People keep tweeting about this Oracle Cycling website (and I’ve been one of the tweeters), which just has a “Coming Soon” placeholder on it. Here’s why I don’t believe the site has anything at all to do with tomorrow’s announcement about a sponsor for Armstrong’s new cycling team.

1. The site is registered to Los Angeles cycling coach Allen Bean. As far as I’m aware (and I could be wrong), there’s no connection at all between Bean and any of Armstrong, Livestrong, or Oracle Corporation.

2. Compare the logos – the first from Allen Bean’s website, and other from Oracle Corporation. If Oracle sponsors a cycling team, they want brand recognition.

3. Let’s pretend Oracle wants to go stealth by purposely not using their own logo. The site logo looks like something I might have created using Gimp. Anything associated with Armstrong / Livestrong will be professionally created, with lots of yellow and black.

IMHO.

The owner and Chief Banana at Zero Per Gallon is calling it quits to sail around the world, and his business is for sale.

ZPG made about $25K in 2008, says Jonny Waldman, working only one day a week at it, and he’s letting the business for for $30K. ZPG prints and sells the popular “$0.00” and “53 Miles Per Burrito” bike stickers, among other things.

He tells me that ZPG stuff is for sale in at least 37 stores and distributed nationally by the Merry Sales Company. Powell’s Books in Portland, OR, for one, buys a few hundred dollars worth of patches and stickers every month from ZPG.

Details: ZPG is for sale.

Say what you will about the man, but Lance Armstrong energizes interest in cycling like nobody else, in the United States and around the world. Versus network broke even on their Tour de France coverage in 2008. For 2009, they say that viewership is up a solid 80% over last year. For Cyclelicious, traffic is up well over 100% over last year from people looking for Tour de France information in spite of what I consider very spotty coverage.

Lance Armstrong plans for 2010?

Given Vinokourov’s mouthing off about Astana Team Director Johan Bruyneel, today’s announcement by Bruyneel that he will leave Team Astana after the 2009 season should come as no big surprise. Lance Armstrong also hinted at a big announcement regarding a new team for the 2010 season. Some of the names mentioned as potential sponsors of a third US Pro Cycling team: Nike, the Livestrong Foundation and (most interesting for me personally) Oracle Corporation. Apple and Google are also mentioned on the short list of potential sponsors. We’ll see on Thursday who the sponsors are, and hopefully some unresolved questions on UCI licensing and riders will be answered.

So what about Lance Armstrong? Longtime cycling journalist John Wilcockson (40 years in the business!) has written what he says is probably the most comprehensive story of what drives the seven-time Tour de France champion as told through the words of Armstrong’s family, friends, rivals, and — of course — Lance himself.

More details here: Lance: The Making of the World’s Greatest Champion.

Say hello to Caltrain Conductor Dangerous Bob Widin.

Mr. Widin is a super positive guy. Widin was a set property master and got the nickname from Steven Spielburg during his work on “Back To the Future.” He’s writing a book on his Hollywood fun — he even has a publisher and editor — and he’s always a great storyteller.

This is cool: WIRED lists five iPhone apps that replace bike hardware. I think the most clever is a Cyclocomputer that measures your bike’s speed by counting the sound of a plastic tab on the spokes. Another clever app is a brake light that uses the built in accelerometer.

The creation of a carbon fiber bike video. Via Nippleworks.

Kadisco: An evening at the San Francisco Bicycle Film Festival.

Darcy Darlin’ asked what kind of helmet is on Heinrich Haussler’s head. That would be a Catlike helmet, which is not legally available for sale in the USA (it’s not CPSC approved) although I know people who import it anyway.

Vancouver Commissioner says bikes should be taxed.

Camera simulator shows how changing aperture, shutter speed, and ISO affects a photo. Via my buddy Erik.

That’s my roundup for the day. Bike Intelligencer has his own roundup (posted at 1:42 AM! Good God, man!)

Details and purchasing: Fallen Angel: The Passion of Fausto Coppi.