Good morning. Welcome to VeloNews’s live coverage of the 2nd annual SanFrancisco Grand Prix.

VeloNews’s John Wilcockson and Bryan Jew are on site and will be sending in updates throughout today’s 109-mile race. We are starting undertypical Bay Area conditions: foggy, cool temperatures and cloudy skies, causing many riders to wear leg- and arm-warmers.

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8:45 a.m. --  And they're off!

Man, the crowd is huge here in San Francisco. We are doing a quick paradelap and then will be hitting the hilly streets of San Francisco, but nobody is waiting for the hills. The early attacks have already kicked in.

8:48 a.m. -- Trent Klasna repeated what he tried last year and went for an early attack. He was reeled in, but the pace is already quite high. The field is strung out, already in single file. By the way, take a look attoday's start list by clicking here.

8:51 a.m. -- There is a small break off the front. Klasna is driving at the front of the break. Mercury's Gord Fraser is up there, as is Kenny Labbe (U.S. Postal). The leaders have a 12 second gap on the field, which is being led by Chris Horner's Prime Alliance squad, which is not represented in the break.

8:57 a.m. -- The race has hit the hills and we are going to start seeing the field thinning out.

9:01 a.m. -- That break is back in the fold and with nearly 100 miles left today, that is probably a good thing for all concerned.

9:05 a.m. -- The field is working its way up Filmore street for the first time. It's a short climb, but it peaks out at 18-percent, so it is going to take its toll.

9:18 a.m. -- The hills did have their effect. The field has come apart.There is a group of 13, including Klasna and Fraser, off the front. With93 miles to go and this group not working super well together, we probablywon't see this one last too long.

9:27 a.m. -- That break is finally beginning to click. The leadersare now working their way up Filmore street again.

9:37 a.m. -- The lead group has 84 miles to go and they have 45 seconds on the field.. Among the group are Alex Candelario (Prime Alliance); Pavel Padrnos (U.S. Postal); Mark McCormack and Eric Wohlberg (Saturn).

9:41 a.m. -- The leaders have an advantage of 30 seconds on a chasegroup of four riders -- Floyd Landis (U.S. Postal); Chris Baldwin (Navigators)and Trent Klasna (Saturn) are in there. The peloton is another 25 seconds back.

9:50 a.m. -- The leaders are working their way up Filmore street.Among the group are Alex Candelario (Prime Alliance); Pavel Padrnos (U.S. Postal); Mark McCormack and Eric Wohlberg (Saturn); Vassili Davidenko (Navigators); Gord Fraser and Mike Sayers (Mercury); John Lieswyn (7UP-NutraFig)Cesar Grajales (Jittery Joes).. They have now been joined by the Klasna/Landis group.

10:04 a.m. -- The leaders now have an advantage of 1:40 over the mainfield. Vuelta fans, by the way can read Andrew Hood'sstage report from today's stage, fast and furious 130-km circuit coursearound Cordoba that saw some major contenders shelled off the back of thefield.

10:19 a.m. -- The lead group is beginning to break up a bit on thetough climb up Taylor street. The gap is coming down a bit. It is now belowone minute. We have about 75 miles to go.

Russell Stevenson and  Alex Candelario (Prime Alliance)
Pavel Padrnos and Floyd Landis (U.S. Postal)
Gord Fraser and Mike Sayers (Mercury);
Mark McCormack and Eric Wohlberg (Saturn)
Vassili Davidenko, Chris Baldwin and Burke Swindlehurst,(Navigators)
Trent Klasna and Mark McCormack and Eric Wohlberg, (Saturn)
John Lieswyn (7UP-NutraFig)
Cesar Grajales (Jittery Joes)
Ben Jacques Maynes (Sierra Nevada).

10:30 a.m. -- The lead group is now 58 seconds ahead of the field.Acqua & Sapone is working at the front of the field trying to minimizethe gap.

10:37 a.m. -- Lieswyn, Sayers and Baldwin have moved off the front.They have a 15-second gap on the remanats of the lead group. The pelotonis back another 45 seconds. Prime Alliance is now driving the pace at thefront of the field.

10:39 a.m. - The gap has totally evaporated. With George Hincapiecharging up Filmore street, Klasna and others from the break have been caughtand passed. The three men off the front are still ahead, but by just 20 seconds.

10:44 a.m. -- The leaders have been caught on the slope of Taylor street.It's over.

10:58 a.m. - Once the leaders were caught, we saw a flurry of attackswhich, if nothing else, served to trim down the field.

Right now, we have a break of eight riders off the front. Up front are ChannMcRae (U.S. Postal), Ivan Dominguez (Saturn) and Danny Pate (Prime Alliance)the gap right now is around 35 seconds.

11:11 a.m. -- The lead group includes -
Jason McCartney (Jelly Belly)
Danny Pate (Prime Alliance)
Chann McRae (U.S. Postal)
Harm Jansen and Ivan Dominguez (Saturn)
Siro Camponogaro (Navigators)

Our last time check give the leaders an advantage of 38 seconds, with 43miles to go.

11:17 a.m. - Our last time check gives the riders in the front anadvantage of 1:55.

11:21 a.m. --  With 39 miles to go, the leaders -- Jason McCartney(Jelly Belly), Danny Pate (Prime Alliance), Chann McRae (U.S. Postal), HarmJansen and Ivan Dominguez (Saturn), Siro Camponogaro (Navigators), LorenzoCardellini (Acqua e Sapone),  Doug Ziewacz (7UP-NutraFig) andPlamen Stoyanov (Mercury) -- are 2:00 ahead of the field.

11:30 a.m. -- Well there it is. Lance Armstrong has charged off thefront of the field. He has completely split up the main field and he is chasing hard. He has George Hincapie with him as well as Ekimov and Floyd Landis.

The gap is shrinking. Meanwhile, Harm Jansen has gone off the front of thelead group.

11:33 a.m. -- Jansen has 12 seconds' advantage over the rest of the lead group.

Behind, Hincapie has jumped off the Armstrong led group. He has a Saturnrider on his tail, but otherwise appears to be on his own for the time being.

11:37 a.m. -- Hincapie has been joined by Armstrong and three other Posties.The Postal team appears to be setting up their man Hincapie. He is the onlyof the five Postal riders in the chase not pulling.

Meanwhile Jansen has been reeled in by the other men in the lead group. Ourlast time check gives the leaders an advantage of  less than a minuteover Lance and Co.

11:42 a.m. -- The Postal men are still driving the chase. The Postiesdriving are Lance Armstrong; George Hincapie; Floyd Landis; Viatcheslav Ekimov and Pavel Padrnos. Ahead, McRae is dutifully sitting on the lead group, which is quite likely to be reeled in before the end of the next lap.

11:50 a.m. -- Coming up Filmore street for the last time of the day,the Postal-led peloton has pulled the break back in...

And there goes Hincapie. He has a great gap coming over the top of the climb.We have 24 miles to go. Meanwhile, Armstrong is keeping control of the front of the peloton.

11:56 a.m. -- Hincapie has crested Taylor street still on his own,but Mark Walters and Chris Horner scooted off the front of the field. Walters is now chasing. He's still quite a ways behind Hincapie.

12:00 p.m. -- Hincapie has a gap of 25 seconds on the main field.Walters has been reabsorbed by the field.

12:03 p.m. -- Riders continue to chase off the front of the field,though every move is being shadowed by a Postal rider. Hincapie's advantagehas now grown to 30 seconds.

12:06 p.m. -- Hincapie is now about 21 miles from the finish and isenjoying an advantage of 35 seconds over the field. Postal is still coveringmoves off the front, but there are a lot of attacks coming from the field.

12:08 p.m. -- After the climb up Taylor street, Hincapie had an advantageof 37 seconds. He has 20 miles to go.

12:13 p.m. -- Hincapie is on the approach to Taylor street again --he is on the smaller, five-mile-long, laps, so he doesn't have to take onFilmore street over these final 18 miles. Crossing through the start/finisharea, Hincapie's advantage was at 36 seconds over the main field.

12:18 p.m. -- Hincapie has an advantage of 35 seconds. Postal is stillshadowing each move from the field.12:20 p.m. -- Hincapie is on his way Taylor street again. His advantageover the top is right around 40 seconds. Armstrong and Co. continue to cover moves from the field and no one has managed to create and then hold a gap.

12:18 p.m. -- Hincapie has an advantage of 35 seconds. Postal is stillshadowing each move from the field.

12:18 p.m. -- Hincapie has an advantage of 35 seconds. Postal is stillshadowing each move from the field.

12:30 p.m. -- Hincapie has about 12 miles remaining. He is coming up on the climb to Taylor street.

12:34 p.m. -- A top of Taylor, Hincapie has been caught...but he has been caught by Charles Dionne of 7UP and Lance Armstrong and Ekimov. So we now have three postal riders and one very outnumbered 7UP man at the front with 11 miles remaining.

12:38 p.m. -- Mercury's Henk Vogels, Chris Horner and one other riderhave managed to come up to the group.

12:40 p.m. -- With three men in the break, Postal clearly has the advantagein this group. CORRECTION - Horner is not in the lead group.

12:44 p.m. -- The seven leaders have a small six-second gap on a fractured chase group that includes Danny Pate. The leaders are coming up on the climb up Taylor street.

12:45 p.m. -- Charles Dionne and Ekimov have topped the climb inthe front of the group. Armstrong was right behind them as the rest of thegroup was spread out on the climb. It looks like Hincapie has completelyblown up. He won't be contesting the finish.

12:49 p.m. -- With six miles to go, there are four men in the front:Armstrong; Ekimov; Dionne and Vogels.

12:53 p.m. -- The foursome at front is being reeled in by a groupthat includes Harm Jansen and Giunti and Leaper.

We are now 5 miles from the finish.

12:55 p.m. -- The race is re-grouping, but Armstrong clearly lookslike the strongest rider in the bunch. One more time up Taylor street willgive him an opportunity to put some distance on the rest of the field.12:57 p.m. -- Armstrong has tried a few small acceletrations and putdistance on the rest of the field.

Now Jansen has attacked hard.

Ekimov is chasing. Now Vogels is attacking He is now up the front.

12:59 p.m. -- Up an over Taylor, Dionne and Ekimov are off the frontwith Giunti. Armstrong is back with Vogels and others.

1:00 p.m. -- Armstrong and others have pulled the group of three back.

Now Armstrong attacks. Dionne has pulled him in.

1:02 p.m. -- Attack, attack, counter...

As the leaders charge to the finish line, Vogels attacks....

Dionne counters.... Vogels, Dionne

It's Dionne! 7UP-NutraFig's Charles Dionne takes the win!