Hey there, race fans!

First off, I would like to wish the Daily Peloton's "Site Boss" Vaughn Trevisanut a very Happy Birthday today. He says that working with the Daily Peloton team and meeting so many great people (readers, riders, managers, manufacturers and organizers) has made this a very rewarding year indeed. Many happy returns, Vaughn!

I would also like to introduce our newest advertiser, Yellow Jersey Tours. Yellow Jersey Tours is run by Bingen Fernandez Bustinza, who rode with Cofidis this season, and Nikane Xuen Mallea, an American riding in Spain. We hope to have an interview with both of them in the near future. You can find their ad on the top of our right navigation bar, and we welcome them!

Well, the presentation of the 86th Giro d'Italia has been made and what a tour it will be! All on "home" soil, traversing almost the entire country from the far south to the fine mountains of the north, into Pavia where a favorite person of mine lives, from the great riding area of Salice Terme (Willow Hot Springs) which was a favorite area of Fausto Coppi, with even a stage on the Trinacria - the island of Sicily - from whence my father's family emigrated, and a few readers' families too! As our friend Walt said on the message board, "I can't wait (it starts next month right?)!"

So to supply you with all the best information, in typical fine fashion Fabio has produced a full Giro d'Italia guide for us, a full twelve pages! We are talking the stage details, climb profiles, previous winners, rider reactions to the route, historical database information and more. Fabio's full Giro report available two ways, as a story here, and on our Giro main page (on the left navigation bar) here.

But that's not all that's going on at the Daily Peloton. There is a great story about DP reader Tony Szurly's Andrea Tafi website, with a very cool picture (well, there are a lot of cool photos in the story). But this one is of Tafi on the pave - a long road indeed. Take a look here.

Manny Samaniego has reported on the Vuelta a Chiriqui in Panama and the final stage report (which links to earlier stage reports) is here.

Our friend Matt Howey over at Spokepost.com sent us a terrific interview with Prime Alliance Manager Roy Knickman. It is a three-parter and well worth the read. Part One is here - you will find links to the other installments there too.

Fabio has also provided interview and season perspectives for three riders - Pietro Caucchioli here, Stefano Garzelli here and Yaroslav Popovych here, a great discussion by Lampre's Pietro Algari here, the Six Days of Noumea (night 5 is here), plus the latest Super Prestige update here - four of the eight cyclocross contests have now been completed.

One of our most popular recent stories was "Lance Inspiration," with specific stories of individuals who have been inspired by Lance Armstrong's life. That article by podofdonny is here. You can also find his interesting article about three bike manufacturers here, a profile of "Lucky" Perez Cuapio here, and a profile of Davide Rebellin here.

Celine is providing us English translations of the great series Nicolas Richolet of Velo Club du Net has going with pro riders. This week is Christophe Agnolutto and next is Cedric Vasseur. This series consists of a two part interview and a live chat transcript, so watch for them! Thanks for this great work, Nicholas and Celine!

I would like to give a special thank you to Florian and Susanne Schaaf of Cyclingpictures.de for providing us with some really wonderful rider photos and reports the past couple of weeks. We are really lucky to be working with them, and their site is well worth a visit.

Perry Stone got underway last week, re-starting his world record attempt Race Around Australia. Becky Leidy talks to Perry via telephone daily and posts a report of his progress. The latest report is here.

Finally, watch for some exciting 2003 season announcements right here at the end of the week. Big, I tell you...

Now, gentlemen, all I can say about this week's photo is, "Watch out! April's a comin' ta get ya!" (Not that this is a bad thing!)  Have a great week.

April Lawyer.
Photo by Mark O'Tyson, courtesy of Maxxis International.
Click for larger image.