Heads Up! For the Barclays Global Investors Grand Prix in San Francisco on September 3rd and 4th. Just got word that Ivan Basso, Dave Zabriskie and the CSC team will appear at the Speedplay booth in the Expo on Saturday, the 3rd at 2 pm. The BGIGP website is www.sanfrangrandprix.com. Photo of Ivan Basso is after the finish of Stage 10 climb from Grenoble to Courcheval - TdF 2005.

George Hincapie Day in Greenville, NC will be September 9th. We’re talking parade, dignitaries, music, food, and a twenty-one wheel salute. Well, maybe I exaggerate a bit on the salute, but they are planning on having a bicycle-raised-front-wheel salute to him before the ceremonies. It’s pretty special to win a stage at the Tour, but it’s also pretty special to be the guy who has ridden all seven Tours with Lance....

Speaking of Lance... At the 24 Hour Fitness appearance in Colorado, Lance was asked for the umpteenth hundred time if he was really retiring. Sez Lance, “Stick a fork in me, I’m done”.

I recently talked about the problem for riders with those nasty cysts or boils, and now I see an article in a NZ site about Hayden Roulston and the difficulties he is having with one of those non-healing cysts. Hayden has been off the bike for over four months, following an unsuccessful operation to remove the problem cyst. Problem was the usual - he had ridden with the cyst bothering him for months and months... Big mistake... It only gets worse. The operation was not successful - and he tried to get back on the bike too soon. He now can ride only an hour every other day and doesn’t know when he can really start training again. Hayden has missed almost the whole 2005 season... What a bummer for him and for the DC team. Follow the Link to read the article.