NorCal Cycling News – Cycling and Racing in Northern California

I started out July thinking I would try to get a post up every day but then got sick on vacation (totally sucked, have to take another vacation to make up for it.)  I kept a log, with story ideas for each day, which i may throw up for Saturday reading but the last two days have been such great racing I couldn’t wait.  When the racing heats up so does the twitter action from the various pundits out there.  Here are a few of my favorites you should check out.

@ : So far my favorite of the bunch.  This CyclingNews.com editor is funny and insightful, plus she adds a little NorCal flair to her posts since she relocated to SF.

: Velonews, or is that Velo?, editor.  He is nothing if not prolific, and answers most peoples comments or queries.  He tends to be a little John-Tesh-Like in his dramatic pronouncements, but he retweets all the good pro comments, and well… i love John Tesh.

@ : Jason Gay is a sports editor and cycling enthusiast at Wall Street Journal.  The dude single handedly saved NewsCorp with an article about Jens Voigt in the the Wall Street Journal!  His twitter feed on the tour is hilarious.

@ : What started out as a funny parody has grown a little tired, and too much of a downer, since he’s cozied up for Floyd Landis and other twitter jokesters.  Still… when The Overlord goes into first person, and gets in character he’s a trip.

@ : Lyne is not just a domestic cycling fan, she had commentary going through a lot of the tour stages too.  She’s best when she’s angry, and since it has been taking so long to get official results up at Cascade…she’s in rare form.

 

 

I feel like people are being so harsh with Lance Armstrong (Google Ranking genius term for cycling blogs.)  Look…if you didn’t know he was doing something different before you are naive, and if you don’t believe it now you are probably thinking that vaccines turn you into a zombie.  He’s really not a bad guy… he’d never do any of these things…

5. Push a little italian dude in a sprint, those are some cute little sprinters!

4. He would not kick a puppy.  He might eat it for protien, but he would not kick a puppy.

3. Get with the other Olsen twin (Mary Kate.)  That would be weird and he doesn’t have anything to prove.

2. Enter one of those Ironman triathlons.  Everybody knows triathletes are total losers.

1. Be jealous of Ashton Kutcher or Justin Bieber over their massiver Twitter followings.  Kutcher’s into old ladies, and Bieber is Canadian.  They got built in followings… you can’t compete with that.

Tour De France Race Director and AGO employee Christian Prudhomme told Agence France Press that he was considering a bid from San Francisco to host the start, including a prologue and two subsequent stages, in 2016.  In email correspondence with an AFP staff writer Prudhomme weighed in with the following.

“Logistically it is still a challenge, but we believe that we can resolve some of those issues once the new Concorde is built by BAC.  We are taking a serious look at this bid. It has been in the works for years. Our partner AEG has proved they can provide the experience our viewers and riders expect, so we believe operationally there are no issues.  If we can resolve the transportation issues then we may be able to take the Tour to the US and possibly create an experience to rival the World Cup.”

A North American start has been on the AGO’s to do list since the late 90′s when they looked at starting the race in Quebec.  The Canadian start was dismissed after concerns regarding travel and other lo.gistical considerations. When asked about the original Canadian bid Prudhomme had the following statement.

“The Canadian bid was very interesting.  Obviously Canada is very important to France.  They provide us with all of our fish, timber, and maple syrup products, so we were under a lot of government pressure to take a serious look at their bid.  Needless to say, the popularity of cycling in the US has increased significantly since that time so the economic feasibility of a US start definitely outweighs what Canada was offering at the time.”

When contacted for this story neither the AEG nor any leaders of the Northern California cycling community would provide any comment.

In a press conference that most journalists thought was to announce funding for a new Livestrong office in Sacramento Lance Armstrong announced that he would start the Tour of California with the Radio Shack team.  ”I don’t really see it as a comback,” Armstrong told a surprised group of reporters in the Sacramento Hilton “It’s just one race, and I think everybody including RadioShack, Livestrong, the State of California, and the Amgen Tour of California, will benefit from a higher profile presence that a former Tour winner can bring.”

When asked about the recent investigation into his past Armstrong referred reporters to his clean record and lack of any material evidence or charges to be brought despite a years worth of investigation.  ”To be frank I don’t think it is a great use of taxpayer money, but I’m from Texas, and in Texas we don’t believe in high taxes like the some government leaders I could mention.”

Armstrong went onto say he will be relocating to Tahoe for a few weeks to pre-ride the early TOC stages and get in a few training races.  ”I haven’t lost all my fitness from the winter, so I’m going to do some local races in California like the Calaveras TT and the Turlock Road Race to get a little race simulation in. I’m also going to pay a few domestic teams to jump into the races so I can simulate the needed speed.”