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I only saw a half hour or a bit more of the third stage of the eight-stage (seven plus short prologue), but it was some of the most fun I've had watching cycling this year. It was a bit mucky out and the roads were less than optimal, and the entourage was more like that of Tour de Georgia or Tour of California. Quaint, compared with Le Tour de France. That alone was fun.

A couple of recent articles say that the Spanish Cycling Federation, Real Federación Española de Ciclismo (RFEC), will be pursuing santions against riders and others involved in blood doping in the Operación Puerto cycling doping case. Most thought that the Spanish federation had let it drop, and some were disappointed in this decision.

Stage 8 was great for viewing except for the many in number but few in percentage fans, who ran for their own glory and fifteen seconds of fame. At times times these selfans impeded the cyclists, it seemed.

The time trial seemed like it might be the only way to shake things up, and that it did, with some doubt by the end of the day whether Levi Leipheimer might be passed in the overall (GC, general classification) by David Zabriske, the USA road Time Trial champ.

Stage 6 Time Trial Top 20

Stage 5 was another good one, but I wasn't able to catch it all. I did see Cavendish win again, this time just a bit further ahead than the day before, giving him more time to mug for the cams. 

Tour of California Stage 4 Merced to Clovis
The sun finally came out on the Tour of California in Stage 4, and so did the idiots. In fact, at one point on the final climb, an imbicile with a sharp implement meant to be some sort of devil's pitchfork too a head full of snow after one of the cyclists (purported to be Lance himself) was close enough to push him and his sharp tipped stick into the bank.

A lead group of four rode out almost all of a wet ride, dwindled to two, then the peloton munched them like a snack before dinner. Earlier in the day, Levi fell, catching Lance's back wheel, but got up for another bike and the Astana team caught up. Most of the day, Astana did the work, but as the end grew near, Team Columbia High Road appeared to be setting up for Mark Cavendish.

In the last few turns, Cervelo buzzed through town and to the line with an incredible lead-out. It was not that large of a lead-out, but wow, it seemed perfectly timed and organized.

Levi Leipheimer took the lead today in another drenched and cold day. He bridged up by himself to catch Barredo. Later on, young rider Thomas Peterson of Garmin took Levi's wheel and sucked, then came in first at the finish (but Leipheimer took the same time). The next group was 21 seconds behind and included Horner, Armstrong (who had an incident with a motorcycle that resulted in some delay), Brajkovic and Rubiera from Levi's Astana teammates for 5 in all in the top 21 seconds for the day. Garmin had 3, and several others had 2 in this group.

OK I got back just in time to watch some of the eventual leaders come in. Svein Tuft hung on for 9th, and finished ahead of Lance Armstrong, who finished 10th, by a tenth of a second or so. Something to remember for Tuft, I'm sure.

At the front, it's no surprise the Fabian Cancellara was tops. Levi was 2nd, 1.2 seconds behind. It had begun to rain lightly by the time Floyd Landis and Levi Leipheimer had hit the course, so I wonder if Levi might have done a touch better without that spinkles...but that's racing, as they say.

Yes it will be live on Vs. network, but I don't get that, having given up cable vision (though I still have cable internet, hoping to ditch that for fiber optic).

It appears there'll be live video (at least one stream) plus gps tracking and timing and placement info on the tracker section of the official site...
http://tracker.amgentourofcalifornia.com/

This article is about the technology used for the official tracker site...

It looks like I'll have a bit of extra free time, sadly, and a bit less life, particularly the life of watching cycling via internet streaming video...for 2009 at least. In the year that Lance Armstrong may be coming back, it seems he won't be coming back to the Tour de Georgia because it won't be there according to the foundation that owns the tour. 

Well the Tour de France route for 2009 has come out, and there's some new old stuff, like the Team Time Trial is back. Some say this makes Lance Armstrong more likely to show up, some say less, and he seems to want some assurances from the organizers about respectful treatment or some such.

Meanwhile Contador sounded welcoming at first, but lately perhaps less so, and Vino's name has surfaced as well. Nothing solid here from me...just some impressions.

Just when you thought it was all over... 

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/cycling/news/story?id=3611019 

Floyd Landis is back, this time taking his case to the US courts.  The article points our that this is probably pointless, since the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) is a Swiss body...  As far as I know, our courts don't have any jurisdiction there...  Not yet, anyway...  ;-)

Now, something to cheer about! You never know about people really, but I've seen Levi in person and on streaming video and I can tell you there were awesome performances, but nothing that seemed "unbelievable," like some other performances I've seen. I'll never know if Levi is clean, just like I thought it was certain that others were, but seeing Levi almost but not quite do it several times leads me to believe in him. Having said that, joining Astana and linking with some I've begun to doubt still makes me wonder, which is sad.

No, it's not my award to the one who lost the most weight in the Tour de Georgia. It's for the lamest spectator or other non-cyclist in the tour. There were so many, for such a small audience.

Wow. Really great stuff and sorry to be late on this with the Eddy workshop and guests coming to town, but over time, free internet video and the Tour de Georgia are both getting cooler. As I had to keep telling myself last weekend, I can't leave town right now with lots to do and some of it requiring me to be here, so I will have to enjoy this opportunity from afar it seems. If anyone thinks they want to get a carpool together later in the week, let me know (I know I'm dreamin').

So apparently the Discovery Pro Cycling Team will be no more after the end of this season. But meanwhile things are looking pretty good for Slipstream, the US's newest international team.

Today promises to be a big day for announcements in pro cycling. Apparently the team to be formerly known as Discovery Channel has not found a replacement sponsor for next year. It seems Hincapie may be in magenta for T-Mobile, other USAmericans are in doubt, Slipstream may be the only USA team, and we have to wonder if they'll get an invite for the tour (anyone know about this yet?). Something more ominous than espresso seems brewing from Contador and Bruyneel regarding Operación Puerto and any connection with the footlose man Eufemiano Fuentes.

Good vibes all around from London, England and the UK from hosting the Tour de France, or so it seems. I thought it was interesting and fun, and especially since the weather was so great for those days. The English really came out to look and seemed to be enthusiastic. I'm glad they're not piling on as there are enough piles to go around already. Mo' bettah testin' throughout the ranks I say and careful living for the riders it seems. It's a job many of us would gladly take!

As timv has noted, David Millar can spin a yarn nicely in his TdF Diaries. As a doper who had done his time, he's uniquely qualified to share several perspectives. And he was there for his own "Say it ain't so, Joe" moment when Vino's non-negative was first announced. I'll leave most of the piece for you to read on the Bicycling site, but here's a brief sample of that moment:

Just a quick note to say that on today's stage of the Tour de France, some inline skaters made the video coverage and were even commented upon favorably by Phil Liggett (and maybe by Paul Sherwen too).

The first view was of the solo race leader with a solo skater in a low race position making good time on a road parallel to the TdF course.

The second view a few minutes later was of four skaters on the parallel road, behind the full peloton, with fields of sunflowers in the foreground and between the two roads.

For those who don't have cable television but do have high-speed internet, here are some links that may (or may not) work for you to watch some worldwide television. Currently, of course, this is of interest because of the Tour de France. Look below for some links to the live data for GPS (location), power, heartrate and more. It's amazing to watch the video as the riders pass through a town and make a turn and to see this happen on the Google map while viewing HRM data.

Floyd Landis had agreed not to tour any of France in competition this year, and it looks like he'll be making the rounds of the talk shows here in the USA and elsewhere if things go as one might expect. The book will cover Landis' whole life up to and including the results of the mid-May anti-doping hearing. Bicycling Magazine executive editor Loren Mooney will be co-author, and Amazon.com is offering up preorders. Here's an affiliate link if you want one... Positively False: The Real Story of How I Won the Tour de France.

Here's a brief article on Tyler Hamilton's reemergence into the cycling ranks on a mostly Russian squad. There's a light review of his case (no details) and yes he has served his two years and the ban was upheld. It's unclear whether he faces a life ban from links to the "Spanish Doctor" of Operación Puerto but he's ready to roll for now and it will be fun to see what happens with this. Word is he's in top shape. Here's my favorite paragraph from the VeloNews story...

The 2006 Vuelta a España, the third and last of the three-week tours, begins this weekend in Malaga with a dead-flat 7.2km team time trial on Saturday. The field looks pretty interesting too. Tom Danielson will be the designated team leader for Discovery, unlike the situation in the Tour de France this year where there was no clear number one for that team. Alexandre Vinokourov and his Kazakhstan-based Astana team (formerly the Spanish Liberty Seguros squad) will compete after being shut out in France at the last minute. TdF de facto winner Oscar Pereiro and hard-luck crash victim Alejandro Valverde will lead the Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears team. And one of my favorite riders, Alessandro Petacchi, has recovered from the fractured kneecap suffered early in the Giro d'Italia and will be back to contest the sprints against Robby McEwen, Thor Hushovd, and others.

I won't provide a summary here now, but this article from the mercury news is a somewhat detailed summary of the court case where Armstrong was put under scrutiny to adjudicate the matter of a five million dollar bonus earned by winning a particular Tour de France. The article has many insights, and relative to the Landis matter, food and drink control seem like really important issues to cover if you want to avoid any possibility of sabotage. I don't know how easy it would be to spike a rider, but I'm interested now aplenty. The article specifically notes how upset Landis was about doped cyclists, and also points to the "blue cooler" which Armstrong says was his protected food and drink. There's a climate of fear, most definitely, and some of this is fear of Armstrong, justified or not. It's interesting, however, how many people came out to cast aspersion on Armstrong, but that the case essentially says there's no proof the bonus should not be paid. Who knows what it all means with respect to Floyd, but his reputation sure was good on this subject, for what that is worth. Here's a link to a worthwhile article if you find Lance Armstrong an interesting topic:

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