History was made this past Monday when the Monster Garage team suffered its first-ever defeat, failing to turn a Meteor Cadillac hearse into a car-crushing "Grim Ripper." Even more shocking though was our tech editor Andrew’s admission that he was screaming at the TV screen during the show’s closing minutes. Screaming. Now that’s a TV moment.

Readers may be disappointed to learn that while I watched the State of the Union address on Tuesday, I didn’t stay up to see the season premiere of American Idol that followed.

So, since I may be in danger of losing the TV beat, on to the road scene.

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When 7UP announced its squad earlier this week, there were no major surprises, with the roster staying fairly intact and the team adding Brice Jones, Jason McCartney and Chris Pic. Still, the burning question that has been posed to team director Jeff Corbett all winter long remained: How do you replace Charles Dionne, the San Francisco Grand Prix winner who signed with Saturn in the of-season?

"I’m not too worried about it," said Corbett. "Sure there’s people that wrote us off two years ago when David Zabriskie left [for U.S. Postal], and we found someone new in Charles. We’ve got guys ready to step up and fill those shoes. This next guy may not do the same things that Charles does, but it will be somebody that does good things."

One big change for 2003 will be training camp in Gainesville, Florida, after historically having camp in California, or Boulder, Colorado. Part of the move is due to Corbett’s moving from Boulder to York, South Carolina, but also, it’s just to get a change from the early-season California routine. "Whether it’s been camp, or that whole series of [California] races, it’s always been the same," said Corbett. "We’ll see how it works out. If it sucks, we’ll leave."

The team starts camp February 21, and opens the season with the NRC-opening Florida Cycling Grand Prix. "In a way, it’s sort of come full circle," said Corbett. "In the ’80s, everybody went to Florida and everything started there. I would love to see Florida become real popular again.

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More news from down South. Hot on the heels of the Tour de Georgia comes a new criterium series in South Carolina, the Heritage Series. Slated for April 29-May 2, the four-race series will fall in the week between Tour de Georgia (and the Athens Twilight) and the Shelby Criterium (in North Carolina) and the Nalley Historic Roswell Criterium (in Georgia).

Organizers are hoping to entice the pro teams to South Carolina between Tour de Georgia and the weekend criteriums. "I think they’ll all do it," said race director Rich Hincapie, "They can pick or choose which races they want to do. There will be racing everyday, and it’ll be a perfect lead in for the [Wachovia] Series. George [Hincapie] will be in town and he can either get some speed work in, or do some mountain training closer to home."

Rich Hincapie is tentatively planning on downtown races in Anderson, Greenwood, Aiken and Orangeburg, with race distances around 50-60 miles.

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Happy trails to Dylan Casey. The former U.S. Postal and Shaklee rider announced in a press release earlier this week his decision to leave professional cycling. After winning the U.S. national time trial and pursuit titles with Shaklee in 1998, Casey signed on with Postal and was with the team through last year. Among his career highlights were a Pan Am Games gold medal in the individual pursuit and being on the U.S. Olympic team in 2000.

"Cycling is now a hobby," Casey said in the release, which noted that Trek has delivered him a custom-painted OCLV 5900 Project One bike after he had to return his Postal team-issue ride.

Casey, who left his job with a Philadelphia consulting firm in 1995 to race with the Guiltless Gourmet squad, is now headed back to the corporate world.

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Correction: In the current issue of VeloNews, the Health Net pro team roster should have included Kevin Klein as rider/manager. Also, Scott Price will not be a full-time team rider. Price, who will ride with Landis-Trek-VW and the Trek-VW All Stars as mentioned in last week’s column, will ride with Health Net at selected races only.

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What to watch for next week: Well, actually this week. Cyclo-cross world’s take place tomorrow (February 1) and Sunday in Monopoli, Italy. VeloNews.com will have same-day coverage of all races, as well as live coverage from the elite men’s race on Sunday, which begins at 8:40 a.m. EST.

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What to watch for, part II: Or to be more accurate, what I’ll be watching. Pac-10 basketball, California vs. Arizona, Saturday. Both teams are 7-1 in conference and tied for the Pac-10 lead. I have to admit, I jinxed this one yesterday. Heading into Thursday night, both Cal and Arizona were undefeated in the Pac-10, and as I prepared a few column notes ahead of time on Thursday, I began to write a short preview of Saturday’s game featuring my alma mater, "… both teams are 8-0 in conference play …." Realizing what I had done, and filled with horror, I quickly deleted that file from my laptop, but the damage had been done. Arizona lost to Stanford, and Cal fell to Arizona St. on Thursday night. But, just the thought that Cal is still playing for the conference lead is mind-boggling enough. Go Bears!

Of course, I debated putting in this note at all for two reasons. One, I’m sure three-quarters of the readers’ eyes have already glazed over, probably after the second line. Two, talk about jinxing my team. It’s only January and I’m writing about hoops. If the big collapse comes, I’ll be burying my head in March.

For a lengthier discussion on putting the hex on your home team, check out the Sports Guy’s column from ESPN.com yesterday.

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What to watch for, part III: Back to bike racing, Schroeder Iron makes its season debut this weekend at the Boulevard Road Race in San Diego. Expect to see the Schroeder team at full strength, but also look out for Prime Alliance’s Jonathan Vaughters – currently on a training vacation in San Diego – and possibly Mike Creed to be brought in as a reinforcement.