At the Stage 7 podium awards, Olaf Pollack literally soaked this unfortunate ESPN camera guy with a magnum of champagne. It was really kinda ugly and mean-spirited… Olaf was not smiling, and he just kept shaking the bottle and pointing it at that one guy. Yeah, it’s the usual thing to spray the crowd, and most riders are aware that they could ruin expensive equipment. But none of us had ever seen such a deliberate, singling out one person to just drench, camera and all. It was really bad vibes, and no joking on Olaf’s part. He looked angry. None of us were sure what was going on. People were laughing at first, but when he kept on and on, aiming at the one guy, it was no longer funny. It was weird…

After Olaf went back into the tent that they use as a “green room”, I think his T-Mobile people told him how ugly it looked, so he came back out into our media area and gave the camera guy a T-Mobile jacket. I asked the guy later if there was something that he had done, or that ESPN had done to Olaf, but the guy said he didn’t know, either.

It was a fantastic race – the Amgen Tour of California was a success that surpassed the organizer’s and sponsor’s dreams. When Levi said that sometimes he wasn’t sure if he was at the Tour de France or the Tour of California, that was so true. The crowd in Redondo Beach was humungous and loved it. I think every city that hosted a stage must want it back next year. Personally, I think it would be great to keep the same route, instead of changing cities like they do in Georgia, but I’m sure that they will want to spread the cycling wealth to other cities in 2007.

I shot the Launch Party for G4 Productions on Saturday night at the new and trendy Shade Hotel in Manhattan Beach. Big names in cycling attended, hung out, and were reluctant to leave such a great party. Pat McQuaid, Gerald Buscaglia, and Frankie Andreu were a few of the folks who were munching and mingling.

G4 Productions has over fifty years of combined experience in all phases of event management with Robin Morton, Alice Armstrong, Joan Hanscom and Kristen Reiss. If you are going to plan an event; multisport, charity or corporate, then G4 Productions is the key to a successful event for you… These women know their stuff: they'll do a fantastic event for you. Check out their new site and have a look at my images there…

A five page Stage 7 gallery is up on Smugmug.

Here's a Stage 6 podium shot showing Thomas Peterson (Best Young Rider) almost whacking Sebastian Lang (Most Agressive Rider) in the head. Tom is very young, and awkward on the podium (as we all would be). He forgot that Sebastian was beside him and tried to raise his arm in victory. The first time that Tom won the jersey award, he couldn't figure out how to get his arms into the jersey so that it zipped in the back.. It was a cute moment. Tom is always so very serious and expressionless. All the photogs keep hollering "Smile, Tom", but Tom can barely manage a faint smile. He's a nice kid, and we're gonna see more of him in the future.

My heart sinks to find out that another one of my friends, Sheryl Crow, has been diagnosed with breast cancer. I wish her the very best, and will be here all the way for her. She is a warm, caring and compassionate person, who has worked hard for the LAF and cancer survivors. Breast cancer is happening like an epidemic in women, and men as well. None of us are immune, and it's a question not of if, but of when, for most of us...

We're with you, Sheryl - You are not alone...
Pic was taken during rehearsals at the Austin concert in October, 2005

This was shot thru the glass windscreen at Longboards on the State Street Pier. Beautiful view, even thru dirty glass. A killer margarita and a humongous burrito made my day…

George powers ahead of Chris Horner to take the win in Stage 5. The crowd was huge, and it went nutz…Photos are up in Smugmug. I drove from the start to a spot on Foxen Canyon Road, at the top of a short climb to get some pics. As I got out of my car, I realized that it is the spot where the guys on Discovery Team always stop to take a leak. Oh, well, we are creatures of habit, aren’t we?

I’ve tried for two evenings to do a podcast, and Podomatic.com keeps having glitches that prevent me from completing it. I wish they’d get outta Beta and on the stick…

I grabbed my spot at the Finish today and shot from just past the line. This image shows just how hard Jason McCartney rode his TT. Spittle, sweat or snot: it shows the all-out-effort in a time trial. A lot of guys don't look picture perfect at the finish when they've pushed their body to the limit and past. That's one reason why the soigneurs are waiting with towels to wipe the faces of the exhausted racers...

Jason came in at a very good fourteenth in the TT today - he is riding exceptionally well - look for good things from him this year.

And bummer for Jurgen Van Goolen, who just broke his hip racing in Algarve.. No surgery necessary, but it will wipe out his Classics this year...

Pics are up in Velogal's Smugmug Gallery

George looked mighty fine on the podium in the Golden Race Leader's Jersey...

Stage One podcast at Velogal's Cycling Podcast .

Sorry, no Stage One photos in Smugmug... I'm too pooped to post...

A quick Monday Morning Lance Armstrong Sirius Faction 28 Radio report: Re-run of the show right after the Rose Bowl - January 22nd. They layed the duet with Sheryl and Sting... And said they'd be better about having live shows...

Heading for Sausalito in a little while. Isn't the ToC just the best? I'm luv in it...

Heads-Up... Photos are up in Velogal's Smugmug Gallery. Click the Link to go there...

Awesome, fantastic Prologue of the Tour of California today! Here’s Levi Leipheimer looking pretty determined as he moves out of the Start. Worked for him - he took First. Go to my Velogal’s Cycling Podcast for more about the Prologue today.

I tried to post some shots on my new Velogal’s Cycling On-The-Go Pics page, but the crowd noise was so loud at the Start that I couldn’t hear the prompts on my cell phone to upload the pics. No Kidding... From the looks and sounds of the crowds today, I don’t think cycling is in great danger of dwindling away without Lance....

AWESOME!! Just got back from The Tech IMAX Theater in San Jose - saw the long-awaited Wired to Win. Awesome, excellent and a must-see. I don't care how far you have to drive, you gotta see this IMAX film. The shots from The Tour de France 2004 are just the best and you'll never see the Alps or the Pyrenees like this on TV. Their presentation and graphics of the neurology of the brain are also awesome. I'm gonna see this one several times, for sure...

I took a couple of test shots from my cell phone and sent them along while I was standing in line. It works well, but Verizon tags on a whole bunch of crap advertisements and info to each shot. I bet it is something I can't turn off, at least till I get to a laptop to sign in to the blog. So you'll have to put up with it for a while. If any of you use Verizon to upload pics to a blog and know how to get rid of all the Verizon text, please let me know.... I'll be sending pics several times tomorrow, so check out Velogal's Cycling On-The-Go Pics when you get a chance, or subscribe to the feed. There's a link to it on the menu to the right.

Couple of quick Amgen Tour of California things. The San Jose Mercury News has a very cool map showing the routes - check out the Wednesday Time Trial map - Click the red dots to see a photo of that location on the route. I don't think they have photos for all the locations yet. Click the link below for the SJ Merc site.

Second thing is that Michael Barry and Graham Watson will be doing book signings on the last day of the Tour in Redondo Beach, Feb. 26th. They will be at the VeloGear booth (Expo area next to the finish line) from 11 am to noon. Not very often do we get to see Graham in the US...

Check out my cycling podcast for cycling news today. You can click the Link icon, or I just put up a link to my pocast page at the top of the right menu. I was in a rather monotone mood, I guess, by the sound of the podcast. Hey - I'm not a Pro Podcaster yet... I gotta get the CD of the music I use: The band is Sound Dollar and the song is Tightrope. Sound Dollar is a local SF band, I think... I wanna hear more of them.

I will be doing on-the-scene audioblogging during all the stages of the Tour of California. If I'm lucky, maybe I can catch some of the guys to say a few words..
I'll head out to the start real early Sunday morning to catch the scene....

So you'll see several of the grey Audioblog icons each day (I hope). I assume that you are all set up to click on the icon and listen, with Quick Time or other audio players. You can get free downloads of the most popular players. I had one person tell me that they didn't realize that those icons were audio blogs and that they could listen. Soo.... Just letting you all know....

Hey, thanks to all who are buying zee leetle Podium Girl Gone Bad book and zee naughty PGGB Thong. Hope you are enjoying!

Monday Morning Lance Armstrong Sirius Radio Faction 28 report: Re-run of the show a couple of weeks ago. Poignant moment to hear the Sheryl Crow/Sting duet, “Always on Your Side”. I think that was the same show where Lance denied rumors that the couple had split....

Discovery Team is racing at the Ruta del Sol (Vuelta Andalucia) - guess everybody got left in the dust by an unexpected break-away yesterday. Even Dirk in the team car was waaaay in the back. Benoit Joachim hung in and came in fourteenth. Photo of Benoit is from the first day of this year’s Training Camp.

I took a break from cycling photography on Saturday, and drove down to the Pinnacles State Park, out of Soledad. It’s absolutely beautiful there - so peaceful and serene. Took three cameras, along with my macro and fish-eye lenses, and got some beautiful shots. I also got some strange looks from tourists with their point and shoot cameras... Envied the Park Ranger that I chatted with - he’s lived in that awesome setting for the past sixteen years. Told me about another hike in the park, up to where the condors live - I’m heading back to the Condor Condos with my telephoto lens after the Tour of California ends...

I took this photo of Triki taking photos of himself with the other team guys at training camp. Every time I’ve tried doing this with a little point-and-shoot, all I got was great big noses on people. But Triki was having a great time, and all the guys stopped whatever they were doing and posed with him.

The count-down for the Tour of California has begun, and the local host cities are getting in the swing, or in a panic - maybe both. I really haven’t seen much about what is going on in San Jose surrounding the race. I’ve heard about the Overcoming movie being shown at the Tech Museum, and heard that Specialized is having some kind of event there after the race. And that there will be an Expo. True, I don’t subscribe to the Merc News, so maybe there has been some publicity that I’ve missed, but... seems like publicity has been rather scarce in my area.

Read some article that said the movie about Lance Armstrong has already started filming. They’ve already shot some footage about Lance winning the Big Seven. The movie director, Frank Marshall, had six cameras going and shot the last day of the 2005 Tour scenes. They will combine actual footage from the Champs Elysees with parts where Matt Damon is playing Lance. I guess that Lance will be an advisor and will be on the set frequently during the filming.

Also saw a press release that Lance with be part of a national campaign promoting a new mutual funds series for American Century Investments. The company will offer LiveStrong Portfolios for investors. The advertising will feature spots that say “Put Your Lance Face On”. As part of his multi-year commitment, Lance will be featured in national print and broadcast advertising campaigns. He also will participate in employee events, press-related activities, client meetings and conferences, as well as the annual American Century Championship, a celebrity golf tournament broadcast each July on NBC. As you would expect, American Century Investments will donate to the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

I am now going to try to hook up the house where I live with wifi home networking through my long-time ISP, Earthlink. They have a great promotion going now with a rebate offer the refunds the entire cost of the wireless broadband router and USB wireless network adapter. Yikes - those instructions look pretty sparse - Hope this works or you may be reading the last post for a while... And, nope, I’ve never done this before...

Check out my podcast www.velogal.podomatic.com ( or click the Link button) for news about the awesome, new Toyota United Pro Cycling Team, with Frankie Andreu and Harm Jensen as Directeurs Sportif, and Sean Turner as founder and owner. Getting Toyota as a team sponsor is huge!

I took this photo of Frankie when I was on a VeloSports tour of the Tour de France 2002, and Frankie was the guest celeb. We sat beside each other on a loooong bus trip following a stage of the Tour, and, of course talked cycling all the way...

Time for the Monday Morning Lance Armstrong Sirius Faction 28 Radio Report. Lance had Kinky Friedman as his guest, along with Dean Barclay (Disclaimer: name may be spelled correctly or not), who was Jesse Ventura’s campaign advisor and now is working with Kinky. Seems that Kinky wants to run for Governor of Texas in 2006, and has a petition drive on his site. Click on the link below to have a look.

What I could gather from the dialogue, Texas has some legislation that dictates if a Texan votes in a primary election, that voter cannot sign a petition for someone else to run for Governor. (Since I really don’t know, or care, about Texas politics, this may or may not be entirely, one-hundred-percent, thoroughly researched and correct information. I guess I now have to add disclaimers.) But, in any event, Kinky asks people to not vote in the primary and instead, sign his petition on his website. Said he is the first Independent to run for Guv in Texas since Sam Houston. (Disclaimer: His fact, not mine). He wants to get politicians out of politics. His campaign slogan is, “ Why The Hell Not?”

A comment was made that Dean looked like he was wearing Elvis’ shower curtain, laughter and a lot of talk about Jesse Ventura. Seems that Ventura is living in Baja now, on the Sea of Cortez. A lot of Ventura and Willie Nelson name-dropping occurred. Kinky has a wry sense of humor and said that he really doesn’t have a job right now. and said being the Guv of Texas is a like judging a chili cook-off - he said that one has to appoint the best people that you have and then get out of the way and let them do their job. Kinky later said being the Guv is a lot like being the marshal of a parade. He said that the Lieutenant Guv is more powerful in Texas than in any other state and asked Lance, since he is now retired, to run as his Lt. Guv. Lance said he is far from retired, and declined...

Funds for education, teachers, fire-fighters, cops and veterans by legalizing all gambling casinos, and getting rid of toll roads are two items on his platform. He said he would work on the “de-woosification of Texas”. He ripped Guv Perry whenever the opportunity arose, as any politician would do. Kinky said that Willie Nelson would be appointed his Energy Advisor and government vehicles would run on the Biodiesel that Willie’s company is selling. (Hmmmm.... any potential conflict of interest there? Nah...that sounds like woose talk, huh?)

Kinky has run the Utopia Rescue Ranch For Animals near Medina for years, and has adopted over 1500 animals. His five dogs are his family, he said. You can check it out at www.utopiarescue.com. Kinky told several stories about his contact with Clinton and Dubya, and sleeping in the White House.

Lance then signed off by saying it had been a "rough week for us", and that Sheryl Crow is an unbelievable person: the smartest, wisest, most gifted person he’d ever met, and who has shown him a love that he’d never known. He said that she is a great lady, and played his favorite song of hers, “Letter to God” to close the show.

I took this photo at the Thank You, Austin Concert in October, 2005...

Well, as I said in my audio blog yesterday, it is official that Lance and Sheryl have split. I think it is really too bad, but their private lives belong to them, and so does their decision about their lives. I’m very fond of them both. I saw how wonderful Sheryl was to the kids, and how much they love her. I know that they will miss each other very much.

I guess there’s not very many of us who haven’t had a relationship end, sometimes not by our choice. It’s never easy and always sad. So, hopefully, we can understand that stuff happens, and things change... I don’t want to hear the gossip and rumors, and media sensationalism - it’s like a bunch of vultures descending.... So I will just say that I am sad and sorry, and hope that their lives can mend and someday be filled with peace and joy....

Just received a press release saying that Lance Armstrong will be the keynote speaker for the ERA Real Estate International Business Conference in San Francisco. The date? February 13 to 16, 2006. Lance will speak on February 15th.... When does the Tour of California start in SF? Feb 19th... Hmmmm.... Interesting possibility, but I don’t think Lance has the time in his jam-packed schedule to hang around SF that long....

We (The Los Gatos Bicycle Racing Club) are starting our planning meetings for the 2006 Cat’s Hill Classic, to be held on May 13, 2006 in Los Gatos. This criterium has been held continuously since 1974, and is presented with the hard work of LGBRC club members, and the support of very special Sponsors. We’re gearing up, and you should, too, for the 23% grade of Cat’s Hill. Stay tuned for registration info, but mark your calendars now and register early - some races fill up real fast. Online registration will open real early - I’ll keep you posted :)

If you are a M/W Junior through Pro/Elite 123, have we got a race for you! Click on the link below to stay in touch for 2006 race info, but right now the 2005 info is still up on the site, while we are working out the details for 2006. It will be updated with 2006 info soon.

There’s even a Cat’s Hill Classic info blog (started by moi, of course) that is activated a month or two before the race for info and questions.... And, I’ll be doing audio blog posts during the race and some Cat’s Hill podcasts during race month. It’s a great family spectator event, so come on out and cheer from your prime viewing spot on Cat’s Hill....It's one of the coolest local races anywhere.

The photo shows the Cat’s Hill Classic 2005 Men’s Pro/123/Espoir winners. First: Jackson Stewart (center) Kodak Gallery/Sierra Nevada, Second: Zach Walker (left) McGuire/Langdale Pro Cycling, and Third: Benjamin Haldeman (right) Webcor Builders.