It's one thing to sit in a team's slipstream or ride the momentum of the peloton, but the truest measure of a cyclist is how he (or she) performs in an individual time trial (TT). On Friday, in Stage 5 of the 2007 Amgen Tour of California (TOC), 127 bicycle riders looked into the face of destiny to see who would crack and would emerge triumphant. When the dust settled, it had become clear to all that Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel) is the best bicycle rider in the TOC.

In an individual TT, it's just the bicycle rider against the clock. No drafting, no group tactics, no jockeying for a sprint finish, no using other riders for motivation. Finishing position is irrelevant, it's all about the time. It is cycling distilled down to its most primal essence: how fast can you go?.

Clip in sports fans, between the weather and the Amgen Tour of California (TOC), it's going to be a great weekend for cycling in the Bay Area.

Whether you're tackling Mt.Tam on your Saturday morning club ride or comparing yourselves to the pros with a summit of Stage 3's infamous Sierra Hill climb, pack the sunscreen today and leave the rain shell behind.

On Sunday at 1:00 p.m., the TOC starts with the prologue, a 3.0 kilometer time trial from the Ferry building to Coit Tower.

That's right Cutters, the Italians are coming, along with the French, the Spaniards, the Americans, the Germans, the Dutch-- yeah, even the Dutch. They're all going to be in the City this weekend to compete in this year's Amgen Tour of California.

We're talking the real deal. This isn't some club-level Saturday morning crit for free tubes at the local bike shop (no offense), this it the best road cyclists in the world, competing for top-tier elite international cycling teams like Discovery Channel, CSC, T-Mobile, Rabobank, and more, in serious competition.

Oh deerie-deer, Lance is back on the hot seat. An article in the New York Times on Tuesday reports that two former U.S. Postal teammates of Lance, Frankie Andreu and another unidentified rider, have admitted to using EPO during the 1999 racing season. The article does note that neither of the two riders ever saw Lance use any drugs, but the implication, and the guilt by association, are readily apparent.

Needless to say, Lance was not pleased.

Sigh. A couple of weeks ago we were lamenting the end of the 2006 Tour de France, wishing it could continue indefinitely.

Wish granted, unfortunately. On July 27, the International Cycling Union (ICU) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) announced that winner Floyd Landis' piss sample from the day he rode himself back into the Tour on the slopes of the Alps, showed elevated testosterone levels. We knew Landis had some huge balls to make that comeback, but come on.

". . .some things are now certain. One of those certainties is that after completely cracking in Stage 16 yesterday, Floyd Landis will not be the winner of this year's Tour de France."

Yes, the crow was delicious, thanks for asking.

After his puzzling and disappointing collapse over the final 18 km of Stage 16, Landis had lost the yellow jersey and found himself in 11th place, more than 8 minutes behind Oscar Pereiro. Even more than the time lost was the psychology of losing it. Floyd Landis' Tour was over. Even Floyd and his Director Sportif John Lelongue seemed to concede.

But that's why they ride the races. Landis ain't dead. He been resurrected -- in yellow.

Yeah, yeah, we know.

You had Oscar Pereiro in the office Tour de France pool until you watched the OLN Tour Preview show and Bob Roll convinced you to change it to Floyd Landis. Right, and you had Carlos Sastre on the podium too until your buddy Joao from Portugal got you thinking that Jose Azevedo had this one dialed in. And you've always been a huge Cyril Dessel fan, but you thought he was still a year or two away from going big time; this was going to be finally going to be Georgie Hincapie's year.

Sure you did. We guarantee that nobody had Pereiro, Sastre, and Andreas Kloden in the top three (well, maybe Kloden) before the Tour started.

For 127 of the best road cyclists in the world, it was five minutes of pain. For Americans Levi Leipheimer, Bobby Julich, George Hincapie, and Floyd Landis, it was a little less. For the American cycling peloton, veteran cycling announcer Paul Sherwen called it the Holy Grail they've been seeking. For the spectators, it was an instant classic....