While Lance may not be making big headlines on the bike at the Giro, what he is doing off the bike is generating some exciting news. To be fair, Lance did not come into the Giro in peak form and he is showing that he is the master of the three week race by riding within himself in Italy so he can go the full distance and not burn out too early.

It was reported last week in several Colorado newspapers that Lance had called Governor Bill Ritter to sound out the Governor on the potential of putting on a Tour of Colorado much like the Amgen Tour of California. Last summer Lance bought a house in Aspen and has been using that dwelling for his altitude training. Lance and many of us remember the glory days of the Coors Classic and the possibility of re-capturing those magical times is a huge motivation to bring big-time bike racing back to Colorado.

At this time the idea is only in the 'trial balloon' stage. My guess is that Lance was just testing the waters to see how receptive the Governor's office was to the idea as the state is key to pulling off such an event. It would most likely be 2011 at the earliest before any race could happen.

In the past several years, Medalist Sports who run both the Tour of California and the Tour of Missouri has been working with a group in the Vail Valley to bring a 3-4 day professional stage race to Colorado, but that event has yet to be held. Hopefully, Lance will have more success.

My rumours and speculation on some of the details of the new professional team run by Johan Bruyneel and Lance Armstrong generated lots of comments. Remember, the details of the team are all just speculation at this point.

One alternate scenario that is emerging is that the team will continue as Team Astana until after the Tour which would mean that Lance, Alberto and Levi would all be racing together in France in July. One good reason to keep the current squad intact through July is that if a new team emerges after the Giro, but before the Tour, it is not clear if that team would be allowed to start the Tour de France.

Given that the French National Anti-Doping Agency(AFLD) backed off on the "Showergate" incident, it seems clear that the French want Lance to start to the Tour. So, if the new team did emerge before the Tour there is a good possibility that a number of rules would be bent to allow them to participate.

My guess is that since Lance and Johan are pretty smart guys they have already contacted the Tour organizers and asked them if their new team would be allowed to start. The answer to that question will probably determine when the new team emerges.

We live in very interesting times!

Bruce

I shot a bunch of photos from the ToC that didn't make it into my blog. Here are a few of the more interesting ones, well that's my opinion.

Bob Roll doing his best Gene Simmons impression.


Stage 8 winner Frank Schleck.


Freddie Rodriguez warming up for the prologue with his son Hayden.


Chris Horner getting ready to launch out the gate at the prologue.


Some guy named Lance.


Enjoy,

Bruce

Today was a day for the lesser-placed riders as a group of ten broke away from an Astana-controlled peloton to take the glory at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. This is a great segue into the theme of this posting which is, a stage may be difficult, but it is not necessarily decisive. I think that observation applies to Stage 4 from Merced to Clovis, today's stage from Santa Clarita to Pasadena and the final stage tomorrow from Rancho Bernardo to Escondido.

All three of these stages contain a lot of climbing. On paper, none of these climbs is exceptionally steep, but at the speed the pros are capable of riding up these ascents all of them can be very, very difficult. So, I don't think anyone isn't saying that these stages are an easy day for a lady. Quite the contrary. The real question from a racing standpoint is, are these stages decisive?

By decisive I mean will they have an affect on the race's overall standings? Unfortunately, in the case of these three stages, the climbs come too early in the day's ride. As we have seen many times before, a well-driven peloton can chase down a breakaway as long as the gap isn't too large. So, all the peloton needs to do is give the riders off the front some rope and they can reel them in.

In the case of today's stage, the ten-rider breakaway did not contain any riders who could threaten Levi's overall lead so Team Astana smartly allowed them some rope and the stage win. No harm done and Levi will be in yellow tomorrow. Also, it is a good idea to let other teams have their day in the sun. Greed doesn't make too many friends.

So, while a stage may be difficult, the position of the climbs has a huge affect on whether the stage will also be decisive. Stage 2 into Santa Cruz was decisive because the climb of Bonny Doon Road occurred so close to the finish. Stage 1 into Santa Rosa should not have been a decisive stage, but two factors, the fact that the breakaway containing Mancebo was allowed to get way too much time and the sanfu with the radio communications made it a decisive stage. Which goes to prove that even a difficult, non-decisive stage can become decisive if unforeseen factors intervene. That's what we call bike racing.

Bruce

The 2009 Amgen Tour of California sloshed into Santa Rosa and it was Rock Racing's Francisco Mancebo, of Spain, who was off the front for 102 of the 107 miles in this stage, taking the victory. On a day when the elevation profile looked to allow the field to re-group after each of the three moderate climbs, mother nature, some dodging radio communications, and some last minute modifications to the race rules conspired to give Mancebo the opportunity to take the stage and potentially the overall Tour of California title.

Because of the cold, rainy conditions the peloton allowed Mancebo, Tim Johnson (Ouch Medical) and David Kemp(Flying V Australia Successful Living Foundation) to breakaway only five miles into the stage. Poor communication from race radio, which keeps the teams up to date on the time gaps for breakaways, allowed the gap to grow to epic proportions. When Mancebo attacked his two companions and went free over Howell Mountain, that information was slow in reaching all the other teams. When word did get back to the pack, Team Astana went ballistic and shattered the field over Howell Mountain putting five of its riders in the 20-man chase group. Armstrong, Leipheimer, Horner, Rubiera and Jani Brajkovic spent the better part of an hour and a half trying to bring back Mancebo.

When the race entered the streets of Santa Rosa, a territory quickly becoming known as the Bermuda Triangle of UCI race regulations, the officials decided to take the finishing times at the start of the first of the three finishing circuits. This decision, which was made sometime during the course of the stage basically robbed the chasing teams of about 7 miles of extra distance in which to try bring back Mancebo.

OK. We can all debate the advantages and disadvantages of race radios(personally, I don't like them), but the current rules allow them, maybe this time around it was a case of those who live by the radio, die by the radio. In any event, the overall standings of the AToC have been turned completely upside down. Mancebo is a good time trialist, but Levi Leipheimer has owned the Solvang TT the past two years and if Levi doesn't lose anymore time to Mancebo between now and then, the 1'02" he is down to Mancebo could easily be won back with a standard Leipheimer TT effort. For that matter, any of the 19 riders in the chase group who are now within about 1'30" of Mancebo are still in the hunt and could win the overall with a superb TT effort.

Here are some photos of the race. I was playing around with soft focus a bit, please bear with. Graham Watson and I are good friends because 1) he can drink me under the table with one hand tied behind his back, 2) I am not going to be taking any food out his mouth with the cycling publications.

Here is a shot of Mancebo on the finishing circuits out in front solo.


Lance, with Horner on his wheel, are chasing hard.


After he crossed the finish line, Mancebo headed down my way. Ben Delaney, Editor of VeloNews, and I were the first to approach him, but he wanted to do the interview in Spanish so we decided to leave it to the interpreters this time.

The fourth annual Amgen Tour of California (AToC) began on Saturday with best field of riders for a US race in the past 20 years. Yes, Lance was here, but so was Olympic and World Champion Fabian Cancellara, sprint phenom Mark Cavendish, double Paris-Roubaix winner Tom Boonen, Giro d'Italia champion Ivan Basso, Levi Leipheimer, Floyd Landis, three-time World champion Michael Rogers, US National Champions Tyler Hamilton and Dave Zabriskie, etc, etc, etc.

Not surprisingly, Fabian Cancellara duplicated his win from last year in the prologue with Levi Leipheimer and Dave Zabriskie rounding out the top three. Lance Armstrong met his pre-prologue goal of finishing in the top ten, but with time gaps in the tenths of second, this 2.4 mile test just wetted everyone's appetite and did little to determine who will be the overall victor come next Sunday.

Threat of poor weather may dampen the next few days racing, but a crowd estimated at 50-100,000 was all cheers as the race wove its course around the Sacramento state capitol building. Below is a photo essay, of sorts, of the happenings during the prologue.

Phil Zajicek of the Flying V Australia presented by Successful Living Foundation team was the second of 136 riders to start. Here he concentrates on his pre-ride preparation.


Team Saxobank rider Fabian Cancellara gets ready to fire out of the start house on his race-winning ride.


After a three year absence from racing, Lance Armstrong turns his first pedal in anger on US soil.


Floyd Landis had lots of support from fans in Sacramento.


Yes, there were a few celebrity sightings as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dr. McDreamy helped hand out the awards.


In case you needed proof that Lance Armstrong is one of the most tested cyclists, here is the list of riders, by race number, for anti-doping control. This is Lance's 19th test since he announced his comeback. He wears bib #2.


Bruce

What to do? What to do? Does an athlete need to confess to a doping positive to be accepted back into favor with his fellow competitors and fans? In the past few days we have seen Alex Rodriguez(A-Rod) admit that he used steroids during the height of his career in 2001-2003 when he was voted the league MVP. The problem is that in 2007, A-Rod told Katie Couric that he had never taken performance enhancing drugs(PED's).

Why the flip-flop? Because several journalists at SI.com were able to obtain the identity of some of the 102 baseball players who tested positive for steroids when Major League Baseball did anonymous testing in 2003. So, faced with pretty hard evidence that he did use steroids, A-Rod came clean. In cycling, a similar situation occurred several years ago when Ivan Basso denied drug use until bags of his blood were identified in a refrigerator in Spain. David Millar also denied drug use then came clean when syringes containing EPO were found with his fingerprints at his home.

Why am I bringing this up? Am I jealous that A-Rod hooked up with Madonna and I didn't? No, it is because the 4th annual Amgen Tour of California starts on Saturday and Basso will be there. Millar rode the race last year. But, more importantly, Americans Tyler Hamilton and Floyd Landis will also be there. Basso, Millar, Hamilton and Landis all served suspensions for doping infractions, but while Basso and Millar admitted their transgressions, Hamilton and Landis did not.

There is a good reason that Tyler and Floyd have not admitted to doping. Both contend that they didn't do performance enhancing drugs. The question here is, do Tyler and Floyd need to admit that they took PED's to be accepted back into the pro peloton and be embraced by the fans much like what has happened to both Millar and Basso? Is it good enough that Tyler and Floyd served their suspensions, paid their debt, so to speak?

Personally, I think that Tyler and Floyd should be allowed to compete and their fans should be allowed to cheer and cheer and cheer for their success. If you are not a Tyler of Floyd fan, then fine, don't cheer for them. Don't put them on your Christmas card list. What I have a problem with is people calling Tyler and Floyd dopers. Yes, they were dopers, but by the same token so were Basso and Millar. So, if the shoe fits, then everybody should wear it.

Bruce

ps - unless some huge story breaks in the next week, this is the last blog I intend to write about doping. The Tour of California is America's premier bike race so let's focus on the positives!

pps - if you are saving an asterisk for any of Barry Bond's records, don't forget to save a few for A-Rod.

The Amgen Tour of California(AToC) has even started, but I am already calling it an unqualified success. Why so, you might ask? It all has to do with a little stretch of blacktop called Tunitas Creek Road. This very popular Silicon Valley climb will be included in Stage 2 of the AToC. While this 8-mile, 2000-foot ascent comes a bit too early in the stage to be decisive, it is still a worthy test for cyclists pros and amateurs alike.

Unfortunately, the pavement during the steepest part of the ascent has been deteriorating over the years and a serious repaving was definitely in order. You might remember my blog from a month or so ago where I lamented that Tunitas Creek Road was supposed to be repaved for the AToC, but the local road crew appeared to have only done half the job and packed up for good.

So, I sent an E-mail to AToC Race Director, Jim Birrell, notifying him of the situation on Tunitas Creek Road. Here are a couple of key paragraphs from the E-mail:

"Having ridden this road for the past 20 years, I can tell you that just filling in the obvious potholes is not going to make a significant improvement in the quality of the road. The pavement in this 2-mile section is so old and poor that even without a rain storm, new potholes seem to appear overnight. The only way to really fix the road is to lay down brand new pavement, curb-to-curb, as was done on approximately 1.5 miles of the upper section of the road during the repaving this past fall.

Frankly, I think the quality of the pavement in the aforementioned section is way below the standard of quality of the roads that should be part of America's premier stage race. But, don't take my word for it. An inspection from someone on your technical committee(not someone on the local organizing committee) will quickly reveal the substandard quality of the roadway. Yes, it really is that bad."

Well, Jim is a stand-up guy and he sent his technical representative for this area, Eric Smith, out to inspect the road. Lo and behold, this week, about a month after my letter, there was a road crew out on Tunitas Creek Road finishing the paving project. Major props to the Jim and Eric for working this issue and fixing the problem. If you ever wondered about the lasting benefits of having a big-time bike race in your area, this is certainly one of them!

Bruce

It was announced yesterday that Rabobank, a Dutch-based bank, will become a major sponsor of the Amgen Tour of California(AToC). If you follow professional cycling you know that Rabobank also sponsors a highly successful European cycling team. Levi Leipheimer rode for the Rabobank squad for three season from 2002-2004. Luckily, for us Californians and Americans in general, the Dutch bank is looking to expand across the pond into the USA.

What makes Rabobank's sponsorship even more noteworthy is the fact that, even before the current economic crisis, money was flowing out of the sport. Sponsors like Credit Agricole and Gerlosteiner in Europe and Health Net, Toyota and Jittery Joes in the US all said 'adios' to cycling in 2008. That left a lot of riders looking for work. And without races for them to ride, the riders and their teams would be in even more serious trouble.

The AToC has a reported budget of roughly $8,000,000 which works out to about $1,000,000 per stage. In it's three-year history the race has yet to turn a profit, but if any major bicycle race in the US has a chance of running in black ink, it is the Amgen Tour of California. Last year, with the inclusion of Rock Racing both the number of spectators and the desired demographic were up sharply. Add to that the number one-ranked team, Team CSC, America's favorite team, Slipstream-Chipotle(now Garmin-Chipotle) and California son Levi Leipheimer and his Astana squad and you had all the right ingredients for a successful event.

In 2009, the race will keep its mid-February dates, but expand from eight to nine days with the final stage in the San Diego Area. Clearly, the race organizers are trying to find the correct formula to make the AToC profitable. Hopefully it is just a matter of time. With Rabobank on board, the organizers have done just that, given themselves more time to prove to all of us that the AToC is one of the best events going on the entire planet.

Bruce

ps - As a bit of an education into the Dutch culture, Rabobank's up and coming star and the winner of last year's AToC stage three into San Jose is Robert Gesink. In Dutch, the "G" is pronounced like an "H", the phonetic pronunciation of Robert's last name is "Hesink". Also, for those of you who like Gouda cheese, named after a small town in western Holland, the correct pronunciation is "Houda".