (or soon to be, anyway). If some fortune teller, or psychic, had told me a couple of years ago that I would be even remotely a part of a published book, much less be authoring one, I would have laughed my head off and asked for my money back.

But the Cycling Gods have smiled upon me in many ways, and I’m lovin’ every minute of it. Life is short, so be sure cycling comes first...

And a Happy St. Pat’s Day - especially to Andy, in Ireland, a good friend of the LAF and Unofficial Lance Fan Club!

I saw in Lance’s interview that he has a new Lab puppy whose name is Rex. But the poor little guy has a bad heart, so he is going to be treated by the best specialists, and maybe get a replacement heart valve from a cow or something. I know that Lance will have the best care for his new little friend, and I hope tht Rex has a long, happy life.

It is so heart-breaking (and so expensive) when one of your four-legged family has some kind of disease or health problem. My old cat, Billie-Button, was with me for something like fourteen years, and I got her when she was an adult cat. She was a black, long-haired, ornery old thing that loved only me, and tolerated nobody else. The vet thought she was about twenty years old when I took her in to have a lump on her side looked at last winter. A sample came back as undetermined, so it was decided to watch it for a while. It suddenly started enlarging rapidly, and I took her in on December 17th for surgery. I got a call a couple of hours later saying that it was a rapid-growing and deadly malignant cancer that, while looking like an only an exterior lump, had encroached into her body cavity, pirated the blood vessels in her stomach to feed it, and was enormous. There was no choice in the decision that had to be made.

Billie Button’s ashes are in a small redwood box, sitting under my bed in the exact spot where she always loved to curl up and sleep...

OK - By popular demand (Yes, Mom, I'll do it!) I am adding Comments to my blogs. If it turns into porn and gambling ads like on the Yahoo message boards, I'm shutting it down. If you have a comment or suggestion, let me know - I'd like to hear from you! But.... Hate messages will be deleted...Put 'em somewhere else.

Heads-Up! Next week, March 23, on cycling.tv you can see the Dwars door Vlaanderen for free. It’s at 13:20 GMT - that’s eight hours ahead of my time here in the SF Bay Area. Need to check your local time in GMT? Go to greenwichmeantime.com. Right now, cycling.tv is showing an hour-plus clip of K-B-K. And on March 27th, they will show the Brabantse Je Pijl live. Another freebie, I think.

You’ve probably seen the interview with Lance on cyclingnews. com. Sounds like P-N was kind of a wasted effort in terms of a training race. The shortened stages just turned into kinda crazy mass sprints, which are dangerous this early in the season. It’s kinda like the upcoming Milan-San Remo - everybody knows it will end in a crazed sprint. Cunego, Van Petegem and Boogerd have already said they won’t race MSR. Cunego came right out and said that it’s not worth the risk of a crash, rubbing elbows for seven hours along a coastal highway - It’s too early in the season for him to risk an injury and maybe jeopardize the rest of his season. We’ll see if Lance is going to race there....

Here is a really funny and impressive factoid - Tom Danielson points out in his diary that Eki started racing the same year that Tom was born. And Eki can kick Tom’s (and most everyone else’s) butt out on the roads, too. I always carry the image in my mind’s eye of Eki, grinning like a fiend, flying along the tough climbs and descents in the San Gabriel Mountains out of Solvang. He’s my Iron Man and I love the guy...

My usual Monday morning Lance Armstrong Live Strong Sirius Radio Show report: The show was taped last Friday, with Lance in Girona and Higgs in Austin. Lance says he is recovering from his virus and did a training ride in freezing rain and snow. Said that on the return loop of his long ride, he was the coldest that he has ever been on the bike.

Lance said that he is trying to get healthy and get in shape, and that this is the first year that his racing schedule has not been clearly defined. He and Johan will look at races that will prepare him for other races, like Flanders. Lance said that the Classics team is kicking ass right now, and that he is going to have to prove himself good enough to ride with them, especially after P-N.

Higgs said that they had received several suggestions for guests from fans, and the most requested person was Howard Stern. People also asked for Robin Williams and Eddy Merckx. They took a couple of taped calls from listeners: one gal asked if there were any superstitions at the Tour. Lance said not really, but now that he has previewed the stages and won, he has to preview the stages every year so he won’t jinx them. So he guessed maybe that was a superstition. Then he remembered that, at team meals, they pass the salt from hand to hand - they never set the shaker down on the table between the guys using it, or it’s bad luck. And he always gets on his bike from the left...

Lance and Higgs talked about the big press hysteria over Lance’s statement about the 2012 Olympics being held in Paris. Guess some AP reporter seized the opportunity to grab some notoriety by calling Lance a two-wheeled weasel for not supporting New York City. Lance said he was being diplomatic because he is riding in France, and Paris is an excellent choice, but if he had to vote, of course he’d vote for NYC. He said don’t anybody ever accuse him of being un-American.

Higgs put in a plug for CSE’s Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival on April 7 -10th in Austin, so if you want to experience the best, head on over. For info: texaswineandfood.org. Lance said no more wine and good food for him, he is in training now, for real.

Lance and Higgs talked about the good food at Los Olivios Cafe during training camp at Solvang. (I can vouch for that - the food is excellent!) Then the two of them stopped for a few minutes at the gambling casino a couple of miles out of Solvang. Higgs said it was depressing with all the people smoking and dragging their oxygen tanks along with them to gamble. (Read emphysema here, folks). Higgs said Lance won some chance for a drawing, and when he filled out the ticket, the dealer saw the name Armstrong on the paper and said, “Oh, just like the astronaut, huh?” He hadn’t a clue who Lance Armstrong was...

Speaking of no clue, they took a voice mail question from some guy who wanted to know if Sheryl’s dress at the Awards was really made out of Lance’s yellow jerseys - clear that up for us, he said. Duh.... Right - Roberto Cavelli just whipped up a designer gown out of yellow jerseys...

So, I took the weekend off from blogging, but it was so great to see Pavel Padrnos take a third and be on the podium at Tirreno-Adriatico. He was in a breakaway group that stayed away almost the entire time. Pavel is like Eki - absolutely as tough as nails, doesn’t say much, gives total support for Lance and the team, and is a damn fine rider and person.

The slanted spin in newspaper headlines about Lance Armstrong are darn near worth a social engineering research paper. I am always fascinated to read the headlines from around the world when there is any kind of Lance news. Here’s a sample of pretty straight-forward headlines: LA withdraws from Paris-Nice, LA Pulls Out of French race, LA Quits Paris-Nice, Armstrong to Modify Training Program. OK - fair enough - fair dinkum.

But then we come to the headlines of The Guardian in the UK: Virus Puts Texan’s Tour in Jeopardy. Hmm - would that be considered just a bit of an overstatement, to put it mildly? Or just routine sensationalism...

The article goes on to quote Johan Bruyneel as saying that it’s no big problem, and that Lance will be off from his bike for more than a couple of days due to the fever and sore throat. And both Johan and Lance say that the distractions and demands on Lance this year in the US were pretty heavy, so his training regimen had a slow start. And, yeah, he will be a bit behind in his training. But his seventh Tour in jeopardy? I think not...

And, by the way, the Guardian somehow left out the fact that Lance, in spite of being ill - having a sore throat and feverish - finished Stage 3 of Paris-Nice with the same time as the stage winner, Vincente Reynes.

Tirreno-Adriatico and Paris-Nice are both running at the same time, but with vastly different weather. P-N has been miserably cold - Lance abandoned with a fever and sore throat, and Tom Danielson said it was so cold yesterday that he couldn’t believe the race could be run. It was something like -3 or -4 degrees in the morning, with the roads like ice. The shortened stages are fast - that’s the only way the guys can try to stay warm!

The planning for the Testarossa Vineyards Cat’s Hill Classic is coming along nicely. It’s on May 7th this year. It is always the Saturday before Mother’s Day. Parking is always such a problem for the racers and spectators. But this year, Testarossa Vineyards is offering race parking in their event parking lot, and will have a shuttle, a “cable car” shuttle, to transport racers and spectators to and from the race. Throw in a little wine-tasting after the race and it’s all good! So pass the word around - the Testarossa Vineyards is located in what used to be the Novitiate at the top of College Avenue - a really beautiful location.

Speaking of Tom Danielson, his new website will be up in the next week - it will be handled by Chris Brewer (Lance’s webmaster) so it should be a good one. I told Chris I would send along a few shots, but looking through what I have from training camp, I realized that Tom was riding with the Spring Classics group, while I was hanging out with Lance and the Tour group. So not a lot of opportunity to get shots of Tom....

Paris-Nice Stage 3 got shortened again today, to 118km because of the snow. I guess the guys still did the Cat 1 climb and a smaller Cat 2 climb. Yesterday, Tom Danielson said they were slipping and sliding in the snow in Stage 2, and really taking it easy on the final descent, when Popo (Yaroslov Popovych) took off like a shot around everyone for his third place finish. That guy has no fear...

The “Race Thru the Snow” is cutting out a lot of towns along the way. I am thinking about the financial impact on all these “deleted” towns - I think it is pretty huge. If these towns and villages do the same thing as the towns on Tour de France route, they bid big euros for the privilege of being named host cities by the ASO, for both the start and finish of the race. So far, for P-N, I think host towns have still been included, but how about Belgium, where the entire races were cancelled? Yikes - what a disaster for a whole lot of people.

The smaller towns and villages, in particular, will go to great lengths to clean up, paint up, and do repair work. All the merchants, hotels, restaurants and bars will spend way above their ordinary budgets to order humongous amounts of food and booze for the expected deluge of cycling fans. Entrepreneurs will set up food stands along the route, using their rent money to buy le hot dogs, expecting to cash in on the race watcher’s appetites.

When Mother Nature decides to pull a prank and send beaucoup de snow instead of good wishes to a cycling race, it really messes up lives, plans and budgets. How about the cycling fans who made plans months ahead of time, travel and hotel reservations, plus took time off from work? The Race to the Sun is big deal for a whole lotta of cycling fans...

The 63rd Paris-Nice is certainly having its share of troubles with the weather. Today’s Stage 2 had to be shortened from 191km to 46.5km due to snow in the higher climbs of the stage. Not sure about tomorrow’s Stage 3 - it has the first real Cat 1 climb, the Cote de Lavet. Plus higher elevations, so it may have to be revised, too.

The hellish winter weather has played havoc with the Spring races so far. Not sure if it had anything specific to do with the crash-filled Prologue of P-N or not. I think the roads were dry, but it was freezing-arsed cold, so maybe that was a factor. Every rider, except a hardy few, were so layered up that its a wonder they could even move their legs. The Belgian racers, Like Stijn, just go with bare legs - they’re used to riding in crappy weather - just another day in the saddle for them.

One of my photog friends asked me last night what was my favorite non-race shot at the McLane Pacific. There was a Pee Wee race with the cutest kids, and I took a few shots of that. But my favorite shot was of a rather elegant, white-haired lady sitting in a kid’s red Tonka wagon, watching the Saturday crit from a quiet spot on the sidewalk. She had a little pillow for her back and her knees were drawn up, with her feet inside the wagon. Her shoes were neatly placed on the ground beside the red plastic wagon with it’s bright yellow handle.

She sat, serenely and quietly, watching the chaos and swirling colors of the racers flying by. I have a couple of images of her in my smugmug gallery in McL-P Saturday crit gallery. I asked her if she was with one of the racers, but she said no - she lived in Merced and just often walked around the park area - she knew nothing about cycling... And so she sat, silently contemplating the view of a totally different world for her.

First - my usual Lance Armstrong Live Strong Sirius Radio recap. Had to PVR it, since I was at McLane Pacific. They changed the show time a bit, so I don’t think I got the last part of it. It’s great that Sirius Radio can be so flexible about the start time, but it sucks if one is trying to record it. So Higgs was in Atlanta and Lance was in Paris for Paris-Nice. He said there was snow everywhere and freezing cold. Said Paris looked like the winter wonderland bit.

Prologue at Paris-Nice was “Not so good for me” - Lance said it’s been a while since he raced and it was 34 degrees with snow all over the place. Lance came in 140th - Higgs said he didn’t think he’d ever seen that number next to Lance’s name in the results before. Lance said that sometimes people along the way can be pretty fanatic about riders from their own country. But during the Prologue, Lance said he received such overwhelming support from cycling fans along the route that he wanted to thank everyone who cheered for him along the way, cause he was really suffering. He said people were just fantastic to him...

Johan was on the line for a while with Higgs - he was not happy at all about the team’s results in the Prologue. He said the Spring Classics group is fulfilling their responsibilities, but the Tour group gave him “reasons not to be happy” with their TT ride. Someone had asked Lance if he would ever consider becoming a directeur sportif - he said he had no plans to go that route. Higgs asked Johan if he would want Lance as a DS - Johan diplomatically said that he would rather have Lance as a consultant.

Just as I thought I’d heard a couple of shows ago, Lance said that he wanted to race the Philly Wachovia series this year but Johan said no to the idea. (Remember I told you that Lance said something about College taking the motorcoach to Philly?) Speaking of that, Higgs told a funny story about Tour of Georgia last year and Higgs’ brother, Dan, who is a police officer in Atlanta. Not long after College crashed into the stop sign and messed up the motorcoach, it seems that Dan came into the team dining room one evening, and pranked Johan. In full uniform, Dan asked to speak with Johan and gave Johan “the official investigation into hit-and-run, fugitive from the law” bit. Only Lance and Sheryl and Higgs were in on the prank, and I guess they really had Johan going.

Some gal called and asked Lance to motivate her to lose weight - she's training for a ride, etc. Long story from her, but Lance said it just comes down to Math - pure and simple math. Intake versus output, and that is what he does to stay at his riding weight. She finally got Lance to say hello to her kid and the call ended - finally.


One listener asked Lance about retirement plans and whether Lance will stay involved in the sport or walk away altogether. Lance said that “one prominent American” walked away totally, and that he (Lance) will not do that. Lance said he loves the sport and will always support cycling and stay involved as part of his responsibilities.

Lance talked about his commitment to cancer survivorship and to his kids. He said that these two commitments take priority to doing other races. Said people ask why he does not do the Vuelta and Giro, etc, but that his commitment and the responsibility that he feels to cancer research are more important - his real team are the millions of people who have joined the fight against cancer. So he rides the Tour of Hope and the Ride for the Roses for that team of millions - much more important than any other race. When asked by people, “Why don’t you race more?” Lance says his obligation to cycling is temporary, but fighting cancer and the Ride for the Roses is Lance’s life and his commitment to that will last forever.

OK - now a bit about the McLane Pacific road stage on Sunday. I got the media van to drop me off at the top of a third roller on Cox’s Ferry Road, just before the downhill left turn onto Keyes Road (a few miles from the finish). Dudes, that turned into Blood Alley - there were four crashes right after the top, where I was standing. There were two bad spots in the road in the same place, and the riders were flying off the top, hitting those spots and eating it bigtime. We had one guy on the right side, on gal in the middle and two gals on the left side waiting for ambulance and EMT.

I ended up course marshaling and directing the oncoming racers away from riders who were down. Good thing there were a couple of us photogs there to direct the riders - they had no way of knowing anything was wrong until they were coming over the top. Could have been really ugly. The race officials and sheriff’s finally coned and yellow taped that entire side of the road off to prevent any more crashes. So I missed the shot of Tony Cruz taking a long pull at the front because I was waving the riders to the side instead of taking shots...

An aside from the farmlands of Merced - one pissed-off rancher dumped a truck load of manure across the closed race road right before start time. The race guys had to drive like mad to get there and shovel it off. The start was delayed a half hour. A whole new version of road rage - this guy literally gave them shit... Some other unseen guy was out shooting gophers somewhere around the finish line - everyone was kinda wondering exactly who the target was.. Pow, pow, pow - he was blazing away and nobody could see where he was - sorta on the other side of the field somewhere. The cops came flying over, but the guy got away...

McLane Pacific was a great little race with great people, and for sure, I’ll be back there next year...

It was a snap to drive to Merced for the McLane Pacific this morning - I left San Jose at 6:45 am and was in Merced at 8:30, even with pea soup fog for the final twenty miles. Really nice drive and I should have been to this race way before now. Plus, today was a cool little crit with a couple of wicked corners.

So I was kinda hangin’ out at the Start line when I arrived and thinkin’ how it was a bummer that none of the Discovery guys was gonna be racing. Right at that moment, my half-asleep brain told me that I had just seen a Discovery team kit - I thought I was losing it... But no, I wasn’t hallucinating - it was Tony Cruz. He drove up to race this weekend as training - staying tough and keeping his legs. A solo racer hasn’t a chance in Hell when he’s racing against tough teams, so this is just training for him.

One of the Health Net guys ate it on a corner in the last couple of laps. I was standing at the finish line when he rode in, and Jeeze - he was bloody raw on his whole left side. Ankle to knee, knee to hip, knuckles, arm and the side of his face = hamburger. I’m telling you, that guy is in a world of hurt tonight. It’s bad enough to get that kind of road rash, but that raw, bloody flesh then has to be scrubbed, and I do mean scrubbed, to get out the dirt, gravel and any dirt bacteria. There can be really ugly infections from cruddy microbes in dirt. So you suffer the crash and then suffer the first-aid... I didn’t see who it was, but the dude rode back in and walked over to the medics.

The Los Gatos Bicycle Racing Club (my club) is here, so I mostly tried to get shots of them - I dunno - most if my shots from today don’t look that great. Well, of course it’s the camera’s fault - it couldn’t possibly be that I blew it today... Or could it?

A quick heads-up - OLN is showing some part(s) of Paris-Nice on their Cyclysm Sundays series - 5 pm ET and 2 pm PT on Sunday, March 6th. I'm setting my PVR right now...

Well, we’ve all had an overabundance of press stories about the knock-off Live Strong Yellow Band sellers: fake yellow bands got several merchants in New York in deep doo-doo, but they got out from under the long arm of the law by donating to the LAF - I seriously doubt the amount of their donation equaled the amount of their sales profits. But, hopefully, it will put a stop to the sleazy retailers who sell yellow knock-off bands to people, at least in New York.

And then there are all the other fund-raising organizations who have jumped on the band wagon (sorry, I just had to say that), with their own colors and causes, and good on them if it helps with fund-raising. But I just read a press release about the newest campaign band from a poison control center in Pittsburgh. OK - get this - It is neon lime green, with an image of “Mr. Yuk” on it - the purpose is to educate and warn children about poisonous substances that are dangerous to ingest. Mr. Yuk is also know as Mr. Poison Face, and the neon green bands are being sold as part of a poison prevention and awareness program.

So if you see anyone wearing a lime green Mr. Yuk band, the Poison Face band is not a statement about one of Lance Armstrong’s rivals at the Tour de France. But then maybe Mr. Yuk/Poison Face could be used to make a comment about the sleaze journalism of one David Walsh - how about that idea?

Unless it’s pouring rain, I’m heading over to the McLane Pacific in Merced early tomorrow morning - so the blog entries will probably be at night on Saturday and Sunday.

OK, a couple of things to talk about this morning. One is the scoop about the celebrity event that Lance and Sheryl attended last weekend. Recall that I said they flew to Los Angeles and that Lance was going to be honored for his work with cancer. Well it was the Saks Fifth Avenue Unforgettable Evening black tie fundraiser for women’s cancer research. As the honoree, Lance Armstrong received the 2005 Courage Award. Robin Williams was the host and emcee, so you can well imagine that he was his usual hysterical, hyper, irreverent, scatological self. Sheryl performed - I saw a quick sound byte of her singing and playing at the event while I was cybersurfing last night. She looked and sounded great.

Sheryl said that Lance is the best person she’s ever known and her best friend - she also said that he has the best butt in the world. Betcha no other honoree at the Sak’s Fifth Avenue event has ever been given the designation of Best Butt. Tom Hanks bid $5,000 for a pen that Lance signed an autograph with. At his table, Robin sang a song he was banned from singing at the Academy Awards, which includes the lyrics, “Snow White has been up all night...” We’ll leave the rest to your imagination...

Moving from that item down into the absolute dregs and slime of the media, I have been given the heads-up by Kevin, one of my faithful blog readers, that some shock jocks on a Sacramento, CA radio station have been wise-assing off about running over cyclists. Does it surprise you that the station is a Clear Channel affiliate? No, I didn’t think you’d be surprised at all.

Evidently two DJ-Idiots, Jay Allen and Mark Williams, were filling in for the regular hosts on Station KSTE. Here’s what I was told happened: “During a 6:34 A.M. news segment by Jamie Coffee on new video lane following features in Nissan and other vehicles, Williams asked (and this is not an exact quote), "How can I swerve at bicyclists?" When Coffee responded that using a turn signal would override the system, Williams said that wasn't any good because he didn't want to alert cyclists he was going to swerve.”

Well --- Do you want to express your opinion to the radio station? We all know this is not the first time this has happened on a Clear Channel station. I encourage you to let these miscreants know what you think. Yes, I know that they love the publicity that ensues from these incidents, but Clear Channel got their behinds wiped once before about this. Here’s the contact info and don’t hesitate to contact the FCC about this, too.

Talk 650 KSTE
1440 Ethan Way, Suite 200
Sacramento, CA 95825
Tel: 916-929-5325
Fax: 916-564-6731
© 2001 Clear Channel Communications.

Starting off with Lance Armstrong - sounds like he is getting his schedule organized. This Sunday is Paris-Nice and also on the schedule is Semana Catalana, Tour of Flanders, Tour of Georgia and the Team Time Trial in Eindhoven, Holland on June 19th. Also there is talk about him doing two Belgian races, the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen and the Brabantse Pijl on March 26 and 27th, but these aren’t confirmed... I don’t think.

Couple more of my images are up on Mike Creed’s site - they look really classy with a separate page for each photo on a bright blue background. Nice work by his webmaster and friend. Also, I just heard from VeloNews, and you will see a few of my images in Michael Barry’s book, I think. That will be very kewl...

Want to tell you, in response to a couple of emails, that I am not the Velogal that posts to cycling forums. There seems to be a more than a couple of people who are using my handle on forums and on Yahoo, etc. That is why I use thevelogal at yahoo dot com. If you are sending mail to me without “the” in it, you are not sending it to me. If someone is answering you, pretending to be me, let me know what “I” say about cycling and life in general...

Also, I see there is another round of crap spam using one of my email addresses faked. I blocked out my own email address as spam... So, I’m definitely not gonna sit right down and write myself a letter, or whatever the words of that old song are....

I just took a quick peek into a different world for me. Online Sports Betting. Nah - I’m not a gambler at all - No Way. If I’m gonna dump my dollars, I’ll do it on camera/ computer stuff, or getting to cycling events. But I got this email among my tons of junk/spam mail. It was about some online betting site that was giving odds on cycling races. The site was listed on the American Stock Exchange and they used Getty Images.

Caught my attention because it gave odds on what they saw as top guys racing the 2005 Tour de France. The site listed blackjack, carib stud, craps, red dog... and cycling? Wow! Does that mean cycling has finally made it into the mainstream of the American sports frenzy? Baseball, basketball, football, hockey, and cycling - Take your choice and lose your rent money online.

So here are some of the odds that they quoted: Lance 4/7, Ullrich 9/1, Basso 11/2, Vinokourov 20/1, Kloden 9/1, Valverde 12/1, Mayo 25/1, Beloki 25/1, Mancebo 33/1, and the rest of the “field”, as they called it, at 15/1. I don’t know from nuthin’ about gambling, but I think I would give Lance at least 100%. But then, as Lance said to me when I talked with him on Sirius Radio, I’m the fan club, I’m supposed to say that!