So the bike is shattered. Again. But this time, Fuji is sending yours truly the new hotness, which means I only have to go through 5-7 business days of constant, necessary changes of the pants before I’m out riding again. Hallelujah.

In news people care about, the Amgen (worst sponsor for a bike race EVER) Tour of California kicked off this week in its new Bat-time of mid-May.

Of course, those whose memories can stretch back a mere 15 months will remember a world where the TOC was everybody’s winter training motivation — get home, hem and haw about riding the trainer, watch five minutes of Levi and Big George trucking through Cali and shame yourself into an hour-plus of easy spinning.

When the announcement was made that the annual stage race, by now easily America’s most recognizable, would be matching swords with the Giro di Italia, those in the cycling know (or just fool schlubs like me) laughed at the idea. Cycling on American soil would never, ever be as popular as one of Europe’s great classics.

Not so fast.

Seriously, hear me out. Or rather, check out some team rosters.

We’ll set aside the number of top-flight Americans in the TOC, under the assumption that, well, of course Hincapie and Zabriskie and Leipheimer are gonna show. That Armstrong guy too. It’s best for cycling in America, and they are all for that.

But check out the foreign talent as well. Mark Cavendish won the race’s first stage, supported by what essentially boils down to HTC-Columbia’s A team. Michael Rogers, Mark Renshaw and Bernard Eisel were there too.

So was Tom Boonen, although his awful 2010 luck continued with a crash in the opening stage’s final minutes. And Saxo Bank’s big guns — Fabian Cancellara and Andy Schleck — and established pros — Jens Voigt and Stuart O’Grady — grace the field as well.

Now, why does this West Coast race have so much pull? You’re right, it doesn’t make sense. I mean, they’re not even on Eastern time people, come on!

But seriously, there are several draws to the Tour of California as opposed to the Giro. 

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I promise there will actually be writing — and riding — this summer. For now, just take this as fair warning. And let PBT know if you come across any sweet, cheap cross parts. It’s for a good cause.

Roger Hammond rules.

Cycling News has the skinny. No Ventoux finish this year, but Christian Prudhomme is excited anyway. Full basic stage list below. (Courtesy of Cycling News.)

2010 Paris-Nice stages:

March 7: Prologue: Montfort-l’Amaury 8 km
March 8: Stage 1: Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines – Contres 201.5 km
March 9: Stage 3: Contres – Limoges 203.5 km
March 10: Stage 4: Saint-Junien - Aurillac 208 km
March 11: Stage 5: Maurs-la-Jolie (Cantal) - Mende 172 km
March 12: Stage 6: Pernes-les-Fontaines - Aix-en-Provence 153.5 km
March 13: Stage 7 Peynier - Tourrettes-sur-Loup 220 km
March 14: Stage 8: Nice-Nice 119km.

Yup, the good folks at TD Bank have ponied up the big-people dollars for naming rights, so you’d best start getting excited to buy your “TD Bank Philadelphia International Championships” t-shirts. Someone should write a folk song about that.

Remember when Philly was just called the USPRO Championships? Yea, me neither.

Best news? They’ve promised to pay all rider prize payouts. Here’s hoping that they consider that just as common sense as the rest of us.

Yes, I thought I would ring in my return with a Backstreet Boys reference … no applase necessary, really.

It’s been too long since last we treaded these waters together — a big-time move to a new locale and a lack of Internet have kept me away from you, but no longer! Now Purple Bar Tape is back, hopefully to stay.

And as is the case with news, there are just days where it’s so easy to start swimming again. Case in point: Alberto the Contador might soon have a new team (Kudos to Hamso for calling this one).

It’s not at all hard to imagine Contador with Caisse d’Epargne — the best Spanish rider working for a Spain-based team that put another Spaniard atop the Tour podium in ‘08. It’s a natural fit.

But whatever team Contador joins, he needs to make damn sure he’s got the kind of control that only a select few team leaders possess. He needs to OK personnel decisions, sponsorship, mechanical issues — he needs Lance control.

Armstrong is going to come back next year with Team RadioShack or Team Shack or whatever, and he’s going to stack said squad up to his Texas eyes with talent. Why? Because he wants to beat Contador. Lance wants — very badly, I would think — to beat his former teammate (though we use that last word loosely).

He’s going to have the old domestiques — Popovych, Levi, maybe even Hincapie if he’s feeling crazy — and he’s going to find some young talent (Andy Schleck? It could happen…), and then he’s going to use all of that to launch what will presumably be one final assault on the Tour before he rides off into the Western sunset.

The only way Contador can match that is by making sure he joins a squad with the financial power to even try to compete with Armstrong, the clout to attract good young riders and the willingness to let the spindly Spaniard be the man at the very top of the food chain. Without that, Contador will find himself in very rough waters next July.

Very rough waters indeed.