Honestly I can’t say I’m totally surprised that the federal investigation into Lance Armstrong has been dropped. The reason for my lack of surprise? The investigation seemed to be dragging on and on. The burden of proof is much higher in these types of cases and while it was rumored that some of Armstrong’s teammates gave it up apparently there was no concrete evidence. The Boulder Report’s Joe Lindsey reported that Armstrong’s ex-teammate Yaroslav Popyvych just replied “nyet” during his two-hour grand juror testimony.

Another more “conspiracy theory” thought is that the fix was in and someone higher up with pull closed this investigation down. Armstrong knows people in high places.

Armstrong, the brand and person, has built up a considerable amount of goodwill. We all know about the LiveStrong Foundation, but not many realized there was a for profit arm of LiveStrong. In fact, few realized that LiveStrong.org has stopped donating money to research at all – and a significant amount goes to marketing. And to be clear, there’s nothing illegal about it – just self serving.

During the Armstrong investigation Barry Bonds and the infamous BALCO case came and went. The final result was Bonds was placed under house arrest for 30 days. Not an encouraging sign for Food and Drug investigator Jeff Novitzky as he was also the central investigator into what could have been the biggest cycling scandal in modern times. All that time and effort and it amounted to an adult “time out” for the baseball player.

If the case had continued and Armstrong was found guilty of fraud, seven Tour de France titles were on the line of being stripped, forcing a complete rewrite of cycling history. And looking at who was on the lower steps of the podium during the Armstrong era, how far down the general classification would the ASO have to go to find a clean winner?

Tyler Hamilton stepped forward and confessed on 60 Minutes to organized doping within the Postal Service team. Yet, nothing happened. Armstrong had by now employed Mark Fabiani, a former White House special council and now professional spin doctor for high-end clients in a fix or companies that need a crisis clean-up. Fabiani railed against Hamilton, Floyd Landis and everyone who dared to throw stones at the Armstrong myth.

Then suddenly the Feds pulled the plug on the criminal investigation. Charles Pelkey said that Novitzky wasn’t made aware of that decision until 30 minutes before the press release. However, Travis Tygert, CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, issued a statement.

“Unlike the U.S. Attorney, USADA’s job is to protect clean sport rather than enforce specific criminal laws. Our investigation into doping in the sport of cycling is continuing and we look forward to obtaining the information developed during the federal investigation.”

A phone call and text message to Mr. Tygert asking about what USADA’s next move might be weren’t answered.

So what does this mean? The Feds were conducting a criminal investigation of Armstrong under the RICO act. USADA investigates for doping in sports. Two different things. While the Feds have a dossier of information it cannot be used by USADA and is sealed forever. If anything does get leaked the person who leaked it can go to jail.

However, as I was about to post this article John Fahey, the president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), issued a statement.

“A large amount of the evidence gathered is likely to be highly pertinent to doping and WADA expects that this evidence will be shared with relevant anti-doping authorities for them to determine whether any breaches of the anti-doping rules have occurred.”

My gut feeling is that this is posturing to save face. Sure WADA can ask for the evidence, but again, I’ve been told by a lawyer that the evidence is sealed.

So while Tygert says that his organization is continuing to investigate they are facing an uphill battle. USADA has limited funds and they don’t have the legal pull to compel anyone to say anything.

For Landis a couple of things can occur. Allegedly Landis has his own legal suit against Armstrong asking for damages. Think O.J. Simpson. The football player was found not guilty but taken to civil court by the Goldman family where the burden of proof is lower. Armstrong could possibly try to settle with Landis rather than go to court and see his ex-teammates subpenaed and forced to publicly testify. There’s no sealed grand jury to protect them. Or Landis could throw his hands up and walk away from this whole thing.

My personal take on the situation is that the Feds could no longer fight this battle due to political pressure. Releasing the statement late Friday, days before the Super Bowl, promised to push it to the back of the sport pages and by Super Bowl Sunday it’s a distant memory for 99.9% of the population. Also, Fabiani and his partner Chris Lehane worked in the White House and as @RaceRadio stated on Twitter, “worked daily with with Clinton’s lawyer Lanny Breur who is now head of the Fed’s criminal division.” That’s an interesting six-degrees of separation.

I also find it interesting that Armstrong has been deafeningly silent about the conclusion of the case on Twitter – his social media platform of choice when he wants to gloat about something. Did his team of lawyers get a hold of him and confiscate his iPhone to prevent him from saying something damaging?

Many of you have a firm opinion about Armstrong – he’s guilty as sin or he’s a persecuted man. I won’t try to convince you one way or the other. But this will continue and the Lance Armstrong legacy is still not in the clear.

This past Wednesday I wrote a post regarding the Shiv road bike that Specialized’s creative director Robert Egger has been riding on the the company’s famous lunch ride. Like many of you I was intrigued by the idea of taking a time trial bike – in this case the Shiv – and converting it to a road machine.

I wondered out loud how the Shiv frame would handle in a road situation and if there had been any modifications to the frame to make it more road-like. I e-mailed Robert and he was kind enough to respond to my questions.

Browne: I realize that the frame isn’t UCI legal, but how often do these one-off projects become reality?
Egger: We are always trying new ideas. I love to borrow (steal) ideas from other segments of our business. When we were working on the Shiv Tri I knew right away it could make an interesting road bike.

The shapes up close are really beautiful, the wind tunnel told us what the shapes needed to be. I felt the sheer size of the downtube would be a great canvas for a crazy graphic. I used our old 74′ graphic as a way to balance old and new. I like that tension in Design.

I like to do these exercises to make us think about what can BE. Our biggest enemy in the bike industry is complacency. We have to evolve and reinvent. Realistically one out of 10 make it. Probably not nearly enough…….

Browne: Was this Shiv road bike just a fun project or is it being used to test a possible new aero-type frame?
Egger: I will get in trouble if I say too much here. We are never satisfied with what we are doing today. For me this project was partly about making a cheater bike for our very competitive lunch race.

Browne: How does it ride?
Egger: I set the bike up with the same seat and bar position as my normal road bike (actually also a cheater bike). It rides quite well but certainly lacks the lively ride of an SL4. I find myself riding a gear higher with the same amount of energy. On the flats it’s a dream! I haven’t done any longer climbs but I felt no compromises on an undulating course.

The Shiv TT frame in action

Browne: Did you change to angles on the frame or fork to make the handling more “road bike like”?
Egger: Angles are per our existing Shiv geometry.

Egger also confirmed that the carbon fiber layup hadn’t changed and it was a standard Shiv production frame.

While Egger is coy about what features could dribble down into a road bike, I can imagine that the 2014 models and beyond will be Shiv influenced. Other bike companies are also embracing aerodynamics in their road frames: Scott Foil, Cervelo P3, Felt AR, Neil Pryde Alize…you get the point.

Just one more thought – can you imagine if the UCI’s 3:1 aero ratio rule didn’t exist? Seat stays with aero farings? Seatposts with whale tail spoilers? Pointy head tube? Hmmm…

Shiv road bike for 2014?

If you’ve ever visited Specialized you might have ridden their famous lunch ride – an under one-hour training ride that is balls out from the gun. Several years ago I participated in his daily ride on a Transition time trial bike. At the time I thought that with a few modifications you could turn the Transition into a road bike. Of course the UCI, with their 3:1 aerodynamic ratio rule, have other ideas about how a frame should be designed, so that would be a non-starter in the real world.

However, as I was wasting time…errr….doing some research on Facebook, I stumbled upon this concept bike that has been underneath the company’s creative director, Robert Egger. It’s the Shiv module re-purposed as a road bike and the Big S is saying it’s a one-off.

The frame itself doesn’t appear modified, but I wonder about the angles of the frame. Obviously the Shiv, and time trial bikes, are designed to be stable at high speeds with the rider in an aerodynamic position. This means the head tube angles can’t be “nervous” or “twitchy.” Perhaps this road Shiv’s head angles were altered, but I can imagine that would be an expensive proposition to make a one-off road Shiv. But, if Specialized was serious about bringing some of the Shiv’s features to the road market, it would be a worthwhile investment.

Visually the Shiv fork doesn’t seem changed, but of course that would be hard to definitively ascertain from a photo. Maybe they made a road angled fork for this project?

One feature I’m digging, that isn’t a standard option on the Shiv, is the front brake caliper wind faring. It barely misses rubbing on the front tire. Very tricky and I’m sure you gain a one-watt advantage over your competition. I’m guessing that a rock or pebble of any significant size that got caught up underneath the faring would snap it clean off – which would be a good thing.

So how would this bike ride? A couple of years ago I was part of a press junket that was launching Specialized’s 2010 product line and the Shiv was featured. I was able to take the bike for a very short roll around the parking lot of the Cliff Lodge, perched at the top of Snowbird in Utah. For what it was designed to do the Shiv was stable and fast. I’ve ridden the Transition enough times to get the same opinion – stable and fast in a time trial.

Supposing that the angles of the road Shiv’s are unmodified from the time trial Shiv I would say that the bike’s road characteristics are unchanged – it handles like a TT bike. However, in contrast to a road bike with typical road angles, it wouldn’t be as responsive cornering or making quick changes in direction. Think Cadillac versus a Ferrari.

The seat angle on the Shiv can be changed from a classic triathlon angle to a more traditional road time trial (and UCI allowed) angle. Even with those changes it still recruits a slightly different set of leg muscles – that’s why you read of pros spending significant time training on their TT bikes so they will be efficient in either a road or time trial position. I never did any significant amount of time climbing on a TT bike but I can’t imagine that the Shiv’s seat angles (which put the rider in a forward position) are conducive to an extended ascent.

Regardless, it’s cool to see these one-off projects hit the roads. And who knows, maybe some of these features will be incorporated into a road bike design.

Also, If anyone from Specialized can give me more 411 than what they posted on Facebook I’d love to hear it.

Steel frame and raised bars

I’ve been in a bit of a retro mood lately. Regardless, If you’re new to bike racing (or you forgot about the pre-carbon days) go back into the archives of cycling broadcasting via YouTube and watch the Tour de France circa the late 80s. These were the days of split stages and 50 mile time trials. Riders didn’t seclude themselves in the team bus. Instead they hung out next to the team station wagons or vans getting their legs massaged as they waited for the stage to start.

The American broadcast of the Tour had a soundtrack by announcer and musician John Tesh. Heavily edited to show only the exciting moments and punctuated by Tesh’s up-tempo soundtrack, this was my introduction to watching professional European cycling. Thankfully my dad, who had raced in Europe, filled me in on the sport’s nuances that CBS Sports left out.

The technology is wildly different in these races. In this clip of the 1987 time trial there were few concessions to aerodynamics. It looks that only the team leaders rode with disc wheels. Sean Kelly blazes past his two-minute man who is atop a time trial bike with standard spoked wheels – no high-profile rims here.

Other than a skinsuit most riders wore either a team cap backwards or in the case of Sean Kelly a blue and yellow KAS lycra cap. There were no hard-shell protective helmets. This was pre aero-bars. Instead riders grabbed “bull horn” style bars that kept their front profile wide instead of the modern practice of trying to get as narrow a profile as possible.

One other positioning characteristic of the time that I noticed was the stem height. The stems on these late 80s bikes are actually raised with several inches of the quill exposed. This is in direct contrast to today’s “pro” style of slamming the stem as low as possible. The excellent blog by Gerard Vroomen also commented on the trend of lower bar heights and in particular pointed out Fabian Cancellara’s sprint with his hands on the hoods. As I’ve watched modern races, the riders are on the hoods – not the drops – as they solo away. Is it because they can’t comfortably reach the drops? The teachable moment here is that road bike handlebars are designed with a drop for a reason – to have another position for your hands. Don’t forget it.

So in between looking at kitten videos, spend some time browsing YouTube for vintage cycling footage and enjoy those simpler times. You never know what you might learn.

I think this bike weighed about 19 pounds?

I picked up the January issue of Bicycling Magazine the other day. When I say, “picked up” I mean purchased it electronically. As I scrolled through one article caught my attention – Badges of Distinction by Leon Dixon.

It’s a good article about the history of badges that are placed on the head tubes of bikes. As I looked at the images of the plates I saw the Viking logo. My dad rode, and I think raced, for Viking bikes back in the late 50s or early 60s. I have raced bikes since I was a teenager, employed in the bike industry most of my adult life, and I can’t recall ever seeing a Viking bike in person. So it was a nice surprise to see a badge from the British company and it got me thinking.

Today’s high-end bikes (and even low-end) are constructed from carbon fiber with a priority given to performance enhancing capabilities – lighter, stiffer, oversized for handling improvements, etc. Ascetics are, of course a consideration, as no one wants to buy an ugly bike. However, with a few exceptions, the artistic qualities of bicycle manufacturing has disappeared. Head badges from major companies, are a thing of the past. Now a logo adorns the head tube, as well as 18 other spots on the frame, to ensure that a photo taken at any angle will include the company’s name.

My first really serious road frame was a Raleigh Reynolds 531 frame. I was working at a local Schwinn bike shop and ordered it from England. I remember the frame’s color – yellow and red with the Raleigh heron logo head badge. Then, because it was lighter, I upgraded to the Raleigh Reynolds 753. The front triangle was red and the seat stays and fork was black. However, the pièce de résistance was the number holder brazed to the underside of the top tube. I think I attached a number to it just once for the Mammoth Mountain stage race. Even though the number holder was a useless appendage for me, it was a kick ass feature that made me feel pro.

Of course other bike manufactures back in the day included those elements, as well as lug work of artistic quality. Colonago comes to mind. Back in the day I took a tour of the Colonago factory in Italy and shot a bunch of photos of their bikes from down the years. Those bikes were works of art.

Unfortunately I uploaded those images to the magazine’s computer server which was the equivalent to the final scene in Indiana Jones when the Ark of the Covenant is crated up and placed in a huge warehouse, forever filed away never to be seen again.

My neon yellow Paramount

My current bikes, while ascetically pleasing and able to out-perform anything from my past, lack the soul of my earlier rigs. In addition to the Raleighs I had a neon yellow Paramount (it was the 80s and neon was the rage) when they were still being produced in the U.S. I loved that bike but I moved on from the hand brazed construction to something that was mass produced with a good sized marketing budget behind it saying this was the next best thing. Head badges, exquisite detailing of the lugs, hand painting, all tell tale signs of a bike with soul were starting to disappear.
Again, I’m not about to trade in my current carbon fiber bike and go retro, but I do miss the days when me and my buddies just rode – no power meters, heart rate monitors or computers to download information. It was a loop around Orange County with a final stop at the 7-Eleven for Big Gulps, sitting on the curb and bullshitting.

In addition to training camps, it’s also the time of year we look for the release of new products. Campagnolo showed off their new electronic group and Shimano is said to be rolling out 11-speed. One other component company is doing the same – SRAM.

You might remember around the beginning of this year SRAM teased us with images of their Red group with a difference. The Chicago based company released photos of just a small section of the component – a jockey pulley, a portion of the big ring – not the entire component.

In the case of this year’s earlier roll out of the “new” Red group it turned out that the new feature was its availability in black. No other upgrades – just black. Prior to the full launch SRAM’s sponsored pros were using available social media platforms to alert the public with a daily teasing of the new group. Now SRAM is at it again.

As you are probably aware SRAM sponsored pros stared tweeting about the new 2013 Red group. Some riders have taken the time to personalize the SRAM message while other looked to have just cut and pasted it into their status update box.

Charlie Wegelius, the new director of Garmin-Cervelo tweeted,

“Some of the sponsor promotional tweets by riders that I have read lately have been pretty lame.”

Admittedly Garmin-Cervelo is using select Shimano components starting next year so there might be a bit of a bias.

Honestly I can see both sides of the marketing coin. I thought the “I choose SRAM” campaign was off the mark as everyone knows that professional riders don’t choose their components. Sure, auxiliary sponsorships can be an individual rider’s choice (optics, shoes and in the case of Alberto Contador, Giro helmet). But groups – that’s a team sponsored deal. That said, I have to hand it to SRAM for this latest slow roll out of the new Red group. It has created some buzz – good or bad it’s personal perception – they have managed to get daily coverage of this new group.

But I’m curious – what do you think? Personally I always thought SRAM was by far way ahead of any other bike company in regards to social media. Is SRAM smart in building hype or is it just needless teasing? Do the SRAM sponsored athletes’ tweets ring true or do they just read like a contractual obligation that needs to be fulfilled?

Back at the 2010 US Pro, I joined Allen Lim for the hot scoop as we followed Taylor Phinney on the TT course. He’ll be sharing more of his wise words on this Sunday’s live TourChats for Cycling Fans show. And this week we’ve got three guests for the price of two: Co-authors Dr. Allen Lim and chef Biju Thomas, will talk with us about their new book, The Feed Zone Cookbook – drink of choice for this segment is beet juice. Then cyclocross star Ryan Trebon of LTS/Felt will join us, so have your beer hand ups and best heckling at the ready.

In my younger years the major proportion of my calories was received from the Taco Bell drive-through. Now as I’ve gotten older and wiser (?) I know that I need to be more picky regarding how and where I get my food. The Feed Zone Cookbook is a cornucopia of simple recipes. What I really liked about the book, other than the ease of the recipes, was the presentation and the quality of the book – it’s a hard cover with heavy glossy stock paper that shows the beauty of the photographs. After viewing a few photos of the prepared meals you’ll start salivating like Pavlov’s dogs.

Ryan Trebon was one of the two Twin Towers in cyclocross – the other being his former teammate Barry Wicks. Trebon should have been leaving for Europe to race, instead the only riding he’s doing is the sofa as he recovers from an injury sustained during his warm-up before the Louisville, USGP race. On Sunday night we’ll give Ryan a distraction from his downtime and he’ll chat with us about the season, his chances to recover before the cyclocross national championships in Madison and why his dog is named Frank.

This is awkward

It’s that time of year again – awkward team photos! It’s hard to design a kit because something on paper can look entirely different when actually produced. And sometimes an idea for a photoshoot might sound good in conception but the reality turns out quite different.

Case in point: do you remember the kit from the women’s Skoda ladies team with the red chamois that continued down their inner leg? Hmmm… And a kit that I’m sure was created on a drunken dare was the Footon kit of golden-brownish with a large footprint across the front. How about the Quick Step photos of the guys leaning on each other while resting their heads on a sponsors pillow? And there’s countless others throughout the history of cycling – professional as well as amateur. But let’s take a look at some recent editions.

I for one was happy to hear that several of the women from the HTC-Highroad squad had found a home in the new Specialized-Lululemon team. I’d seen some of the early photos and I liked the jerseys – black and white striping that matched their Specialized frames. It doesn’t particularly stand out – but otherwise it’s a good looking kit. However, at what looks to be a team meet and greet with journalists a few of the ladies are being presented. Once again the crotch area of the bibs might lead to some awkward moments when the squad is introduced on a stage before a race. When the legs are close together it looks heart shaped or triangular. I’m hoping that Specialized can crank out a version 2.0 of the bibs which wraps the black and white design around the whole leg.

A night at the Roxbury?

Omega Pharma – Quick-Step Cycling Team has a new kit this year and it looks like the Leopard-Trek clothing designer jumped ship and went with the Belgian squad. The colors are still the classic blue we have seen in the past but it is now highlighted with the Leopard-Trek teal. I said last year I was a fan of the Leopard-Trek kit, so I’m on board with this design as well. Clean, classic and non-distracting colors doesn’t lead the eye to the chamois area. And the team is so excited about the kit that they even created a video clip with battle cry sounding music in the background – bad ass! Reminds me of the trailer I just saw for next summer’s Battleship movie – makes me want to blow shit up! Speaking of videos – check out the YouTube clip of the team’s boot camp from a week ago. New recruit Levi Leipeheimer  at the 30-second mark has a look of, “We’re going to do what? I did not sign up for this!” But once again, the photo director jumps the shark with some rather odd posing of their athletes.

Three team members are posed on the guard rail, arms interwoven with each other with fake smiles in full effect. Maybe it’s my American sensibilities, but if I was that middle guy there’s just too much man crotch being aimed in my direction. I expect this to happen. Whatever happened to the classic standing, arms crossed with a stern look?

Sometimes certain actions demand attention by not just staff but authorities

Finally, the series of team training photos that made me go WTF was Liquigas Cannondale’s training camp photo of the guys hanging out in the steam room in their bib shorts. I’m really not sure what more I can say about that photo. Did it not seem weird that his photographer pops his head into the steam room and starts snapping away or was it his idea for the riders to go into the steam room, take off their shirts and tell them to act “relaxed?” Regardless it has a creepy Sandusky vibe to it and I think authorities should have been notified.

It was reported that the Greenedge team presentation was a stereotypical laid back Aussie affair. However, the squad is producing a team song done to a Tom Petty tune? I can’t wait for that to hit iTunes.

Of course the man who everyone can thank for starting the trend of sending teams off to mini boot camps is Saxo Bank’s Bjarne Riis. He had his boys up to the same old shenanigans, but in this latest round of press photos he has Alberto Contador strapped to another dude for some parachuting. First off, I don’t care who you are, you look ridiculous harnessed to another person as you leap out from a perfectly good plane. In the photos that were released, Contador’s face looks like he’s being made a wife to his prison cellmate – it’s a combination of terror with the realization that it is happening no matter how much he protests.

There are still several more team camps coming up and I for one can’t wait to see the photos from those.

Sometimes it’s hard to get a whole organization to a photo shoot. In the case of Leopard Trek it seems that sports director Lars Michaelsen couldn’t make it to the location. So the webmaster at the team did the next best thing – Photoshopped his head onto Torsten Schmidt’s body.

Should Michaelson be upset at the choice of body doubles – I don’t know. Schmidt, according to his biography, is a long-time professional racer and at least didn’t let himself get sloppy like some ex-pros I could mention. But I wonder if Michaelson was given a choice of whose body he’d get? Did Michaelson pick Schmidt? That’s got to be an awkward conversation if he did in fact pick the Belgian sport director’s body.

“Hey Torsten, it’s me Lars. I can’t make the team photo shoot. I know this is going to sound odd, but I couldn’t help but notice you’ve been looking good lately. Doing a lot of gym work? Anyways can they put my head onto your body for the website photo?”

Schmidt - still looking good

If I could choose whose body I would put my head on, without a doubt it is Fabian Cancellara. He looks tall in the photo, plus he has an athletic build, not some scrawny waif-like profile. I know, he’s not management, so Fabian might not be a choice. But Photoshop in a scarf and it’s good to go! One rider I definitely wouldn’t pick is Jakob Fuglsang! I’m not sure what the hell he was doing in November, maybe hitting the speculoos hard, but he’s fat! Jakob – have some self respect!

I'm a cold weather wuss so most of my training has been of the indoor variety.

The creator of the Sufferfest training videos has once again designed a devilish workout. The newest edition to the Sufferfest library is Hell Hath No Fury (HHNF). This video’s focus is two, 20 minute efforts ridden at a perceived effort of 7 to 8 out of 10, which translates to threshold intervals. The bread to those meaty efforts is a five and a half minute warm-up and a three and a half minute time trial at the conclusion. Previous Sufferfest race footage has been of men, but this time the women get their due and are the stars of the video.

The plot of the HHNF video is a stage race and stage 1 is a short effort of 5:30 minutes. Once the blood is pumping stage 2 and 3 are the two 20 minutes efforts. Finally, stage 4 is the deciding “day” – the time trial. I don’t need to tell you that this video is hard – just reading the workout description you know the answer.

Initially when I do a review I like to ride it at an effort that just brings a light sweat so I can pay attention and make notes of the training session. But what makes these training videos my “go to” for when an indoor workout is my only option is that they are extremely motivating. Soon my head is down with my pulse rate pegged. When the message flashes on the screen to “attack” I jump! On the climbs I can almost feel the message taunting me to get out of the saddle and push harder tempered with a bit of humor. Each interval is noted either with an occasional count-down clock or a command to accelerate either your speed or cadence. If your head is down, don’t worry, you won’t miss the commands. Like the other Sufferfest videos, the cues are denoted by the sound of an engine revving (accelerating) or braking (slowing). The music is electronica with a good beat to keep the pedals ticking over and keeping you on track.

As I mentioned the HHNF uses footage of women racing – something that I have rarely seen other than in person at a bike race. In fact the only other time I’ve seen it on the screen was the past road race World Championships from a bootlegged Eurosport video feed. I’m glad to see that “Sufferlandia” has included a women’s national squad in their latest offering. At a cost of $11.99 for the individual use or $24.99 for the group use, the Sufferfest videos are a bargain. As your off season training is transitioning from time off the bike to once again throwing a leg over the top tube, incorporate a Sufferfest training session when that high energy workout needs to be part of the mix. Even after several sessions the footage or the training efforts didn’t become stale and I was motivated to push hard through each “ride.”

In the past I’ve made no secret of how much I’ve enjoyed using these videos. Now we’re happy to give away one Hell Hath No Fury training video each day during the final week of our Kickstarter campaign. These daily giveaways are an extra thank you to our supporters. To be entered in the daily giveaway, you need to be a supporter with a verified TourChats Rewards Zone Login. All Kickstarter Backers starting at the $10 level are sent an invite to the Rewards Zone.