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.

Today was pretty damn tough. Up and down all day on the kind of winding, rough roads that make it feel like you’re riding with the brakes on.

The team was awesome again today covering all the breaks until the right one went with Ryder (pictured left) in it. My job was basically to ‘take it easy’ until the first categorized climb. The plan went pretty smoothly until I punctured about 5K before the bottom. After a quick change, I was back in the group with guys getting dropped left, right, and center. No dropping Slipstream jerseys though!

After the climb, it was really fast until the finishing circuit which was, to put it politely, a brothel. A Francaise des Jeux (FDJ) guy who obviously hadn’t been to cornering school just went straight through Jason (Donald) knocking him down. Though Jason’s OK, he left the FDJ guy in a worthy state.

Oh and one last story: The team truck’s gear box kinda blew up. So if anyone is on the highway in the south of France and sees a bright orange truck, there’s nothing inside so don’t bother breaking in!

Steven Cozza talks about the sacrifices, benefits of riding for a clean team