OK, here is the Monday Morning Lance Armstrong Radio Sirius Faction 28 report. Lance and Higgs were in Hollywood territory for what they announced as their “second live show in two weeks”. (More about the first live one last week, courtesy of one of my blog readers.) In the room with L & H were Will Farrell and Jim Ochowitz from USA Cycling - a long-time friend and colleague of Lance from the Motorola days.

The entire program was basically the guys sitting around shooting the breeze (often all at once - Hey guys, this is radio). Lots of joking, inside stuff, and tons of laughing. They first brought up the subject of Bode Miller - and said don’t listen to that show...(laughter). Lance said that Bode “could kiss my white ass”. (Obviously, Lance’s suntan is not on his behind, in spite of being in the South of France at the end of the Tour.) Someone commented that it was interesting that the article referring to doping came out in Rolling Stone in November, and somehow it is just getting publicity for Bode two weeks before the Olympics. Lance said they talked a bit about what to do or say about it and decided to just officially say, “Who the Hell is Bode Miller?”

Will Farrell mostly belched loudly and did an imitation of Dubya addressing a group of cyclists as “helmeted ones”. Will said that he was nervous riding in the pack at RftR because he didn’t want to knock anyone over. He is now in Montreal learning to ice skate like a pro for the movie “Blades of Glory”. Lance and Higgs said they will be in Montreal with Prez Clinton on March 6th. They joked about who should play Lance in the upcoming movie: Carrot Top, Robin Williams or Matt Damon - they seemed to agree that Damon was a good choice...

Lance said that he and the team partied in Ojai on Friday night - team building ..ha ha. And that he only rode about 20 miles in the sponsor ride and left... Lance added that George is looking so good and that he killed everyone else at training camp. (Remember what I said about him motoring up the Figuroa?)

Lance said he went to dinner at Spago on Saturday night, with stars such as Sidney Poitier, Jack Nicholson, Barbara Striesand, Sting and others. Said Poitier was dressed immaculately with immaculate manners... Lance said that he was dressed casual and that he felt like Forrest Gump there.... Kind of a disjointed show with Higgs trying to focus them on topics, but all the guys were full of P&V last night. They played Sheryl and Sting doing “Always on Your Side” - I liked it a lot...

So for the Sunday 22nd show, I got a brief recap from JC, a gal who is a cyclist and Lance fan. She listens to Lance’s program in her car every Sunday night. You Go Girl! Anyway, it seems that Lance and Higgs apologized for having so many re-runs and said they probably had lost all their listeners. They talked about the football game and the Longhorns losing to Denver. A caller asked how he deals with Luke when the team loses, and LA said something about not much cycling shown in the US, so not much chance of his kids seeing him screw up on TV when he was riding. Talked a bit about his South Africa trip and Lance said it really made a cultural impact on him - said he could take his kids there. Sounds like they played a lot of music.

Sorry, no photo today - I’m up to my ears in work from being gone for two weeks....

Bye, Guys – It was a great ride the last two weeks with you. As the only woman on the road with you at training camp, I have to say that you are all really great guys, and I love you like family. All the Riders, Directeurs Sportif and Staff of the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team are dedicated, honest, sincere and hard working people. The guys ride to their ultimate max for this team and this country – a team to make us proud. Thanks, guys, for always giving your best. Be safe and be well in your travels and your races….

A real quick post to tell you that there are pics on smugmug, and I have shots of the packing up of the bikes that one of the comments requested. Funny, I didn't read the comments till I got back this afternoon, but I had a hunch that you all would be interested to see the process. It's a huge amount of work! Photo is, of course, Lance getting ready to ride.

I also did a quick podcast - I getting frustrated with it - seems there is always a glitch of some kind or other. This time I tried twice and both times had some kind of glitch where part of my audio was lost right in the middle... I just left it as is and called it macaroni.. You can click the link and hear a fast version of it.. Grrr...

We arrived in Ojai in fine form… The guys just flew right up Figuroa and Gibralter – nobody got dropped. When we arrived in Ojai, they looked they had been for a ride around the block. This team is in tremendous shape already – they got legs bigtime. Speaking of that, Roger Hammond has the biggest calf muscles I’ve ever seen on a cyclist – his legs are like pistons…

I took this photo over my shoulder while driving out of Solvang – I guess this guy is a big Lance fan, but I had to keep him behind me so he wouldn’t get up with the guys and impale someone or put their eye out. He looked like a court jester with horns, and I can only imagine what the locals said as they drove by him.

So huge thanks to the fans beside the road as we came down the climb into Ojai. It was great to see the two little gals with the Discovery signs cheering the guys on – they loved it. And thanks to the Velogal fan who was there. Actually. many thanks to all the people who have come up to me with such kind words about my blog, gallery and podcast. I put a lot of time and energy into my reports, and I’m glad you all enjoy them so much…

I put some shots from today up in my smugmug gallery – check ‘em out… Link is below..

A totally quiet morning in Solvang – I chose to bypass the chaos and hysteria of the team presentation in Los Angeles and hang out here this morning. The photo, of course, is a morning shot of where the staff and team usually get ready to ride. The soigneurs and wrenches have a bit of breathing space this morning, and have time for a leisurely breakfast.

I received a couple of comments/questions from Bill on my podcast site, and now I have time to respond to one of them this morning. This Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team of 27 riders requires a big support staff for the different races that are scheduled, often for the same dates in different countries.

On the frontlines, so to speak, there are now seven wrenches (mechanics) and five soigneurs, two bus drivers, four Directeurs sportif, an administrative/logistics person, a couple of media/publicity persons, a chef in Europe, and an operations director in Europe. There are also numerous behind-the-scene folks who work to make the whole operation go smoothly.

Louise is the logistics/administrative gal, and she is in charge of all travel, lodging, car reservations, dining and team registration for all races in America and Europe - for all riders, staff and sponsor events. The job is unbelievably demanding, stressful and exacting – she does an awesome job… Arrangements have to be made months in advance.

The soigneurs do a bit of everything – mainly the “rubs” or massages, but they also do the team laundry every day, run errands, shopping, and preparing the food and drink that has to be ready for the ride every morning in ice chests to go in the team cars. They make airport runs, haul luggage and boxes – Whatever is needed - they do it. Their hours are long – from early morning to late at night. During the Tour de France, they are up at 5 am and are still going at midnight or later.

The wrenches work equally hard, and of course making the bikes perfect for each individual rider is the goal. A great deal of time is spent gluing tires… The bikes and team cars are washed every day and numerous parts and pieces are tweaked, assembled and repaired constantly. Keeping the truck stocked with every tiny item that might be critical is crucial. The wrenches are also responsible for getting the truck and team cars to races. Vince has the team truck in Sacramento, so he has to drive it to wherever the race is in the States: Georgia, Philly, wherever…. Same for the wrenches in Europe – they do some heroic long-distance transports.

I have to say that all these people work so well together, like each other, have fun and joke around. In the midst of hard, demanding work, they are a joy and pleasure to be around.

As with all teams, the team meals, lodging and direct costs are covered by the team budget. The team and staff all eat together, usually the riders sit together and want tables to be pushed together to accommodate them all. The wrenches and soigneurs sit together, and sometimes the Directeurs sit at a separate table, but often sit with the riders.

As far as salaries, I have no idea at all about that….

And, I can’t resist reminding you all that most of these kinds of questions and answers are in the Tour de France for Dummies book that I co-authored! Click on the Amazon logo on any of my sites to buy this book (or any book) and I'll make a couple of bucks to cover my costs. Thanks!

Here is a quick heads-up about the team for tomorrow. I'm told that the plans have changed, and the team will not be riding back half-way from LA. The guys will ride out of Solvang, if they return from the press conference in time.

Also, I just finished a podcast - you can click the link and check it out.

What a day yesterday… The ride was way over six hours, and the guys did Figuroa twice. Or once and a half, that is. We rode for about three hours and then headed up the killer Figuroa from the Santa Barbara side - then descended at unreal speeds, considering how bad the road is. When the guys got to the bottom, near Los Olivos, both Johan and Dirk turned their groups around and sent them back up again…

The guys again climbed that grueling, pot-holed road back to the top. By then it was late afternoon - very windy and cold – the guys were sweating, fatigued and chilled. I followed the Classics group, and saw Eki tearing up the road – way ahead of the others the second time up. My Iron Man is awesome. And, yes, his new hairdo does kinda look like a modified mullet.

A couple of the guys got dropped, so I dropped back with them and followed – nobody gets left alone on the mountain. This ride is not easy for the non-climbers on the team. They all had an extra incentive, because Sean Yates suited up and rode the Figuroa with them. Pretty amazing to see Sean out there climbing with the team. He held his own place pretty well… Chapeau bas to him! Dirk rode with the team the day before. I teased him about his hairy legs…

I am just getting in under the wire for using the wifi at the Bulldog Café. They’re closing in five minutes, but here is the very first look at the 2006 Discovery Channel Professional Cycling Team. I took ton of team shots at the photo-op this morning, and also some candid shots that you can find on my velogal smugmug gallery. So check out the pics by clicking the Link below and I’ll try to put up more team shots tomorrow…

A quick post this morning to show you how the new team kit colors stand out so much better than last year. The guys are in the shade.. I think we'll be able to spot the Discovery team guys a bit better this year in the peloton.

Photo is thru my windshield yesterday morning. If talking on a cell phone pisses off other drivers, imagine what they’d say about me taking a photo. Not to mention the CHP…Not to worry, no other cars on the road, and I kept a safe distance from Dirk and the team car at about fourteen miles an hour…

More later…

Just before the team came out to ride, the rain cleared up – the sun appeared and the guys were much happier about being at camp. About two-thirds of the team was here. Some of the Spanish riders got delayed because of a late flight from Madrid, which caused the usual chain reaction effect, so they missed a connecting flight. Riders from the Southern Hemisphere were jetlagged from 20-22 hour flights. Other guys were doing wind tunnel testing, including Eki.

I hear that Eki, my Iron Man, is tough as nails already, and is sporting a new hairstyle. I’ll see him later tonight or tomorrow morning, but I’m told it is close cropped in the front and long in the back… Is it a ponytail or a mullet? Please don’t let it be a mullet!

So I was a follow car for the team, as I usually am. Not too far into the ride, Jurgen Van Goolen was having some discomfort in his back and legs, so Dirk asked me to bring him back to the hotel. I zoomed back with Jurgen, dropped him off and headed back. I knew they were going down Foxen Canyon Rd, but not the rest of the route. I hit crappy-slow traffic, couldn’t catch up and lost them. There are several route choices off Foxen, and I missed them. I had Benoit’s warm outer-layer clothing that he had peeled off and tossed in my window. I was entreating the Cycling Weather Gods to not let it rain or get cold before the guys rode back in…Phew… it stayed sunny…

I went in and had lunch with the wrenches and soigneurs, and listened to all the great stories that they tell. These guys all get along so well and have a camaraderie that comes from being on the front line at every cycling race in Europe, as well as here. Along with our Directeurs Sportif, these guys are great people: kind, thoughtful and funny. Just the best…

This is a photo that I took this morning of Dirk Demol and Sean Yates.. And to answer a question in the Comment section, I said I was bummed about OLN because they are no longer on my Dish Network, so I’ll miss out on any cycling programs that they may have…

I sloshed on over to the San Jose City Hall Rotunda this morning for the Amgen Tour of California San Jose presentation. It was raining pretty good, but a couple of hundred other cycling fans turned out. I took a bunch of shots, including the one above, where Mayor Gonzalez is addressing the crowd.

I walked up to the second floor balcony to shoot my images, and as you can imagine, the sound is pretty bad in the building with that high dome. So didn’t hear much of the speechifying, but the enthusiasm of the San Jose City officials, the Amgen folks and the local organizing committee was pretty obvious. I did hear the Amgen guy say that they were in the ToC sponsorship for the long haul - this race is not a one-time thing. That’s very good news for all us cycling fans, who are seeing our beloved races fall off the calendar more each year.

I should be able to put up some shots in the smugmug gallery tonight, although only a few shots tell the story...

Ok, Peeps, get a grip. The gossip about Lance and Sheryl is just that.... gossip. Do you believe everything that you read? The definition of gossip is “Rumor or talk of a personal, sensational, or intimate nature”. This is how gossip columnists make their living.... If they write it - it has to be sensational... I bet that every gossip writer has a list of Sensational Couples and when things get slow, they throw a dart at their list and whatever name comes up, that’s the target of the day. If they don’t create sensational headlines, they don’t keep their jobs rolling around in the slime. Each day or week, they have to come up with some sensational gossip - the truth doesn’t enter into it.. People - Do I really have to tell you this?

Lance finally told the Austin American Statesman that he hated to ruin the story, but he and Sheryl are still very much together. OK... end of story....

Thanks for reminding me about my Monday morning Lance Armstrong Sirius Faction Radio report... It has been a series of re-runs the past few weeks. This past Monday, it was a re-run of the show before the Emmy Awards, and the Monday before that, it was the re-run of the Grant Lee Phillips show, and before that, I think was a re-run of the show with Ben Harper talking about floaties in the swimming pool.

Maybe Lance, Higgs and I should do a live Sirius show from training camp... Yeah, I know, very funny...

I went for the first time to Mac World yesterday, thanks to a good buddy blog reader. Wow, I loved it! There wasn’t any cycling stuff, but it did combine my two other favorite things: computers and photography. Two outta three ain’t bad.... I had a blast!

I’ve had the bad crud that is going around - totally lost my voice. Thank you, unknown person on the airplane who coughed and sneezed all over the rest of us all during the flight. Yeah, I use Airborne and yeah, I line my nose with Neosporin, but I think I’m gonna buy one of those surgical masks and make a statement to my snuffling seatmate next time. I had laryngitis and couldn’t do my podcast, so then I got pissedoff-itis...

But I recovered enough to go to a planning meeting for the 2006 Sea Otter Classic Celebration of Cycling event yesterday. Now, the primo head honchos have been working on the planning this event since last May. Yes, you’re right - last year’s Sea Otter was in April. Planning and hard work for these huge cycling events is a year-long process. Now we’re beginning our meetings with reps from volunteer groups and all the SO coordinators and affiliated organizations to plan and coordinate the hundreds of details. Yesterday was a totally beautiful, sunny day at Laguna Seca - there couldn’t be a better location for this world-class event.

Mark your calendars for April 6-9, 2006. Go to the Sea Otter Classic website by clicking the Link button below to get all kinds of info. If you want to ride an event, you’d better register early - like NOW. Everything fills up real fast, including the campgrounds. About 60,000 folks will show up and they’ve got the same things in mind that you do....

So what goes on at the Sea Otter? Well, I’ll be telling you about it from time to time, and I’ll be blogging and podcasting while I’m there. But here’s a quick run-down, in case you’re new to the Otter Experience. You know the phrase, “like a three-ring circus” that is used to describe a ton of stuff happening at once? Well, kiddies, the Sea Otter is like a twenty-ring circus... There are competitive events, recreational events, family events, kid events, a marketplace/expo area, Podium Awards area and lots of free schwag from vendors. It’s all about cycling, and it’s a spectator, schmoozer, hotdog competitor, amateur/ pro racer happening.

Like What? OK, like these... Amateur Road Racing down in Fort Ord, Amateur Circuit Racing on the Laguna Seca track, and a hard-assed PRO Circuit Race on the Laguna Seca track. Like twenty laps for the women and thirty laps for the men - give or take a few laps.... Like MTB Endurance Events: MTB Cross Country, MTB Short Track, and an MTB Industry Cup Race, plus an MTB PRO/Elite Stage Race. Like MTB Gravity Events: Down Hill, Dual Slalom, Mountain Cross, an MTB PRO Gravity Omnium, and a SRAM Invitational Dirt Jump Contest.

Add in a Recreational Road Bike Tour with some PROs joining in, a Recreational Mountain Bike Tour, or you can ride bumps and ladders and teeter-totters in the MTB Ride Zone. You can watch BMX and Trail demos around the Sea Otter Village, hang out at the Sports Expo or buy really cool Sea Otter clothing.

Pretty cool stuff and if that doesn’t light up your eyes, then maybe you’re a cycling potato after all... I took the image of Dave Zabriskie at the 2000 Sea Otter Classic. He never even dreamed then that he’d be wearing the Yellow Jersey during the 2005 Tour de France.... Go, Z!!!

Hope you all are heading out on a great ride for 2006... Here’s a catch-up on Lance Armstrong - maybe you already know most of it, but then again, maybe not... I shot the photo of Lance and Luke (and the top of one of the twins' head) at the 2005 Ride for the Roses Live Strong Expo.

Lance went to the Rose Bowl to cheer for his Texas Longhorns - They didn’t dare lose with him there... He hob-nobbed with fellow Longhorn fan Matthew McConaughey and had a brewski or two. I saw an article by some gal in a small newspaper (I forgot who or where).. Oh, yes, it was a San Jose Mercury News blog, and she said at the Rose Bowl she “happened to cut in front of skinny, bony, scrawny, skinny, almost ethereal blond guy, who I could've beat up in about three seconds.” It was Lance, but I’ve not ever heard him described quite like that.... Dum, da, dum, dum, dum...

Saw that Lance will be involved with the new Texas anti-litter campaign, along with some other Texas celebs like the above-mentioned McConaughey, Owen Wilson, Chuck Norris, Lee Ann Womack, Los Lonely Boys, and Jennifer Love Hewett. The theme, of course is “Don’t Mess With Texas”, and motorists can even win prizes for not littering. I do hope the anti-littering awareness and rules include not leaving cyclists lying beside the roads as you drive by....

Was surprised to see something in an article by my friend Samuel Abt in the IHT a week or so ago. It was called A Cyclist for all Seasons, and it was a justification for choosing Tom Boonen as IHT’s Man of the Year instead of Lance Armstrong. He wrote it as if Lance had called him, beefing about not being named top guy. I don’t know if Lance actually called him or not. And you may or may not agree with the choice, but what surprised the Hell out of me was a line in the story where Sam Abt said, “But the Tour de France is just - if that is the word - a three-week race in July.”

Jeeze, I had to read it twice to make sure he really said that. Sam Abt, I see you at the Tour every year - you’ve been covering the Tour for something like 30 years! While you have a driver, and do not suffer as much as the rest of us lowly photographers and photojournalists, you know damn well how much those cyclists suffer for three weeks... And how much the Tour means to them and to France. A three-week race in July? Come on, man, give the riders and the Tour the respect that it gives you. You are a fine writer, Samuel Abt - the best. And you know the Tour like the back of your hand, but I have to disagree with you on this one....

I’m writing this off topic - not cycling related. I know that many of my blog readers are dedicated animal lovers, so I’ll tell this story. This is about the fine fellow in the photo, who I call Mr. Russell Richardson. He was top cat in the house that I moved into about three years ago. He was called Russell by my landlady, but, after a getting to know me, he confided to me, with a great deal of purring, that his last name was Richardson. Mr. Russell Richardson is the biggest yellow tabby I’ve ever seen - he weighs about 22 pounds and is as gentle and loving as you could ever imagine. I bought him the gross orange, catnip-filled carrot toy with feathers on the top to welcome him home. He was licking his lips in anticipation when I took this shot.

Mr. Russell Richardson disappeared almost two years ago. I walked the entire neighborhood for weeks, calling his name, and we checked all the usual places to see if he had been found, alive or dead. My landlady had an identifying microchip inserted in his neck when he was a kitten. But he was nowhere to be found - he just disappeared into thin air.

This house experienced a somewhat of a "Christmas Miracle" last week. My landlady received a call from a local animal hospital, saying that they had received a cat and read the microchip implanted in his neck, and asking if we wanted him back!! After two years, Mr. Russell Richardson has returned, alive and well....

Seems that he had been an indoor cat with an unknown family, somewhere unknown, all this time. Seems that they had to move and couldn't take him with them. They had brought him to this animal clinic and, as usual, the first thing that most animal clinics or hospitals do is to run their scanner over the animal to see if it has a chip and can be identified. They did, and voila! My landlady went over and retrieved Mr. RR.... He seems to remember her, but seems rather vague about the house, since it has been remodeled since he left.

He is crying for his most recent family and wanting outside, but if we let him out, we know that he will he'll take off like a shot. So now we have four cats in the house. The other three are scared silly of Russell, especially poor little four- pound, indoor-all-her-life Baby Cat - she's never even been close to a strange cat before. Mama-Cat, who weighs about one-third of Russell's weight, hisses and growls and chases him.

Baby Cat was hiding in my room, and if she ventured out and met Mr. RR, she arched her back and growled for the first time ever in her one-year life. Now Russell is the most gentle, sweet cat in the world, despite his size, so there's nothing for him to do but run away and make the most lonesome, desperate crying sounds.

In the last two days, Baby Cat has taken to stalking the poor fellow, sneaking about three feet behind him, where ever he goes. This morning, when I opened a can of food for Mr. RR, Baby Cat forgot herself completely and rushed over to grab a few bites from the same dish. Mr. RR never made a sound, he just politely moved over to make room for her. But she realized what she was doing in a few seconds and hastily fled the scene.... Too funny....

The fourth cat, a little grey tabby whose name is Arabella, was raised with Russell, and she seemed to know him - at first... She greeted him by rubbing noses with him, and smelling him thoroughly. Unfortunately, she then saw the other two cats being so hysterically terrified of him. She decided that if the other cats were going to give him crap, she would, too. So now, poor Mr. Russell Richardson also gets hissed and growled at by Arabella. What kind of old friend is that, he asked me....

So the gentle giant has retreated to my landlady’s part of the house and seems to have some comfort there. When he comes into my area, I pet him and talk to him and carry him around to try to make him feel better, but he is just feeling abandoned, displaced and lonesome for his other family and other home... He just sits at the sliding glass door and yowls.... Day and night.... But, he is alive and he will become accustomed to his old home in time.... And it will be a Happy New Year for him.

So, I want to say to any of you who have critters that you love, to spend the $30-$40 to get a microchip implanted in your voiceless family member. This story proves that lost animals can be returned if they can be identified... If they can’t, it most often means death for them....