The earlier rumors appear to be true and just hours after the finish of the Tour we have this:

From the Denver Post today

Team Garmin-Slipstream will pursue Alberto Contador if the two-time Tour de France winner becomes available after the potential breakup of his team, Garmin-Slipstream sporting director Jonathan Vaughters said Sunday.

"

We'd be interested," Vaughters said. "But there are so many variables. We'll have a better idea in 10 days or two weeks."

Read the article for more and stay tuned.   

Today, at the Air Force Cycling Classic-Clarendon Crit here in Arlington, we saw an inspiring ride by 36 year old comeback rider Chad Gerlach. For those of you who do not know Chad, his story is here. He appeared on the TV show here in the US called intervention in a heart-wrenching story of addiction and the effects on his family. He was given another chance to race by the Amore-Vita team and now, Chad is back!

For those of you who have never been to the Clarendon crit, its a hundred lap race on a 1 Km long course with many technical turns as it winds its way throughout the city blocks. Its a brutal race. Before the race I talked to Chad. I asked him how's your crit riding and he said pretty good. He said he would be riding for the sprinter on the Amore Vita team who was sitting next to him in this pre-race photo (which I cannot seem to post). He then asked me how many laps in the race and I said 100. I told him it was a tough race and wished him good luck.

After the race (with about 129 in the field) started, I headed over to Highland and Washington to the turn there to watch the action. After the second lap I saw that Chad was getting a gap and on each lap was establishing even more of a lead. He was flying! The crowd was really digging his ride and was really cheering him on. At one point, from where I was, Chad was about 12 seconds away from lapping the field. Eventually this lead came down slowly until Chad was caught by a small group of second breakaway riders led by Colavita/Kelly Benefits after about an amazing 50 laps out on his own! After he was caught by this group, he stayed with them and even got a prime on lap 75. He ended up getting 6th in the race and winning the most aggressive rider award. It was truly an impressive ride, and a great day for Chad and for cycling fans. I am sure Sui will have some good pictures up soon! We also had a nice PC post race party at Sui and Megabeths house.

Of 129 riders, only 48 finished. There were, unfortunately a few nasty crashes at the corner where I was watching, where at least 10 riders were taken out. Winners and DNF list here

Over at the Livestrong site, Lance has been holding court with teammates and different cycling guests over in the team bus during the Giro doing video interviews. In last weeks series Zebriski was one of the guests as well as Mick Rogers. This week by popular fan demand JENS! was invited over. Other videos are over on the right hand side of the page here. hot dogs, mustard, pickles, seventy five words are we there yet?

For those not aware, the 25th Annual Philly International Championship pro bike race may not be held this year due to funding issues. Apparently, the final decision was to be made today on whether to go forward, but instead organizers will hold off another 24 hours with hope they will land a sponsor. GamJams, a local cycling blog did a good write up last week of what was going on with the lack of funding for this race this year and also what you can do to help! It would be a shame if this pro race were to be canceled in its 25th year. Update tomorrow.

Gavia and the gossip crew are out or I am sure this would have been up by now. According to Tuttobici (translated version) Bettini is calling it quits after his race in Varese tomorrow. Bettini apparently has not had success in finding a team or offers that would suit him. Gazzetta has it up as well. I am sure Bettini will be motivated to go all out for the last great win of his career tomorrow. Best wishes to Paulo.

Today marks the start of the Tour of Pennsylvania, billed as a six day, 450 mile Tour de France-style under 25 race. The race begins in Philadelphia and ends in Pittsburgh on Sunday. The prize money is an impressive $150K, the largest in the world for a young riders race . The course will work its way along much of Route 30 which runs along what was the Forbes trail, the historic settlers route. The course will later hit the Allegheny mountains resulting in some tough stages.

VERSUS will have daily coverage at 6PM EST daily starting on the 25th. Coverage on Sunday begins at 5:30 PM.

The race features twenty teams of six riders,including eight international teams and twelve American teams The foreign teams are all National teams bringing their best riders. Host, Pennsylvania, will field both the Philadelphia-based Pennsylvania Lightening and the Pittsburgh based Pennsylvania Elite Velo development teams.  More on the teams here - http://velonews.com/article/78666

With great teams, good sponsorship and Pittsburgh embracing it as part of their 250 year birthday celebration, this should be an exciting event.

The official tour website - http://www.tourofpa.com/

While German cyclist Joerg Jaksche has been forced to retire because no one will give him a job, Basso's climb to sainthood continues. Link HERE.

Looks like Ball does not like to lose.
See you in court Tuesday...

http://velonews.com/article/74564/rock-racing-sues-to-get-into-tour-de-georgia

Botero - Rock
Sebastian Haedo - Colavitta Sutter Home
Burke Swindehurst - Bissel

Break of 6 (including Botero) went away on the second lap and stayed away the whole race (at one point break being up to 5 minutes).  Botero then did a solo from this break group near the end and came in at least 30 seconds ahead for the win.
Sorry - No times posted yet.
Botero now in the race lead and got the red, green and yellow jerseys today.

Looking forward to Lyne and Jered's reports

From CN

He indicated that he fell in love with Italy during the race and would like to return and win the race some day; however, Schleck will forgo the Giro this year and will line-up with CSC in the Tour de France. He is currently building his form for the Ardennes Classics. Link here.

Too Bad - I would have liked to see him ride the Giro again. I wonder what his role will be in the TdF.

Frank's team had now been given wild card status for Pro-tour events but per UCI Frank will not be allowed to ride in these events. (no Flanders).

Also, his car was stolen.

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=nl&u=http://www.frankvdbroucke.be/&sa=X&a mp;oi=translate&resnum=8&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3DFrank%2BVandenbroucke%26hl%3Den%26 sa%3DG

Anyone surprised?

Per CN

The relationship that was started last fall in a Las Vegas discotheque could come to an end if Mario Cipollini does not get his say in the management of Rock Racing. The Italian, who came out of retirement at the age of 40 to race in the Tour of California last week, and his lawyer met with the owner of the team, Mike Ball, yesterday to discuss the coming season.

"We need to sit at the table and make clear who is in command," said Mario Cipollini in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport... "The boss is Ball, but after him it is me....

[Truncated]

Posted on CFA, this funny TOC stage 3 story/ pics now making the rounds with Bobby J chasing down a race fan to borrow his wheel as Bobby had trashed his going over a curb.

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=1678871;page=1;mh=-1;;sb=post_latest_r eply;so=ASC

I just visited Rahsaan Bahati's racing blog and he has just posted several hours ago who is on the Rock TOC team and who is still in contention to go.

Update [2008-1-29 13:30:17 by chris]: Rahsaan emailed me saying this post was "stolen from his website" without prior permission. I wrote back telling him that I thought his accusation was overblown. We typically disclose sources and put quotes in quote, give em a link, and only quote language to the minimum. I don't see anything wrong with what Roadside did. But Rahsaan did, so I guess I'd avoid using his material from now on.

Update [2008-1-29 13:38:10 by chris]: I should add, he's being polite about it, and seems like a nice enough guy, so although I don't understand his reasons, I'll ask people to respect his wishes.