Dear Pinarello,

Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jimbo... I am a avid cyclist and frequent commentor here at the Podium Cafe, the nexus of all things cycling related. Please, make yourselves at home, poke around, read the posts, get to know the natives, comment if you feel so inclined. And have something to eat, you look too thin...

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VeloNews has the article. Looks like the road team is Hincapie, Leipheimer, McCartney, Vande Velde and Zabriskie. No love for Horner. The TT'ers will be Levi and Zabriskie. The article has details about the ladies as well as the track squad. Kristen Armstrong is the only qualifier so far for the women's road race .

[deleted: hot dog-related chatter inserted to make the minimum word count. Something about bratwurst, condiments, hot grits, midgets, etc etc ... (ED)]

Here are some highlights of the Arenberg trench that I found on the Slipstream site... if your Roubaix juices are not already flowing, this ought to do the trick.

Thanks to my geographic advantage, I got to attend the Prologue and both the start and finish of stage 1 today. It's a little late to write up the specifics (I will save that for work tomorrow) but I wanted to share some photos that I took. You you can find them here...

I'm thinking about buying myself a trainer so I can combine my new favorite pastime... riding my bike... with my old favorite pastime... watching TV by myself after a long day of work once my entire family has gone to bed. Now in a perfect world, I would just get out and ride all winter since where I live in Northern California, weather is rarely an issue, but with work, the commute, not to mention the parenting thing, every available daylight hour (and then some) is booked. Two hours on a weekend is about all I can weasel out. So a trainer in front of the Tivo would seem to be my best option if I want to ride more than just two hours a week. Looking around quickly at the options on the market, I see models with fans, with magnets, with fluid, and even a few with gels or powder inside? Some have remote control cable thingies, or wireless remotes with computers, or even virtual racing programs which let you ride the Giro in your basement. Such enhancements may be wonderful and totally worth it if you have a large pot of money handy... I do not have such a pot... And prices are all over the map from $100 to over a $1000. So my question to you all is "HELP!" What do you guys use? Which features are crucial and which are crap? Which brands are the good ones and which are to be avoided? And what about those roller things? Are they actually good for anything, or are they just for showing off and/or injuring myself? Any and all advice/opinion would be much appreciated.

Taking a cue from Tikigiant's Beijing Diaries post, where he asks what sort of weekly mileage folks out there are averaging these days, I'm wondering what the answer is to the following... What's your biggest mileage week ever? I've read stories about guys like Ekimov who regularly did 500 + mile weeks, which seems crazy, My personal record is just shy of 500 miles, but that was only once and then I took a few weeks off to ice my ass... So what is your big week?

I'm going to the Floyd Fairness Fund presentation in San Jose tonight. Anyone have any questions they want me to ask him? If so, speak up quickly. I'm on the road in about 45 minutes...

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[editor's note, by chris] Jimbo surveys the wreckage...

Jelly Belly may have the most vibrant team car, but...

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