Final tour thoughts.

Waaaaah:

Someone looks a little sad....

Notes and other:
Great pictures from the Tour.
More great pictures from the Tour.
It aint over till the fat lady sings.
Fat Lady has not sung.
Comeback of a known doper who was once a contender- Not good.

No Tour for you: Non Tour/Bike BS.

• Holy Shit- Is this insane? "I shot you because you were riding a bike with your kid on a busy street..."


• When did a reputable news outlet turn into a marketing mouth piece?


• Yehuda is back and really good.


• A little longer sentence-Nice to know that the Italian Feds can stamp something like a joke and have it reversed by the World Governing body.


• Notable only because they are sponsoring a MTB event along with all the road stuff they do- Cross pollination.

I loved this- Snatched it from BSNYC.

Weekend recap.

Tour is over. Funny, that this Tour meant the least to me. I was not excited by it all...I am always amazed when a non cycling fan (and I mean anyone who only follows the Tour and really has only done so since Lance) looks at me as if I have 7 heads when I tell them I am not a Lance fan because he cheated. They obviously don't follow the sport very closely, have not read every single real book written in English (and a few in French) on the sport and nor did they write a 40 page paper on the history of the TDF in a advanced/masters program in political science(TDF was started as a means to promote fascism...)- I have. So while I can not say I know everything, I can say definitively that cheating has been apart of bike racing since its very start: from the buying of races to doping I have diligently been interested in the sport and its history of cheating.
On Friday I had another experience of someone looking at me as if I had killed a bunch of baby seals when I told her that she obviously does not follow the sport if she thinks Lance was clean during his career before retirement- There is too much anti-doctal evidence and for those who believe the hype I tell them to pick up "From Lance to Landis" and once they have read that book then we can sit down and have a coherent conversation on doping in cycling and how that has shaped racing since 1991 (in my estimation, and that of other who are well regarded, the 1991 Tour was the last semi clean tour- the year before blooding transfusions and EPO was widely used in the peleton). Till then you do not have the pieces to even begin to put together the picture of the sport.

Anyway, I digress. After telling this woman I thought Lance has done some good things for the sport and for cancer (although one should look into why Lance has livestrong.com and livestrong.org- it is not so philanthropic as one might think...) I was not really a fan because he cheated his way to win his 7 TDF's....her reaction was that I was an affront to cancer survivors and the solution to cancer. What is at heart here, is whether or not an athlete lived up to his personal best and only used legal means in which to win. Not using legal means is cheating- it is cutting the course. Lance cut the course folks and there are too many people who were in his inner circle who said so. My admission that I was not a Lance fan because he cheated, to this neophyte of the sport, was as poorly timed as a fart in a car on a long distance drive:I could tell it did not go over well as she admired his work with cancer so very greatly. I should add Lance to my list of things I do not dicuss in public along with religion, sex and politics. Oh well.

A couple of things to read if you are so inclined to know more about cheating:
Walsh.
Ashenden.

Rides over the weekend:

I learned the secrets of the Chain Stretcher on Saturday while doing a super long day in the dirt which culminated with me getting some sort of heat exhaustion- I barfed hard Saturday night and had a headache like a hangover. At the end of the ride I somehow got a sharp shooting pain in my knee preventing me from over extending it....Fortunately it went away by the middle of the next morning. Also, after spending roughly 6 plus hours in a wet chamois my bottom got a really good chafing-Raw. I need to get some Chomper from Super T: the best stuff going and for those who don't embrocate- Why would you not want to shower love on your private parts? Bottom line: Saturday night I felt like death warmed over.

Saturday I rode the new beast- Gears and fully suspended. I am not giving up the single speed any time soon but I forgot how nice techy trails are on geared FS bike- it makes things easy. Sweet!

The boys.

Me adding air to the tires. Yes I was wearing Lycra while riding 6+ inches- flopping around in baggies for a bunch of hours is a recipe for disaster.

Sunday rode the road- 45 miles or so. Felt good. Strange that I felt good considering I had gotten sick the night before. But the legs felt alright. Dodged a rain shower or two and ate decently for once after the ride. Not a bad weekend riding considering I felt so wrecked on Saturday night.

Thursday Trouble

Pretty slick riding- watch 3.40 (dodging a Mercedes in full tuck at 70k) and 5.54 (eating in the caravan).

I have not watched much of the Tour this year- I have been reading updates and articles online but for the most part the Tour has not held my attention like in years past. Not sure why- maybe the over hype on the Armstrong return or the lack of desire to watch the boob tube...It is nice to have moved away from staring at a screen-I think my mind is better for it. The Tour has been good with lots of dramas and stories- but somehow I keep wondering if in 3-6 months we will have a shake up in the standings like we did last year. Pessimistic? Yup. But that is bike racing- it has been forever shrouded in deals on the side and cheating.

Speaking of sucka's- Danny DiLuca was popped for 3rd gen Cera at the Giro. He finished 2nd and really was the animator to the race- I am sure there were alot of kids who were just about killed because of this man. He made a great race at the Giro going toe to toe with Menchov. Certainly not surprisng though, as DiLuca is old school (he has been popped before and got a small 1 year suspension for the "Oil for Drugs" scandal) and his results were a little too good to be true....What of Menchov and his Austrian doping clinic? Not a peep from a guy who looks as guilty as sin. F'em both.

My Favorite pessimist is back to writing after trying twitter: http://cyclingfansanonymous.blogspot.com/

One more look at the half way mark:

It has been a good year so far on many different levels. Personally it has been rewarding to start to see some form come along. I had fallen off track for a few years and now to start to see some stuff come together is really meaningful- I hate riding like crap and while I am certainly not good I am at least getting competitive. To think back to where I was last year compared to this year there has been a marked change. Instead of going backwards and getting "girled"(that is inspiration to go faster for sure...) like I did a few times last year I have been picking up some speed- NICE.

Differences- Trained less and eaten better than last year (not hard by any stretch of the imagination). It is funny how by doing less I have gotten faster. I also found new motivation. It is funny what will inspire you to ride faster and harder...

I am hoping the 2nd half of the year will be even better....

Race updates and other stuff:

Racing is now done for a little bit and I am looking forward to a little rest and little more riding. It is funny how racing and riding are not always conducive. Before a race I am going to have all the fitness I am going to have, so it really is a question of getting rest before the big day. Resting and riding a single speed are mutually exclusive. So other than the race itself and a few tune up spins I have not really ridden my bike that much in the last few weeks...I am looking forward to a real day at Blue and rides up to Nyack for Coffee and hills.


I met the first goals of the season (barely) with the last two races- Lewis Morris and the NJ State Champs at Kitty yielded a pair of 10th places. My goal for the first half of the season was build up some resistance, regain some confidence and net a top ten finish. I can say for sure some of the needed confidence is back and was apparent last Sunday as I felt really calm during the race which allowed me to race pretty aggressively through the techy/downhil sections. The resistance is coming along and a few of the guys I race against mentioned that they thought I was getting faster (I could not get much slower) based off our times from the winner (it is the same guy who basically wins every single race...). And finally I got back to back 10th places in the last two races.



Summary:
Lewis Morris is pretty smooth place to ride and is more of a pedaling course. After a few too many Margaritas on the Fourth of July at Ms. X's place I felt like junk on race day. I yacked on the first lap and then proceeded to do so at the finish. Later that night I had a melt down- dehydration is brutal. 10th place.


Kittatiny (NJ State Champs)- Not a true East Coast mountain bike race- more smooth than not but very fun and it was great to rip the DH's. I double flatted (both front and rear) on the first lap after not riding that smoothly and ended watching most of the race go by. I had a pretty quick change on both wheels and got going again. Had to make my way through the geared traffic and passing was sometimes difficult when people were a little slow to let me pass (even though I was not racing in their class). I felt good though, and managed not to day dream much during the race as I was motivated to finish well. Another 10th place.

The next set of projects- The trifecta of bike builds. Classic, Neo Classic and the Contemporary.

For those with loved ones: A Must Read.

"But there is one riding rule I’ve come to value, even to cherish, and it’s not about riding at all, even though I learned it from the Grand Tour riders. It’s about saving. For them, it was saving something for tomorrow, next week. For me, yes, it means saving something for tomorrow, but more importantly, it means saving time for my family, saving some energy for the rest of the day, saving myself so I can be fully present for those who love me. We’re not much different from soda: That first sip is sweet, but no one wants the empty can."
-excerpt from Red Kite Prayer.

Red Kite Prayer is a site that came from one of my favorite bike sites of all time: Belgium Knee Warmers.

There are a few writers who write for RKP including NYC's own super excellent rider and writer, JP Partland.

One of the first posts on the site was one that resonated in a hollow way- it rang through as I thought of all the times I went for rides at the expense of non bike activities and only to return totally shelled to be a non participant.

The rules are worth a read.