All the leaves are brown

And the skies are grey...

Fortunately for the participants of the inaugural Tour of California, the weather couldn't have been more perfect! The Freeman has not been slacking in giving you great photos and stories about the race so I'm sure you have already heard of it by now.

Pre-race, the ToC attracted so much controversy because the main sponsor, AMGEN. It's the company that discovered and licensed EPO worldwide. (It also produces ARANESP, an advanced form of EPO.) In case you memory have slipped, EPO is the number one performance enhancing drug used by the cheats of the sport.

According to AMGEN, they wanted to be associated with sports, "to underscore the value of a healthy lifestyle; promote medical breakthroughs made possible through biotechnology and to emphasize the proper use of our medicines." And with cycling's high profile worldwide the past 8 years, it's the best place to be heard. I think AMGEN was able to answer all the moral and ethical questions after 7 days of racing along the best scenery in Southern California since media focus was on the race.

Gov. "Ah-nold" Schwarzenegger was there support the race and to raise the hand of the prologue winner, Californian Levi Leipheimmer. But it was ex-Mennonite and the ex-teammate of Lance Armstrong and another California native, Floyd Landis, who won the race. The next three positions were filled in by the who's who of American cycling- Dave Zabriskie, Bobby Julich and George Hincapie and the 8 of the top 10 were European based Americans.

Surprisingly, spectator turnout was incredible as fans turned out by the hundreds of thousands. But whether the organizers like it or not, the long shadow of recently retired cycling superstar Lance Armstrong loomed over the race. Fans have been hoping that "The Man" would turn up during the race. He did turn up but he was sitting behind the wheel of the team Discovery vehicle. But it was enough to make the news.

With so much financial firepower going on, you may be wondering why the USA (California is bigger economically than Spain or Italy) can't do a race as big as or bigger (like the Super Bowl?) than the Tour de France.

Well, the first answer is tradition. Cycling is traditionally a sport of the Old World. Second, unlike basketball or tennis, it's simply impossible to bring the Alps or the Pyrenees to the States. If Milan or Madrid can't hold a candle to Paris, how can any US city? (It's a silly question, really.) Finally, bike racing is more than a hundred years old and not all the money in the US can change that.

Tim Leiweke, CEO of AEG, ToC organizers, chewed more than he could swallow when he boldly projected that they have a "commitment to building the second best race in the world. One day we will rival the Tour de France". I hate it when people make sweeping statements like that. The contrary always happens. But I hope next years' ToC will be better and bigger.

Tour Pilipinas 2006

It seems that the tour organized by the United Cyclist of the Philippines (UCAP) is all set to go right after the Holy Week. The 6-day stage race offers no less than 200 km per stage and will be held mostly in Northern Luzon. Prizes will be better allegedly (compared to the Tour organized by PNCA's Paquito Rivas last year) with the overall champion getting half a mil while survivor's prize will be 10,000.00 and this doesn't include the team prize. Ginging Villaver, Nilo Barbalose and Jaybop Pagnanawon, son of 1986 champion Rolando will do the UCAP tour while Antonio "Kasag" Nebria and Juvani Delica will ride on the PNCA organized tour. Members of the PAGCOR team will be riding the UCAP tour while RP team members will line up for the rival race.