It seems like forever since I left California on Saturday morning – it’s been a whirlwind of stuff to do, and my blog has been shabbily neglected. Sunday was the Bell to Bell Ride: cyclists rode from the Liberty Bell in Philly to the Justice Bell in Valley Forge.

The ride celebrated Pennsylvania’s ratification of the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote. The ride ended at the Justice Bell, where the chain around the clapper of the bell was cut, and four women pulled the long, white rope. The bell pealed out, so loud that little kids covered their ears. It was a Big Ben sound inside the tiny Valley Forge Chapel. It was so cool to see and hear… I photographed the bike ride and the Justice Bell ceremony.

I’m doing my food police thing – so far, the teams who have arrived are Discovery Channel (I hear cheering), Lampre, LiquiGas, and today, CSC. LiquiGas team bikes and luggage got sent to Boston by Air France – they arrived last night with nothing. We are doing heroics to get their things to them so they can race tomorrow! The other teams are arriving as I write this...

So, how about our Discovery guys? The team here is really stoked about the Giro win. All the DC guys are really tight, and that’s what makes this team so great. Creed came in today, and he looks real good. I asked him how his legs are, and he said that he’d see tomorrow… He’s not gonna know until he actually races.

I chatted with Chris Horner last night, as I was walking with several teams to a downtown, fantastic restaurant called Bliss. Yes, it is bliss to eat there. Chris said this will be his first race since he broke his leg. Said he’s been training around the Sacramento area, since it’s been too cold in Bend, Oregon to do any riding. I was really surprised that he immediately remembered that I had done the shot of him at the Oak Glen finish last year that became a poster for the Redlands race VIP area. I sent him a copy of that poster and he really appreciated it, I guess.

My plane circled around Philly, waiting for a thunderstorm to quiet down, so I ended up arriving late last night – what else is new? Got a great view of the city from the air, and it is impressive. Lorin, the Radio Tour voice gal, picked a couple of us up at the airport, so I didn’t have to do the never-ending stops of the airport shuttle. Long check-in line at the hotel – a youth lacrosse tournament is happening, so parents, coaches and kids were lined up.

As we drove up to the hotel, there was Vince, the DC wrench for all US races, washing the team car and looking quite cheerful. Those guys work so hard… In the registration line, way ahead of me, was Dave Bolch, making all the arrangements for team’s rooms. Guess Lance must have headed on to Girona, ‘cause Dave is Lance’s head guy here in the US. Dave always drives the team car for Lance’s training rides, and takes good care of Lance and the ranch.

Headed over to an Irish pub a couple of blocks away to catch up on the latest happenings with some buddies and came back to the hotel lounge for a Bailey’s. Ran into Dirk, Max, Leif and Jurgen – all looking fit and happy. Traded the traditional three Belgian cheek kisses and chatter. Max borrowed my rental Subaru Outback a few times at team training camp, and he always returned it, newly washed and shiny, with a full tank of gas. He’s a great guy. They are all pretty stoked about Paolo’s possible victory at the Giro.

It’s driving me nutz to not be able to follow the Giro while I’m here – work does get in the way of things, doesn’t it?

It's 4:45 am and I'm heading to the airport for a flight to Philly. This blog is gonna be iffy for the next day or two, and I may not see the Giro. I also may not be able to do the Lance Monday morning Sirius LiveStrong reports either. We'll see - I'm taking my Starmate along. Catch you later!

Heads Up Lance Fans - Are you going to the Tour this year for Lance's triumphant finale? Has Lance inspired you in some special way? Well, then check this out: Discovery Channel is looking to profile fans of Lance Armstrong who (and this is key) will be following Lance to watch the Tour in France. Discovery Channel is doing a one-hour special tentatively called Lance's Army. They will meet you at home, get to know who you are and how Lance plays a part in you lives and then follow those selected to France where history will be made. Those selected will all meet up in the Alpine village of Briancon. Say a bit about why/how Lance has inspired you or made a difference in your life. Send e-mail to: isadurni@yahoo.com and do it ASAP! Send your mail to her, not me....

Paolo was absolutely super in the TT today - Now has a comfy lead at the Giro. Hang on and hold on Il Falcon!!

Just found this article on Sheryl's appearance at the LAF Gala. Nice!
Click on the link below...

Talk about an exciting finish for Stage 17 - I was on the rivets of my desk chair! Il Falcon holds on the GC lead by a much slimmer margin than yesterday - something like 42 seconds. He’s having to do the battle alone, against teams that still have good climbers to attack and wear him out. Come on . Paolo, Be Like Lance!! And he may be able to gain some good time in the TT tomorrow.

I had to jump up from the finish and go to a meeting, so blog was delayed. cyclingnews.com has a good recap of what is going on with the DC racers. I can’t wait to see the guys in Philly.

I gotta go to the office, sorry that the blog is blah.... But I may have some interesting news for you in a few weeks.. Can’t say anymore now...Nah, it’s about me, not Lance, this time....

Giro looking good for the D-Men - Paolo stays in the pink. The usual, expected early break-away by the non-threats to the GC, who built up an 18-20 minute lead and nobody chased or cared. CA’s Mevel won his first pro stage, I think.

I notice that it is becoming quite the joke for the stage winner to douse the podium girls with the champagne. Palo absolutely soaked one gal a couple of stages ago, and I just now saw Mevel open one bottle that didn't fizz and when they gave him a second one, he shook it up real well and pointed it right at a podium girl. Those gals then have to stand there, drenched for the other presentations. I don't think it looks too cool to do that... Not too classy, even if Paolo did it.... and the bottle that Paolo just opened didn't fizz - this makes at leat the third bottle that I saw with no fizz - Wonder if there are some red sponsor faces about that?

I’m hearing that our Tour de France for Dummies is being mailed out right now to the folks who pre-ordered, and that it was as high as number 187 on the Amazon rankings yesterday. Of course, that number fluctuates constantly. As authors, Wiley will send us some freebie copies, but I’m kinda curious to see what the final result looks like...

If you read Christian Van de Velde’s diary yesterday, you know that he was pretty pissed at Sentjens of Rabobank for taking off and making the guys chase for nothing in the crappy weather climbing of Stage 15. CV thought it was a dumb move and made no bones about it in his diary. I betcha that Sentjens took a lot of crap from the peloton for doing that... CV also couldn’t understand why the DC guys were riding hard and in front so much, but I think they were keeping Paolo in front and out of trouble under those ugly weather and road conditions... Paolo wants to stay in pink and stay healthy for Le Tour...

Rest day at the Giro... As I explained in the Tour de France for Dummies book in the chapter about a day in the life of a rider, rest day at the Tour is not a time when the riders kick back and do nothing. Maybe its a tad less demanding at the Giro, but usually the guys still ride to keep their legs in shape, plus they usually have all kinds of press interviews and sponsor obligations.

I was told that The Tour de France for Dummies was to be released yesterday, and you would think that as a co-author, I would know, but I don’t.... Guess I need to visit a local bookstore this week and see if it's on the shelf. So where will they put it? In the Travel section or in the Sports/cycling section? Should be in both. At my local Barnes and Noble, the small cycling section is pitifully buried somewhere after a huge baseball section, and is on the bottom shelf - or was the last time I looked....

Over at the paceline.com, Chris Brewer gives us lots of good details about the haps at the Gala dinner, plus Liz Kreutz has some pics there. Nice one of Sheryl performing onstage. Turns out that the guy who matched the $100k bid for the day with the team at the Tour was none other than Tiger Williams - a long-time friend and supporter of the LAF.

Hope you’re checking out the Velogal Wachovia Journals at www.wachoviacycling.com - I just sent another one in a couple of days ago about cycling obsession - updated from an article I wrote about five years ago. I think there will probably be one or two more short on-the-spot and behind the scenes journals while I am in Philly. I’ll also update this blog, but it may be in the afternoon or evening, rather than early morning....

Maybe I can write my blog entries while I am being the Food Police, as I call myself, and monitoring the team dining room. I make sure only team members enter to eat, and that they eat undisturbed by autograph and photo seekers. A couple of years ago, one of the teams from Europe jokingly called me the food angel, because I was chasing the teams all over the place to get them to the right dining room, and they like being greeted with a big smile.

We were staying in a hotel that had a lot of banquet rooms, and the hotel kept moving the location for the meals from one place to another, even on different floors. So the riders, soigneurs and DS who didn’t speak English just looked around until they saw me standing in front of a banquet room door: Like a Pavlovian reflex, when they saw me they knew food was there. All the big hotel chains have all these totally confusing names for the myriad of banquet rooms, and I guess in order to maintain a tres elegante decor, there are never any signs telling you where they are....

But I love this part of my job - I get to see and greet all the guys on the teams at least twice a day, and most often for all three meals. I always get lots of hugs the first day from riders who remember me from prior years - and no, I’ve never asked for even one autograph. Every once in a while, one of the teams bring me some rider cards or trinkets, but mostly, the European soigneurs or staff try to get Wachovia tee shirts from me....

Here's more news about the LAF Live Strong Gala. This is from the Sheryl Crow Fan Site and comes via our friend, Ann, in Belgium, who is both a SC fan and a LA fan.

Quote:
"Sheryl plays at the LAF Gala Friday May 20th.

Rumors of a ‘breakup’ were viewed about as realistic as world peace as some 800 people saw Sheryl and Lance together at the annual Lance Armstrong Foundation Gala in Austin, Texas on Friday night.

The event recognised the success of selling 50 million Livestrong armbands and noted how instrumental Scott MacEachran of Nike was in reaching that goal. The Gala is also a celebration of the success of the LAF as a solid soldier pursuing the fight against cancer and in doing so, raised a ton of cash. As you can guess from that er...loose description..we don’t have the exact figures…however we did witness auctions for things like a trip to the Tour de France to hang out with the Discovery Team go for $205,000 and someone else paid $35,000 to be stripped of their dignity and be the focus of a “What Not to Wear’ episode.

Auctions for real physical articles generated more funds and ranged from things like guitars (obtained with the help from SC) signed by Bruce Springsteen, The Eagles, Sting and of course Sheryl….also on the block were boxing gloves signed by Muhammed Ali, shirts actually worn by Lance during the TdF…and of course a very trick carbon fibre Trek bike.

At the end of the evening Sheryl along with Tim Smith and Peter Stroud played 4 acoustic emotion laden songs. ‘Strong Enough’… stripped down like never before…’I Know Why’ and ‘Wildflower’ 2 tracks to be on the as yet untitled forthcoming record slated for a Sept 26th release….and finally the driving upbeat ‘Winding Road’."

Thanks to Ann and to the Sheryl Crow fan club site....
**********

I read that the bidding for the day at the Tour with the Discovery Channel team was between two people, both bidding up to $100k: When the next bid up'ed it to $105k, the other bidder stood up and said to give the Tour trip to the $105k bidder guy, and that he would also donate his $100k to the LAF. So that's how the DC Day Tour trip got to $205,000. Wow.....

Monday morning Lance Armstrong Sirius Faction Radio report: Re-run of April 17th, where Lance was riding in the Santa Monica mountains, with Higgs, Chris Carmichael and Dave Bolch. Lance told the lawyer joke while climbing with a heart rate of 168...

I hear the LAF Gala dinner and Auction last Friday was a huge success - lots of spirited bidding on items like a bright yellow LiveStrong surfboard. The big item of the evening was a day at the Tour for four people, which included riding with Johan in one team car, and riding with Dirk in the other team car. I guess the bidding went over $100k for this one! Lance said a few words at the beginning, as usual, and Chris Fowler emceed. Sheryl sang one of her songs and a good time was had by all....

Giro watching: Paolo retained his 25-second GC lead and Petacchi powered to the sprint win again. I saw Michael Barry and Volodymyr working hard to keep Paolo at the front in the final laps, safe from any crashes, and then they prudently dropped back a bit for the crazy sprint finish.... You should have seen the crowds getting onto the race course after the final rider finished for the podium presentations - it was a mob scene and jam-packed....

Got a note from Pete of cyclingfans.com. His site offers lots of links for viewing the Giro... Check it out, great resource, and thanks, Pete....

Wow - Listen to this! Popo rode today's last stage of Cataluyna with only THREE team mates - Benjamin, Max and Jurgen. The other three guys, Roger, Fumi and Stijn, didn't make the time cut yesterday. Popo rode with half a team and still kept the leader's jersey to win the race!! Wow and double Wow! Bravo and tons of cheers to those guys....

Ai Yi Yi! Exciting stage 14 finish - Il Falcon remains in Pink, but DiLuca gave us a scare in the last couple of klicks - when he and Simoni attacked, Paolo was hanging on. Paolo is in pink by only 25 or so seconds now - Simoni is down something like 1:28, but DiLuca is back only about 25 seconds in the GC. Paolo was 10th in the stage. This will be well worth watching this afternoon on OLN. Basso drank too much cold water and got stomach problems, his team doc said - he was close to 20 min back.... Bet his hard-working team is disappointed, too....

I was following on cyclingnews.com, but the guy doing it today was giving updates every 6 or 7 minutes, so I jumped back and forth to Eurosport to follow the action. Eurosport is a good one to watch.... If you’re like me, I want to see something about the race every couple of minutes - I don’t care about typos or anything, just give me some kind of piddley description of the action, and I’ll happily pound away at the keyboard and refresh, and be the HomeGirl DS, as Lance calls me...

And Popo takes the Catalunya! Way to go, team - great riding by Popo and super support by the DC guys who were working their arses off for a team win.... Huge Cheers for them all....

Would this be an awesome TdF team if Lance, Popo, Paolo were there, in addition to Chechu, Triki and Ace? All climbers and a couple of roleurs? What a decision to make.... And no Eki, dammit.....

How cool is it to have two DC men tops in the GC!!! Il Falcon at the Giro and Popo at Catalunya. This is a first for the Discovery Channel Team... Did this ever happen with the Posties? Two teams in two different races, both with GC leaders.... I can't remember if it did... Maybe this is a first for Johan, Dirk, Laurenzo and Sean as DS guys... Bravo!!!

YESS! Il Falcon is now the Maglia Rosa! Simoni attacked at 6 km to go on a hard climb, but Salvodelli cleaned his clock, and stopped the second hand for Basso and DiLuca., too. Salv held on to his lead, despite determined chasing by Simoni and DiLuca, with Basso trailing behind.... Love that Falcon!!

As you’ve probably already heard, Mike Creed has been diagnosed with Epstein Barr Virus and is chomping at the bit to get well and get back to training and kicking A in races. He has his eye on Philly and I’d love to see him there. He says he’s already had mono in the past, and this EPV seems like a bit of overkill from the Cycling Gods to me.... Come on, MC, we’re rootin’ for ya!!!

And speaking of the DC off-the-bike list, Tom D talked to the Durango Herald and confirmed, unfortunately, that he has inflammation of the knee joint and also tendonitis. It was treated and fluid removed. He’ll be wearing a stabilizer for that knee when he gets back on bike, I bet... He just can’t figure out how it started (in Georgia, I guess). All the media hue and cry about the injury being only a devilish plot by Johan to get Tom ready for the Tour was the usual media-trying-for-sensational headlines, just like they’re doing again with Lance. Every year, the sensational combo of Lance and Tour de France always brings out the sleazeballs like The Star and David Walsh, with salacious, slime headlines trying to seize the opportunity for sales or website hits or low-life personal publicity....

Popo rode so well yesterday at Catalunya - while he placed second in the stage, he picked up a bunch of time on that killer climb in the TT. He upped his GC lead from 11 seconds to 20 seconds... Our DC guys there are riding so hard and so well..... What about Benjamin N? He placed over 25 seconds ahead of Jan Ullrich and Floyd Landis in the TT! Good on ya, Benny!

But I hear that Ryder abandoned the Giro, that’s a bummer - hope he is not injured. It just makes so much more work for the remaining guys to support and protect Paolo, when the team numbers diminish at this stage (Ar Ar - ’scuze me) of the Giro. The guys hate to abandon, so I know Ryder went as far as he could....

Other news, Roger Federer was selected for the Laureus World Sports award, topping Lance and Michael Schumacher... Yeah, those tennis matches are pretty grueling - on your toes for two or three hours at a time - especially when they stop the match for rain, and the poor guys have to wait, dry and warm, for the match to continue.... Wow - such courage, toughness and determination must deserve the award over those wimpy bike racers.... Uh huh......Right.... Tennis players: Chill - I used to play amateur, competitive tennis and have a few mildewing trophies in a box somewhere, so I do know....

Darn, I miss the OLN live-stream video of the Giro - sitting here banging the refresh link is not quite the same thrill... Dave Z seems to be working his butt off for CSE and Basso at the front of the maglia rosa pack. I like Jeff Jones’ comments on cyclingnews.com live report - sample at 29 km to go: Belli now consults with his team car. "Wadda we do boss?" "Go up this next hill and win." "Thanks boss." Jeff is the best...

Stage 12 was pretty dull until the finish. The riders were just cruising along, laughing and talking to each other and to the camera motos. I got rather bored and with one eye on my monitor, I dug out my tattered and torn map of France and started taping all the torn creases together.

I’ve used this same map for every Tour de France trip and it shows... Wrinkled and water-stained, the map is marked with different colors for every year - the route, the starts and finishes and the places where I stay. It’s the rattiest-looking map you ever saw, and I absolutely will not use a new one. I actually use a huge, fold-up Michelin map of France and a large-size Michelin Tourist and Motoring Guide, which is just as beat-up. Then I also have a smaller Frommer’s Road Atlas of France that I take along. My weekend chore is to mark this year’s route - it is not a quick thing....

So I got the map patched together just in time for the finish, and were those guys ever haulin’! At the 10km mark, they showed Whitey’s (Mattie White of Cofidis: ex-Postie) heart rate and it was red-lined above his max. Benoit was flying and brought Paolo and another DC guy up front - I couldn’t tell if it was Michael or Pavel - Michael, I think. At about 6 km, they prudently let the crazy sprint teams take over and the finish was so fast that the ground cameras behind the line actually almost missed it. The re-runs captured it from the air. Petacchi is a mad machine of power - he’s awesome! Paolo remains second in the GC and all is well in the DC world....

Just received a press release this morning that HP and AMD have partnered with the LAF to market a special HP Special Edition L2000 Notebook PC, a one-of-a-kind consumer PC that bears the LIVESTRONG(TM) message and a reproduction of Lance Armstrong's autograph. Fifty dollars from each HP Special Edition L2000 Notebook PC will go to the Lance Armstrong Foundation for cancer research and survivorship.

In addition to the $50 that the LAF will receive from each notebook, HP has purchased yellow LIVESTRONG wristbands to be packaged with yellow stereo ear buds with every notebook. To further support the cause, AMD and HP plan to donate notebooks for use in LAF-funded cancer survivorship centers throughout the United States. In addition, the two companies are inviting PC buyers to join the battle against cancer by matching or exceeding the $50 per unit for the LAF.

The HP Special Edition L2000 notebook series allows consumers to enjoy "performance at the speed of life" with high-speed wireless, enhanced virus protection (1), powerful 64-bit computing with AMD Turion 64 mobile technology and extended battery life -- all in a lightweight and stylish HP design. To show its full support of the program, AMD has made a two-year commitment to help generate a minimum of $4 million for the LAF from this initiative.

The HP Special Edition L2000 Notebook PC is expected to be available for purchase starting in June via www.hpshopping.com or by calling 888-999-4747, and beginning in July at select retail stores throughout the United States. For more information, please visit: www.hp.com/go/livestrong or www.amd.com/livestrong.

Wow! A very good day for our DC guys! Yaroslav (Popo) comes in second in Stage 4 of Catlunya and leads in the GC! Awwwright!! Thanks for your emails - I had to leave the house right after the Giro ended, and the Catalunya stage hadn't yet finished.

Il Falcon flies! Paolo takes Stage 11 of the Giro with a fantastic ride! He effing flew down one long descent and my heart jumped in my mouth on some of those technical turns. He stepped on the gas at the end and went right around Basso. Yesss! How sweeeet it was.... And sweet, also, to see Benoit out in front for some 100k, riding strong and easy. He may just be the workhorse that takes Eki’s place at the Tour. What an exciting finish... Cunego and just Simioni lost their gas. Paolo moves up to second in the GC...

Well, the podium victory bottle of champagne lost its fizz, but Paolo didn’t! I was yelling so loud at my computer monitor that my two cats, who usually hang out beside me during early morning cycling vigils, both got up and sat in the window across the room. Undeterred by their silent comment on my losing all decorum and dignity, I continued my vocal mission to help Paolo win the stage... OK, mission accomplished until tomorrow....

Procycling mag says that Lance flew from Girona to visit the team on Rest Day at the Giro, before flying to Austin. He had a steak dinner with the DC guys and cheered them on, especially Paolo. Lance said that he watches the Giro every day and schedules his training rides so he can see the race. LA said that il Falcon is gonna be on the podium in Milan, and that if Paolo hadn't lost the bit of time being behind the crash, he would already be in pink. However, Lance seems to think that Basso is the favorite for the top podium spot.....

Lance headed on back to Girona in his private jet, and I betcha he took off for Austin and the LAF Gala...

Aaargh!!! Very last lap of the Giro Stage 10 and the screen goes blank, except for the dreaded message, “The server is busy or down”.. #@$&*#& I usually watch the live-streaming and also have one of the cycling site’s live coverage on at the same time, so I switched over. But what crappy timing for the OLN live coverage to go blank... Or maybe it was my computer screwing up... Oh well....

It was funny at about the 20k to go mark, when the peloton came to a right hand turn at one of those triangle-shaped medians. The whole peloton (really flying along) curved to the right, but one of the motos and, following it, Ivan Basso (and I think Cunego) headed around the long, wrong left side. Both Basso and the other CSE guy then headed straight across the grassy median (a la Lance) and Basso ended up as the last rider in the peloton!

I’m sure there was some freaking out in the team car. Several CSE riders dropped back to bring him up, and he spent a fair bit of time around the Paneria team car on the way back up. Some moto race official came up to the Paneria car after Basso headed on, and had a finger-pointing conversation (read: warning) with the Paneria driver. As the camera moved past, I saw an arm and hand go up on the Paneria driver’s side, and I don’t think he was using his index finger to point at the heavens as the official moved on....Either the official ignored it or didn’t see it...

So, lots of press speculation about Tom Danielson’s knee injury, and a couple of questions to my gmail and blog. I do think that Tom has a legitimate knee problem - he mentioned that it was hurting as he was climbing up Brasstown Bald. And he mentioned it a couple of times later. Knee injuries are ugly, long-lasting things if you don’t take care of them, plus rest and rehab. Remember the problems Ullrich had/has with his knee injury that he kept riding with.

I think a part of the speculation came from a press interview with Tom’s coach in Colorado, who I think was, shall we say naive, about speaking to the press. For him to question whether Tom’s knee was injured because he (the coach) didn’t know about it, and then to say that they can be “sneaky” about those things, was a wrong choice of words to the frenzied, news-hungry media, in my humble opinion.

I don’t think that Tom’s flying back to have an MRI is part of some Tour spin - and of course, you’re gonna pull a rider out when the injury is to his knee, and it’s hurting that bad. I don’t even think that is relevant to whether or not he might be considered for the Tour, now that Eki and Leif are on the injured list. Let’s keep in mind that Tom has never done a three-week stage race, and the Giro was going to be his big challenge and test.... Tom is a great rider, and has incredible potential for a championship rider on the DC team, but he is a young rider, so he has to take the utmost care with any kind of injury...

Yikes! Now we’ve lost Leif Hoste out of Catalunya - he had breathing problems due to his sternum injuries from last month’s crash at P-N, and dropped out yesterday. It was his first time back and he was hyperventilating to an extreme during the TTT. The DC team started the Catalunya race with only 7 guys instead of eight anyway.... It’s gonna make it real tough on the remaining guys as the stages go into the mountains. Leif’s name has been tossed around as a replacement for Eki at the TdF, so this may also have ramifications for the TdF team in July.

Today is rest day at the Giro, so no action there. Over the past weekend, I watched a whole lot of races that I had taped - my PVR was getting maxxed out. I finally watched the OLN Tour de Georgia tapes. When I saw the Craig Hummer interview of Lance right before Stage 2, I was smiling, because I was standing elbow-to-elbow with Craig while he was talking with Lance. The cameraman was shooting right over my shoulder, and Lance had just said hello to me only seconds before they started the camera rolling. Actually, it probably already was, and they cut out that part of the tape. That same thing happened a few times at the TdF last year - I hang out beside the OLN crew a lot at the bus. I think I am sort of a space-holder for them...

Well, the annual Live Strong Gala will be in Austin this Friday, May 20th. It should be a great, star-studded event - the LiveStrong Awards will be presented and they will have the famous auction of all kinds of unique Lance goodies. Last year they raised over $700,000. The link below is to a letter from Lance on the LAF site. Since you're going to ask: Nope, I won’t be there, I think my invitation got lost in the mail, or maybe it was sent to San Jose, Costa Rica - Just kidding....

OK - Here’s the Monday morning Lance Armstrong Sirius Faction radio report. Can you say deja vu? Yep - another re-run of a previous show: the one right after P-N, I think. Higgs was in Austin and Lance was in Girona recuperating, and it was taped on a Friday for the Sunday show. So it was a tape within a tape, or something like that.

Just got an email from Eki - He says he is starting on one hour a day on his turbo and it feels good. He said to tell all Discovery Fans hello and that he will be back soon! Jeeze - I love this guy, I really do - he has so much determination, tenacity, grit and guts. You go, Eki - we’re all cheering for you, bigtime.....

I was just looking at the Girona Stage 8 ITT pics on grahamwatson.com. Graham has a great photo of Dave Z on the podium with two podie girls. I think possibly the best pic of Z that I’ve ever seen. Z’s got the biggest smile and doesn’t look the least bit tired after averaging 46kph on that challenging, narrow, twisty course. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the link page to see the podium pic....

Bummer - Tom Danielson, of our DC guys, abandoned the Giro real early into Stage 9. His knee has been bothering him a lot since Georgia - he’s mentioned it a few times, and has been riding in pain. Hope he stopped before he injured it more.... but... he was a prime domestique for Paolo in the Giro. Man, we are dogged by injuries this year!

How very cool that Zabriskie took the TT win at the Giro this morning! Z was looking so good at the Morgan Hill Grand Prix - strong and fast - and really confident. This is gonna be a good year for him... Paolo placed third - his descending skills bought him some time after he faltered a bit along the way. He was two seconds ahead of Basso at the first time check. They said that he had some kind of false start - maybe we’ll see it on the OLN Cyclysm this afternoon. He was 0.44 down at the finish. But, Paolo is also standing third in the GC right now....

I hear that Ryder really had the bad road rash after Friday’s crash. The quick shots that I saw on the OLN live-streaming showed the back of his jersey in tatters, and I bet his shorts were, too. It is so painful how they have to have their road rash scrubbed, really scrubbed hard, so get rid of any dirt and particularly any bacteria, etc from the road... It’s pretty brutal, but absolutely necessary.

I quickly glanced at a column in the SF Chron this morning by Gwen Knapp. I think she’s put her foot in her mouth before about Lance, but this time she wrote a long garbled piece about how Tiger Wood’s record-breaking streak of making the PGA cut 142 times (he just blew it) was better than several other records set by well-known athletes. She tried to diminish Lance’s record-breaking six consecutive Tour wins by saying, “Armstrong's six consecutive wins in the Tour de France has been phenomenal, but the previous record-holder, Miguel Indurain, finished his streak of five only four years before Armstrong won his first Tour”.... Huh? Did I miss something here? That makes it not as significant...?

What’s the point from Ms. SF Columnist who knows nothing about cycling except how to spell it? She said this about Tiger Woods, “It's a staggering achievement, unprecedented, thoroughly daunting, yet all it really represents is relentless competence. The most amazing thing about this streak is that it was so amazing.”

I hear that Creed may be racing in the Boulder Stage Race, which starts today. This is the second year of the race, and originally there was speculation that Lance might ride. He said something in Georgia about maybe racing in Colorado, so that started the buzz. But I think he is headed for Europe, if he’s not there already. So it would be nice to know that Mike is feeling well enough to test his legs.

Clark Sheehan is running the Boulder Race - he was a great rider for the 7-11 team. I always liked to watch him ride - he just had such grace on his bike - it was almost like watching a dance, such a smooth and flowing style. Clark is also a really nice guy. He often is on the Threshold staff team along with me - so I see him at a few races during the season.

Just saw Ryder crash with a Saunier Duval guy in Giro - Stage 6. It took a while for the Discovery wrench to get him going again - looked like it was Geoff Brown doing the wrenching. They had to change the wheel and them fool around with the seat before he could get started, but he looks OK.... And now another crash - it’s really crazy in the peloton. You’d think that NPS - nervous peloton syndrome - would be over by the sixth stage, but not so ... But those guys are really hauling A.. today - they are flying along the course. There were at least three crashes in the last 5 k of the race, and McEwen took the sprint. Two solo crashes were right before the finish line. One crash about 8k out was on a turn where several riders went wide into the dirt. Man - it was crazy today.... Volodymyr came in 3rd among all the chaos. Right on for him - he’s a fine rider...

Short ‘n sweet today.... Looks like Paolo came in at 8th in Stage 5 of the Giro. I guess a bunch of the Discovery team got caught behind that crash yesterday, and contesting the stage was not in the cards.

Another Giro crash today in Stage 5 and I think it was Euskatel-Euskadie again - David Lopez... That team is leaving a lot of skin on the road... I saw a T-Mobile rider getting up from that same crash - the back of his kit was shredded pretty good - he got back on his bike very slowly and looked like he was really hurting - couldn’t tell who he was.... My live-straming connection kept freezing - I thinkit was my computer not OLN, but very annoying....Like swearing annoying...

Lance is nominated again for the Laureles World Sports award. I guess the ceremony is on Monday in Estoril, Portugal. I saw on news article that said he would be attending - maybe on his way back to Girona. It is about the time he will be heading back to start training there...

Don’t forget to check out the Wachovia Cycling Series site for my Velogal’s Wachovia Journal - they seem to be putting it up regularly now. Link below.... You can see the Wachovia USPRO finale on OLN Cyclysm on June 12th....

Whoo-hoo! Quite a finish in Stage 4 just now. Bettini, Cooke and Mazzanti were sprinting for the finish - Cooke tried to pass on the left and Bettini just kept movin’ on over, clear to the barriers. Cooke was squeezed into the barriers and crashed. It was really cool to see it on OLN - they re-played it several times from different angles. It didn’t necessarily look deliberate on Bettini’s part, but it was a very irregular line to the sprint finish, for sure. But Bettini had to know that Cooke was coming around. After the judges reviewed the tapes, Bettini got sanctioned and Mazzanti was declared the stage winner. This one is gonna be one big controversy - Cooke is pissed to the max and wouldn’t even listen to Bettini’s apologies or explanations, or whatever he was trying to say to Cooke.

I notice that the Italian moto cameramen rarely ever show the Discovery team. Maybe il Falcon will change that in the mountains. The team is feeling very confident about Paolo, and really stoked about working for him....

And to respond to a few folks who wrote about the tree-cutting for the race car event: The newspaper article said that the City did not consider netting the tree instead of cutting it down because it “was not a suitable species for downtown”. Guess it somehow took them thirty years and an auto race to decide the tree was not suitable. Evidently Mother Nature thought it was just fine where it grew, since it survived and thrived in that location for over thirty years. Not suitable - this is one spin that nobody buys....

Thanks to those who wrote - but the tree is gone, and some local wood carver got the chopped up pieces for free and is going to turn it into giant bathtub-size bowls to sell for a thousand or so each...

Kinda wandered in and out of the live-stream video of the Giro this morning. The one thing that is just awesome is the Italian scenery from the helicopter. Absolutely gorgeous shots yesterday and today - beautiful beaches and villages yesterday and beautiful, lush green countryside and ruins of castles or fortresses today. I’ve never been to Italy, but is sure looks stunning around the race course.

I see that Paolo is standing 5th in the GC after Stage 3. I guess he (and the other guys in the peloton) successfully eluded the two drunks that were standing in the road and trying to punch the racers as they went by... Another crash today that almost sent a rider into the metal barricade. The guy who had the scariest crash yesterday, Alberto Lopez de Munain, was clearly alive because he was wearing a helmet. And then it was touch-and-go. He had to have a breathing tube inserted by a Giro doc, who was there instantly, or he would have died on the spot from strangling in his own blood. He’s really busted up, face messed up and lungs and thorax all messed up, too. He would have been dead instantly without a helmet, the way his head hit the metal barricade.

Remember a couple of years ago, when George crashed while flying around a turn on a descent, and somehow slid right under a metal barricade? He was going like a rocket and was not wearing a helmet. George would have been toast if the big guy hadn’t been squeezed under the two-foot gap beneath the lower rail without hitting his head.

Jeeze, I am just looking at the morning San Jose Merc, and I see that the SJ City officials, in their infinite quest for money over environment, have cut down a thirty-year-old Carob tree on Park Avenue. Why? Has the root system gone bad and it’s in danger of falling? Is it infested with pests? No... None of the above... This beautiful old tree was destroyed because of the possibility that falling carob pods could be a danger to the drivers in the San Jose Grand Prix auto race in July. The area around Park Avenue has lots of lovely, old, gnarled trees, and this particular tree was chopped down because a race car might have a problem with carob pods on the road? I am appalled and disgusted beyond words.... I’m not a tree-hugger, but this is idiotic beyond belief.

Monday morning Lance Armstrong Sirius LiveStrong report: Re-run of the show from Belgium and Lance’s first race there. Guess things did not work out for a live broadcast yesterday....

Just watched the live-streaming of the Giro on OLN. Yeah - it is not the ultimate, but the price is cheap - chomp change each day. No sound but motos and helicopters and occasional crowd noise as the motos pass thru towns. Screen graphics are in Italian and not too difficult to figure out... But, hey, that’s real life if you are watching along the route somewhere in Italy...

I tuned in late and did not see any DC team kits a the Testa Della Corsa (head of the course). I try to spot them quickly in the shots by the turquoise jerseys and black shorts, but they were difficult to spot in the images. Sure be nice if they had distinctive helmets or something that stands out... But, I don’t care, I’ll watch anywhere, anyway and be happy....

Looks like Volodymyr placed 12th with ST as the winner, McEwen. Petacchi ended up fourth...Damn fine job, VB! Some Italian rider crashed right into the metal barriers face-first earlier in the race - hope he is OK. He went away in an ambulance...

If anyone is interested in the Cat’s Hill Classic results, the podium shots from the Cat’s Hill race are up on smugmug (link is below). If you didn’t race or know someone who raced, you may not be interested in seeing a series of similar podium shots....

OK - the Cat’s Hill Crit was a great success, with almost 700 registered racers! All the volunteers in our Los Gatos Racing Club should be really proud for having completed such a successful event. I’m no different than anyone else in the club, and I worked my rear end off for two days. From buying umpteen cases of water at Costco (loading and unloading them), and, along with another gal, picking boxes up 500 water bottles at Specialized, folding race brochures, all kinds of go-fer chores, then helping sweep the course, and hang banners on Friday night.

Saturday race morning began at 6 am on the course, and along with a dozens of wonderful, hardworking club volunteers doing a myriad of crucial jobs, I was setting up expo tents, putting up snow fencing with zip ties, and hanging sponsor banners. Race time and (not magically, but due to hard work) everything was in place.

Then, for the rest of the day, I was doing the podium photography, and it was a much more difficult chore than I expected. Remember we had both genders racing from juniors age 10-12, through masters age categories thru elite races. Trying to get three people to the podium area all at once, and get one or two of them to stay there while waiting for someone else was a real challenge: winners are elated, but also tired and hungry, and hanging around to wait for photos isn’t the most fun thing for them, either, especially when I was trying to stay on a schedule. Behind the podium is pretty chaotic, because that is the area where the results are posted and rider registration occurs throughout the racing day.

I am going to start going through my photos right now, and try to get them uploaded on my smugmug gallery. Should be up in a couple of hours.

But, how about our DC team yesterday in the Giro TT Prologue? Paolo comes in 4th, just 0.01 down, which is fantastic. Look at these guys! Michael at 15th, just 0.03 back, and Ryder at 0.04 back, then Pavel and Volodymyr at 0.05 and Tom at 0.07? That’s damn good riding for those guys in a TT! Way to go, and I’m keeping tabs on Stage One right now... And.... Paolo places 11th - only 0.04 back. He's really motivated and looking good!

Race Day at Cat's Hill! Hope you are catching the Giro in some way - you do have options... I'm outta here right now to the Los Gatos race course - it's 6 am and I probably won't get back till 9-ish tonight. Cheers!

Sirius Faction 28 has a new schedule for Athlete-Hosted shows, but Lance is hanging at the usual Sunday 9 pm EST. However (and maybe this has been going on the whole time and I didn’t know it), there are replays of Lance’s show on Mondays at midnight and Mondays at noon - all EST. Nice to know, ‘cause I have my PVR set for 6 pm my time, and if Lance is traveling/racing, the show time may change and I’ll miss it.. I always wonder if I’m taping the wrong time slot, so this way I can at least catch it later.

BTW, I am still really pleased with my Sirius Starmate. I bought the home kit, too, so I can try to use it in motels. It is supposed to hook up to computer speakers, but I haven’t yet tried it on my laptop. If that doesn’t work, I was thinking that maybe I could get one of those little Sony Walkman speakers - the ones that look like a dog’s bone. I’m not sure they would be compatible - Sony always makes everything to be so exclusively Sony that it won’t work with any other brand - at least with cameras, anyway.... Hello, Dave Aiello of Operation Gadget - where are you? Help me with a travel-sized Sirius speaker gadget! I met Dave at the Tour de Georgia - he’s a nice guy and a good blogger.... I’m always going to his site, ‘cause I’m a total tech gadget person - I just don’t have the bucks to buy all the damn stuff!

I just received a press release from Media zone - Here's an update on the live streaming coverage of the Giro - looks like the $5.95 buys you all-access. I think they're saying no live streaming during the OLN weekend coverage. Go the FAQ for info....

The Discovery guys are all assembled for the Giro, which starts Saturday, the 7th, for three weeks. Start list: Tom, Paolo, Michael, Pavel, Tony, Benoit, Jason, Volodymyr and Ryder. We’ve got some guys who are new to the Giro and new to three-week stage racing. I got a note from Michael Barry yesterday, and he says the team is looking good and strong. Tom is fresh off the Georgia win, and he needs to use the confidence and lose the pressure to do well at the Giro. His job there is to ride for Paolo - Johan expects Paolo to do well, even tho Paolo hasn’t done much racing since recovering from his crash collar-bone thrash.

Johan has put together a strong, experienced support team - if you’ve noticed, Volodymyr has been right up there in the top ten of several finishes. Ryder and Jason need to hang tough, ride hard, ride smart and do what is expected of them: suffer for Paolo (il Falco) the team leader for the Giro.

Speaking of Michael Barry, I’ve been trying to grab a few free minutes to read Inside the Postal Bus, and am rather annoyed to see incorrect names in the captions of some of my shots. Makes me look like I don’t know who the Postal team guys were. I take great pains to double-check and triple-check for accuracy. I don’t quite understand how folks somewhere along the publishing line, whether it’s a proof-reader, copy editor, technical editor, or project editor, can arbitrarily change a caption or change the spelling of a rider’s name or team name, without checking it out with the photographer or author for accuracy. Similar stuff happened with the Tour de France for Dummies book, but as a co-author, I did get a chance to try to catch several incorrect revisions, particularly changes in spelling of names, which I had done accurately, and someone had changed to the wrong spelling. With Michael’s book, I didn’t see the final captions before they went to print. And, BTW, I am told that The Tour de France for Dummies now will be released on May 23rd.

Race thoughts for today... The big push right now is preparation for the 32nd Annual Testarossa Vineyards Cat’s Hill Classic Crit, happening this Saturday the 7th, in Los Gatos. Our small bicycle club puts this race on every year, entirely with volunteers from the club. As usual, there is a core of hard-working folks who are there every year to help out. The planning meeting start months ahead, and we swing into action on Friday afternoon and evening: hanging banners, sweeping the course, putting up signs, marking the booth areas, unloading the barricades, cones, fencing and bales of hay. Oh yeah - making sure there are porta-potties, unlocked and with tons of TP!

All members of the Los Gatos Bicycle Racing Club are required to volunteer for one of our two yearly races, the Cat’s Hill or the Timpani Crit in August. But we really need everybody at the Cats! It’s a huge race, with over 400 registered racers already this year, and possibly a hundred or so walk-in registrants on race day..

The registration process is a huge job, as are the results, finish cameras, awards, podium ceremonies, the announcer’s scripts, the music, the officiating, the photography, and the lunches and water for volunteers. The race has to have motos, radios and emergency medical teams . In addition, there is the website maintenance, the Cat’s Hill Blog, posting the results, the advertisements, posters, flyers, publicity, and the unique Cat’s Hill Tee Shirts (the design process is lengthy and time-consuming).

Another real biggie is getting enough course marshals for all the posts - it’s a long, long day of racing. The course marshals are the vital key to keeping the race safe for both participants and spectators. In addition, we are required to post a race notice at every house, business or apartment to let them know about road closing, etc. We are required to do this twice before race day! Of course, we have to have permits from everybody under the sun, as well as covering a substantial fee for police services.

Quite an accomplishment to be proud of for our club, which numbers less than 150 people. The LGBRC has an active Juniors program - some really hard-working parents are so incredibly supportive and work so hard on Junior Development - so you will see a lot of great Junior guys and gals racing. The Cat's Hill is a real community event, with lawn parties in front yards along the course, and kids selling cokes and cookies out of their wagons or card tables. Both the bottom and top of the Cat’s Hill are prime viewing areas and are filled with noisy, cheering crowds. This is great racing, a brutal crit course and an all-around family affair. Come on out and see the suffer-fest on Cat’s Hill!! Directions and information at the Cat’s Hill site on the link below.

A quick heads-up! OLN was listening to us.... They are going to show a two hour, same day Giro recap with Phil, Paul and Bob, and also offer live streaming video direct from Italian television coverage, for $5.95 a day. Go to the link below to read the press release....

Saw on the cyclingnews roundup that Laurenzo Lapage, Discovery Channel Assistant DS, is quite happy with the performances of Trikki Beltran and Paolo Salvodelli at the Tour of Romandie. They are lookin’ real good for the Giro. Trikki is not a time trial specialist at all, yet he finished in the GC Top Ten in Romandie, and that’s quite an accomplishment. Paolo, “Il Falco”, has been recovering from injuries sustained at training camp, so he looks really on target for coming into form at the right time for the Giro. The Falcon won the Giro in 2002 and was second on the podium in 1999.

It is ironic that both Paolo and Eki received such debilitating injuries from the same type of solo fall. Eki’s injuries are blasting the news everywhere - if you are interested in seeing the Russian version of the crash, go to these Russian news sites and note the Russian spelling of Eki’s name:
www.kommersant.com/page.asp?id=575001 and www.sptimes.ru/archive/times/1066/news/n_15602.htm

One of my blog fans, Pat, sent a heads-up about a TV interview on KDSK with Sheryl while she visited her hometown of Kennett, Missouri. You can read the interview and also watch it in three parts - click on the Link icon at the bottom of today’s blog. Sheryl is so committed to fundraising for her hometown’s projects. The Kennett community swimming pool and the children’s home are two of the projects that she works hard to support. And her official Fan Club always raises a whole bunch of money for one of her projects every year, as a birthday present to Sheryl. How cool is that!!

In the interview, Sheryl says that Lance will be going with her on her Fall Music Tour for her new release, “Wildflower”. Lance mentioned this several weeks ago on his Sirius Live Strong Radio Show. He said that Sheryl has just been absolutely the best support for him during his Tour de France - just there for him all the time, and he wants to do payback now, and be there to support her on when she is touring with her band. If any of you know any musicians (my ex-boyfriend is a musician), then you know that doing a rock tour is extremely hard work and stressful. It’s not the blissful, love-fest that it looks like to viewers. Hard work, dealing with anything and everything that can go wrong, always on the move: all kinds of variables that can’t always be controlled. It takes stamina and guts, as does the Tour de France.

Sheryl is a great person, so genuine and sincere and no BS. Yet such compassion and caring - she and Lance are so alike in these areas. It’s no wonder that they are so compatible. Sheryl is always so great to me, I am totally a fan of her as a person, not just her music.

Monday Lance Armstrong Live Strong Sirius Radio report. Lance was live from Los Angeles with Higgs, Ben Harper, and Michael Ward on-air, and Dave Bolch doing the camera - probably taking some shots with his new D70. (Dave borrowed my D70 for a day during training camp to check it out before he purchased one.) Ben and Michael are obviously good friends with Lance and they were joking about Lance and Ben racing in the pool - Ben said Lance aced him because Lance had the flip turns and he (Ben) didn’t. Ben said he had a surprise for Lance the next time and it isn’t a “floatie”.

Lance did another explanation of why he is retiring after the Tour (Higgs wryly commented that the French are calling it “quitting”). Lance said whatever you call it, he is retiring to spend more time with his kids. Said that when he saw how much his kids had changed after he was gone for a month in Europe, that was when his decision was made. He said in one month his kids had gained so much independence, and that their voices, jokes and characters had changed so much. He just doesn’t want to miss out on being a part of that. Lance said that he has everything he’s always wanted or needed right now. Said he has six Tours and hopes to win a seventh, and he really doesn’t need another Tour after this summer.

He also said that he may still be seen at local races, but no more Pro races.... Said he was looking for some local races to do now.. I shot him an email to remind him about the Cat’s Hill Crit next weekend, but a crit is really not the kind of training that Lance needs for the Tour.

Ben asked Lance if he was nervous when he made his announcement in Georgia. Lance said that he was, because he did not want to read some formal, written announcement. He wanted to say it straight as he saw it, but he was nervous that he would leave something or somebody out when he was speaking. (I’m sure he knew, as always, how the media loves to misinterpret what he says.) Lance said that Tom rode like a true champ on Brasstown Bald - under lots of pressure from sponsors, press, fans and the one-minute deficit - yet he performed like a future champ and stood up and took off on the final part of BB... Lance said his own performance was not on the level that he expected - he compared with the 2003 Georgia TT and he was two minutes slower this year.

There was a lot of joking around - it sounded like stuff on he team bus. Higgs was trying to complement Lance about something and Lance joked to “shut up and stop kissing my ass”, Higgs shot back that Lance pays him, that’s why. Ben interjected that Lance is one person who he has never seen Lance kissing up to anyone - Lance gave a big laugh asked they’d seen him with Sheryl....

Lance told a story about going to Ben’s house, bringing pizza and beer and playing pinball. Ben said that Lance was really pissed when he lost. Higgs asked Lance, “What did you think? You played with someone who has a machine in their house!"

Ben sounds in awe about how Lance and the guys find a way to dig so deep during the Tour, during the end of stages when they are already so depleted. Lance said that the flatter stages, at the end, scare him to death. Said he is always petrified with the possibilities for crashes with the whole peloton jockeying for position for sprints. He says the climbs and TT are so much safer. Lance says the rule (for safety) on those flat stages is complete concentration: No friends, no talking, no looking around or you’ll crash.

Ben played “Diamonds on the Inside” - Lance said that’s his favorite song - it was very meaningful when he was going thru stuff in his own life. To him, it means honesty and facing up to you own truths and what’s right for people around you. It really struck a chord in Lance - to be honest and truthful with yourself is a core belief of his.

Ben talked about how special it was for him and his son to be invited into the inside of the Tour last year for Lance’s sixth. They rode in a pace car in front of the guys racing, and also rode in a helicopter and watched the race with binoculars. Said his son’s eyes were so big...

Higgs talked about when he first moved to Austin for college in ’95. Ben Harper had a show there, and Higgs needed to study, but he blew it off to see Ben’s show. Said Ben’s show blew him away and he’s been a big fan ever since. Higgs is really into the music scene, particularly in Austin, and the Austin City Limits presentations. (I’d love to be able to go down to Austin for some of the shows!)Higgs is a real pro as a DJ on the Faction shows - I'm impressed!

Michael Ward is writing a kid’s book called “Mike and the Bike” - Lance did a foreword, (Hmm - why does that sound familiar to me?) and Phil Liggett did a audio CD that comes with the book. The website will soon be up: www.mikeandthebike.com. Lance is very enthusiastic, because he is so committed to getting kids into cycling.

Lance was asked (by Ben, I think) about all the people getting out in front of him at the Tour. Lance agreed that it is dangerous, especially for him this year with the death threats before the Tour. Lance explained that he was a threat to the history of wins by both French and Basque heroes. Lance mentioned the multitude of one-finger salutes, hate, etc. on the climbs. Ben laughed and said, “Man, you ain’t even Black!” Ben said, tho, that he thinks it’s a beautiful thing that cycling is a sport where the fans can get so close to their heroes.

Lance mentioned Eki’s crash and said that Eki was “banged up bad”, but that Eki is a true Hard Man - the toughest guy that Lance has ever known. They talked about how Eki loves to pick up American slang. Ben (I think) told an Eki story, using a not great Russian accent - he asked Eki about the Tour de Georgia... Eki said, Vas real...Vas fun... Vas not real fun”.

Get well soon, My Iron Man, and get back on that bike - we all love you!!