Notes:  (latest notes always appear at the top)

- GVA Trophy Cyclo-cross live streaming should begin Sunday at around 15:00 CET (9am U.S. Eastern).  Info and links before race time.

- Sunday's Tour of California Stage 8 departs Rancho Bernardo at 12:00pm PST (3pm U.S. Eastern, 21:00 CET).  Live video streaming on the Tour Tracker should begin at that time.

- The race is streaming live now on the Tour Tracker.  Tickers are of course live too.

- Solvang report from "The 3 Riders of the Apocalypse Featuring Christy Craig" here.  (Traffic jams, the best spot to see a time trial, Paul Sherwen and Phil Liggett, and an incomplete Tour of California pin collection.)

- Today's Tour of California Stage 7 departs Santa Clarita at 12pm PST (3pm U.S. Eastern, 21:00 CET).  Live streaming video via Tour Tracker should start at that time.

- We recommend you open our Twitter feed in a separate window now.  If ever we have a server outage, we will update on Twitter and direct you to a live coverage page on another server.

- Welcome to our live coverage guide for the 2009 Tour of California.

 Notes:  (latest notes always appear at the top)

- Saturday's Tour of California Stage 7 departs Santa Clarita at 12pm PST (3pm U.S. Eastern, 21:00 CET).  Live streaming video via Tour Tracker should start at that time.

- Stage 5 update (from Paso Robles) from The 3 Riders of the Apocalypse Featuring Christy Craig here.  (photo of Cavendish sprinting for the line, exclusive Tips for the best ToC experience ever, taking out tree limbs with the RV, and why you need to check Twitter more often.)

- Coming up later today: Tour of California Stage 7 info, on site report from "The 3 Riders...", and more fan photos and race photos.

- These crowds are unreal.  Have covered many Tour de France TTs and the crowds are never this big stretched out so far from the start ramp.  -Pete

- Live coverage on the Versus Channel is now underway, for those that have it.

- Our UK correspondent Bernie S. is on top of things for the European bike racing live coverage this weekend, including the Tour du Haut Var in France and GVA Trophy Cyclo-cross in Belgium.  There should be live streaming video in both cases, before the weekend stages of the Tour of California.  More to come.

- cycling.tv is also now live with the race.

- Solvang Time Trial LIVE video streaming now on Tour Tracker.  Text tickers are live too.

- Important:  Start Time changes.  Final 10 riders will depart at 3-minute intervals instead of 2-minute intervals.  The link above has been updated.  Or click here for Start Order and Times.

"Live" from the Solvang Start House: Paul Sherwen (Versus)
"We just pitched cyclingfans.com to Phil and Paul!"
Phone photo by The 3 Riders of the Apocalypse Featuring Christy Craig

The 3 Riders of the Apocalypse Featuring Christy Craig
sporting cyclingfans.com hats at the Tour of California

"Live" shot from the Solvang Start House
Photo by The 3 Riders of the Apocalypse Featuring Christy Craig

- Today's Stage 6 Individual Time Trial at Solvang begins at 12:00pm PST (3pm U.S. Eastern, 21:00 CET).  Tour of California live video streaming should begin at that time on the Tour Tracker.  Live coverage on cycling.tv is scheduled to begin at 11:40am PST (2:40pm U.S. Eastern, 20:40 CET), though the site also lists 12:30pm PST (3:30pm U.S. Eastern, 21:30 CET).  The latter time would seem more accurate, unless they plan to provide coverage before the first rider departs.  Eurosport.......nevermind.

Pick the Solvang Time Trial winner and win!

- Today is the all-important 24km (15 miles) Individual Time Trial at Solvang.  Email the Editor with your pick for the stage winner and you could win the above-pictured poster celebrating 60 years of the Criterium du Dauphine Libere stage race, a race won twice by Lance Armstrong.  Poster features, in addition to Armstrong, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Thevenet, Bernard Hinault, Miguel Indurain and others.  In the event of multiple winners, we will randomly pick one poster winner.  Only picks received before 1pm PST (4pm U.S. Eastern) today will be considered.  Poster will be mailed to a U.S. address only.

- First Update From the Road from "The 3 Riders of the Apocalypse Featuring Christy Craig" is here.  (Hincapie, fans who don't understand the fuss over Astana, writing with chalk, where to eat, and who to meet.)

- We recommend you open our Twitter feed in a separate window now.  If ever we have a server outage, we will update on Twitter and direct you to a live coverage page on another server.

- Welcome to our live coverage guide for the 2009 Tour of California.

 Notes:  (latest notes always appear at the top)

- Friday's Stage 6 Individual Time Trial at Solvang begins at 12:00pm PST (3pm U.S. Eastern, 21:00 CET).  Tour of California live video streaming should begin at that time on the Tour Tracker.

- "The 3 Riders of the Apocalypse Featuring Christy Craig" are in a wine bar in Paso Robles waiting for the peloton to arrive.

- First Update From the Road from "The 3 Riders of the Apocalypse Featuring Christy Craig" is here.  (Hincapie, fans who don't understand the fuss over Astana, writing with chalk, where to eat, and who to meet.)

- We recommend you open our Twitter feed in a separate window now.  If ever we have a server outage, we will update on Twitter and direct you to a live coverage page on another server.

- Today's Tour of California Stage 5 departs Visalia at 10am PST (1pm U.S. Eastern, 19:00 CET).  Live video via Tour Tracker should begin at around that time.  Live streaming video on cycling.tv is scheduled to begin at 12:30pm PST (3:30pm U.S. Eastern, 21:30 CET).  Eurosport live coverage is once again bumped to the Siberia of sports TV in Europe:  Eurosport 2.

- Welcome to our live coverage guide for the 2009 Tour of California.

 Notes:  (latest notes always appear at the top)

- Our photo team will be sending pics of the ToC riders in the mountains a bit later.  They are now on their way to the finish in Clovis.

- Batman's true identity is....(drumroll)....Mark Buschini.  More fan pics to come in the next day or two.

- Batman at the Tour of California:  If you were watching the race a couple of minutes ago, you may have seen Batman running with the peloton.  We've got his photo (above) and I believe we will soon have his true identity.  Obviously this would be huge news.

- Live coverage, current situation:  Live video playing on Tour Tracker and on cycling.tv.  Live tickers on CN and VN.  Links at right.  Also, the Versus TV broadcast has begun for those with access to it.

- "The 3 Riders..." (see below) have been reporting in from the road on their way to today's finish in Clovis.  I emailed them, "Behave yourselves!" and the response was "No chance of behaving!"  Look out, Tour of California.

- A 3-woman team, friends of cyclingfans.com, is arriving at the Tour of California today and will be there through the end of the race.  They've asked to be known as "The 3 Riders of the Apocalypse featuring Christy Craig."  (Apparently the finish line announcer at the Tour of California last year kept yelling the phrase "the riders of the Apocalypse" and it was annoying enough to stick with them!)  If you're going to any of the remaining TOC stages, you might bump into them; they'll be wearing cyclingfans.com hats and will be reporting in daily with a fan perspective.

- Photo team just reported in:  They are arriving in Oak Hurst.  Sunny, big crowds are out.  They will continue on looking for snow.

- Live video now playing on the Tour Tracker.

- We recommend you open our Twitter feed in a separate window now.  If ever we have a server outage, we will update on Twitter and direct you to a live coverage page on another server.

- Today's Tour of California Stage 4 is scheduled to depart Merced at 11:00am PST (2pm U.S. Eastern, 20:00 CET).  Tour Tracker live streaming video should get underway at around that time.  Better weather is expected.  Tour of California live webcast on cycling.tv is scheduled to begin at 12:30pm PST (3:30pm U.S. Eastern, 21:30 CET).  According to the Eurosport schedule, they are bumping their Tour of California live coverage to Eurosport 2, which virtually no one has.  (Eurosport 2 would be a good place for Versus to export Professional Bull Riding (PBR) to.)

- Welcome to our live coverage guide for the 2009 Tour of California.