The rumor mill has been working overtime lately in regards to Team RadioShack. Domestically the team has had great success with overall victories in the Amgen Tour of California, Tour of Utah and Pro Cycling Challenge (AKA-Tour of Colorado). However, in the races that matter in Europe (Tour de France, the Classics) they scored a big zero. Additionally, their title sponsor doesn’t have any stores in Europe, which made it seem odd that they’d sponsor a squad with a European focus. As I’ve previously written, the company has had some hard times financially which I have to assume makes the board of directors of this Texas based company second guess why their logo is on the backs of skinny guys riding bikes in Europe and not on the hood of a stock car doing 200 mile per hour laps in Talladega. So what might happen to the squad in 2012?

As the UCI Overlord said on his Vokle show last week, team director Johan Bruyneel is going to make a major announcement regarding the team within a couple of weeks. One rumor the Overlord floated was Mark Cavendish will join the squad in 2012. A stronger rumor that won’t die, despite the repeated denials, is Leopard-Trek was going to merge with RadioShack. The thought of this combination caused Alberto Contador to say there would be no way anyone could beat the combined forces of the Schleck Wonder Twins with Shackers Chris Horner, Andreas Kloden and Janez Brajkovic. But why would Leopard-Trek want to combine with them? The Shack has performed, at best, as a kick ass Continental Pro squad. Why hook up? It’s all about the title sponsor.

As you know, “Leopard” is just the name of the company that owns the squad and isn’t a financial contributor. The team is being propped up by Luxembourg real estate mogul Flavio Becca who is paying most of the 15 million Euro. Trek Bikes is said to be chipping in three million Euro. However, the problem is that like most true businessmen they don’t like to play with their own money. They like investors. So far, even with a successful season behind them, Leopard-Trek hasn’t been able to get anyone to sign on the dotted line for the “Leopard” part of the jersey. That might be making Becca nervous. A merger would take the fiscal weight off of Becca’s shoulders. However, the problem is the rider cap that the UCI demands of the teams. Thirty riders is the maximum amount that a squad can have on the roster. Leopard-Trek has 27 riders signed for 2012 and RadioShack has 13. I’m no math major, but even I know that’s well over 30. Unless a bunch of riders on both those squads suddenly have “back problems” like Roman Kireyev of Astana, there’s going to be a registration issue with the UCI.

To throw another “what if” into the mix, also on the RadioShack kit is the car company Nissan. At some races the squad has had the Japanese company’s electric car, the Leaf, as a support vehicle. Fortunately the disastrous earthquake and tsunami in Japan didn’t affect the company in the long term. In fact Nissan is planning to invest 50 billion yen in China as it tries to increase their share in that growing economy. It’s not beyond the realm of possibility that Nissan takes over the title sponsor role and you’ll see Leafs with roof racks in the caravan in 2012.

Taking this all into account, plus a few conversations with people in the know, I suspect that Bruyneel’s big announcement is the big red R of RadioShack will no longer be on the jersey next year. Instead Nissan will become the title sponsor with their Leaf car as the marketing vehicle (no pun intended) for the team. The electric car is the perfect demographic for cyclists and if they incorporate a hitch-mounted rack as an option, they will sell a boatload. And depending how long the current investigation into Lance Armstrong drags on, throw him into the mix for a random commercial. Hell, even if if things go into the toilet for him, I’m sure he could still get some folks down to a Nissan dealership grand opening.

So Jacob Fulgsang can rest easy and concentrate on the Vuelta. His job is secure and the Danish rider can go back to worrying about which scarf is the perfect accent for the teal of their jersey and why they still haven’t won a Grand Tour.

When do we draw the line on when a gladiator of the road is picked back up and returned to the arena? As you know the Tour’s first week has been one of unexpected injuries that have knocked some potential general classification contenders out of the running. But the one incident that has become a lightening rod of controversy is Chris Horner’s horrific crash in Stage 7.

In an accident that stopped the peloton on the narrow French road like water in a kinked hose, RadioShack’s Horner crashed off to the side of the road and landed in a ditch. Team director Johan Bruyneel responded to his downed rider and gave this description.

“When I got there, he was lying in a ditch and was very shaken. It was obvious he’d hit very hard. He finished the stage and I think basically he’s OK physically, but we’re taking him to the hospital to have a scan. He doesn’t really know where he is right now or what happened. We’ll see what the results are but I fear the worst.”

If you had not seen the stage and only read Bruyneel’s first hand account of Horner lying in a ditch you still begin to wonder why the RadioShack rider was allowed to ride in a state of confusion. Horner was given his bike and his instinct to continue racing kicked in. The race doctor pulled along side Horner and monitored him the entire way. He finished the stage – confused, bruised, broken, and bleeding. It was the video of Horner after the stage, totally confused and asking what happened, that leaves cycling fans stunned and wondering why he was not pulled from the race.

The internet lit up regarding Horner’s ride to the finish. Studies have shown that having an elevated heart rate after a concussion can further the damage to the brain. Additionally, there’s that voice of common sense saying a guy that’s confused should not be controlling a vehicle that rolls on two skinny wheels. People lashed out at Bruyneel’s decision to let Horner remount and carry on. People also pointed fingers at the Tour race doctor who was attending to him as they rolled along.

JoE Silva, cycling columnist for NBC Sports said, “Doesn’t anyone remember what happened to actress Natasha Richardson after she fell off her skis and seemed to be okay?” Richardson fell while taking skiing lessons. She refused medical assistance and after complaining of a headache was taken to the hospital. She died two days later due to a epidural hematoma from the blunt impact to the head.

In response to the criticism Bruyneel fired off a curt reply via Twitter.

“To all my haters: why don’t you comment on facts instead of on rumors? Or even better: don’t comment at all!” He followed up later stating that Horner was in the hospital and was doing better.

However, Reuters is reporting that Horner’s last memory is of stage 2’s team time trial. I guess Bruyneel has a different standard of what’s considered “okay.”

So who is to blame for letting Horner continue to race? Bruyneel is the first to the scene of Horner’s crash and by his own words said he found him confused and bleeding – why hand him a bike? I don’t expect Bruyneel to be able to make a medical evaluation, but common sense should come into play. If he was as confused as Bruyneel himself stated, Horner shouldn’t have continued to ride. The other person to blame is the Tour doctor. They both let him continue while he was a danger to himself and others. It’s common practice for doctors to make an evaluation of the rider following a crash. So why would these two different people, who have the authority to pull him from the race, let him continue?

Team directors are not riders’ friends. A rider is an asset that needs to keep running until it just can’t continue. If you had seen this happen to your child or loved one would you have given him their bike back with a push back into the peloton? Of course you wouldn’t. Why? Because you care about them as a person and not as a paid asset. The Tour doctor knows how important it is to keep riders in the race, but the doctor should have looked further than the remaining 25 kilometers of the stage and pulled the plug. It borders on incompetence gambling with Horner’s life like that.

I’m sure Bruyneel cares about Horner the person, but his perspective of the rider as a much needed member of the team appears to come first. Even if he is also looking out for a rider’s personal goal of staying in the Tour, a director needs to be more detached and not let the pressures of the Tour cloud their judgement. Remember when Lance Armstrong crashed out of the Tour of California in 2010? His injuries were no way as severe, but just as gruesome looking. Like Horner, Armstrong was bloodied and bruised about the face. As it was just the Tour of California, Armstrong abandoned to recover for his run at the Tour de France. When you’re racing the Tour a rider is pushed to their utmost limit. However, that doesn’t make it right to enable them to continue.

Bruyneel isn’t the only one who continued to push his solider out of the trench and into battle. Tom Boonen crashed hard in stage 5 and finished the stage. The next day he completed another stage. Finally he quit during stage 7. After Boonen abandoned he revealed that he had thrown up in the night, couldn’t tolerate colors or sound and had a huge headache.

“That’s cycling,” said Boonen with a sigh. “If you can put on your racing number you can race.” is how CyclingNews.com reported it.

QuickStep director Wilfried Peeters is the one who allowed Boonen to continue in what is another case of staggering incompetence. You have a rider who is clearly suffering from a concussion and you don’t make the executive decision to pull him from the race? But for Peeters, Boonen’s 2011 season hasn’t lived up to expectations. He wants his pound of flesh from the sprinter, probably hoping he would recover and can win a stage to redeem the QuickStep squad’s Tour. They don’t have a GC contender and Boonen was their one solid chance for a stage victory. As with all professional athletes it’s about what have you done for the team/owner lately. If not much, well suck it up and get back out there! Cycling, football, baseball, hockey, you name the sport – they all have their own stories of athletes being treated like meat.

It was good to hear that Garmin-Cervelo’s Dr. Prentice Steffen has a protocol in place for dealing with a rider who might be suffering from a concussion.

In an interview with CyclingNews.com he says, “I came up with it based on research and the Zurich conference on head injuries in sport.”

The assessment is a step by step questionnaire that the rider must answer. Staff have been trained in this and it is team policy to pull the rider from the race if they show signs of impairment.

In a season that has seen the tragic death of one rider and the continuing rehabilitation of another, head injuries should be the foremost thought in a team director’s mind. However, winning or at least still having the foot soldiers in place to continue the fight seems to be more important. Here’s to Chris Horner and the other injured riders making a full recovery.

Cleaner look for 2011

Team RadioShack just officially released images of their 2011 kit. In my opinion a better looking design from the red strapless dress look of 2010. All the usual sponsors are on board for the jersey: RadioShack (title sponsor), Trek, and Nike. Along the side panel of the shorts is “The Shack” – the cooler name that the board of directors thought the kids would dig and reportedly what they were going to re-brand the failing stores. One new logo has made its way onto the front of the jersey – the ubiquitous bird icon of Twitter.

From the RadioShack press release, “Since the inception of Team RadioShack, we’ve relied heavily on Twitter to help keep our fans around the world updated and engaged, so we’re excited to embrace them on our 2011 kit.” That well over 140 character statement from the mouth of executive vice president and chief marketing officer for RadioShack Lee Applbaum. “It is a very natural fit for our Team and our brand,” Mr Applbaum succinctly continues.

So is this any surprise to us that RadioShack’s most well known member and seven time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong will have the small Twitter icon on his chest? It shouldn’t be. The blog, “Mastering the Uphill Shift” correlates some interesting facts about this 140 character form of communication and how it gained a foothold in professional cycling.

“The cycling community is not large and the pro cycling fan base is even more not large. This is where Twitter comes in. Twitter gives us cycling fans a place to find like- minded individuals, a place to follow the pros through their training, races, wins and loses, a place to follow races which aren’t shown on TV or are available online only with Dutch commentary, a place to connect with fellow race watches around the globe. Through Twitter, pro cycling becomes so much more than just what comes through the TV or computer.”

I am interested to see what RadioShack does with this medium of instant communication. Are they using it to remove the middleman (AKA – journalists) to get their message out and to keep their vision on point or whatever executive vice presidents and chief marketing say they do? Ironically earlier this evening I believe @mmmaiko Twittered that Armstrong has the itchy trigger finger with blocking Followers who aren’t “Team Lance.” Will that “Block Follower” button get a rest in 2011?

Anyways its 1:15 in the morning and I needed to get that off my chest. I’ll look for any obvious typos later today.

Tour of Missouri rolls out for stage 1 - will it be the last time?

RadioShack Giro update at bottom of post

Every morning for quite a while I have woken up and connected my laptop to watch streaming video of a European race. Sunday, out of habit, I started to hook up my laptop to my big screen when I realized there wasn’t anything to watch. However a Facebook update from Sean Weide, press liaison for BMC, said that he was monitoring a race. If Weide is montoring something, it has to be worth watching. Next thing you know I’m watching Eneco Ronde van het Groene Hart. Admittedly I’m not too familiar with this race but it looked like the steepest hill was a freeway overpass. But hey, beggars can’t be choosers. In the end Vacansoleil’s Jens Mouris broke away and soled in to win. That kind of victory is always cool to watch. I’m going to try that one day. Thanks for the heads up Sean and another victory for social media.

I have always been pleasantly surprised about how popularity of the Tour of Missouri. Fans packed both the start and finishing areas of all the stages. When the peloton rolled through the towns it seemed like everyone poured out to line the road and watch. Last year, by the skin of its teeth, the Tour of Missouri survived. This year, it isn’t looking so good. Unfortunately the race has become a political football between the governor and the lieutenant governor of Missouri. A grassroots effort was started with a Facebook Page supporting the race. Racers are chiming as well trying to sway the powers to be that this race is a good investment. For crying out loud, Jens Voigt came back from his awful Tour de France crash at this race and gave it big praise (WWJD – What Would Jens Do?). For that reason alone this race must continue! To show your support go to the Tour of Missouri website. The organization has listed ten things you can do to help save this race. I’m keeping my fingers crossed and hoping it doesn’t go the way of the Tour de Georgia.

More recently Milan-Sanremo was the race that caught all our attention. It was going to be the big showdown between Boonen, Petacchi, Boasson Hagen, Freire, and last year winner’s Mark Cavendish. As we all know poor Cav has had some teeth issues and hasn’t been up to form. At best he was a very outside chance for victory. What was interesting was the HTC-Columbia put their full support behind the rider from the Isle of Mann and kept off the roster a rider who has already won ten times this year – Andre “The Hulk” Greipel. On Sunday, with Cavendish coming in over six minutes back, he let his frustrations known about being excluded. Who wants to bet me that Greipel won’t be riding for the boys in yellow next season. Interesting thought – jump ship and go to The Shack. Boom – you got a guy with the instant ability to win Classics. You’re welcome. Okay, you might have to hire on some leadout guys as well.

Speaking of the Shack things got a little testy on the Twittersphere. It was reported that RCS Sport, the owners of the Giro, left RadioShack off from the list of invited teams. Johan Bruyneel responded with a Tweet and then later in his blog saying that they had in fact sent a letter to RCS stating that the Shack wouldn’t be participating and that Cyclingnews should check their facts. Well I checked around in past emails and press releases and I couldn’t find anything about the team declining to race in Italy and had instead decided to focus on the Tour of California. Understandable – American team with American sponsors. But why not release this information to the media in January so you can control it the way you want to?

Will this pissing match continue? Will RadioShack be flicked from other RCS events like the Giro di Lombardia? Perhaps the team will want to race the Giro in 2011 – will they be invited? Oh, the drama. I recommend sending a Vermont Teddy Bear with the message “Sorry we couldn’t make it to your race this year ” to RCS.  Those bears have always gotten me out of a bind.

I’m loving that at least the other American teams are racing in Italy which means my boys in red Team BMC. It looks like an on-form Cadel Evans will be there. I’m wondering if this is prep for the Tour or is he going for the overall? George will be racing the Tour of California where he could snag a stage win. Team BMC has the depth to pull off wins on both continents. I’m looking forward to May. Fortunately April is right around the corner which is cycling’s version of March Madness.  Starting next month I’m just going to leave my laptop tethered to my t.v.
UPDATE  UPDATE  UPDATE
So I did some more poking around concerning RadioShack not contesting the Giro d’ Italia. While on the RadioShack team web site there is no press release stating that the Giro wasn’t in the big picture for the Shack, however Johan Bruyneel’s Facebook page has the proposed 2010 racing calendar and glaringly obvious by omission is the Giro.

Now I know an official Facebook page probably isn’t the most efficient way to disseminate information ( you have to belong to Facebook as well as check the site and filter through the thousands of random messages). But none the less there it was – no Giro on the RadioShack race schedule. Actually way back in December Joe Lindsey brought this to our attention but hey, it was a long holiday and we forgot. However the question remains, why not just issue a press release in January confirming the race schedule posted on the Facebook page? This is where it gets complicated.

There is a bit of wheeling and dealing that goes on when you are trying to invite teams to your race. What I know about how teams get invited to the Tour of California is interesting and a blog post to follow soon. It’s not always about what team is the strongest. Anyways I’ll save that one for later…

What I’m thinking is Bruyneel was keeping his cards close to his chest and by posting the schedule on his Facebook page he playing poker with RCS, “Due to sponsorship obligations the RadioShack team is not participating in the Giro…blah, blah, blah…” This gives the Giro’s race director Angelo Zomegnan an opportunity to offer something to entice the team to Italy. Instead it looked like Zomegnan retaliated by snubbing the team and not inviting them to Tirreno-Adriatico – an RCS event. There also might be some lingering polemics when Armstrong was the ringleader of rider protests during stage 9 of  last year’s Giro.

Either way you slice it, this whole hubbub could have been avoided by just issuing a press release saying, “Suck it, we’re racing in Cali!” Those are my words, not Bruyneel’s.

PHOTO: RadioShack

Home rider Tiago Machado (Team RadioShack) finished second atop the Alto do Malhão in the 3rd stage of the Volta ao Algarve (Portugal). Teammate Levi Leipheimer (USA) finished third. Stage winner Alberto Contador attacked at the bottom of the final climb, immediately took ten seconds and managed to keep that advantage.

“It was our job to be in the front the last kilometers,” commented Machado. “The first two corners were sharp and the slope was steep. When Contador attacked with his teammate David de la Fuente, we decided to wait for the reactions of other potential overall contenders like Luis León Sánchez or Kim Kirchen. Their reaction did not come, so I counterattacked. The gap between Contador and me remained constantly the same, about ten, fifteen seconds. This means that I may not complain about my condition.”

Team Director José Azevedo added: “It’s the first race of the season for our riders. We have to be careful and not too audacious. The most important thing is that Tiago proved he has worked hard and that he has a place in this big team. Tiago was nervous before the season. Now we see there was no need for it.”

Levi Leipheimer attacked in the last kilometer of the climb and rode away from the other contenders to finish third at 22 seconds of the stage winner.

Both Machado and Leipheimer are still within striking distance to fight for the overall on Sunday’s final 17.5 kilometer time trial in Portimão.

“Tiago and Levi are both real time trialists. However Contador is that too,” said team Director Dirk Demol. “The distance is not so long, but for sure we will go for it. Up to now we are happy that all our riders prove to have worked hard during the winter. We are the best in the Team’s Classification now but unfortunately we’ve already lost two riders this race.”

Tomas Vaitkus, who crashed on his shoulder in the first stage, went back home to Spain and will keep his shoulder immobilized for a few days. Next week he travels to Belgium. Vaitkus is confident to be able to start in the opening weekend of the Belgian cycling season.

Gert Steegmans was involved in a crash in the stage of today after only 8 kilometers of the race, landing on his head. After being brought to the ambulance, Steegmans was able to leave the ambulance and finish the stage in a race car. He suffers no fractures but complains about headache and vertigo.

“My helmet saved my life,” Steegmans explained. “The helmet was in different pieces. I am lucky. I have some minor injuries at elbow and hip, but my head worries me the most. The team doctor will keep me in Portugal to follow me up. He cannot rule out a concussion. I will have to rest a few days, but as of now, I am confident to be able to start in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne.”

Result Stage 3: Castro Marim – Malhão, 173.7 K:
1 Alberto Contador; 2 Tiago Machado (Team RadioShack) 0:11; 3 Levi Leipheimer (Team RadioShack) 0:22; 4 Peter Velits 00:25; 5 Tejay Van Garderen; 6 Jean-Christophe Péraud 0:29; 7 Samuel Sánchez 0:31; 8 Rui Costa 0:33; 9 Luis-León Sánchez; 10 Andreas Klöden (Team RadioShack)

General Classification after Stage 3:
1 Alberto Contador; 2 Tiago Machado (Team RadioShack) 0:15; 3 Levi Leipheimer (Team RadioShack) 0:28; 4 Samuel Sánchez 0:35; 5 Tejay Van Garderen; 6 Rui Costa 0:43; 7 Luis-León Sánchez; 8 Matthew Lloyd; 9 Andreas Klöden (Team RadioShack); 10 Joaquín Rodriguez

Well it looks like the Twitter war is over before it even got started. Vaughters has clarified his “soft-pedaling” comment on the Versus site, much to my disappointment. I was hoping that it was going to elevate to some real back and forth, possibly dragging Wiggins into the fight creating a virtual Twitter “death-match” – three fighters enter the octagon and only one will survive! This sport needs some shit talking to spice things up. I’m not saying that every interview or press conference should be a chair-tossing, expletive filled tirade of Bobby Knight proportions, but every once in a while something like that would be good. It gets tiring to read the same quotes of, “It was all because of my teammates” or “I got to hand it to my competitors. They were really strong today, but I had a little extra….” More off the cuff comments would get the sport mentioned on the nightly news and, dare to dream, bump off rodeo from Versus. I’m not sure exactly why I have this deep-seated need to see conflict. I blame my parents for not raising me correctly.

"All you're left with is a plaid thermos..." the wolfman

You know who has balls of Godzilla like proportions? RadioShack’s Fumy Beppu and I’ll tell you why. He has one year left on a two-year contract with Skil-Shimano and says, hell with that, I’m bouncing over to the Shack. He works a deal with RadioShack and Skil-Shimano finds out he’s racing on SRAM via the internet. Perhaps Beppu simply consulted The Art of War and made his decision to leave Skil-Shimano based on one of Sun Tzu’s tenants. “Every general has heard of these five things. Those who know them prevail, those who do not know them do not prevail. Therefore, use these assessments for comparison, to find out what the conditions are. That is to say, which political leadership has the Way? Which general has ability? Who has the better climate and terrain? Whose discipline is effective? Whose troops are the stronger? Whose officers and soldiers are the better trained? Whose system of rewards and punishments is clearer? This is how you can know who will win.” Clearly the answer is RadioShack. Enjoy the complimentary remote control car and free batteries Beppu.

Browne Eye Media is taking another step forward in total internet domination by now offering an Android Browne Eye app. Since I don’t have an Android phone I would appreciate it that someone show it to me on the next ride.

HTC-Columbia is killing it at the Tour Down Under

As January winds down the first UCI race of the year is almost complete. The Tour Down Under seems to have been tough enough in 2009 for Armstrong to cause him to have a gut check on whether his return to professional racing was a good idea. This year it’s a different story. He’s been in breakaways and mixing it up. His fellow RadioShackers have also been at the front and have been top three in some stage finishes – so far so good. Now if they can score a win this Saturday… Team Sky came in with the plan of making a race day debut splash, which they accomplished with Greg Henderson taking the win at the Cancer Council Helpline Classic. But from there on it has been Andre Greipel of HTC-Columbia putting on a daily sprint clinic. I know it’s way too early to make predictions but damn, HTC-Columbia seems to have picked up where they left off last year, dominating anything that ended with a sprint finish. Once Cav gets his choppers sorted out he’ll once again be racking up the wins as well. One bit of advice for Cav: Resist the urge to go with Team Sky. I can’t put my finger on it but my Spidey senses tingle in a bad way with the thought of him joining Sky. When his contract expires I fully expect him to hear the siren call of racing for a British pro team like any American who wasn’t racing for 7-Eleven in the ’80’s.

While teams like HTC-Columbia, RadioShack and Team Sky seem to be enjoying a healthy budget, other squads don’t seem to be faring as well. Milram, Caisse d Epargne and Saxo Bank as title sponsors are getting out of the cycling game at the conclusion of 2010. Also, Quick Step is cutting back on their racing schedule due to budget constraints. Here in the States races and teams are scaling back. One rider is taking the situation in hand and is becoming the master of his own domain. Burke Swindlehurst, a strong climber on the Bissell squad last year, is going solo in ‘10. He has cobbled together several individual sponsors and is going to be competing in both road and mountain biking. Is this the new cycling sponsorship business model in these tough economic times? In mountain biking teamwork is not a factor, however road racing is another thing all together. In crits and road races he’s going to have to rely on being in the right moves at the right time with no margin of error. That said, in a climbing race it can become mano-a-mano and Swindlehurst can climb with the best of them domestically. I’m always a fan of the underdog, so I’m betting on Burke to pop up here and there on the leader’s board. I have suggestion for Burke: install a PayPal donation widget on your website. There’s fans out there that love to see you race and can appreciate you being a fly in the ointment. Plus your musical insights are priceless, so why not let people throw a couple of bucks your way.

One last comment I have is regarding a Twitter post I read from David Zabriskie and a few Garmin-Transitions riders. It looks like today was Media Training Day for the team. I’ve sat in on a few and if you saw the bio film, “Blood, Sweat and Gears” you can see how much the media is loved by riders and staff alike. I’m curious now that most riders have Twitter accounts as well as Facebook pages, how much random, unfiltered Twittering is going to occur. As a personal plea don’t let the P.R. people completely neuter your thoughts. Those 140 characters offer a tiny glimpse of who you are as a person beyond the rolling billboard you’ve become. And that glimpse behind the curtain causes people to become fans of a sport that could use a few more.

Who will be working for who in California Courtesy-Al Crawford

The racing season is right around the corner and all the pro teams are counting the days till their specific race rendezvous. Taking a quick glance at the various team sites you can see where riders will be. In the case of Kenda p/b Geargrinders it’s the Tour de Taiwan in March. The Tour of Taiwan is a UCI ranked event, so snagging some early season points will make them an attractive selection for any of our domestic grand tours such as Tour of California (I actually heard that only one slot is still open for a team), Tour of Missouri (keeping my fingers crossed on that one) and of course the Tour of Utah (inside source told me they are going big in 2010). Beyond the American Continental teams is the Big Show – the teams who are assured a spot in our domestic races as well as the three European Grand Tours. Let’s not forget the Spring Classics.

For those stalking Garmin-Transitions (I’m talking about a certain group of #cyclingdivas) the team was polite enough to not only post their race schedule but also format it into an attractive calendar suitable for framing. I have mine pinned up next to my mounted talking bass. Both are great conversation starters. “Hey, what’s that? Is that a talking bass mounted next to the Garmin-Transitions racing schedule?” Yes…yes it is.

With a large squad Garmin-Transitions is splitting the squad into a Giro and Amgen Tour of California team. From a personal standpoint I’d like to see both Christian Vande Velde and David Zabriskie line up at the Amgen Tour of California. However, the Giro has been the traditional tune-up for potential Tour de France champions. Wiggins of Sky has already stated that he’s eying the Giro’s prologue and the time trial. If Zabriskie is going to have the break out year that Vaughters predicts then Italy may be where he’s headed in May. Vande Velde has contested the Giro these past two years and went on to strong finishes at the Tour, so I wouldn’t expect a change in his racing program.

One schedule that got me thinking was Team RadioShack’s race program posted on Johan Bruyneels’s Facebook page (never in a thousand years did I ever think I’d be writing that sentence). The month of May is missing the Giro and instead has the Tour of California followed by the Tour of Belgium. This is an interesting conundrum that Joe Lindsey pointed out in the Boulder Report. Armstrong had used the Giro for the high-intensity training to fine-tune the fitness. However the Tour of California has been Leipheimer’s race. There could be awkward moments around the dinner table in California if Armstrong wants to flex his racing muscle during the race and not be the super-domestic he was in 2009. And what about Kloden? It looks like scraps for him. With no Giro, the Tour of California is Leipheimer’s, the Tour is Armstrong’s – no matter what he said at the press conference, so what’s left? Maybe throw him a bone at Paris-Nice?

Wiggo - the next big thing?

I have mixed feeling about the new British Sky team. They are the New York Yankees of the cycling world buying up any and all available (in the case of Wiggins – not so available) talent. The British side of me is rooting for them and I’m glad that in these uncertain times a huge corporation has stepped up and backed a team. The a-hole side of me will enjoy harassing my father who has become a big fan of them and I will be able to endlessly mock him when Sky doesn’t win. I am gambling with my inheritance because if I piss him off too badly he might remove me from the will. However the reality is that the Browne fortune is probably no more than several boxes of empty Lucky Lager bottles and my grandfather’s old prosthetic arm, so it’s not a big loss.

While not a Pro Continental team, BMC with Cadel Evans, George Hincapie and Alessandro Ballan are deserved of a wild card entry into all the races. Their season is starting off early with the Tour Down Under and then it’s a European campaign with Hincapie, Ballan and fresh meat John Murphy. I don’t think anyone would argue with me by saying that Murph is a guy who deserves this shot. I expect to see Hincapie, Ballan and Murphy to be at the Tour of California. Evans has already decided to race the Giro as prep for the Tour. He’s going to have to be a cagey rider to do well in the 2010 Tour.

With no TTT can anyone really beat him in the Tour?

With the new year just hours in front of us the speculation has begun. Will the Giro once again be just an event the Italians battle for and everyone else uses for Tour training? Can the Tour of California become THE race to attend as we hope for drier days? Will the new super budget Sky Team be more than just an over-expensive team filled with racers and their bloated egos? Will their failure to win any significant races cause my dad to have a rage-fueled stroke? Who knows, but I’m double checking the will. I think Lucky Lager beer bottles are collectables and might be worth some coin.

RadioShack rides SRAM's Red group

As a stock holder of Trek Bicycles it was a no-brainer that when Lance came out of retirement he’d be once again on a Trek bicycle. What wasn’t so obvious was what components were going to hang on the Trek frames. Alex Wassmann of SRAM took the time to talk to me about how this relationship began before he headed down to the RadioShack team camp in Tucson.  Apologies for the poor audio quality.

Available to the public in March

The first images of the official RadioShack Madone were released on the Trek Bicycles Facebook fan page. However, unless you’re riding for the Shack, you’ll have to wait till March before they become available to the public.

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IMAGES: Trek Bicycles Facebook Fan Page