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 Vegas." And that may be a good thing, because the sport has never looked livelier.

On the Barclay's course Sunday, crowds were thick where the action was hot; on Fillmore, Taylor, and the Embarcadero. (Remember, the riders did ascents of the hill that Johnny Mosely wanted to shred. Whose the wussy now?) And in the end, a German rider for Gerolsteiner, Fabian Wegmann played the tactical game to perfection and came away with a win.

Photo of former SF Grand Prix winner George Hincapie's varicose veins by Michael David Murphy.

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