It's not exactly the Tour, but this weekend the Bay Area plays host to the opening stages of the 2006 Tour of California. This eight-day, 600-mile, multi-stage road race brings the excitement of international professional cycling back to the Bay Area....

Chris Daly's being remarkably unsmug about the way the whole SF Grand Prix bike thing went down, isn't he? You may remember a few months ago, Daly staged a mock bike race to protest the fact that the mayor wanted to give a tax break to a bike race sponsored by Republicans when he wouldn't give money to villages affected by the tsunami. This was because the city was going to write off the amount of money it would cost to provide police services for the race. You may recall that Daly's proposal was greeted with chortles and harumphs all around (some even in this very blog), and went down in defeat (see angry blog entry!). Well, well, well -- how things change in seven months! It turns out the Grand Prix actually was cheating the system -- they stiffed San Francisco and somehow "forgot" to pay for almost $90,000 of police services they incurred in 2004. (They also haven't paid another $82,000 in fees to DPT and DPW). The City by law is not permitted to enter into a contract with someone who owes it money. No one has an explanation for this, and Peskin had a conniption ("I stuck my neck way out for you. You played me for a fool. I resent it deeply." That's the way he rolls, baby!) We imagine Daly smiled beatifically at the Chron reporters when he told them, "I have had many reservations about the San Francisco Grand Prix, even as an avid cyclist, as a commuting cyclist." (bonus link: read about how Daly got doored). Picture from the Daly Blog...

[Ed. Note: Special guest contributor Michael David Murphy brings this report from the San Francisco Grand Prix.] For the last seven years, bike racing has relied on Lance Armstrong's star power to draw new fans to the sport. And gauging by the size of the crowd yesterday at the Barclay's San Francisco Grand Prix, the Lance factor is huge. Now that Lance has left the sport, many of his fans, too, are "Leaving Las......

Well, we're going to have to endorse the "Can't Stop, Won't Stop" party for Jeff Chang tonight at the DNA Lounge. First, it's gonna be a late-night party until four in the am, so that you can literally rock your body 'til the breakadawn. And guess who's DJing? None other than the founding father himself, DJ Kool Herc. The chances that you are going to see a set by Kool Herc in your lifetime......

The Board of Supervisors voted 6-5 to allow the sponsors of the San Francisco Grand Prix Bicycle Race, otherwise known as the T-Mobile International, to have around $200,000 in costs waived by the city. Whether to give dispensation to the sponsors became an issue when Chris Daly tried to block Gavin Newsom's attempt to give them a free waiver. Daly argued that the bicycle race was basically a corporate giveaway and that the city can't afford to give away any money in our budget conscious times. And not only that, the guy behind it is a Republican! Daly also brought up the vote he lost about sending money to tsunami relief to try and point out that the city refused to send money to help victims of the tsunami but will give money to some rich Republican who likes bikes. Bitter much? On the other hand, Newsom and other supporters argued that the race generated mucho dinero in tax revenues and tourism money and is worth the expense. Bike race watchers, and there are a lot of them, love to spend. ...

Thursday Thursday Thursday!!!! The grudge match! In the "Bloggers Are Such Bitches" SFist.com t-shirt, the dodgin' and weavin' Big Bad Chris "The Left Hook" Daly! And in the "Michael Bolton Is My Homeboy" t-shirt, fancy footworkin' Gavin "Trash Talk" Newsom! Get your ringside seats for the Thursday Thursday Thursday's top card fight at the Budget and Finance Subcommittee Arena (.pdf)! Daly's frenetic rope-a-dope style will be in full force, as he argues against the Newsom wall of muscle's proposal to donate about $250,000 worth of free police services to the sponsors of the annual San Francisco T-Mobile International bike race (formerly known as the San Francisco Grand Prix). "If you can't give $100,000 for tsunami relief, how can you write off $245,000 worth of police services?" he asks. Newsom and his posse are keeping quiet for now, but you'd expect that they'll be arguing in response that the bike race generates a significant amount of income back for the city. We all know how these head-to-heads turn out! This one could go either way! Get your seats now for Thursday's jaw-dropping, awe-inducing Fight Of The Century (or at least the Month), starting at 11 a.m.! Moi Cushle! Moi Cushle! Picture off Continue Reading "Political Junkie: Let's Get Ready to Rumble!"