My Ride...

Well, it was no Giro, but I did get a little pink or rather red. The day began with me sitting on the edge of my seat for 2 hours reading the Giro play by play brought to us by the good folks at CyclingNews.com from their blimp in the Italian sky. It was also about this time that I noticed a few rain drops falling, not usually a good sign, but it all worked out.

After the race ended, I hopped in the car and motored out to Sutter on the other side of the Sutter Buttes, the world's smallest mountain range. When I pulled up at the meeting site, Pat was already there. Pat belongs to the Yuba-Sutter Cycling Club along with Jonathan and Angie.

As an aside, Pat had just returned from an epic ride which started in the LA area, where they dipped their wheels into the ocean before setting off cross country. Due to work (yeah contrary to popular belief, us cyclists do have jobs) Pat only, ("only" is probably not the correct word here) rode to Topeka, KS, totaling 1701 miles and something like 50,000 feet of climbing. Get this... in 15 days! You can check out the ride's weblog written by Mike the tour leader, HERE.

I read all the entries to the point where Pat departed and now have a dream of doing one of the rides put on by Mike and his motley staff. You can check them out here. Note, I probably don't have the gumption to start with the one Pat did.

Another aside, I swear this is the last one today... Jonathan also did this ride a couple years back and made the whole trip from LA to Boston in 32 days. I'll have to twist his arm and see if I can get a couple of stories out of him too. Trust when I say any story from these rides are inspiring!

OK, about the ride. So, as I was saying, Pat was there ready to go when I arrived. Minutes later Jonathan, Angie, Jonathan's brother Tim and his wife Sharon arrived. As they were taking their bikes off the rack, I was assembling my from the trunk of my car (I need to get a bike rack). Right off the bat, I strip the bolt on my seat clamp, luckily after it was tight. As well, in a rush to leave the house, Angie had forgotten her helmet and gloves, DOH! But so is life and you've got to roll with the punches.

There was a very brisk wind coming out of the south mostly, so Pat suggested we take a backward route around the Buttes to keep the wind at our backs for a major portion of the ride. It seemed to work, but you wouldn't have thought so once we pointed our noses into said wind. BRUTAL! It was blowing at least 20 MPH but needless to say it was still a good time.

While off the front with Pat for a few moments, he told me a story about one guy on the Fast Ride (name of the ride across America) who had a squeaky bottom bracket. No one wanted to ride near the guy as the noise would eventually drive you mad. It was just about that time that my newly installed chain rings began to make a high pitched squeak and Pat yelled out, "Get away from me!" I laughed as I felt his pain and cursed the noise as well.

As we crested what seemed to be a mountain because of the wind in our faces, we were caught by Rogelio, another member of the Yuba-Sutter Cycling Club. We all stopped at the top, admiring the views and chatting. Then came another Yuba rider, oh but his name escapes me. He was on his way to work from Yuba to Colusa where he works in the casino. It seems that he rides his bike to and from work which is 30 miles each way. He said he's logged over 8000 miles this year already, WOW!

Then, it was back into Sutter where Jonathan treated us to Mexican food at what seems to be one of two establishments in the whole town. It was tasty, hit the spot, and was fuel for the rest of our ride.

The ladies rode the first 40 mile loop and were heading into town for some shopping, Tim was having trouble with his knee and decided to go with them as to take it easy. So, Jonathan and I headed out into the wind again. This time it didn't seem so bad, and the route we took for the next 32 miles seemed to have solved our wind issues. We headed over toward the Sacramento River as the view and roads over there are wonderful. Eventually we did have to ride into the wind for about 30 minutes but knowing the end was near, it was enjoyable.

So, I had a great day as I'm sure everyone else did. We said our goodbye and made plans for the four of them to come up Chico way on Monday to ride. So now I must devise a nice route for us to take which gets in the best views while not burying us. I'd better get to planning!

It's All Over But The Shouting...

I wanted to post yesterday about the fabulous stage but was in a rush to get out of the house directly after the stage finish so as to meet up with friends to ride. So, quickly, here is the jist.

The maglia rosa was in danger on the big climbs of the day becuase Simoni and Rujano were out on the break upwards of 2 minutes ahead of Savoldelli, who was isolated for the most part. He had no team mates around and only a couple of other riders along side. Lucky for him, they were willing to help out a little and pace him up the mountain. It was a little touch and go as Simoni was in maglia rosa virtuale out on the road. The Giro victory was very much up for grabs on this day and both Rujano and Simoni could taste it, Simoni more so as he was down less on GC.

Rujano eventually took the stage with a brilliant ride which finished at the top of Sestrière, with Simoni coming in 26 seconds later, but not salvaging quite enough time to stave off Savoldelli who arrived 1:55 off the pace. This was just enough to keep him in pink by 28 seconds over Simoni and 45 over Rujano.

Oh wait, I almost forgot to mention this stage summitted one mountain top over 9.2K of gravel road and from the pictures I saw, it was as steap as they come!

This is another impressive will for Il Falco, Paolo Savoldelli! What's more impressive were his comments after the stage which are quoted below, this guy is too modest!

"I don't feel like one of the great champions of the Giro, because the old champions used to attack on the climbs and make a big difference to the show. I'm more of a regular rider, and I have to calculate a lot, because I know what my limits are."

"I was afraid at the beginning of the climb [Finestre], because the pace was going so fast. I didn't think I was going to make it. I went at my own pace. I was very careful to eat and drink enough on the climb, the most important thing was not to have a crisis. Now I'm going to the Tour de France to help Lance Armstrong.

You've got to love that attitude... I just won the Giro, but no time to celebrate, I need to go help the boss win the Tour!

Congratulations go out to Paolo for an impressive win! Also, to the rest of the team, because without them, you know he never would have made it alone. This has to be one of the best fought Giro's of modern time, might have to buy the DVD for this one!

RAI Follows Dave Zabriske

There were many complaints about the Italian TV coverage by RAI of Dave Zabriskie's stage win in the earlier time trial of the Giro. It seems they only caught him on camera by mistake as he rode by another rider they happened to be following. Being that he won that stage, it would be been cool to see a little more of him. So, after the previous blunder, it's nice to see they are showing a better portion of his trial today. Already, he has taken the lead by over 2 minutes and is my selection to win, though it would be incredible if Paolo Savoldelli could take it, putting more time into the few threats remaining to his GC position. He needs everything he can get going into this final weekend.

Dainty pink Mt. Diablo buckwheat rediscovered

I was amazed to see this little story grace the front page of /. (slashdot), a popular IT website, with a link to this UC Berkeley News article. It's about the rediscovery of little pink flowers called Mt. Diablo Buckwheat which haven't been seen up on the bay area mountain for 70 years. It seems that the Buckwheat is one of only three plants, all of them rare, that are endemic to Mount Diablo.

So, does this mean the return of the Buckwheat to the slope of Diablo? Well, maybe since the seed can lay dormant in the soil for decades, says Michael Park, a University of California, Berkeley, graduate student. As well, the botonists plan to collect mature seeds for later cultivation as a back up if the plant goes further into decline on Diablo.

Grandpa with the girls!

My cousin Chris and his girlfriend. We were celebrating Chris' graduation from Berkeley with a degree in Microbiology with specialization in some area I can't remember. Chris is now off to Davis for Microbiology grad school, what a stud!

Paul's guns! I'm amazed we could keep up!

Mark, he's quite a climber!

Paul

See me, there I am am amongst the vines! Such beauty! Thanks to Mark for taking the picture.

Ah, feel the love! My fraternity brother Paul and his buddy (and all around joker) from many year back, Brian.

Wine Country Century prep at 5:45 AM, UGH!

My furry baby on his recliner.

A Close Call

The mechanic at the LBS (Local Bike Store) said, "bro, your drive train needs some love!"

I didn't really think much of it as I had about 5000 miles on the chain and cog, but over 15,000 on the rings.

So, I wasn't really surprised when, yesterday while powering away from the light, my chain broke. I see this as a "cup half full" type incident as I didn't crash and was only 2 miles from home. Plus, I've been feeling under the weather and it was probably good that I got the extra rest. It's obvious I'm going to need to pay closer attention to the drive train from here on out.

Needless to say, I've over-night ordered a new drive train, consisting of new front rings, a couple of new chains, and a cog. I'll replace the rings and chain ASAP but plan to ride the cog set another few thousand miles. I didn't go with any light weight parts since the savings would have been only a few ounces and the cost would be double. I stuck with Ultegra rings and cog, but got the Dura-Ace chain as well as my favorite light weight chain, the Connex 911. I like the Connex because of the easy latching links, making the install simple.

So, I'm expecting the parts to arrive Friday sometime, so that I can install the stuff and be ready to ride in Greenville on Saturday at the Indian Valley Century.

It Was Bound to Happen!

With all the talk of fraternities in Chico getting into trouble, it was bound to occur. Yes, I am sad to report that one of my fraternity brothers has acted poorly in public and probably more than just this once.

It seems that Burt Reynolds has gone slap happy, roughing up one of the co-producers of the movie, The Longest Yard, which is a remake of Reynolds 1974 classic. It's reported that Burt wasn't pleased with the co-producer badgering him with questions about the plot of the movie and finally slapped the guy. Here is the juice from the article:

"You don't know anything about the movie?" Reynolds asked.


When the producer admitted to not having seen the film, or the 1974 original version in which Reynolds also stars, the actor reached out and slapped him, asking, "What...kinda guy are you?"


"The guy has never seen the...he asked me to tell him about the picture, he's standing here in a shirt that needs ironing, the man works for CBS, I'm embarrassed. I like the guy, he's a nice guy, he's a tough guy, he wants to hit me now, he can't, 'cause he's under contract. But we'll meet later if you want," Reynolds went on.

Well, at least Burt's not from my chapter, but that would be cool! By the way, I'm fairly sure he belongs to Florida Alpha chapter.

Thoughts on Giro

Since the classifications have been somewhat solidified in terms of who will actually be in contension, the race has lost a little excitement. Of course it's still exciting, but the excitement doesn't really begin until the latter portions of each stage now. It's all about marking the threats at this point.

Yesterday, a break was able to get nearly 20 minutes on the peloton at the finish and the gruppo maglia rosa could be seen crossing the finish line like it was a century ride. I suppose if it was one of your favorite teams taking the stage 20 minutes up it might have been cool, but it wasn't that way for me.

I'm expecting to see Discovery controling the peloton, but just caught a view of Paolo Savoldelli riding unprotected. Where's the team? They had better regroup because he needs a little help since today is a mountain top finish.

Anyway, back to watching the stream!

Lance and Sheryl Riding in Different Directions?

I've read reports at other blogs and in a couple of news papers that Lance and Sheryl may be on the splits. Of course, everyone involved or who knows them are denying the report. But you can read about it here and make your own decisions.

READ HERE
And HERE

Lance Gets Techie On Us...

Lance and HP are teaming up to to bring you a LiveStrong laptop. Check it out here!

$50 per laptop sold will benefit the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

Le Montagne Stanno Venendo

The Mountains are Coming!

Today is the first real mountain stage in the Giro d'Italia and travels from Marostica to Zoldo Alto and covers 150 km.

From the starting gun, Discovery's Benot Joachim went on the attach and after 80 K had about 4 minutes on the peloton. This was a smart move by Discovery to send someone out on the attack early.

We already knew that Lampre, with the two top contenders would want to finish at the front to get back some precious seconds from their rivals. With Joachim up the road, this will cause Lampre to chash and therefore allow Savodelli (Discovery's main GC contender) to sit in behind and save his energy for what I expect to be an attack on one of the last climbs. Savodelli needs to get back 35 seconds on GC leader Di Luca to take the maglia rosa.

With the time gaps falling between Joachim and the chaser Scarselli, from team Selle Italia, another Selle Italia ride attacks the peloton. In a matter of moments, he has caught his team mate and all of a sudden Jose Rujano has caught Joachim.

Unfortunately, the peloton is also catching up and are only 40 seconds behind as the attack reaches the top of the first climb. I'm not sure why Rujano attacked as now, once over the top of the climb, he has sat up and seems to be waiting for the peloton to come up to him. Lampre is still on the front making the pace. Once at the bottom of this decent another mountain climb will begin. 50 seconds isn't much a lead when you have Lampre mountain goats coming up behind you, so I'm not sure Joachim will stay in front too much longer.

Click the Read More link...


Ok that didn't take long, only about 3 k and the gap is down to 18 seconds. It's all over for Joachim, gruppo compatto! Nice work staying away for nearly 100 K.

One of the more odd things I saw while watching the online streaming video was an intersection where the word STOP was painted on the road. I guess "arresto" is to large a word to paint where cars should stop or maybe lots of Italians speak english. Your guess is as good as mine!

Little news break...

As some may be aware, in past Giro's there have been police raids on the hotels where certain teams stay. The come either while the riders are out or early in the morning and confiscate medical equipment, drugs, and whatever else they think may be illegal.

This time the NAS were there to greet rides after Tuesday's stage. The Padua NAS agents carried out a raid in the hotel where the teams Davitamon-Lotto and Saunier-Prodir were staying.

The operation, which began at about 4:00 pm, ended at 7:00 pm. The NAS confiscated a Alti Trainer machine, used to modify the percentage of oxygen in the air, was seized from Davitamona, and the team's physician, Daniel De Neve, was brought to the station.

It seems as if this piece of equipment is allowed by the International Cycling Union, in accordance with WADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency, but illegal in Italy. The NAS agents also seized two bags of medicine belonging to the Saunier Duval-Prodir team. "They took away sugar injections. All the material was declared. Anyway, we're tired of this and tomorrow morning we're going to meet with the technicians and physicians of the other teams to take action", explains sports director Pietro Algeri. WOW!

Watching the stream, I notice that much of the surrounding area is much like riding through the hills outside of Chico.
It seems there will be no denying Lampre today the way they are riding, though I'm sure the other GC contenders are lying in wait just behind them.
Rujano attacks again and takes Patrice Halgand (Credit Agricole) with him. On the decent Halgand gains some advantage that he takes with him on the next climb building a lead of 40 seconds on the peloton with 30 K to go. Halgand, what an animal, he's going up the climb in the big chain ring and it's at least 8% up to 14% at times!

Lampre lifts the pace once again attempting to pull Halgand back, they have been on the front the entire day. This is bound to take some toll on the team and hopefully allow Savodelli to sneak in an attack toward the end of today's stage.

Oh, Gilberto Simoni attackes and Di Luca goes too. I think there might be some fighting within the Lampre team as Simoni is the old school leader and winner of the Giro a couple of times, though Damiano Cunego won last year. Basso is also up there as the group comes back together. Maybe Simoni was just testing the other rides. This little attack has really broken up the peloton and now there is a group of about 20 at the front with all the main GC contenders there.

The trimming of the peloton is in full effect now as Basso attacks the maglia rosa. But again this was just a test I beleive and the group of about 20 remains together. One thing to note is Garzelli is off the back in the second group, so he seems to be the one GC guy left behind but it only looks to be about 15 to 20 seconds. Not too bad.

Ok shower break for this rider as the Giro riders continue on.
I'm back, and clean as ever ready to complete the report.

Wow, in the time I was gone Basso, Savoldelli, and Simoni have attacked. Basso and Savoldelli have dropped Simoni with 6 K to go. They trade off the work the rest of the way and much to my suprise, Savoldelli takes the win. Amazing, I called it be wasn't sure it was possible. Here are the provisional results as riders are still slowly coming in!

Provisional
1 Paolo Savoldelli (Ita) Discovery Channel-Pro Cycling Team 4.13.43
2 Ivan Basso (Ita) Team CSC
3 Gilberto Simoni (Ita) Lampre-Caffita 0.21
4 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) Liquigas-Bianchi 1.01
5 Daniel Atienza Urendez (Spa) Cofidis-Le Credit Par Telephone 1.50
6 Wim Van Huffel (Bel) Davitamon-Lotto 2.03
7 Pietro Caucchioli (Ita) Credit Agricole
8 Serguei Gonchar (Ukr) Domina Vacanze
9 Mauricio Alberto Ardila Cano (Col) Davitamon-Lotto 2.26

General classification after stage 11

1 Ivan Basso (Ita) Team CSC 49.05.20
2 Paolo Savoldelli (Ita) Discovery Channel-Pro Cycling Team 0.18
3 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) Liquigas-Bianchi 1.04
4 Gilberto Simoni (Ita) Lampre-Caffita 2.27
5 Serguei Gonchar (Ukr) Domina Vacanze 3.45
6 Marzio Bruseghin (Ita) Fassa Bortolo

Another funny side note... on the podium for the past two stages, the riders being presented haven't been able to crack the bubbly. For whatever reason, maybe they are too tired, but they can't uncork the champagne. Oh well, now's not the time to be drinking anyway!

LIVESTRONG CELEBRATES ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY

I was dreaming yesterday while reading this and slept through the thought of posting about it. So, now one day late here I go.
Press release here

Nike, in coordination with the Lance Armstrong Foundation began this initiative to support people living with cancer by selling $1 yellow wristbands with the goal of selling at least 5 million of them. One year and 47.5 million wristbands later, I'd have to say the effort has been a success.

If you don't have one and are interested in supporting the cause, wristbands can be found at www.laf.org and www.wearyellow.com. Additional authorized dealers of LIVESTRONG wristbands include all Niketown locations, nikewomen stores and Niketown outlets. Discovery Communications also sells wristbands at its nationwide chain of more than 120 Discovery Channel Stores.

Great Guide to Giro Classifications

For those not in the know of the different classifications for the Giro d'Italia, CyclingNews.com has a nice little guide to explain the madness. Now you too will know the difference between the maglia rosa, maglia verde, maglia ciclamina, and maglia azzura as well as the other 5 minor classifications.

Quote of the Day

Link to the Article written by David Coursey. The article is about fun with spam and contained this nifty quote that was thought provoking and made me laugh.

The idea of spam being sent by viruses residing on unprotected computers makes me wonder: Who is more useless, the people who send the spam (and the virus) or the people too lazy to install/update anti-virus software on their computers and end up forwarding the messages?

Please patch your machines and get some virus protection!!

Petacchi Finally!

On the 10th day Petacchi finally got his wheel across the finish line first. Beginning from about 4 K out, the silver train of Fassa came together to create a pace that was not matched by the others delivering Ale-Jet to the line where he did his thing. It's about time! Without this win, the Giro campaign for Fassa would be considered at total loss. Considering Fassa may not continue their sponsorship of the bike team next year, it would be good for the Petacchi train to do well as to secure contracts for next year.

Already there has been speculation Discovery might be interested in the Petacchi train valued at 3.5 million Euros per year, but the powers that be at Disco squashed the rumor. The other teams supposedly insterested are Domina Vacanze, Liquigas, and Phonak. Click the Read More link for provisional results!

Provisional
1 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 3.15.32
2 Paolo Bettini (Ita) Quick.Step
3 Aurélien Clerc (Swi) Phonak Hearing Systems
4 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto
5 Erik Zabel (Ger) T-Mobile Team
6 Paride Grillo (Ita) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare
7 Isaac Galvez Lopez (Spa) Illes Balears
8 Robert Forster (Ger) Gerolsteiner

General classification after stage 9

1 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) Liquigas-Bianchi 39.22.19
2 Ivan Basso (Ita) Team CSC 0.09
3 Paolo Savoldelli (Ita) Discovery Channel-Pro Cycling Team 0.35
4 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre-Caffita 1.15
5 Dario David Cioni (Ita) Liquigas-Bianchi 1.27
6 Stefano Garzelli (Ita) Liquigas-Bianchi 1.35
7 Marzio Bruseghin (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 1.38
8 Serguei Gonchar (Ukr) Domina Vacanze 1.39
9 Markus Fothen (Ger) Gerolsteiner 2.10
10 Gilberto Simoni (Ita) Lampre-Caffita 2.11

Claim Jumper Folds Under Pressure

Thanks to the anon poster to my blog's comments, I was prompted to search out more truth to the barkeep fired for refusing to remove his LiveStrong braclet. The truth was found at the Claim Jumper's website. More specifically here at this link to a statement made by the corporate head honchos. Here is a little exerpt of the juicy part:

Brian McKillip, who was terminated after he refused to remove his Livestrong bracelet, has made us aware that there can be very deep and personal emotions behind the bracelets. Brian has lost family members to cancer, and his bracelet is an important statement.

We therefore have changed our policy to allow employees to wear one cause bracelet per wrist, so long as the bracelet represents a qualified national health-related charitable organization. To maintain our safety and sanitation standards, we require that the bracelets fit snuggly and are washed along with hands each time hands are washed.

To boot, Claim Jumper is also donating $10,000 to the Lance Armstrong Foundation, too bad it's not in Brian's name. Nice recovery Claim Jumper, now if I'm ever in your area and am really really hungry, your restaurant will be at the top of my list of places to visit.

Claim Jumper is once again in good standing with me, like that makes any difference! I still think their food is unhealthy and you'd do yourself a favor by cooking at home, but if you can't at least you can eat where they support cancer and cancer research.

American Wins a Stage...

American David Zabriskie dominated an individual time trial in the Tuscan hills on Sunday to win the eighth stage of the Giro d'Italia. David set a blazing time early in the day which no other rider could match. It's the first stage win by an American this Giro.

You could tell Zabriskie hadn't been on the podium often as he looked a little embarrassed to be getting such a large bouquet of flowers and the trophy. Or maybe it was the podium girls? Hopefully this will be good practice for David's future victories!

Long Day in the Saddle

Whoa Nelly, not that kind of saddle, I'm talking bike saddle, but a horse would have been nice on the hills. This ride made for a day of contrast. Contrasts like having lots of water in the bottles and then none. The beginning of the ride was sunny and warm, but as I reached the turn around point it was cloudy and cold, with snow on the ground. And the forest I was riding through was a beautiful green hell. Click More to read more!

I left the house about 9 AM with the intension of riding up to Lovelock, which is one of my regular long rides and covers about 62 or so miles. As I was reaching the point at which I would normally turn around, I was feeling pretty good and figured why not go on. The weather was beautiful and in Lovelock, at 2800 feet elevation, it was nice, warm, and sunny. The 4 or so miles from Lovelock to Stirling City has got to be the longest 4 miles ever paved. It's almost all up hill after a short downhill out of Lovelock and I haven't been on many tougher hills. Oh, that's until I rode beyond Stirling City to Inskip, which is another 7 or 8 miles into the forest. It was still pretty nice in Stirling City, but as I climbed, climbed, and climbed somemore, it began to cloud up and became cold. It wasn't until I reached Inskip that I realized the reason it was cold, other than the snow on the gound. Inskip and the surrounding area is situated at nearly 5000 feet elevation and is shrouded in tall trees.

So, it was 85 degrees in Chico, but in Inskip it may have only been about 55 or 60. I wasn't really prepared for the contrast in temperatures and lacked sun screen or any warm clothes. On the ride up I was sweating like a pig, but as I got closer to Inskip and the weather cooled, I was actually shivering on the way up. Luckily, I wasn't paying much attention to that because the scenery and forest smells were fantastic.

As the road took me further into the forest, the quiet was all you could hear above the occasional stream. The forest was ready for summer and the smells of blooms and new trees filled the air. It was a nice distraction from the suffering of the ride.

The road out of Stirling City to Inskip is barely wide enough for two cars to pass each other and is the type of road that was built to withstand lots of snow. The road is carved through the forest and gave the feel of being out in the middle of nowhere, which basically it is. Oh, did I mention it's all up hill for about 7 miles. I was running out of water and the endless road worried me because I'd never been to Inskip before and didn't know what was out there. If you click on the Inskip link you can see some pictures and read about the history of this previously bustling 1860's mining town. The pictures were taken when the hotel and surrounding buildings were in better shape than they seem compared to when I went by.

Well, the town was quaint, but lacked humans or water, not for lack of looking. It was a ghost town, with only a few large 4x4's and their trailers for pulling ATV's and motorcycles, the 4 funky buildings, and old tractors and forest equipment. No people, no water! It's ok, because I still had about two mouth fulls left in my bottle to get be back to Stirling City where I knew there was water. Lucky for me it was all down hill. The benefit of being so far out is that there is no traffic, I only saw about 10 cars in about 2 hours up these mountain roads and was able to scream back into Stirling City, slowly getting warmer as I decended.

Upon entering Stirling City I remembered there was a little (and I mean real small) flea market happening at the town hall. I stopped by there and asked if I could fill my bottles for the trip home. The 4 people at the flea market were more than happy to oblige. I actually think they were just happy to see and talk with someone as the turn out for their event seems non-existant. I chatted with an old gentleman who was quite suprised to hear I was on my way back from Inskip after riding up from Chico. We talked about bikes, the town history, and how he had grown up in Oakland shortly before my mother had. It was a nice little 20 minute break and I would have stayed longer if not of a bike race I wanted to watch on TV.

The rest of the ride was the usual screaming down hill from small town to small town back into Chico. I'm not sure of the ride specifics as I don't have a speedometer, but my guestimation is the following:

about 85 miles
about 6000 feet elevaton gain
5.5 hours including all stops
about 16 MPH but probably over 17 without the stops.


Map of the ride

Anyway, now I'm sunburnt and sore which isn't a problem as todays weather is windy and it's supposed to rain which means no bike riding. Time to try out my second favorite sport, couch surfing!

Giro Shuffle...

Well, it was another day for the spinters.

With 5 K to go the Fassa boys were all up at the front looking to bring Petacchi to the line in first. Only problem is the train derailed going through a corner taking down 4 Fassa riders basically killing the sprint for Petacchi.

With 1 k Henk Vogels attacks and takes McEwen and Kirsipuu with him, McEwen powers past and takes the stage. It's the second win for McEwen this Giro, good for him!

Wow, a whole week of racing complete and not a single win for Fassa Bortolo in the sprints.

Wow again, Bettini has reclaimed the maglia rosa from Di Luca and will get to keep his promise which he made to his home town to wear the maglia rosa when the peloton passes through.

Provisional Results:

1 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Davitamon - Lotto 3.37.17
2 Jaan Kirsipuu (Est) Crédit Agricole
3 Volodymyr Bileka (Ukr) Discovery Channel
4 Isaac Galvez Lopez (Spa) Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne
5 Henk Vogels (Aus) Davitamon - Lotto
6 Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone
7 Thomas Ziegler (Ger) Gerolsteiner
8 Paride Grillo (Ita) Ceramica Panaria
9 Markus Fothen (Ger) Gerolsteiner
10 Olaf Pollack (Ger) T-Mobile

General classification after stage 6

1 Paolo Bettini (Ita) Quick.Step 29.58.09
2 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) Liquigas-Bianchi 0.03
3 Luca Mazzanti (Ita) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare 0.31
4 Dario David Cioni (Ita) Liquigas-Bianchi 0.34
5 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre-Caffita 0.36
6 Stefano Garzelli (Ita) Liquigas-Bianchi 0.42
7 Mauricio Alberto Ardila Cano (Col) Davitamon-Lotto 0.43
8 Michele Scarponi (Ita) Liberty Seguros-Wurth Team 0.47
9 Mirko Celestino (Ita) Domina Vacanze 0.52
10 Gilberto Simoni (Ita) Lampre-Caffita

Time To Boycott Claim Jumpers Restaurants...

Even though you should avoid eating there because it's unhealthy, now you can have another reason to avoid Claim Jumpers.

Read article here

It seems Claim Jumper fired an employee from their Roseville location who refused to take off his LiveStrong wrist band. Claim Jumpers recently changed their uniform policy and the wristbands didn't make the cut. When asked to remove the bracelet, Brian McKillip, 30, refused because he wears them in memory of family members lost to cancer as well as those who survived.

"It's big load off my chest that I can say that I stood up for something that I believe in and that means a lot to me," McKillip said.

McKillip said he does not plan on filing a lawsuit, but his family said they will try to force the restaurant to change its policy with a flier that they plan on handing out to patrons explaining McKillip's situation. Either way, he said he doesn't want his job back!

And You Thought The Blue Screen Was Bad?

Now prepare yourself for the second coming of the "blue screen of death" ... no not this blue screen, but this one. I know you're going to say "but the first one isn't all that bad" but never the less, in computing blue screen is usually a bad thing.

So you ask, what could possibly be worse than blue screen? Well, it's the red screen and is designed to let users know that a more serious error has occurred. Hopefully you won't be seeing this screen in Longhorn (next version of Windows OS), if you do, try the Microsoft fix, reboot.

Great Write Up From Creator of Yahoo! Music Engine

If you are at all interested in this whole internet music distribution thingy, check out this write up from Ian C Rogers over at his blog. He goes over the reasons to switch from any other music service to Yahoo's. Kind of biased, but way informative!

Bettini Relegated continued...

Ok, he was DQ'ed but he seems to be placed in 4th for the days classification, which means that he will keep the jersey on GC. Oh wait, they moved him all the way back to 193rd place for today's stage. This means that Luca Mazzanti (Ita) Ceramica Panaria has won the stage.

I haven't seen the rest of the results but hope that Paolo Savoldelli must not have made the split as I don't see his name in the provisional results. Here are the lastest provisionals:

Provisional
1 Luca Mazzanti (Ita) Ceramica Panaria 5.10.09
2 Dario David Cioni (Ita) Liquigas - Bianchi
3 Michele Scarponi (Ita) Liberty Seguros-Würth Team
4 Mirko Celestino (Ita) Domina Vacanze 0.02
5 Filippo Pozzato (Ita) Quick.Step 0.04
6 Erik Zabel (Ger) T-Mobile Team
7 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) Liquigas-Bianchi
8 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto
9 Cristian Moreni (Ita) Quick.Step
10 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre-Caffita
11 Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Cofidis-Le Credit Par Telephone
12 Stefano Garzelli (Ita) Liquigas-Bianchi
13 Julian Dean (NZl) Credit Agricole
14 Emanuele Sella (Ita) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare
15 Giampaolo Caruso (Ita) Liberty Seguros-Wurth Team

General classification after stage 4

1 Paolo Bettini (Ita) Quick.Step
2 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) Liquigas-Bianchi 0.13
3 Luca Mazzanti (Ita) Ceramica Panaria
4 Dario David Cioni (Ita) Liquigas-Bianchi
5 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre-Caffita 0.21
6 Stefano Garzelli (Ita) Liquigas-Bianchi 0.27
7 Michele Scarponi (Ita) Liberty Seguros-Würth Team 0.32
8 Mauricio Alberto Ardila Cano (Col) Davitamon-Lotto 0.36
9 Mirko Celestino (Ita) Domina Vacanze 0.37
10 Gilberto Simoni (Ita) Lampre-Caffita

Bettini Relegated?!

Paolo Bettini has been disqualified! This sprint was very irregular, as Bettini knew that Cooke was right behind him, and when he noved to the left, Bettini did the same, effectively cutting him off.

The Italian fans can be heard chanting Bettini's name. They are pissed about the relegation. I'm not sure how this will affect his pink jersey.

If I were Cooke, I would have attempted to pass on the side farthest away from the barrier.

Updates still to come.

Giro Report...

Today's stage was full of crashes, had one long break, and came back together before a small split at the finish where there was a major crash in the sprit involving Baden Cooke. He managed to walk across the finish line without his bike while Bettini took the win. Watching the replay it looked like Cooke might have been able to over take Bettini, but Bettini kind of blocked him over to the barriers. As they got closer Cooke's front tire grazed Bettini's rear tire and Cooke ran into the barriers sending him over the bars onto his ass. I hope that was a soft shammy in those shorts!

Provisional results:

1 Paolo Bettini (Ita) Quickstep 5.10.09
2 Luca Mazzanti (Ita) Ceramica Panaria
3 Dario David Cioni (Ita) Liquigas - Bianchi
4 Michele Scarponi (Ita) Liberty Seguros-Würth Team
5 Mirko Celestino (Ita) Domina Vacanze 0.02
6 Filippo Pozzato (Ita) Quick.Step 0.04


Back to the commentation... One of the crashes was quite odd. It seemed to occur at the back of the peloton when a Phonak rider came flying into the peloton only to run into the back of a team mate. Equally odd was the crash that was either cause by the Phonak rider or the result of his crash. This crash seemed to create the split of the peloton right before the finish.

Another crash involved Walter Beneteau (Bouygues), Cyrille Monnerais (Francaise Des Jeux), Thomas Dekker (Rabobank), Andrea Peron (CSC) and Nick Gates who seemed to get the worst of it. Every one was able to continue.

Back to the Cooke crash... Bettini went back to see if Cooke was ok as he walked across the finish line and at first it seems Cooke didn't want to talk and walked off. Bettini followed and looked to be saying sorry that happened but it wasn't my fault. I guess we'll wait and see what the race officials have to say about this.

What excitement!!!

Napster, A Quick Review

Like everyone else, I enjoy some music now and then and being that I don't head to the music store often or pay too close attention to what's new, I thought I'd try out Napster.

Since I'm a cheapo, I of course tried the free 14 day trial, of which I'm 10 days into. At first it seems almost too good to be true. Anything you could wish for was available, even obscure recordings like the Surf Punks. But it wasn't long before I was disappointed. Even though you can listen to anything you want and even download it to listen to later, the portability was limited and the encryption didn't allow for other players beyond Napster to play the music. My favorite player is Nullsoft's Winamp with Windows Media Player in second.

So, I'm about to uninstall it as I'm not willing to pay $15 a month to listen to music which takes up space on my hard drive but isn't portable beyond that. It seems that after I fork over $15 a month, I need to get them another $5 a month to have the ability to move the music to qualified MP3 players. So IMHO, $20 a month is a little much to spend on music that really isn't mine to keep and use as I please.

My conclusion is unless you have money to throw away, Napster isn't the solution to lack of tunes.

Enter Yahoo's music subscription service

After I uninstall Napster, I'll download Yahoo's service and give that a try for a week. It looks to be identical to Napster, though cheaper which works for me. At $60 a year I'd be interested if I could get the music on my MP3 player, but I'm not sure the player I have is compatible, UGH. We'll see how it goes and I'll see about reporting back.

Funny Story...

By clicking the Read More link below you can read a funny story from Brian about our bike ride over the weekend. Brian ended up riding most the ride by his lonesome as he did the 200K and we did the 100 miles.

Words of warning, this story is R-rated and not appropriate for kids, so if you are a kid or of kid age, please, do youself a favor, don't ruin your still developing brain by reading this foul mouthed story!


Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I'm needn' to pinch a loaf. Hmmm. 47 goons in line waiting to piss on
the seat in front of me. Scary-ass, steaming, corn-filled curlie-cues
looking up at you saying emm, emm good! Sorry, even I can't handle that
kind of sickness. What, my bare ass getting THAT close to everyone else's
shit? Damn, even if some of it did come from bad-ass triatheletes, that
shit still ain't gonna' have no effect on my performance... unless you call
running for your life from the shitter some kind of "performance
improvement". So, I said: "fuck that shit" and went on, keeping my ass
tight.

Hmmm. Needing to shit soon. "Look, a good tree over there by the poison
oak" Ahh, I already learned that one. "Keep riding". Ok, so I finally
come up on Ro Sham Bo Winery and I hastily enter the grounds doing a 75 foot
"stoppee" at the front doors. I enter the tasting room and the Style
Council is in complete force. I walk past this goon platoon looking
significantly dapper (helmet in place) and envision one of the patrons with
my 7lb curly-cue on his arrogant, wine sniffing, manicured little head. I
think: "Fuck you, as if you can tell the difference between that shit and my
shit" I find the bathroom. Ahh, time to shit! Yeah.

So here I find myself in this killer bathroom. with mirrors and stainless
steel walls and a "lou" -that is itself, stainless steel- and take a
dedicated seat. Suddenly, I notice, while in a private bathroom, I'm NOT
ALONE! Amazingly, I am greeted by Godzilla and Rodan battling in the Tokyo
Bay on a wall mounted television! Amazing! This joint- for some reason
(sick or otherwise) has movies playing in their bathrooms! Needless to say,
I took my time. Rodan got his ass kicked... ahh, so did the lou.

So that's the story of the day from me. Yeah, there were other stories,
like the rider down on Green Valley needing an ambulance, the killer section
on western Colman Valley Road where a living skeleton danced letting you
know mistakes there would be fatal, getting passed by two tandems on 116 and
barking at them (they were scared), or passing 27 riders down main street in
Guerneville... only to be passed by every one of them up May's Canyon!

I only met one arrogant rider and for that, I'm pleased. All in all, it was
a good ride for me too. Only a slow leak on the rear from a previously
patched tube hampered me... if at all. I filled it again at Lake Sonoma.
The 2X Caffeine Goo kept me "on crack" when I was otherwise starting to feel
sluggish. I believe I passed more riders than passed me and some of them I
blew by so fast it stripped their jerseys off! One section I was going so
fast the asphalt was coming up behind me too and the entire peliton trying
to chase me down went down hard- bicycle wheels were flying all across the
roadway!

Yeah... I know I'm The Shit! See ya'll at the next one!

Brian

Distance: 122 miles
Average spd: 15.6mph
Top spd: 46.3mph
Time: 7.5hrs

Bettini Wears Pink Again...

Ending in another odd, slightly up hill finish which, again didn't suit the sprinters, Danilo DiLuca took the win with Cunego in second. So, it looks as if Bettini will be in pink again tomorrow. Here are some provisional results:

Provisional
1 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) Liquigas-Bianchi
2 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre-Caffita
3 Stefano Garzelli (Ita) Liquigas-Bianchi
4 Mirko Celestino (Ita) Domina Vacanze
5 Francisco J. Ventoso Alberdi (Spa) Saunier Duval-Prodir
6 Paolo Bettini (Ita) Quick.Step
7 Luca Mazzanti (Ita) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare
8 Cristian Moreni (Ita) Quick.Step

General classification after stage 2

1 Paolo Bettini (Ita) Quick.Step
2 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) Liquigas-Bianchi
3 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre-Caffita
4 Stefano Garzelli (Ita) Liquigas-Bianchi
5 Paolo Savoldelli (Ita) Discovery Channel-Pro Cycling Team
6 Juan Manuel Garate (Spa) Saunier Duval-Prodir
7 Dario David Cioni (Ita) Liquigas-Bianchi
8 Mauricio Alberto Ardila Cano (Col) Davitamon-Lotto

Sipping Chai Reading Madness....

So, it's a wonderful Tuesday morning here in Chico. It's looking like the storm is breaking up a little and the thunder and lightening of last night gone with the darkness.

As I sit watching non-commented Giro streaming video online at OLNtv.com, sipping a chai with honey and reading the news, I come across this headline...

Petacchi not on Discovery's radar for '06

Huh? Petacchi, Discovery, what? Well, it seems that Fassa only has a 1 year Pro Tour license and Fassa owner Paolo Fassa is looking for a major co-sponsor to meet the support the financial burden of the team. I'm not sure how Discovery's name popped up in this madness but Petacchi's managers aren't sitting still in the case that Fassa Bortolo doesn't find a co-sponsor next season, reportedly shopping a Petacchi package of the super-sprinter and five teammates (Bruseghin, Tosatto, Sacchi, Ongarato and Velo) for three million Euros per season.

With as much as Petacchi wins, 3 million Euros seems like a steal for the 5 of them and would be a nice addition to the Discovery team if that's how things turn out. I suppose with Lance leaving, their will be some open salary on the team, probably to the tune of 3 million Euros.

The PhotoCrazy.com picture of me at the Wine Country Century.

Andiamo, Stage 19 Picture

Still over two weeks away, stage 19 should provide extra character to this years Giro. I just found this picture over at PEZ and they will be doing a write up about this stage and most importantly, the climb in the picture below. I thought this was a road race?


Part of Giro Stage 19!

Robbie McEwen Takes 3rd Stage

In what seemed like a pretty tame stage other than an Euskaltel rider going down into the road side barrier and being cart off to the hospital, Robbie McEwen took the win. Coming in to the finale, the field was very disorganized with Fassa attempting to bring Ale-Jet to the line in front. Credit Agricole was also up there pulling for Jaan Kirsipuu but came no where close. But once again, the Fassa train was to be derailed and Petacchi finishes in 4th again. Two sprint stages down and still no wins for Petacchi. But McEwen is looking great after placing 2nd in yesterdays stage. I'm sure he'll take the Maglia Rosa today, but only by seconds.

It looks as if our guy Savoldelli from Team Disco is right in the mix of things only 30 seconds back on GC. Cunego is only 3 seconds behind him, but I'm happy to see Savoldelli having the lead amongst the true protaginists. I'm praying for a podium finish

This is really turning out to be an interesting Giro already with upsets from the beginning. Oh and props to the people who select the podium girls, they aren't ugly, and if you want to see more of them, check out Pezcyclingnew.com's Distrazioni del Giorno, or Daily Distraction photo page here.

Here are some provisional race results:

1 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto 4.34.47
2 Isaac Galvez Lopez (Spa) Illes Balears
3 Robert Forster (Ger) Gerolsteiner
4 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Fassa Bortolo
5 Baden Cooke (Aus) Francaise Des Jeux
6 Francisco J. Ventoso Alberdi (Spa) Saunier Duval-Prodir
7 Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Cofidis-Le Credit Par Telephone
8 Steven De Jongh (Ned) Rabobank
9 Paride Grillo (Ita) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare
10 Uros Murn (Slo) Phonak Hearing Systems
11 Rony Martias (Fra) Bouygues Telecom
12 Volodymyr Bileka (Ukr) Discovery Channel-Pro Cycling Team
13 Olaf Pollack (Ger) T-Mobile Team
14 Ivan Quaranta (Ita) Domina Vacanze
15 Jaan Kirsipuu (Est) Credit Agricole
16 Aurélien Clerc (Swi) Phonak Hearing Systems

General classification after stage 2

1 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto 9.45.14
2 Paolo Bettini (Ita) Quick.Step 0.18
3 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 0.22
4 Isaac Galvez Lopez (Spa) Illes Balears 27
5 Paolo Savoldelli (Ita) Discovery Channel-Pro Cycling Team 0.30
6 Marco Velo (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 0.33
7 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre-Caffita
8 Filippo Pozzato (Ita) Quick.Step


Thanks to the live report =from CyclingNews.com at http://live.cyclingnews.com/

Wine Country Century

On Saturday I had the pleasure of riding the Wine Country Century for the 2nd time in 3 years. This time, rather than go out there alone, I met my friend Paul and two of his old friends Mark and Brian.

Click the Read More link well, to read more!


This years edition started with dawn patrol. We were up at 5 AM and out at the start/finish area at 5:40. I think we were rolling on about 6 AM, which is a little early for my liking but in the end turned out great. We arrived at the first rest stop right as it was opening and were very happy to find coffee being served. As I didn't have any breakfast before leaving, I grubbed on a warm tortilla, an oreo, a peanutbutter cookie, two quarters of PB&J, washing it all down with 2 cups of coffee. There were plenty of other goodies at the stop including bananas, oranges, strawberrys, breads, cookies, and candy!

At this point it was down to Paul, Mark and myself as Brian had peeled off to do the loop which makes up the extra milage for the 200 K route. We didn't see him for the rest of the day. I hope his ride went well for him. Brian is a funny guy and there were many very humourous storys about him being tossed around. One I have to chip in is how he rode a Honda scooter from SF to Sugar Bowl to go skiing. It seems that he put on all his gear, sat on his skis and drove on up. I guess there were a bunch of people talking about the crazy guy on the scooter in the ticket line when all of Brian's friends realize it was him they were talking about. They had a good laugh about that, as did I.

Then it was back out on the road for a couple of nice hill climbs and a small pace line before arriving at the next stop. It was about this time that we begin to feel "punchy" as Mark put it. I'm not sure why but we were all a little goofy at this point and generally just cracking each other up. It was during this break that we came up with a new sports drink we coined "gator-coffee" which is a mixture of hot coffee and ice cold gatorade. Talk about the best of both worlds, you get hydrated and caffeinated at the same time, wonderful! Who said replenishing the body was supposed to taste good?!

Oh, I almost forget, which is hard to believe, about the two wonderful mustangs we saw. No, I'm not talking about horse, but of cars driven by idiots. Being that Paul and Mark were previous locals they had some nice insight to the surround areas as well as it's population of bad drivers. Just so you all know, Ford drivers don't like cyclists and it was proven on this ride by two drivers of Mustangs. The first one in the morning passed a small group of riders on a blind turn in the on-coming lane at what must have been 70 or 80 MPH. This guy came within a foot of a few rider which can be a little nerve racking. Then the second Mustang pulled a similar move when he blew by us. I guess he didn't have enough fun the first time around so he pulled over, let us pass, and did it again. We were in a group of 15 or so at the time and threatened to catch up to the guys and beat them with our frame pumps but realized stooping to their level would do no good.

Once again, we were back out on the roads, this time though we were able to pull into a pace line that dragged us along the next 25 miles quite nicely and dropped us off at the lunch stop. After cruising along at between 20 and 25 MPH for slightly over an hour, we weren't all that hungry. Besides the two rest stops we had been to already, the lunch was at mile 70 and it was only 11:30-ish. So we sat around for aobut 10 minutes before hitting up the sandwiches and other goodies.

Things had run very smoothly up to this point but not more than 10 minutes out of the lunch stop and Paul flatted. 10 minutes after that I flatted. Thank goodness we only had 30 miles after lunch. Other than the flats the miles ticked off quickly and the ride ended as a success.

Great fun, food, and riding was had by all. Next stop on the century trail is Sierra Century on June 4th. I'd better get some hill training in beforehand as there is something like 7000 feet or more of climbing. Then I'll be primed for the Comstock Century which has 9000 feet and is at the end of June.

I've got a couple of pictures to post, but haven't taken them off the camera yet, keep an eye out for those.

OLNtv.com Streaming Video Update

Ok, we're one hour into the live streaming video provided via OLNtv.com for the Giro d'Italia and other than the lack of commentation it's marvelous. This being the third stage, the race is in the southern part of Italia and the race video is constantly flipping between shots from the helicopter and the motorcycles. The shots from the helicopters are fantastic in terms of showing the surrounding scenery. You really get great views of the ocean, beaches, and small towns along the route. Truely this must be one of the most beautiful places in Europe.

I have to say that I really miss hearing Paul and Phil with commentation of the race, they do a great job of building the excitement and mistique behind each rider with their stories. So anyway, if you were at all thinking about plunking down the whopping $5.95 for streaming video of the entire Giro, I give it an A. Go for it!

Update To OLNtv.com Giro Stream

Ok, I've looked deeper into the underside of this offer by OLN and am please at what I've found.

I was concerned that the fee to watch the streaming online video of the Giro would be $5.95 a stage, but NO, it's only $5.95 for the entire race. So, I purchased without hesitation and look forward to watching online. I suggest you all try it out too. Must have a broadband connection to do so!

Link here

Just another day in Southpark

Create Your Own Southpark Character

It's pretty fun if you are fairly bored. Here is what I look like in Southpark... I should probably dress warmer but whatever, I'm just a cartoon character.


Southpark Tony

Create your own here!

Rejection Hotline

Here is a real handy website for all you hotties out there who are tired of beating down those lamers hittin on ya. When they ask for your digits, rather than make up something, kick'em one of the numbers found on this site... www.rejectionhotline.com. It will let them know in a kind way to shove the hell off! Enjoy!

PEZ's Picks The Favs

I love PEZ and Richard, for who PEZ is named after, but they must have read my post about Giro contenders. Granted their analysis is much more involved but we seem to think the same riders will be there in the end.

Anyway, read what they have to say at PEZ, it's very informative and will give you great insight as to who those guys at the front of the race are.

SAC King's Eliminated

Well, it shouldn't come as much of a suprise the King's were eliminated from the playoffs by Seattle. Though Seattle shouldn't go much further than the next round, they were a better team then the King's.

The King's had not yet become 100% cohesive as a team and it showed. I'm not sure if any off-season acquisitions are instore or wheather or not it would help, mostly time playing together should do the trick. I believe there were just too many changes made too late in the season to really pull things together for this season. Either way, the King's did manage to win 50 games for the 4th or 5th season in a row!

Look for some good things to happen next season in Sacramento, I figure they should be either in the first or second spot at this time next season.

Giro d'Italia

This time of year reminds me of how excited I would get as a child the day before we were going on vacation. We are on the cusp of the Giro and this year edition should be pretty exciting.

All of the recent past winners are here including Damiano Cunego and two-time Giro winner Gilberto Simoni, both riding for Lampre. 2000 Giro champion, Stefano Garzelli of Liquigas is looking strong, though not as strong as Cunego and Simoni. Also on good form is 2002 Giro winner Paolo Savoldelli of Team Disco and his teammate, Yaroslav Popovych, who came in 3rd in 2003. Serguei Gonchar of Domina Vacanze who placed 2nd last year has a shot solely based on last years results, but should be on form as well. CSC man for the Giro is certainly to be Ivan Basso. Yeah, I hope he rides really well at the Giro, that insures he won't be able to match Armstrong at the Tour. Others to watch for the overall IMHO are Dario David Cioni, Vladimir Karpets (I recall him having a good result in a grand tour, getting the white jersey), Julio Alberto Perez Cuapio, Marlon Alirio Perez Arango, and the American Tom Danielson.

You can pretty much count each sprint as a victory for Fassa Bortolo and Alessandro Petacchi, but he will get some competition from Erik Zabel, Paride Grillo, Isaac Galvez, and Robbie McEwen. Since the sprints are going to be a race for second, look for Zabel to jump first as he said he needs to sprint early to win as he can't out sprint Petacchi any longer.

US TV coverage is fairly weak with 2 hour recaps on both Saturday and Sunday on OLN. As well, I hear OLNtv.com will stream race video from their website for $5.95. But I'm still awaiting word whether it's $5.95 a stage or for all stages, it's most likely the first.

No matter how you view it, I hope you enjoy it as much as I will!