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.