The guys who want to be successful in the summer can't be flying in February. The riders whose minds are set on July (the Tour de France) probably won't be at their best (at the Tour of California).
Radio is changing dramatically. This feels like the loss of a friend that you knew you could always count on and now they won't be there.
There are no pure, pure climber's stages, no 10-mile, 14-percent brutes. And there are no bone-flat sprinters' stages, either.
Every one of the (16) teams is stacked with talent. The teams that take the race seriously -- those who take the time and effort to check out each stage ahead of time -- will have the best success.
Though we are more of a sprinting team, we have sprinters who can get over the hills. I figure the winner would be someone other than a typical GC rider.
We've taken every measure possible to make sure that everything is random and fair.
There are some obvious hot topics today, and those will certainly be spoken to.
It makes good business sense, but I don't like it. Those stations were the cornerstone of this community.
If you take cyclists, runners, cross-country skiers, swimmers and all kinds of endurance athletes across the board, the people who are abusing EPO might number in the lows 100s. Compare that to the thousands of people for whom the drug has been a lifesaving application.
The Amgen Tour of California provides a great stage to show the strength of our team. And with the team and our title sponsor - as well as a number of our industry sponsors - based in California, we intend to make a good showing during the race.
