The axe has officially fallen on the Threshold Sports San Francisco Grand Prix for 2006. The official press release said, “There is considerable uncertainty regarding the amounts we will be billed after each year’s race, making it impossible to accurately forecast budgets or question charges beforehand,” said CEO David Chauner. “On top of that, the periodic, emotionally charged Board of Supervisors’ debates over the value of the event make potential sponsors very nervous. Few companies will sponsor a politically charged event and, when sponsors back out or can’t be replaced, we have to cut important elements of the race, like eliminating the very popular women’s event this year.”

Since 2001, San Francisco Cycling has paid City of San Francisco agencies and police a total $1,564,634 to stage the race. “This is a staggering amount, but we paid it in order to make this a world class event in a world class city.” said Jerry Casale, Operations Director of the event. According to Casale, the most recent charges leveled by Supervisors and Daly and Peskin at the November 14 Audit and Oversight Committee that San Francisco Cycling LLC failed to pay its bills for the 2004 event were misleading. “We were faxed the final and adjusted SFPD bill for $89,924 for the first time on November 10, 2005, just one working day prior to that meeting, all other city charges had been paid before we got our ISCOTT permit for the 2005 race, it wouldn’t have been issued otherwise”, said Casale “And then they said we were late and purposely avoiding payment. That’s simply not true.”

If you recall what I said in a recent post, the politicians in SF are well-known for twisting the truth to make political hay while the political sun shines, and I think supes Chris Daley and Aaron Peskin are certainly following the yellow journalism school of politics here. Their own political ambitions are going to destroy badly needed income for the City. I don’t think having a Prologue of the Amgen Tour of California in SF is going to create that kind of income for businesses that the SFGP did. That is really a stupid statement by Peskin...

The San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau study showed that this year’s race brought $10.2 million tourist dollars into the city.

Other Stuff... I saw in the news that Lance Armstrong is going to do his first visit to South Africa in January to promote the Unite 4 Health campaign. According to the news item, he will do a fundraising dinner and visit several clinics and healthcare projects around the country. The goal is to improve healthcare clinics and services.

Tom Danielson, Michael Barry, Dede Barry, Bob Roll, Chris Wherry, Ned Overend, Todd Wells, and Shonny Vanlandingham will appear at a fund-raising celebration in Durango, CO on December 16, 2005. The event benefits the Fort Lewis Cycling Team, Durango Wheel Club Junior Development and Cycling Advocacy. Check out Tom Danielson’s site for info www.tomdanielson.com

And our Belgian Connection tells me that Stijn Devolder won’t be at the Austin training camp because he is expecting the arrival of his first child right about that time...

Wanna hear the audio version of this blog posting? Follow the Link to my new podcasting site...