Updated: Here are start times for the crono. Also, start list with back numbers from Steephill.tv. Yay!

Cyclingnews has the final list of riders posted here:

cyclingnews.com

However, I haven't seen the back numbers posted anywhere yet. Last year I think they didn't come out until the morning of the prologue.  I was a hero because I made 5 copies before I left and that's all that was available on the course except for some of the marshalls.

If you find a source, please post it here.  Thanks!

Gav adds: Yes, please! Back Numbers! And wonders, why is the start list not yet on the official race site?

A few days ago The Oregonian published an interesting story on how Columbia came to be a sponsor. Read about the story here.

I am amazed how fast the whole thing came together, and how the internal debates almost made this a non deal.  Not a suprise is that the CEO and the marketing team now consider the sponsorship to become a big hit.

Not quite sure I can belive that $3M US is enough to sponsor a top level team, I suspect Stapleton must be kicking in some of his own money still.

Update: Wtih SDV out, is CSC the only team that can do dammage?

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Welcome to Survivor TdF2008

If you are a DS without a deep mountain team, what are you to do if you find yourself with a GC contender (Evans, CVV, Kohl) against teams like CSC/Saxo and SDV?

Who  do you form an alliance with? How long can the alliance last? What does each team get in return?

Do you try to partner with mid-bench strengths of Columbia or Rabo? Do you call up your old teamates that are now also DS's and make a deal?

I am not smart enought to figure this out but it seems like you need to have an alliance if you can' t protect your rider from the attacks of CSC and SDV.

Strategies to offer?

Check out the last result

http://www.berkeleybike.org/events/bbcttt_2008-results.html

And then start to think about how fast the teams, even the older teams, were against the man.

An exciting day on top of Sierra, the Cat 1 climb following the Mt Hamilton Cat HC climb.  I rode from Sunol along Calaveras road (2007 route to Sierra) around to Sierra (~23 miles) and climbed the hard way. It's a long ass hill, w/ 2000 ft of climbing and kicks up to 15% almost immediately with only a few breaks below 10%. I remember a sign near the bottom that said 5km to KOM but that was above the base. I kept my head down and suffered. It poured earlier in the day, and we were all freaked out about having to ride in the rain. Luckily, the roads dried and the rain didn't come out. The conditions at the top were great. Slightly cool but the sun peaked out from the clouds and kept us mostly warm. I brought a change of clothes so I wouldn't get the chills standing around in my sweat ladended underlayers and top. I probably biked up with an extra 10 lbs of clothes, food, water, tools. Don't do this next year! We waited for about 1/2 hour before the riders came through. You could tell they were getting close 1st by the 4 helicopters and then by the lead convey. The first 30 or so riders came up in pairs and it was strung out. Finally, the grupetto came through with only a few stragglers after that. We rode down the same course as the race and turned back on to Calaveras road. Luckily mostly downhill. What an awesome day.

Pictures:
http://www.wooljersey.com/gallery/v/rdpark201/2008_TOC_Stage3_Sierra/

Update [2008-2-21 11:38:16 by Ron]:
MotionBased record from my Garmin. (HR incaccurate for the first few miles)
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/5015134

I got to the prologue at just before the 1pm start. Walked around the pits which were fully accessible to the public. Watched a few riders start and then walked over to University Ave to watch the first 20 riders go by. Continued up University on to the Standford campus.  

I ended up spending most of time 200 meters before the start of the big loop. This is the same spot where the riders turned off the course after finishing on the other side of the road. This gave me a second chance to yell the names of my favorite riders.

Pictures: http://www.wooljersey.com/gallery/v/rdpark201/2008_TOC_Prologue/

A couple good ones of Cancellera.

Unlike some of the fancier events happening just prior to the TOC, HealthNet's team in store visit showcased the team's friendliness and accessibility...

Saturday, I met up with HealthNet at Cycle Sport in Oakland about 1 hour away from the Palo Alto Prologue.  This was a low key event and only a few fans showed up.  Prior to arriving they were cheering up kids at Childrens' Hospital of Oakland. I brought my 6 year old daughter - who is a huge Tim Johnson fan (really). As soon as the van pulls up, she starts hopping up and down as she sees Tim riding shotgun.

Read more on the flip...

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If anybody finds the official rider list, let me know. It's super hard in the Prologue to know who is who, without having that extra help.

I asked some of the HealthNet riders if they knew their numbers as of Satuday afternoon, and it was a NO.  (More on my HN conversation later.)

According to HN riders, rider order for each team is determined by the DS. Typically, the strongest TTers put at the end.  The DS submits the list to the race officials. The rider order for the prologue is then determined by rotating through each team's rider order.

I feel a bit like CN trying to sneak in a MTB news update...If you want to give MTB one chance a year, this is it.

This the MTB equivalant to the upcoming UCI Road World Championships.

The UCI MTB World Championship in Scotland will be on cycling.tv, September 6-9. Start times from their Race Calendar are:

Sept 6 - 2:50 pm Eastern, 11:50 am Pacific (lunch time!)
Sept 7 - same
Sept 8 - 1 hour earlier
Sept 9 - 7:20 pm Eastern, 4:20 Pacific

Read more here:
http://cycling.tv/race-information/mtb_mountain_bike_world_championships_fort_william

Sept 1 and 2, the USA Cycling Pro Championships will be held in Greenville.

Sat Sept 1 is the ITT
Sun Sept 2 is the Road Race

I found this:
http://www.usacyclingchampionships.com/live-event-tracking.html

Someone can likely track down more info but Saul Raisin will be racing in the ITT! Go Saul! www.saulraisin.com