“In about 30 seconds, I’m gonna walk out of here and you’re allgonna be out of my life. And when the race is done, I’m going to go hometo my family, and then you’ll really be out of my life.”
— Lance Armstrong, to the collected press at the conclusion of a Tourde France press conference in 2001.

Yep, I’m still here, and I think I’ve already passed the over/underon how long this column would stick. I have to admit, though, that fora split second this week, I thought I was outta here, that I was goingto pull a Lance and be sitting on a beach somewhere, and that you wouldnever hear from me again (and a lot of people would have finally gottentheir wish).

That moment of anticipation came mid-week when I cracked open some M&M’sand discovered I had found a rare all-purple bag. “Win 100 million JapaneseYen,” the front of the bag screamed at me, and suddenly, heart thumping,I was dumping out the candies, peeling back the wrapper, and wonderingwhere was the nearest currency converter.

Of course, what the bag wasn’t screaming at me was “… or win 1000 Euro Dollars, 1000 Australian Dollars, 1000 Brazilian Real, 1000 Mexican Pesos or 1000 U.S. Pennies.” So, instead of soaking up the sun with a cool three-quarter million, I’ve got a crumpledM&M’s wrapper sitting in my backpack waiting to be sent in to claimmy $10 prize, and a column to write.

I cheered myself up by thinking, wait, the secret to financial securityis at my fingertips, I’m just jumping past it every day. See, each morningas I scan the Vnedit mailbox looking for press releases and possible leadsfor story ideas, I sort through a veritable dumping ground of Internetspam. Why we don’t have a spam filter here at North 55th St. I don’t know,but here’s what I see every morning:

“Learn to Make More Money.” “Septic Tank Owner? You Need SPC!” “RE:sobre as torres gemeas de Nova York..” “Press Release: Veltec Sports AnnouncesNew Hires” (uh-oh, sounds work-related). “Porn! Free. No credit card required”“The health discovery that reverses age while burning fat.” “Mtg Loanswith ‘0’ Down and ‘0’ Closing available!” “Highten S/e/x/u/a/l Satisfaction.”“Need more money?”

See, there’s all sorts of people willing to help me in so many ways.It’s just a matter of time before I’m lying on that beach. But until then,I gotta keep crankin’ out the notes.

Redlands: 39 days and counting.

With that one change to the U.S. calendar, Redlands moving to April,February’s feeling awful slow around here. Sure, there’s lots of localracing in the warm-weather regions, and the NRC calendar kicks off nextweek with the Florida Cycling Grand Prix followed by the Pomona ValleyStage Race in early March, but it seems the intensity hasn’t quite pickedup yet.

7UP camp doesn’t start for another week, and Prime Alliance’s is stillmore than two weeks away. In the meantime, Prime Alliance’s riders aresort of doing there own thing. Danny Pate just left Colorado for some trainingdown in Arizona and the Valley of the Sun Stage Race, while Jonathan Vaughtersjust returned  to Colorado after 10 days of training in SanDiego. Michael Creed has been in both Arizona and California, where hepicked up his first win at the Boulevard Road Race, and Alex Candelariois reportedly living out of an RV, last seen in San Diego. But the awardfor best lead-up to camp has to go to Vancouver’s Svein Tuft.

“Svein is going to ride to camp,” said team director Kirk Willett. “He’llleave on the 15th and get there a day or two early. He’s got it plannedout where he’ll average about 80 miles a day. He’s gonna leave from justsouth of Seattle and he’s going to head out to the coast and take [Highway]1 or 101 the whole way down.”

As Willett said, “That’s how he ended up riding in the first place.He’d load the dog into the trailer and ride up in the Yukon.”

Out in Florida, the 7UP men’s team will be joined at camp by the DietRite women’s squad, which made its team announcement yesterday. The majoraddition to the team will be New Zealand’s Tania Duff-Miller, who had severalNRC podium appearances with the Freddie Fu team in 2002. With Duff-Millerjoining fellow Kiwi Joanne Kiesanowski and U.S. national criterium championTina Mayolo-Pic, the team’s strength will definitely lie in criteriums.“We’re really a crit team,” said team manager Jeff Corbett. “Instead ofbeating our heads against the wall [to improve in other areas], we thought,‘Let’s just increase our strength in criteriums.’”

Rounding out the team will be Kori Kelly, Kerry Soraci-Schmatz and CybilDiGuistini, all returning from last season.

“This is the strongest criterium team in the U.S.,” said team directorAl Boucher, “but we will also be a threat in the one-day road races andfor stages.”

The squad will get its first chance to back up those words at the Festivalof Speed in Orlando, March 8-9.

Notes from the road: I've got a purple ticket

After holding its training camp in Oakland in January, the new HealthNet team had its official unveiling at the Claremont Resort & Spa inBerkeley this week. Led by former Mercury mainstay Mike Sayers and BelarussianYauheni Seniushkin (formerly of the Italian Ceramiche Panaria-Fiordo squad),and backed by a solid supporting cast, the squad could make some noiseby season’s end.

Watch for Sayers, who was often in a supporting role himselfwith Mercury, to really blossom in his role as team leader. The team officiallykicks off its racing season this weekend at the Pine Flat road race inPiedra, California.

The full roster: Rusty Beall; Bob Hooks; John Hunt; Alex Ivanov; KevinKlein; Alex Kozlov; Jason Lokkesmoe; Chris McGovern; Randy Rocchi; ScottPrice (selected races only); Devon Vigus; Mike Sayers; Yauheni Seniushkin;Dave Smith; Russell Stevenson. Under-23 development team: Skyler Bishop,Sergei Badeka, Pat Dunaway, Justin Hale.

Buried among the e-mail land-fill this week were a couple of race reportssent in on behalf of a new team: D&R Sportivo-Dolce Vita. Set to debutas a new D-3 team, the squad has been flying under the radar until now,but wins over the weekend by Steve Larsen in California and Kent Bostickand Thad Dulin in Florida blew their cover. Based out of Atlanta, the teamis currently in Arizona for Valley of the Sun, although they’ll still bein stealth mode, wearing Specialized uniforms until their official teamclothing arrives. The team has yet to issue its official announcement asa few matters are still to be finalized, but manager Jose Drapeau offereda few details. He says Larsen will be riding for the team on a part-timebasis while continuing to focus on triathlon, and Bostick will be racingas an amateur for the squad. Other team members include Chad Gerlach, RobertoGaggioli and Eddy Hilger, the 30-year-old neo-pro who last year went fromCat. V to Cat. I in his first season of racing.

“Are you hot?” debuted last night on ABC. Caught about three minutesof it. Are you kidding?

What to watch for:
This weekend: Valley of the Sun Stage Race in Phoenix.
Next weekend: NRC season opens with the Florida Cycling GrandPrix in Gainesville.