“I do not have any official announcement about a team for next year. Just wanted to clear that up. We cool?” – Levi Leipheimer

While Levi is coy on the subject, several news sources are already claiming that the RadioShack rider will transfer to the Belgian squad Omega Pharma-Quick Step in 2012. The newly merged team has already hired HTC-Highroad’s DS Brian Holm for 2012 and he wasted no time blabbing to Sporten.dk about the transfer.

“Leipheimer has had one of his best seasons with a second place finish in the Tour of California, an overall victory in the Tour de Suisse and a first place in the U.S. Pro Cycling Challenge in Colorado. He seems like a very likeable rider.”

On the surface this seems like an odd transfer, but as pointed out online, Leipheimer’s valuable World Tour points from his very successful 2011 campaign make him very “likable” for Omega Pharma-Quick Step. The Belgian squad desperately needs those points to stay in the World Tour game. Unfortunately, if we look at Levi’s wins this season, other than the Tour de Suisse, his victories have been domestic. And let’s face it – Leipheimer isn’t a grand tour contender anymore. That said, he is a strong challenger for any of America’s grand tours (Tour of California, Utah, Colorado). So why sign for a team that hasn’t crossed the Atlantic? Here’s where I put on my tin foil hat and make some suppositions.

As we all know, Leipheimer is a California resident and made a brief cameo in the Golden State’s television tourism campaign. Specialized is a California company. When Levi was a member of Gerolsteiner back in the day, he rode a Tarmac and was quite cozy with big “S”. How crazy would it be for Specialized to return to Quick Step as a bike sponsor and as a result bring a squad to contest America’s biggest races? It’s a win-win! Pharma-Quick Step gets the World Tour points and Leipheimer is given full reign on America’s soil to crush! You add some Specialized money into the mix to help off-set both Leipheimer’s and Tony Martin’s salary and boom – you’ve got Tarmacs and Shivs sitting pretty on the podium.

As I write Eurobike is in full swing followed in a couple of weeks by Interbike. I predict at one of these industry shows the cat will be let out of the bag. Drinks on me at Cross Vegas if I’m wrong.

A win that no one predicted could happen – Levi Leipheimer overtook race leader Damiano Cunego in the time trial taking the overall title in the Tour de Suisse. The RadioShack rider had a consistent race and when it mattered, he was in the right place at the right time. Now with a victory in a national tour just a couple of weeks before the Tour de France, Leipheimer can be seen as a legitimate favorite for a podium position. Leipheimer wasn’t the only RadioShack rider to break the top 10. Andreas Klöden was second and Nelson Oliveira was fourth for the Shack. Quite the ride for the team.

At the ripe old age of 37 Leipheimer showed that his build-up to the Tour is right on schedule. While not a winner at the Amgen Tour of California, his performance shepherding Chris Horner up Mt Baldy was impressive – riding Andy Schleck off their wheels.

Among the congratulations to Leipheimer and the RadioShack team, there was a vocal chorus of people who didn’t quite show the same enthusiasm.

“I honestly think that @radioshack would be better off asking their riders not to win anymore races. It’s bad PR when everyone suspects you.”

“No middle ground on Leipheimer’s #TdSuisse win. People are either psyched or pissed off. #thanksjohan”

“Judging by my Twitter feed a few #tdsuisse viewers suspect Levi dopes. #captainobvious”

You get my point…

The distrust, obviously, comes from the investigation into Lance Armstrong, and by association, anyone who has ridden for him. Tyler Hamilton in his 60 Minutes interview even said that doping was occurring on the US Postal team before Armstrong. For Leipheimer the distrust goes back to his Gerolsteiner days.

Leipheimer is accused by his Gerolsteiner director Hans-Michael Holczer, in his book “Garantiert Positiv” (Guaranteed Positive), of having suspect blood values during the 2005 Tour de France that were consistent with blood doping. Leipheimer hasn’t been sanctioned for doping as a professional, but was positive for ephedrine at the amateur U.S. National Criterium Championships in 1996. Leipheimer said he ingested the banned substance from a cold medicine. Regardless, he had to return his national championship jersey.

To be honest I don’t know where to weigh in on this subject. I want to believe that Leipheimer’s overall win was due to hard work and a strong squad. But the shadow of the ongoing investigation into Armstrong is long and covers riders who may be entirely innocent of any wrong doing. Perhaps Leipheimer is collateral damage in the battle against doping? I hate to think that every victory by RadioShack is tainted as I’ll root for Horner in the Tour. However, in the realm of public opinion it seems, as always with Armstrong/RadioShack, is split down the middle.

May 28th and 30th is when the best (or maybe those who are available and in the country) head to Greenville, South Carolina to compete for a national championship jersey in the time trial and road race. Last year the championships were held in September and the time trial was Saturday followed on Sunday by the road race. This year the script has been flipped – the battle for the Stars and Stripes is in Spring and in sync with when the Europeans contest their national championships. Also, there is a day between each event giving the riders an opportunity to recover. One benefit to the day of rest has been the increase in riders registered for the time trial.

Last year there were only 15 racers rolling down the ramp at the Clemson ICAR campus. Some noticeable absentees were three-time champion David Zabriskie. Also not lining up was Tom Zirbel. He finished second in the 2009 event and fourth in the time trial world championships of the same year. However he was found positive forDHEA and suspended for two years, which saw him out of the running for 2010. Zirbel maintained his innocence and it has been widely thought the positive result came from a contaminated supplement. However, due to his cooperation in a doping case not related to his own, his sentence was reduced to 18 months and he has now signed a contract with the Jamis/Sutter Home team. But that’s all in the past and the 2011 championships are only weeks away.

I received the tentative starting list of who is going to roll down the starting ramp from Medalist Sports and the usual suspects are there: Levi Leipheimer and Taylor Phinney, but so is a returning favorite – David Zabriskie. Also on the list is BMC’s Brent Bookwalter. Even the reigning road race national champion Ben King is going to give it a try. Leipheimer and King aren’t the only RadioShack riders, Chris Horner is also penciled in.

I asked Chris Aronhalt, the managing partner of Medalist Sports, about the possible inclusion of a late sign up like Zirbel. According to Aronhalt it is still possible for him to register for the time trial, an event that is considered his specialty. It only costs $40 and I’m sure that’s within the Jamis/Sutter Home budget.

In total there are 27 riders chasing the dream of a national champion jersey. Realistically it is going to come down to just a few: Leipheimer, Zabriskie, Phinney, and if he signs up, Zirbel. Outsiders include Brent Bookwalter, Andy Jacques-Maynes and Matt Busche.

While there are 27 riders signed up this doesn’t mean they will all decide to race – and that’s the frustration for Aronhalt. He would like to see marquee riders like Horner compete, but there’s a chance that the RadioShacker might call an audible and decide to save his bullets for the road race.

In the road race there aren’t any surprises. Greenville’s own, George Hincapie, will be trying to take the national championship jersey from King. Other than a Roubaix cobblestone trophy, I’m guessing winning a national championship jersey is a major goal for the BMC rider.

Of course there’s Leipheimer. He has won on this course before and he’ll have the backing of Horner and Busche. But here’s an interesting hypothetical – will the Shackers focus on one leader or will they do the “we’ll let the road decide who is the strongest” strategy? Ben King won last year’s edition through a combination of strength, but also a good portion of luck. No one thought that early break would stay away and then when it got serious the teams all looked at BMC to chase it back. No way is that scenario going to occur again, so the question remains – who does Shack work for? King is not going to be allowed that amount of slack again. I’d love to be a fly on the wall for that team meeting.

My money is on Hincapie to have a strong showing. He’ll have returned from the Amgen Tour of California (like most of the peloton) primed and the US Pro course is literally in his backyard. Another favorite is Chris Horner. He’s another old-timer that keeps improving with age. Naturally, you have to include Leipheimer as a potential for the jersey.

Regardless I’m hoping for a good race and you can follow my commentary in the Official US Pro Road Race Live Chat we’ll be producing as Carolina Cycling News. More details coming soon. Until then, I’ll keep my ear to the ground during the Tour of California.

Below is the tentative list for both events – some riders will be added and others removed. Case in point, Chris Butler announced today that he’ll be racing in the Giro which starts this Saturday and ends the weekend of the championships, so obviously he’s out.

Time Trial
Andrew Baker UCI CT: Bissell Pro Cycling Team
Christopher Baldwin UCI CT: Bissell Pro Cycling Team
Brent Bookwalter UCI PT: BMC Racing Team
Gregg Brandt UCI CT: Kenda/5-hour Energy Pro Cycling p/b Geargrinder
Matthew Busche UCI PT: Team RadioShack
Michael Creed UCI CT: Kelly Benefit Strategies
Alfredo Cruz UCI CT: Chipotle Development Team
Michael Friedman UCI CT: Kelly Benefit Strategies
Phillip Gaimon UCI CT: KENDA Pro Cycling presented by GEARGRINDER
Christopher Horner UCI PT: Team RadioShack
Andy Jacques-Maynes UCI CT: Bissell Pro Cycling Team
Benjamin Jacques-Maynes UCI CT: Bissell Pro Cycling Team
Roman Kilun UCI CT: KENDA Pro Cycling presented by GEARGRINDER
Benjamin King UCI PT: Team RadioShack
Julian Kyer UCI CT: Kelly Benefit Strategies
Levi Leipheimer UCI PT: Team RadioShack
Paul Mach UCI CT: Bissell Pro Cycling Team
Jason McCartney UCI PT: Team RadioShack
Jonathan Mumford UCI CT: Kelly Benefit Strategies
Taylor Phinney UCI PT: BMC Racing Team
Chase Pinkham UCI CT: Bissell Pro Cycling Team
K Frank Pipp UCI CT: Bissell Pro Cycling Team
Jacob Rytlewski UCI CT: KENDA Pro Cycling presented by GEARGRINDER
Daniel Summerhill UCI CT: Chipotle Development Team
Robert Sweeting UCI CT: KENDA Pro Cycling presented by GEARGRINDER
David Williams UCI CT: Bissell Pro Cycling Team
David Zabriskie UCI CT: Garmin-Cervelo

Road Race
Jesse Anthony UCI CT: Kelly Benefit Strategies
Kai Applequist UCI CT: Team Exergy
Andrew Bajadali UCI CT: Kelly Benefit Strategies
Andrew Baker UCI CT: Bissell Pro Cycling Team
Christopher Baldwin UCI CT: Bissell Pro Cycling Team
Eric Barlevav UCI CT: Team Exergy
Chad Beyer UCI PT: BMC Racing Team
Brent Bookwalter UCI PT: BMC Racing Team
Alex Bowden UCI PCT: Team Type 1
Daniel Bowman UCI CT: Kelly Benefit Strategies
Gregg Brandt UCI CT: Kenda/5-hour Energy Pro Cycling p/b Geargrinder
Matthew Busche UCI PT: Team RadioShack
Robert Bush UCI CT: Chipotle Development Team
Christopher Butler UCI PT: BMC Racing Team
Alexander Candelario UCI CT: Kelly Benefit Strategies
Kirk Carlsen
Cameron Cogburn UCI CT: Jelly Belly Presented By Kenda
Matthew Cooke UCI CT: Team Exergy
Michael Creed UCI CT: Kelly Benefit Strategies
Alfredo Cruz UCI CT: Chipotle Development Team
Andrew Dahlheim UCI CT: Bissell Pro Cycling Team
Jason Donald UCI CT: Kelly Benefit Strategies
James Driscoll UCI CT: Jamis/Sutter Home
William Dugan UCI PCT: Team Type 1
Caleb Fairly UCI PT: Team HTC Highroad
Nicolas Frey UCI CT: Jamis/Sutter Home
Michael Friedman UCI CT: Kelly Benefit Strategies
Spencer Gaddy UCI CT: KENDA Pro Cycling presented by GEARGRINDER
Phillip Gaimon UCI CT: KENDA Pro Cycling presented by GEARGRINDER
Andrew Guptill UCI CT: Jamis/Sutter Home
Alexander Hagman UCI CT: Jelly Belly Presented By Kenda
Kenneth Hanson UCI CT: Jelly Belly Presented By Kenda
Chad Hartley UCI CT: KENDA Pro Cycling presented by GEARGRINDER
Sergio Hernandez UCI CT: Jelly Belly Presented By Kenda
George Hincapie UCI PT: BMC Racing Team
Daniel Holloway UCI CT: Kelly Benefit Strategies
Christopher Hong UCI CT: Team Exergy
Christopher Horner UCI PT: Team RadioShack
Alex Howes UCI CT: Chipotle Development Team
Charles Huff UCI CT: Jelly Belly Presented By Kenda
Andy Jacques-Maynes UCI CT: Bissell Pro Cycling Team
Benjamin Jacques-Maynes UCI CT: Bissell Pro Cycling Team
Sam Johnson UCI CT: Team Exergy
Quinn Keogh UCI CT: Team Exergy
Roman Kilun UCI CT: KENDA Pro Cycling presented by GEARGRINDER
Benjamin King UCI PT: Team RadioShack
Julian Kyer UCI CT: Kelly Benefit Strategies
Levi Leipheimer UCI PT: Team RadioShack
Patrick Lemieux UCI CT: KENDA Pro Cycling presented by GEARGRINDER
Jeff Louder UCI PT: BMC Racing Team
Paul Mach UCI CT: Bissell Pro Cycling Team
Sean Mazich UCI CT: Jelly Belly Presented By Kenda
Jason McCartney UCI PT: Team RadioShack
Remi McManus UCI CT: Team Exergy
Carson Miller UCI CT: Jelly Belly Presented By Kenda
Shawn Milne UCI CT: KENDA Pro Cycling presented by GEARGRINDER
Christopher Monteleone UCI CT: KENDA Pro Cycling presented by GEARGRINDER
Jonathan Mumford UCI CT: Kelly Benefit Strategies
Emerson Oronte UCI CT: Jelly Belly Presented By Kenda
Taylor Phinney UCI PT: BMC Racing Team
Chase Pinkham UCI CT: Bissell Pro Cycling Team
K Frank Pipp UCI CT: Bissell Pro Cycling Team
Jeremy Powers UCI CT: Jelly Belly Presented By Kenda
Thacker Reeves UCI CT: Chipotle Development Team
Kiel Reijnen UCI PCT: Team Type 1
Jacob Rytlewski UCI CT: KENDA Pro Cycling presented by GEARGRINDER
Michael Sherer UCI CT: Kelly Benefit Strategies
Erik Slack UCI CT: Team Exergy
Thomas Soladay UCI CT: Kelly Benefit Strategies
James Stemper UCI CT: KENDA Pro Cycling presented by GEARGRINDER
Scott Stewart UCI PCT: Team Type 1
Daniel Summerhill UCI CT: Chipotle Development Team
Jonathan Sundt UCI CT: Kenda/5-hour Energy Pro Cycling p/b Geargrinder
Robert Sweeting UCI CT: KENDA Pro Cycling presented by GEARGRINDER
Bernard Van Ulden UCI CT: Jelly Belly Presented By Kenda
Kyle Wamsley UCI CT: Bissell Pro Cycling Team
Scottie Weiss UCI CT: KENDA Pro Cycling presented by GEARGRINDER
David Williams UCI CT: Bissell Pro Cycling Team
Tyler Wren UCI CT: Jamis/Sutter Home
Tyler Farrar UCI CT: Garmin-Cervelo
Andrew Talansky UCI CT: Garmin-Cervelo
David Zabriskie UCI CT: Garmin-Cervelo
Tom Danielson UCI CT: Garmin-Cervelo

Leipheimer - winner of Gila or part of the conspiracy?

Once again I need to step in and sort shit out and this time it’s the Tour of the Gila. This proud race was on the verge of extinction until SRAM stepped in with some much needed sponsorship dollars. To further pump life back into this New Mexico stage race Armstrong and crew for the past two years have added this event to their calendar as they ramp up their training for the Tour of California. Plus Gila has podium girls with sick tatts. Talk about a score! With all that going for it you’d think that they might have somewhat organized results. Unfortunately that’s not the case, so like I said, I have stepped in to sort this shit-show out.

First off let’s get to the bottom of the final general classification. There is the obvious snafu during the podium awards. David Zabriskie is brought onto the stage for third overall and then after the ceremony is over there’s a “do-over” and Phil Zajicek is brought onto the podium and he’s awarded third instead. According to the “officials” he beat DZ by nine seconds in the stage. This is where it gets mathematically strange. Zabriskie had a ten second buffer over the Fly V rider at the start of the stage. I’m no Neil deGrasse Tyson, but even I know that doesn’t add up. There’s only one way to solve this dilemma in a civilized manner – poetry slam. First round consists of rhyming about their last names. Second round’s theme is slams against each others directors and final slam is crowd choice. Best two out of three is third place overall in general classification.

Landis - the true winner of Gila

There was some controversy regarding the second and third place finishers of today’s stage. French Canadian photojournalist Lyne Lamoureux has been attending all the major American races this year, tweeting results and writing race reports. She had her trigger finger on the trusty Canon as riders crossed the finish line. Her finish line photo clearly shows Rob Britton of Bissell rolling across for second and on his rear wheel is Max Jenkins for third. The race officials didn’t see it that way and swapped the results: Jenkins second, Britton third. It’s hard to dispute photographic evidence but I think it might go deeper than that. I suspect a French Canadian conspiracy afoot and Lamoureux is trying to spread discontent among the riders with a doctored photo! I see no other alternative but to let the results stand, deport Lamoureux and not allow her into the country until she eliminates at least half of those vowels from her name. Clearly she added the “x” just to mess with us.

Because of this obvious French Canadian conspiracy I also truly doubt that Leipheimer really won. Why should I believe anything at this point? The only logical winner is Floyd Landis of OUCH/Bahati Foundation. So there you go Tour of the Gila – problem solved.

And the best excuse you could come up with was snow? Next stop, Tour of California.

Can Levi win again?

Specific route details for the 2010 Amgen Tour of California professional cycling race will be revealed beginning tomorrow via individual stage videos, AEG, presenter of the fifth-annual event, announced today. The videos have been created in collaboration between the start and finish cities of each stage (designated at “host cities”), highlighting features of the route for the eight-day event. Two videos will be released per day throughout the week of Feb. 8, and they can be viewed online at the Amgen Tour of California Web site (www.amgentourofcalifornia.com), as well as the Amgen Tour of California’s Facebook page and on YouTube.

One of the most anticipated professional cycling races in the world, the 2010 Amgen Tour of California will be staged over eight days and will travel more than 800 miles of California’s scenic roads, highways and coastline drives. Running from May 16 – 23, 2010, the race will visit 16 host cities for official stage starts and finishes, with communities along the route getting the chance to see a lineup of some of the most elite, recognizable athletes and teams in the world. Host cities for the eight stages include: Nevada City (new city for 2010), Sacramento, Davis, Santa Rosa, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, San Jose, Modesto, Visalia, Bakersfield (new city for 2010), Pasadena, Big Bear Lake (new city for 2010), Los Angeles (new city for 2010) and Thousand Oaks/Westlake Village (new city for 2010)/Agoura Hills (new city for 2010), title-sponsor Amgen’s hometown community.

“The May timing of the 2010 edition of the Amgen Tour of California is going to allow us to visit some challenging new areas of California that previously were not possible due to the weather,” said Andrew Messick, president of AEG Sports, presenter of the race. “Through these fun and creative videos that the host cities have put together, we are going to be able to showcase the challenge and beauty of our 2010 route.”

Stage-by-stage videos revealing the route for the 2010 Amgen Tour of California will be released on the following days:

• Tuesday, Feb. 9 – Stage 1 (Nevada City to Sacramento) and Stage 2 (Davis to Santa Rosa)
• Wednesday, Feb. 10 – Stage 3 (San Francisco to Santa Cruz) and Stage 4 (San Jose to Modesto)
• Thursday, Feb. 11 – Stage 5 (Visalia to Bakersfield) and Stage 6 (Pasadena to Big Bear Lake)
• Friday, Feb. 12 – Stage 7 (Los Angeles individual time trial) and Stage 8 (Thousand Oaks/Westlake Village/Agoura Hills)

I like to get up close and personal when I do interviews. Lucas, me, Levi

Lucas Euser did not have an easy 2009 racing season. He came off a strong 2008 season and was aiming to ride the Vuelta in 2009. However, he was struck by a car in May 2009  resulting in broken ribs, fingers and a shattered patella, effectively ruining his season. Released from Garmin-Transitions for the 2010 season, Euser is getting back into the peloton with the Canadian team, SpiderTech presented by Planet Energy. I caught up with Lucas Euser as he was putting in early season miles in Santa Barbara and discussed his injury, the hardship he’s had to overcome to recover, the new team as well as his plans for the future. I’ll post the full interview soon. For now I thought I’d leave you with his answers to questions I received from Twitter.

@Lowcadence: Is Hannah (Lucas’ sister) faster than you on foot versus you on a bike?
Lucas: I think if she was a cyclists she’d be a wicked good sprinter. I did get her on a bike and she pedals now and then. But the answer is no, she can’t out run me on a bike, but she sure can out run me on foot, even if I was 100 percent healthy. She would crush me.

@Kirkflinte: How many marshmallows can you put in your mouth?
That’s a task I’ve never tried, but willing to take on. I’ll try it tonight. I will say that I like the triple marshmallow smore. It’s chocolate intertwined and it makes a delicious treat.

@GregKnottLeMond: How was your experience at Levi’s Grand Fondo?
It was extremely difficult for me with me knee not being 100 percent and riding 105 miles. It was pretty friggin hard! But I had some good support out there and I finished. It was a good boost for my motivation. I had a great time out there. The event he put on is incomparable to any other event put on in the U.S. The way he captured all the excitement in NorCal, and cycling all over the world for that matter, and to translate that to a bike was awesome.

@Districtcycling: What are you listening to on your iPod?
My latest kick is Mumford and Sons. They are an Irish quartet. They do all their percussion with string instruments and they all sing. They all have great voices. Look up “Little Lion Man”. I think it’s one of the best songs on the CD. It’s not crazy upbeat, but it gets you in a good positive mood. I like that folky, alternative, indie, whatever you want to call it music. Bon Iver, Soul Season, Drive-By Truckers.

Tim Johnson: Tell him sorry we didn’t make it to the movies last night. Was it good?
It was awesome. We had man night out. We invited Tim, but he was connected to his partner. He didn’t want to have fun. We saw Youth in Revolt. I’m here in Santa Barbara with a few of the Team Type 1 guys. It’s a killer movie. If you haven’t seen it yet, go see it. The best part about it was that there was not one cell phone in the entire movie. That’s awesome to be able to capture a movie without modern technology in it. Check it out.

Michael Creed: How’s it like to be a hippster?
I’ll answer that if he answers: What is it like to be a disgruntled ex-Postal employee?

Levi getting in some early season training miles CREDIT:Al Crawford

Two stage races and two wins for Levi Leipheimer. After taking victory at the Amgen Tour of California, next up he was scheduled to compete in Paris-Nice. However Leipheimer discovered that he had fractured the sacrum in his stage 3 crash, scraping plans for competing. Once he had healed up and was race ready, Leipheimer took the line in the Spanish race Castilla y Leon but not as a threat to the overall in the Spanish race. Astana had an all-star line up which included Contador and Armstrong. However that race took an unfortunate turn of events for the Astana team. Armstrong broke his collarbone in stage 1 of Castilla putting his chances of a first time entry into the Giro at risk. While the team took a hit with Armstrong unable to continue, Leipheimer stepped up and won the time trial solidifying his leadership on the team for this race. Contador than became his super-domestique. I talked to Levi once he had returned home to Santa Rosa before his next race, the Giro d’ Italia. We discussed Castilla y Leon, having three leaders on the same team, the possibility of doing the Hour Record and my influence on persuading Lance to compete in the US Pro road race championships in Greenville.

Neil: You bounced back from fracturing your sacrum to winning the Castilla y Leon. Was that a surprise to you?
Yeah it was. The fracture wasn’t that bad. I was able to finish the Amgen Tour of California with it. I took it pretty easy after the Tour of California and recovered. Unfortunately I missed Paris-Nice because it would have been risky to crash on it again. The silver lining was that I was on form for Castilla y Leon.

Neil: Amongst the media it was seen as Castilla y Leon was going to be a showdown between yourself, Contador and Armstrong. How was the vibe between you three?

It’s a lot different from what you read about in the media. It’s what Lance always says, the media love to write about it and it makes sense. One guy has won the Tour, another has won it before and they’re on the same team. The only way I can explain it is in the way we raced. You could see that Alberto was very professional and committed. He destroyed everyone on the climb for me.

Neil: Lance’s stage 1 crash must have been an, ‘Oh crap” moment.
Yeah. It was about 25 kilometers to go and the road had gone from super-narrow to ridiculously-narrow. The road was rough. It was nervous all day, especially at the end. I was at the very front at that moment and I heard Sean Yates say something like, ‘Lance is off’ or ‘Lance is out.’ I asked him what he meant but the radio reception was bad and I didn’t find out till after the stage that he had crashed and broke his collarbone. It was a big shock.

Neil: The time trial was a pivotal moment for you in this race. Were you expecting to be performing so well at this point?
No. It was a bit of a surprise. I felt pretty good on the first stage and thought I would get better on the second day. I was looking forward to it, but I didn’t expect to win.

Neil: Going into the Giro do you have any pressure on you?
No, definitely not. I’ll take it day by day. I think it will be a big work load for the Tour and a take it as it comes approach. It’s quite a different race and I’m not sure it’s my kind of race. It’s really technical and you could lose 20 seconds here, 20 seconds there. I’m not sure if I’m used to that type of racing. I’ve only done the Giro once before. I’ll play it by ear. I think the most important thing is to not kill myself too early because the Tour is only a month after that.

Neil: You’ve had these two wins in the early season. Are you concerned that your form is coming too quickly or do you think you are still only 80% of what you think you could be in July?
I think it is impossible to say what percentage form you are at. I’ve always read quotes from riders that say they are 70% and I’ve always wondered how they can tell. I guess you can look at your numbers (watts). In a three-week long stage race it depends more on how you come into it and how things change during the race. I got into shape to win the Amgen Tour of California, I still had the form to win Castilla y Leon and it’s not a matter of still going up from there. It’s more a matter of recovering and doing more training and staying in shape. You need to balance how hard you are pushing in races and how hard you are pushing with training along with recovery.

Neil: Is that what you are doing now in California?
Yeah, because I don’t have another race till the Giro and I wanted to come back home. I train much better here.

Neil: Let me throw a random question at you: The Hour Record? You’ve been time trialing really well.
I don’t know. I’m aero. I can stay in my position for a long time. I don’t know the details of it. I’ve ridden on a track before, but never raced on one. It’s an interesting idea. Maybe Steve Hed will help me out.

Neil: Is the USPRO in Greenville a possibility?
Yeah I would like to go. Definitely. Maybe I’ll get Lance to go.

Neil: Why not? Tell him I said he should do it. I carry a lot of influence with him.
I will tell him that. I’m not joking.

Neil Browne for ROAD magazine – Astana Cycling Team website

This is the cover. It will be cropped a little but you get the idea

It’s been awhile since I blogged. I’ve had stuff to write about from the Tour of California, like Tim Johnson telling me how the Health Net squad and the Slipstream team got into a food fight. Johnson is great at giving me the hot scoop on what’s really going on. But like Tim blogged on ROAD Mag, we were slammed. We got everything in this morning so we are officially done. The one thing that threw a spanner into the works was choosing the cover shot. We had a bunch of great shots, but once we blew them up to cover size, they started to pixulate. Or the photo was ever so slightly out of focus, giving the photo a ‘soft look.’ It was two days of Tim going over photos, printing them out and then us looking at them trying to make a choice. At one point we almost had the cover. It was crystal clear, but not very exciting. Just the front of the group rolling along. Not something that really grabbed us. I had shown Tim a photo I took from the prologue. It’s of Levi throwing the bike across the line. It turned out very sharp. We were going to use it in our ToC feature, but I jokingly said why don’t we try that as a cover? I’ve never had a cover, so my life has been an empty shell. Using one of my shots would complete my life. Tim did a mock up of my photo on the cover and we liked it! So it is official, I have a cover shot!

Now that we have a little bit of breathing room, I’m going to start blogging more and write about such subjects like who scrawled ‘ROAD Mag’ on our training loop in Santa Clarita, how the Rock Racing team is like the Steelers, and why Floyd Landis called an editor at Bicycling Magazine a butt pirate.

Tim and I saw this on yesterday’s ride on Old Road in Santa Clarita.

Me interviewing Bettini at the ToC. He’s thinking about my Britney Spears question.
“Si, we did bump into Britney. She’s pazzesco!”

The Rock Racing guys rolled up to Merced in Cadillac Escalades with big chrome wheels and thumpn’ sound system. Word!

Lance ignoring me at the Discovery Channel team launch

My friends often ask me if I’m nervous when I interview a famous rider. In the beginning I was extremely nervous. I remember my first interview was with Fred Rodriguez and Bobby Julich. I wrote down everything I was going to say to them, even my phone greeting to leave on their voice mail if I needed to! Now it’s not that much of a big deal to talk to these guys as I’ve realized that they are, for the most part, normal people. I think the only person I’d be a little nervous interviewing would be Lance Armstrong. My only interaction with him was the last time he raced at Tour de Georgia. It was at the Brass Town Bald press conference. It concluded and Armstrong was walking out. The press were yelling last minute questions. He walked by me and as he passed I called out, “Lance, it’s Neil from ROAD Magazine.” I’d heard from a connected source that he’d checked out ROAD and liked it. He stopped, turned around and walked back toward me. “You have a cool magazine,” and walked away. That’s all the interaction I’ve had with Lance.

My favorite interviews I’ve done are any with David Zabriskie. That guy is interviewing gold, plus I think he’s a good guy. He is also the only athelete who has tried to kick me. Out of the times I’ve interviewed him, the best was in Las Vegas in Tim and my suite. He was up there with his wife Randi, his agent Doug Katone, teammate Christian VandeVelde, and T.T. world champion Kristin Armstrong doing the photo shoot for the latest issue. It was relaxed and we talked casually about stuff and then did our proper interview. Another good interview was with Floyd Landis. Photographer John Seguesta and myself had arranged to go to Floyd’s house and do the interview as well as a photo shoot. Floyd was easy to work with. He was open to our idea of using his motorcycle in the shoot. I recorded my interview with him with two devices: an electronic recorder that Landis’ brother-in-law held for me and a tape recorder that I had set on the handlebar of his motorcycle that we were using as a prop for the shoot. After the interview I checked my recorders. The tape recorder recorded nothing, which to this day I still don’t understand why. It has 40 minutes of hissing. The digital recorder had about 10 minutes and then stopped, which I think a button had been pressed when I gave it to his brother-in-law and that stopped the recording. I thought, “Oh, I’m screwed!” I told Floyd and he said no problem, let’s go inside and do it again. Floyd’s wife made us snacks, we sucked down a few beers and watched his corgis race around the living room. It turned out to be a pretty good interview. Every once in a while I feel like I should download the audio of the interview to the blog. But the problem with that kind of stuff is that it’s funny to me, but to anyone else listening it just sounds like two guys laughing at dogs. I guess it’s just one of those things you have to be there to appreciate.

Another good interview is Tony Cruz. We live nearby and we’ve gotten to be friends since he has moved into the neighborhood. Tony would give me the honest scoop on what was going on in races and we would talk for almost an hour, which is really unheard of when talking to athletes. Usually you get 15 minutes and they are gone.

Levi is another guy who was really good to talk to. He had no problem with me calling him in Europe and bugging him at random times. He doesn’t have any kind of superstar attitude and would talk to me when we said we’d talk. A couple of years ago at TdG, Levi’s brother helped us out big time with VIP passes so we could drive to the parking lot at Brass Town Bald. If we hadn’t gotten those passes we would have been forced to walk a couple of miles uphill with several pounds of camera equipment.

The crappest interview that got better as time went on was David Millar. He was at the San Diego wind tunnel prepping for his return to professional racing with the Saunier Duval squad. I was there along with a few other magazines. We all stood around and waited a turn to talk to Millar. I was introduced to David and he was asked when he wanted to do interviews. “I’m not doing interviews today.” I had gotten up at the crack of dawn and driven for two hours to talk to the guy and now he can’t talk to me! His people told me to hang out. David was a little stressed because of all the attention and he really wanted to focus on what he was doing at the tunnel. I could understand that, I don’t like to be bugged during production week at the magazine. So I hung out from about 9:00 am till about 5:00 pm or so as they did the wind tunnel testing. David would walk by me occasionally as he left the tunnel and I would say something casually, trying to build up any kind of rapport with him. All the other magazines had left, but I was determined. Finally it was arranged; I’d go out to dinner with the team and would be seated next to him. We sat down next to each other at an Italian restaurant and chowed down. I remember we were both starved from a long day. We talked about random stuff during dinner and when we were both done, he said we should go to the restaurant bar and do the interview. After the interview was said and done I think it was about 11:00 at night and I got home around 1:00 am. Again, I think it turned out good and Millar is a cool guy who I think was a little nervous about talking to the press. I hope to talk to him again real soon at a training camp.

I know I have other interview stories to tell and if I remember them and they are half-way amusing I’ll let you know.

Levi checking out our Tour of California book