Good morning everyone! Are you chomping at the bit for the start of this years race? Are you all following the drama surrounding the Astana team and them being banned from the ASO events, Tour de France and many of the spring classics.

Well yesterday I began my journey north for the start of the 2008 Tour of California. The drive north on Hwy 101 to the Palo Alto area takes around 5 hours without any sort of traffic. Good news for me, there was none. Now most of the teams were due to begin assembling in the Prologue area late Thursday or early Friday. My job this year is much different then in years previous.

Year 1, I had a new baby boy and a bicycle retail store to run. So no race for me.

Year 2, I had the privilege of being one of a few members of the tight nit press corps which included some of the top cycling journalists in the world.

Year 3, I will be joining the men in yellow, Mavic Neutral Support, to work this years event. But not the entire event. Due to the overwhelming demand to be on their crew there is limited space and time. So this year I will be helping them with step up, working the Prologue and a new Women's Pro Event in Santa Rosa taking place just hours before the arrival of the men's race.

Now back to the drive. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of some of the teams driving their rigs north on 101. As I passed through San Luis Obispo, I was wondering if the newly relocated High Road team would be pulling out, but nope. As a matter of fact I did not see any sort of sign that the Tour of CA was due to start in a few days until I arrived in PA.

I got off the freeway and was heading for the hotel that Mavic would be staying and as I was waiting at the light, a rider wearing a lightly colored kit with alot of white ripped through the intersection. A few moments later I could up with this rider, an Astana rider, Chris Horner is his name. So this would be the first sighting. A few moments later the entire High Road team was pedaling north on El Camino Real.

So the drive was over the new Mavic SAAB's are rapped and waiting for the big yellow truck. Problem number one for this years event. The Mavic truck with all the bikes, wheels and motorcycles, were stuck in Wyoming for a few days because of a winter storm. Last night I spoke with the head of Mavic Neutral on the phone and he stated that they had gotten as far as Utah and had to stop due to DOT regulations regarding driving restrictions. Hopefully they will be able to make it by Saturday. Just in time to set everything up and get moving for a noon start time on Sunday.

More tomorrow.