Hot off overall, road and circuit race wins (not to mention his 3rd place in the time trial) at the Tour of the Bahamas, Tyler Farrar is as fired up as a 23-year-old gets for his big debut at one of America’s top events. And he hopes to make his first impression a good one.

“I’m psyched for the prologue today! I think the course is going to be blazing fast and all the boys are ready to come out swinging,” said Farrar after wrapping up his morning ride around Palo Alto. “Hopefully we can start the race off with a bang!”

The Marin Independent Journal reports on the “black tie and spandex” gala launch for the 2008 Tour of California and highlights local hero Steven Cozza as one to watch.

Said Cozza: “California is nice because it’s close to home and I’ve always wanted to be able to race so close to home so this is kind of like a dream come true, Cozza said. “I’m definitely a small fish in a big pond now. That’s OK. You’ve got to start somewhere.”

Amgen representatives, Tyler Farrar, and Jonathan Vaughters comment on strict anti-doping regulations in cycling.

Slipstream/Chipotle H3O riders will start today’s Amgen Tour of California prologue at the following PST times:

1:09 pm - Tom Peterson
1:26 pm - David Zabriskie
1:43 pm - Steven Cozza
1:59 pm - Tom Danielson
2:16 pm - Tyler Farrar
2:32 pm - Dan Pate
2:48 pm - Christian Vande Velde
3:05 pm - David Millar

Fighting for position all day really takes it out of you both physically and mentally. Then the second you relax, the moment you’ve been preparing for all day happens. The race goes in the gutter and the pain starts. (Dan’s pain face pictured left.)

This is what happened in my case. We had already ridden the same circuit minutes earlier with a headwind. The next time round however the wind wa s totally from the side, meaning gutter action. And it caught a few of us out. Luckily Trent kept his concentration and stayed right up front along with Timmy. We think Trent will be rewarded with a move up on GC.*

Back to Girona now to start preparing for the next challenge. But first looking forward to seeing how the guys on the other side of the pond fare today!

*Editor’s note: Final official results will be posted as soon as they are available.*

Eurosport.fr video briefs feature Ryder Hesjedal in Tour Med stage 4 breakaway.

Throughout the Tour of California (Feb 17-24), David Zabriskie is providing regular reports for USA Today. Check out the first installment of the “In the saddle with Z” column from our favorite world-class wit and equally talented time trialist.

In his third year working the Tour of California, Slipstream’s physician Prentice Steffen is packed and ready to attend to the team’s needs.

“I travel with a reasonably extensive medial kit to handle everything a rider might need short of having to go to the emergency room,” says Steffen. “In the US and for California, I travel a little lighter because it is so easy to get to a nearby 24-hour pharmacy if necessary.”

During the Tour of California, Steffen will be joined by team chiropractor Kevin Reichlin, sport psychotherapist Dr. Julie Emmerman, and Allen Lim. Reichlin and Steffen alternate riding in one of the team’s caravan cars while Lim is in one of Slipstream’s team cars every day.