Lance Armstrong

Cycling legend Lance Armstrong is having a busy week. He crashed during stage five of the Tour of California and also defended himself against allegations of drug use during the Tour de France. On a bit more optimistic note, Lance's new commercials for Radio Shack — the cycling team he rides for — came out this week. In the spots, Lance gives some lessons on cell phone etiquette, which include: "No man over the age of 30 will ever use emoticons — no colon parentheses smiley faces . . ."

The spots are super funny so it's no surprise that Christopher Guest of Waiting For Guffman and Best In Show fame directed them. See what Lance has to say about voice mails in the second commercial when you read more

I have been following the Tour of California on the race's website and Twitter feed. I just read that Lance Armstrong crashed outside of Visilia, CA, earlier today. His long-time coach Johan Bruyneel tweeted that the crash was huge. Armstrong is headed to the hospital for X-rays and his face was bloodied by the accident, indicating that his head hit the asphalt with some force. No stranger to racing injuries, Armstrong broke his collarbone last March while racing in Spain.

Just a few miles into stage 5, a rider hit some loose gravel, skidded and fell, taking other riders down with him, including Lance. Earlier in the day, Floyd Landis (the cyclist stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title for doping) publicly accused Armstrong of doping, which Armstrong vehemently denied. Not a great day for the face of American cycling. Hope he recovers well and this accident doesn't affect his plans for the upcoming French tour.

One of the US's biggest cycling races, the Tour of California, rolled through San Francisco this morning. Today's stage, the third of the race, began out by the beach, and many fans rode their bikes to the event — just another great way to celebrate National Bike Month and Bike to Work Week. In my opinion, though, many of those cyclists were playing hooky from work and riding for the rest of the afternoon, and what a great day for it.

Only in its fifth year, the eight-day Tour de of California covers more than 800 miles of California roads, including the scenic coastal highway between San Francisco and beach town Santa Cruz, which is the course for today. Nor Cal native Levi Leipheimer, Radio Shack teammate of Lance Armstrong, is the defending champion, having won the race the previous three years, and the crowd fave (he seems like such a nice guy, soft spoken but focused). Previously the race was held in February, the rainy season here in California, which helped our local racer. But race organizers pushed the race back to May, directly competing with renowned Italian race Tour de Giro. Even overlapping with a large European race, the Tour of Cali attracted big names in cycling this year, like superstar sprinter Mark Cavendish of HTC-Columbia and second-place finisher of last year's Tour de France, Andy Schleck. Unfortunately, my fave American sprinter, Garmin-Transitions' Tyler Farrar, is racing in Italy — and doing well, too! Racing teams have a deep bench and can send solid teams to two simultaneous races — who knew?

I'm still new to watching bike races, but for the last two years my entire family has been watching bike races on Versus TV, and unlike other sports, cycling is more exciting on TV. For example, the cyclists pedaled out of sight in about 30 seconds this morning, and that was that.

To learn more about the race, continue reading.

The Amgen Tour of California kicked off yesterday. If you're unfamiliar with the cycling race, it's America's version of the Tour de France but on a smaller scale. Over an eight day period the world's top cycling teams will race on a course beginning in Nevada City and ending in Thousand Oaks, CA. What a lot of people don't know is that there is also another important bike race going on at the exact same time called the RIDE for LIVESTRONG.

The difference is that the RIDE for LIVESTRONG is a virtual cycling race that anyone can join — users create virtual bikes and dedicate their ride to a cancer survivor. Like the Amgen tour, the RIDE for LIVESTRONG riders compete with one another while riding through the California landscape, and along the way virtual onlookers — like yourself — can log in cheers for specific riders. In July at the Tour de France, Team Radio Shack (led by Lance Armstrong) will ride for the cancer survivors who received the most cheers during the virtual race. Most importantly, as the race meets specific goals, companies like Radio Shack and Trek bikes will contribute money towards the LIVESTRONG Foundation. The ultimate goal is to have 25,000 readers that will inspire 100,000 cheers. While the race is still 10,000 riders away from reaching the 25,000 mark, there are still 8 days left. Will you help join the cause?

Fun isn't lost on the fifth child! Superman Lance Armstrong and his girlfriend, Anna Hansen, are expecting their second child! Some folks like to tell people the exciting news in person or over the old telephone, but the athlete announced his impending babe to millions of fans by setting up a Twitter account for his baby-to-be. @lancearmstrong tweeted:

Getting ?'s today about someone I'm following, a certain @Cincoarmstrong. What to say? Yet another blessing in our lives. I cannot wait!

The youngest of Lance's brood will join the other Armstrong children — sons Luke and Max and twin sisters Grace and Isabelle — in October. We wish them all the best!