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.

Despite what Matier & Ross wrote, it looked like Daly wasn't on vacation as on Monday, he did what he does best- organized a protest rally against the waiver on the steps of City Hall. The protest featured the hilariously titled "People’s Grand Prix" bike race (SFist loves ironic uses of Communist kitsch) to draw attention to his cause. But alas, to no avail. After losing the vote, Daly did what every other blogger in the world does when they're upset, went online to vent.

Image of Lance Armstrong- the Lance Armstrong- racing at the San Francisco Grand Prix several years ago from About.com