Word of Blog

So, 2.5 hours futzing with a stupid collector lens on a mercury lamp (gets fahking HOT) has built up a fair bit of frustration. Mostly because it should have only taken 15 minutes.

Talking about frustration and starting the word of blog for the day:

Tiny N Fast. WOW. How anyone like Sailorman can call teachers lazy is beyond me. This here little bike racing star should get a medal of honor for her attempt. At least a visit in her classes by Al Gore himself for the effort she has put forth on the subject and the project. One day of the monetary value of bullets and munitions in Iraq could probably outfit her school with the most kick ass digital video editing/reviewing studio. Sad state eh? Reminds ya of the bumper sticker about air force having to hold bake sales to buy a new bomber or something like that.

Now a big Michigan shout out. Well Frazz has one anyway. While i never stood in the line for Zinergman's deli, i have consumed product purchased there. It is like this mecca for the deprived citizens of Southeast Michigan. A place where the food is supposed to be good, good like you can get in liberal foodie places. Some people just call it over priced. But no matter, they still bring the customers with cash in. And that's part of what makes Frazz so funny today.


So what is it about O'Grady that gets me laughin almost every time? Today's Did I jinx him so totally kicks ass. Go give it a read.

Of course "Caveman" has some poignant prose that must be checked out. Great summary of the world of web logs... Sure ya gotta be goofy to do it, but ya know, maybe it keeps the goofy just a wee bit more sane than otherwise.

What I think is acknowledging the doubts i believe we all share. I heard via a shop owner who heard from someone who talked to Mr Microphone Pommes Frites that the World Cup deal was NOT set in stone yet. So well... there ya go... But with the quality and caliber of such intelligent and crafty bidnez men i'm sure we'll be watching the big boys in October (um can ya sense my gripping sarcasm?).

Wanna see a "local" team sporting the proper 'bike racer' hair cuts? A couple exceptions but still great effort. And they seem to be producing some nice results to back it all up!

Well, dats the word of web log for now...

I've finally got some caloric goodness in my belly, feeling better...

respect!
G

B100 now availible at the pump here

T.H. MALLOY FUELS

Now has a 100% biodiesel pump! WHOOOO

not too far away either! Looks like i'll be making a trip up for at least one tank to give it a whirl and check the pricing.

Pretty exciting. I have been getting just B20 (20% biodiesel) locally, and have used that in every tank except two or three (when in DC or trips where couldn't make it home on fuel) since making the move to RI...

So if ya drive an oil burner and happen to be in the neighborhood of that fuel station, go support em. If ya don't drive an oil burner, think about that story of my little brother's friend who tried to huff a "gas" can that had only had diesel in it... man he was pissed when he couldn't even get the slightest of buzz off it.

BioDiesel. Good clean RENEWABLE American Fuel. WHOOO

respect the land and life
G

Double Blind or just flat out Blind (in the bad sense)

medical stuff...

drugs and what not...

here's the thinking:
-individuals are genetically unique
-meaning they have very different response mechanisms to drugs
-pharmaceutical industry is approaching medicine in the one or two or three for all, varying only dosage amounts
-other types of medicine, Chinese, homeopathy whatever tend to treat based on tailoring to an individual

Drug studies tend to group people in age, sex, and sometimes weight catagories. And they are wicked damn proud of double blindness of the studies. Look at the bike world. Lets take a sampling of the peleton pro or amateur either way no matter. We would have a great metric for comparison, no? Group of guys (lets stick with them as there are more) pick an age range, then pick a weight range, and a height range even. You will have a very nice sampling of zero diversity when compared to nearly all medical studies conducted. I would hypothesize that among that group you will have a significant variation in response to ANY drug trial (talking "real" medicine not the doping but i'll tie it in in a minute). Why? Because despite the outwardly similar genetic metrics, they are different. Hormone levels, expression of different genetics, flat out different genes or different combinations of genes.

Modern Pfizer, Bristol-Myers-Squib and those money hungry facists out to get the docs to push their products and spreading minions around dissing tailored medicine as witch craft and ripoff style (not that the alternative medicine isn't full of such wack-jobs, an unfortunate problem that hasn't been addressed much) are making products targeted at clones. Do they know how every single drug interacts with the body? These side effects that only happen in some people? Wow. Hmm, look at side effects. Vitamin-I turns some people's stools into cement, others can pop 1600-2400mg a day and still poop just fine. That is a simple one. Take Acutane and the rectal bleeding. Some people get it, some people don't. (graphic example but still valid).

Part of the problem is modern medicine isn't flexible at all. Gene therapy type "medication" is the next level as it seems, targeted genetically and locally (body) based on your specific genetic make up.

Sad truth is: Diet is everything. Proper balanced real food based diet is the ultimate prevention. Sure, it ain't gonna stop ya from busting a seat post and requiring the great doctors of this country to do the squirmy ouch dance in sympathy before stitching you back up. But, most of the medical issues that these drugs attempt to treat are all working to fix the fuck ups of bad diet and bad lifestyles. Or should it be phrased, diet and lifestyles not conducive to your sleeve (vague reference to a kick ass series of books).

So when ya grab that bag of Ho Hos, or the over processed microwave dinner, the plastic cheese in the Mac and Cheese. Think again.

Some people love the drug companies and love their approach. I just ain't one of them. Double blind studies are NOT the answer. That's the biggest problem. But then i'm only surrounded by scientists working with other mamalian systems who's double blind studies give the most wacked results at times. Makes ya freak the fahk out about the gd giants of the drug world and the masses they employ to keep the machine running.

respect,
G

Sorry, can't help it

I'm laughin my ass off and need to make sure i get this somewhere i can find it...

LEARNING TO CUSS

A 6 year-old and 4 year-old are upstairs in their bedroom.
"You know what" says the 6 year-old. "I think it's about time we started
cussing."
The 4 year-old nods his head in approval.

The 6 year-old continues, "When we go downstairs for breakfast, I'm
gonna say something with hell and you say something with ass."

The 4 year-old agrees with enthusiasm. When their mother walks into the
kitchen and asks the 6 year-old what he wants for breakfast, he replies,
"Aw hell Mom, I guess I'll have some Cheerios."

Whack! He flies out of his chair, tumbles across the kitchen floor, gets
up, and runs upstairs crying his eyes out with his mother in hot
pursuit, slapping his rear with every step. She locks him in his room
and shouts, "You can stay in there until I let you out."

She then comes back downstairs, looks at the 4 year-old and asks with a
stern voice, "And what do YOU want for breakfast, young man?"
"I don't know," he blubbers, "but you can bet your fat ass it won't be
Cheerios."

NPR and bike to work...

via the commuting email list...
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10279746

and

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10480383

Still what about Speeding? Breaking laws... I'm slipping over to Joel's side... if cars are gonna speed, fuckit i'm gonna blow a red like or a stop sign... or ride down a one way street the wrong way

Words...

Words are cool. New combinations are cooler.

http://www.wordspy.com/index.asp

lots of GREAT stuff on the page there...

I'll say there are a lot of people suffering from eco-anxiety... little and fast maybe?

And of course the Word of Blog

although i'm tempted to go back to calling it a web log... blog is just... too gossipy juvenile... web log seems to carry a bit more distinction... that or i'm just crazy nuts like everyone has been telling me for over 3 decades...

The Bolt

By golly it does have numbers on it... (click for bigger images)

If ya gonna watch...

Today is the day!

It is the day because of the finish.

If you can't keep track of your own links here's the live link once again

In other news things are healing nicely, pretty much normal on the bike and that's all that counts right?

Damn they are showing the crowds on the final climb. Holy CRAP there are lots of em... and they look COLD!!! i wonder what the temp is over there... big brass band on the visual... oh, now back to racing. Ya know, a couple more years of watching Italian on TV maybe i'll start to understand the language. Or not. Mariano Piccoli? He's one of the commentators. Cool... *cough* doper *cough*

Sorry... couldn't help it.

Finally Cyclingnews announces the Cyclocross going Stateside. Also happens to mention that ASO don't want Riis at the Tour? WTF? What about the rest of the stupid doping motherfuckers? Like not one other former pro-now-director ever used the juice? Hypocritical sacks of monkey poop.

WOAH... TRIPLE... THE PRO'S BE RIDING TRIPLES... at least some of them... Sissies, or should we call them Pussies Solobreak? I bet the real men are using Doubles and 130 or 135 doubles... not those sissy compact cranks sporting 110 bolt circles....

just kidding... someone said that last climb is kinda steep. Even looks it on the picture....

CTodd has "blessed" us with a nice little Todd_cast... if ya feel like checking it out after the live coverage is over.

Does anyone else like these T-Shirts more than CTodds? Maybe CTodd needs to hire that T-Shirt model... i'd be they'll fly off the rack with someone like that in them...

OKAY DAMNIT
EVERYONE OFF... STOP HOGGING THE RAI FEED... i'm in BUFFER HELL...

damn it me and my big mouth...

respect...
G

Couple more things

Been slow at the picture factory... Graduation was this weekend, people are on vacation...

So i got to reading the rest of Kimmage's articles. Fucking brilliant shit.

Love this quote:

Gee-Whizz TV (Outside Life Network), I happened upon a former pro I hadn’t seen for a while.

“Wasn’t that fantastic?” he said.

“I don’t believe it,” I replied.

“What do you mean?” he said.

“I think it’s against the laws of nature to completely fold one day and to come out next day and blow everyone away.”

Wow... someone else, a pro said that?

Not that anyone would have read what i banged out eating my rice and beans over lunch... but Paul!? Dude you rock. I'd like to interview him, but... well i ain't got enough questions prepared in advance to request one...

couple things to distract yall:

ADULT: A person who has stopped growing at both ends and now grows in the middle.

BEAUTY PARLOUR: A place where women curl up and dye.

CANNIBAL: Someone who is fed up with people.

CHICKENS: The only creatures you eat before they are born and after they are dead.

COMMITTEE: A body that keeps minutes and wastes hours.

DUST: Mud with the juice squeezed out.

EGOTIST: Someone who is usually me-deep in conversation.

GOSSIP: A person who will never tell a lie if the truth will do more damage.

HANDKERCHIEF: Cold Storage.

INFLATION: Cutting money in half without damaging the paper.

MOSQUITO: An insect that makes you like flies better.

RAISIN: Grape with a sunburn.

SECRET: Something you tell to one person at a time.

TOOTHACHE: The pain that drives you to extraction.

TOMORROW: One of the greatest labor saving devices of today.

YAWN: An honest opinion openly expressed.

WRINKLES: Something other people have. You have character lines.

I'll raise you a water balloon bursting with a pistol shrimp:


Follow that with a cool new USB microscope! Pretty damn cool and reasonably affordable too. Not rock bottom cheap but damn cool none-the-less....

And... because there ain't nuthin as awesome as Cyclocross...

CPQ#7 Todd Wells. Or as the girls call him "the guy with THE eyes"

And why is it the best answers are to the top mount question:

24. In three words or less, describe how you feel about top mount cross brake levers.
They look gay. I don’t need more ways to stop, I need more ways to go fast.

That may take the cake as the best yet!!!! (and yes, while folks like steve are pissed about the association of 'gay' as used by Todd, maybe the men who have sex with other men need a better word than gay)... which has gotten me side tracked (sometimes it is good when the scopes break and i don't go net hunting word roots)...

If you check over to wikip and look at the word gay and go almost to the bottom down at common usage this comes up:

# Gay is sometimes used to describe an object of particular flamboyance or camp.

so... top mount levers certainly could be considered by Wells as particularly flamboyant. I'll refrain from challenging steve over there... I'll leave it up to Molly and Brian to decide. Although... Molly was the one Posting the CPQage... "Shrug"

And the not so happy but maybe true answer to the Euro question:

31. Why do you think the Europeans are so much faster than the US crossers?
Drugs.

oh... 130 days till the World Cup (CX that is...) comes to town!

Chills...

no, not cause i accidentally bumped the stitches (healing nicely, not much problem keeping that area from drying out -vague reference to rich's wounds and remarks on road rash)...

From reading Kimmage's article 25 days to last a lifetime. It carries a date from June 29th, 2003.

Both Booke Strut and Big Jonny are pimpin his articles today. Based on his May 27th, 2007 editorial. I read that and it wasn't nearly as devastating or remarkable as the 25 days one. I may need to look up that book of his. The Cycle of Confession article (most recent one) sadly leaves the Sean Kelly sitting with a big target on his head. Sean Kelly, true man of grit. Green jersey winner supreme. An idol for many. My folks were in Ireland when the tour rolled through his town (i was given a tape recording of the riders racing past and a stack of irish news papers with the coverage). I've spent years listening to his Eurosport radio coverage of the Tours. Sure. If i had stopped to think about it... Kelly, just like everyone else, probably was doped to the gills.

But then you wonder, or i do. Is it possible that Lemond, Indurain, and Armstrong, maybe even Mercx were clean? And the only riders to race clean of their times? Were they truely the Champions that they were? Were they setting the mark that the rest of the riders all tried to reach but only could begin to touch with drugs?

Were they the Tiger Woods of their times? In sport, there are always the lone standouts. The gifted, the driven, genetically perfectly matched to their sport that they loved? Gretsky, Howe, Yzerman... Nearly every sport has a few that are untouchable.

Are there greats in cycling that are like that? Is the lung capacity and heart size the secret to Indurain's success? Is he really genetically and mentally matched perfectly with being a tour champion?

It is possible. I guess that is the romantic hope that we can have, and hold on to.

Hope is tomorrow's veneer over today's disappointment.
- Evan Esar

But in hope are we being delusional?

I haven't read the rest of the articles that Big Jonny posted:

directly from drunkcyclist.com
[kimmage 1] timesonline.co.uk
[kimmage 2] timesonline.co.uk
[kimmage 3] timesonline.co.uk
[kimmage 4] timesonline.co.uk
[kimmage 5] timesonline.co.uk
[kimmage 6] timesonline.co.uk

The first and the last have been enough. The last has the brilliant quote from the immortal Bob Roll:

I remember the speed on the fourth stage to Evreux, hanging on by my fingernails with another Tour debutant, the American Bob Roll, as the stage reached it climax. “This race f****** sucks,” he whined. The description was perfect.

Pretty crazy...

Maybe we can look to assume that single winners were the dopers who broke past the real champions, the Woods, the Gretzky. But then, Eddie? Did he obliterate everyone cleanly? Maybe. But that hope is the thinnest veneer of all.

Another quote for today is depressing:

I believe that professional wrestling is clean and everything else in the world is fixed.
- Frank Deford

Is it so? Is the outcome fixed? Is that why Dickless Pound and Co have gone after Landis? Was Landis the guy who was paid off in the fix? Yet he decided he wasn't going to stay down? Did he get up from the scripted bonk at the 4 count and put fear in the eyes of the promoters who expected him to stay on the mat as he was instructed to? Lance at least complained of suffering from his famous bonk for days. He said he only won the tour that year because no one attacked him. That is generally how people physiologically respond to bonking. Most bike racers that might read this have experienced a real bonk. The days after are painful. No where near our potential. Yet Landis comes back and delivers a knockout punch to the peleton? Hard to believe. Esp if the bonk was for real. Are we to believe that the Jack Daniels and the Amstel (non-alcoholic) were the miracle recovery ergogenic aids that let him explode the next day? Or was it some testosterone gel or patch stuck to a cleanly shorn scrotum (as the rumor that was running rampant last year had it). BTW yes, it does make me wince just writing the word scrotum still.

The Omerta certainly seems to be powerful, and Kimmage's comments lend support that Lance is certainly not on the clean side with the regards and connections to the whole simeoni affair. So what do we do. What do the fans do?

Baseball came back from the scandal and the strikes. The fans, it seems, will move on. Will forget. Will forgive. Some won't but the majority will. Do they do it out of what? Plain old love for the sport? Do they do it because they hope from deep within that their favorite is in the class of Tiger Woods or Wayne Gretzky or ...

The bog world certainly is a cacophany of sound resounding about the doping affairs of late. And maybe the walls are crumbling. And maybe everyone should just get wicked stoned and head over to a special IMAX version of Pink Floyd's The Wall.

What do we all know, and what can we do? Does the Slipstream team have the answer? I don't know. Will a clean field of riders produce a boring race? I think it will. Fans don't want to see a blow-out unless they are fans of the winner, and unfortunately you need people to be fans of numerous riders, or they won't watch/follow, and in this marketing age, ya need the demographics to make some cash...

forgive my ramblings if you've made it thus far,
GeWilli

Where to start...

Work backwards i guess.

Giro is on, but the audio is kinda fuzzy and its raining and appearantly cold cause i dunno if i've ever seen pro cyclists this kitted up... full tights, big winter jackets... crazy.

Ride in was tender and slow, but no problems.

Hit Chrisy Todd's pad... wicked good grub good to meet Chrisy Todd's awesome mom and some other folks, bike racers and non bike racers. Hell it was less than an hour drive. Not far at all. Folks got to meet the little one who sings itsy bitsy spider...

Spent most of the rest of the weekend shopping cleaning and catching up, and laying low.

No rides. Good thing i had declined/ignored races and ride invites. I couldn't have ridden until this morning anyway.

I had written a good couple paragraphs about it. wishy washy about posting it... but maybe someone else is riding an older american classic seatpost and could benefit from the warning. Yeah. Who still rides them? I dunno, but i was and i bet others might be.

Oh part of the whole shopping trip, gotta recount that. Picked up the bike from work (no i didn't ride home on Friday), pulled up outside The Hub, Jesse (one of the owners) was outside and saw the bike minus saddle (putting the peices together yet?) and the brief conversation went along the lines of, yeah, i need a new one, got any 27.2, in say a Thompson flavor? Nope but i'll order you one and give you a loaner till it comes in. Saweet. 30 seconds or so later not even having to find a parking spot around the U on alumni weekend (impossible) i'm on the way with a loaner post (rode in on it today).

Can't fault curbside service, not to mention the OFFER of borrowing a seat post. How freaking cool is that? The difference in not going to the ER and going to the Urgent care center pays almost the cost of a new Thompson seat post!

Yeah. I broke my American Classic Seat post. Hopping on, just outside the office. Yeah. GeWilli gets on by habit all cross style. No problems if i had been clipped in or positioned on the pedals. but i wasn't.

BANG or more snap... ouch... wtf happened. Why is my sack stinging? Damn it's bleeding... shit... retreat to the office... pick up parts and bits of the bike and bolt... call ER doc on team for reccomendation... well... wound up with the director here leaving a few minutes early and dropping me off at the Urgent care to get 5 stitches. Yeah, at least it was just the skin... there are 3 layers to get through before stuff falls out and i only opened up a big hole in the first layer. Even the doc did a cringing shudder dance when he checked on how serious it was...

So there. Too good of a story not to tell, and GeWilli'd go nuts if he kept it off here... The Bactrim DS (double strength) is about as solid an anti-bacterial drug as it gets. Doc felt pretty strongly about prescribing it. Serious gastric distress the first couple days but pounding the Yogurt has helped. Been mixing 1/2-1/3 a thing of Shift with some Hawthorne Valley plain and drinking a pint or so 2x a day. They (the good bugs) may all die within a short time but they seem to be helping.

It looks like just one more obstacle preventing me from getting out for the team time trial. But then... i needed the rest/low intensity anyway... right? Peaks and Valleys. Peaks and Valleys.

Awe Hell, the Hub has a blog! Damn. Go forth and read: http://thehubprovidence.blogspot.com/

Nice old write up about Advocacy and stuff from Jack

It takes a village write up is good too... expressing the same frustration that Hurley and (iirc) What I think have expressed in the past...

ANYWAY... like was mentioned in the post on the bottom of the page there: "Welcome to the Hub! We thinks blogs are pretty creepy so naturally we wanted to get in on the action."

I think today's entry here (despite or in spite of the Hub's props) probably falls under one of the more creepy of entries.

I'll leave yall with an image that tugs at the homesick strings... Looking down Columbia ave in Seattle (yanked off the cranked background)


peace out,
G

At least there won't be a head wind....

32°C
RealFeel®
36°C
Winds: CLM
at 0km/h

Man... 36°C real feel... (98°F for yall 'muricans)

Dats some HOT weh'tha at least it is supposed to cool of to about 15°C tonight...

But hey, the humidity is only 28%... that's a bonus!

It has been a very crazy week in the world of cycling. Lemond's whole abuse as a kid story, Will G, people saying this that and that they took drugs... "official" announcement of the World Cup coming to Providence...

Here's to the start of summer (more or less here in the good ol' usa) bringing a measure of sanity or clarity to the whole pro-situation.

Yall be good...
peace out,
G

Forget Doping for a while... Lets look at Dopes

Can ya believe that?

Kinda makes me feel a bit sick

Riis said he no long considered himself a worthy winner of the Tour, and indicated he would be willing to give back the title.

"My jersey is at home in a cardboard box," he said. "They are welcome to come and get it. I have my memories for myself."

Well there ya go...

If we can get an Ullrich confession and a Pantani... oh wait... he's dead. Guess we can't take his Yellow Jersey away, that would leave just three different winners since Lemond's come back... that "weren't" doping...

That Indurain guy. He was held back in the Delgado era of Banesto so ya know that kid had some major horses in that engine of his... but clean? man...

oh man...

I mean, Bjarne, we knew he was doing something funky. So no EPO for Riis... and Indurain might still be standing as the mark to beat for Tour wins? Ya know he coulda smoked a clean Bjarne, hell on the other hand he smoked a doped Riis if he really was taking it from '93-98. Possible. Look at the names there.

Ya know what they say about hindsight...

Ah the what ifs.

This whole dope shit is well... i dunno, the house of cards is starting to crumble? Eh?

final paragraph from the AP article over at ESPN (who had the story before Cyclingnews, those sleepy Aussies)

Until now, he repeatedly denied taking performance enhancing drugs during his 14-year career as a professional cyclist.

Sounds a hell uva lot like Lance.

Hell Lance could come out smelling like a rose with the comment "everyone else was doing it so i had to do it to compete"

This all just flat out sucks... but we still got the live Giro feed. Right? The Tour never let us watch live streaming TV like the Italians.

I like Italians much better now. That little stepchild of a tour is way cooler. Besides: Andy won the Giro. Andy fahking rocks...

Anyone wanna come over and help me make a Timpano to both celebrate the Giro and bemoan the whole doping shit?
G

damn it

i went and changed the PVC blog page and wound up posting all today's stuff there w/o realizing it...

D'OH

Zabriskie?

These Italian's are following the stars and stries up the mountain.... Holy crap!

24 seconds into the next guy! No wonder they were following him! 25+ km/h

damn....

Maybe they just like his name! He looks fucking KNACKERED... here's to hoping it holds up. Would be cool to see that kid win a stage!

Damn... i go and come back to find him back in second... at least...

poop

4th... all the way back in 4th...

still... 4th... it ain't so bad... not a win, but damn respectable!

GeWilli Losing it?

Yeah, suds thinks i'm losing it because i've slipped into 3rd person lately. MIF's content has gone in the pooper and well, someone has to pick up the 3rd person slack, no?

That and ya gotta change it up ya know? Play with different styles...

Kinda like this morning. No trailer, but a Trail-A-Bike. Yeah we switched up the drop off. I took the big kid. 1st grader. So swapped the Adams trail-a-bike hitch off the GT Karakoram (1994 vintage, w/7sp LX ya know the black stuff) and bolted it up to the Paramount. Holy freaking CRAP. No wonder my wife seemed to be squirrelly that first ride she took with the damn thing. Unlike the trailer where it is just acting like a parachute, this is like some big dude riding behind you holding on to the seatpost trying to knock you off the bike!!! WOA NELLY. One sudden shift almost careened me perpendicular into a wicked sharp granite curb, talking wheel destroying curb... Oh and DO NOT try and climb standing with the trail-a-bike... we almost ate it there climbing the 8-10% grade (very short coming up off the bike path) when i stood up and tried to get a bit more force to the wheel through the 50x25. She had a blast tho.

Gonna be a wicked hot one today down here. They are predicting 90°F today (32°C for you canuks, euros and scientists).

And with that in mind i switched something else up. Helmets. I ditched the vintage Giro SuperMoto in favor of some (now old school) Giro Pneumo. Why, well because the supermoto's pads have all fallen out and i can't get the sticky crap that held the velcro dots off and if i wear it without a cycling cap under it... well it ain't no good to have black sticky glue in your hair (it doesn't wash out easily at all. So i was ventilated today. Ahhh felt so nice with the air flowing through my head.

But, curiously. It would seem that our oldest's Bell Trigger (2007 model IIRC) is wicked more advance and somewhat technically superior to my Pneumo. Hmmm $150 helmet or $30 helmet. WTF... I mean it is great that the kids have such totally kick ass helmets, maybe i should just go get myself some $30 adult version of the trigger and use the Supermoto as a... Hell i dunno, flower pot?

Gonna get serious for a bit. Big Jonny posted an email from John Samstad about Will G. It is well worth the read. I dunno, I feel like my feelings about this whole Landis "trial" are on a taffy machine. Constantly being pulled in completely different directions. Passionate argument followed by convincing argument. I'm going to post it up here. With the pre-warning that yes, Big Jonny at Drunkcyclists did post it first. I am not trying to pull content and claim it as mine, it is just that i know with all his "stuff" (p o r n) many people can't get there (during the day at least). This'll give ya something to chew on today:

From: John Stamstad
Subject: Uncle Ron
I was out there at the hearing last wednesday, it was nice to talk to Floyd and catch up, haven't seen him in a while.
The now infamous Will G, I have known for, christ almost 20 years. Trained with him nearly every day for years, toured the country in a VW van going to races, blah, blah.
You learn a lot about a person when you suffer with them....
I encouraged him to help floyd when floyd's team was a complete train wreck right after the whole thing broke last august. Will and I started the Chevy Trucks Team and hired Floyd to his first real pro deal, and we all rode together at the 24 hrs of Snowshoe. Will got floyd to switch to the road........
I knew Floyd needed someone he could trust and Will is a super smart, super sharp guy who helped floyd more than anybody knows.

The Uncle Ron call obviously is a disaster and impossible to defend.
But think about it from Will's perspective and remember everyone involved here is a former pro--including Will.
Every July my aunt ruthie asks (in a think wisconsin accent) Hey Der, why didn't those other guys take off when that little fella had a flat tire?
---Because the other guy will retaliate 10 times over.
----If you run a guy into a ditch in a race, what do you think he is going to do next time he sees you in a race? Can you really blame him?

What if Will knows Lemond is going to lie under oath (or maybe it is a misinterpretation--either way floyd tried to clear it up--that he never admitted to doping) about the phone conversation with floyd, last august.
If you and i share private details in a conversation, and i go to the
media (and court room) and throw you under the bus.......do you really
think that I would expect you to keep quiet? That is totally
unrealistic, crazy even. Lemond had to know it would come out at some point, and for the record, Lemond is the one who made it public, nobody else. I fully expect to see lemond on oprah sometime soon, desperately trying to be Lance.
I am not excusing what Will did, just shedding light on maybe why.
Will is an easy punch line right now, but I would encourage you to look
at the full picture.

Keep up the riding. I am headed out the door for a spin....

Coach Curly has a clip of one of the greatest movies ever. And sad state of affairs, this place, this Atwells ave that people rave about up here in Providence. Seems to be filled with the type of restaurants that the brothers are competeing with. Sides of spaghetti with every meal. Order an Omelet (turned out to be CALLED an omelet but looked more like a frittata- which is a closely related egg dish but totally differet) and ya get a side of PASTA. Oh and the "omelet" had potatoes in it. Starch with Starch.

Back on the Bike and the commuting thing... SansAuto again has a nice break down for yall. It ain't nuttin revolutionary, just a nice restatement of stuff we gotta keep in mind. Like that retarded are you smarter than a 5th grader show (no i don't watch it but hard not to be aware of it), simple stuff, if we don't keep refreshing it in our minds we can't recall it on demand when we need/want to.

The ride yesterday was more intense (energy wise) than i thought. The power curve was a hair below max from top to bottom. Now if i can just get that kinda ride in once a week that'd kick ass. Downside. The Big MiG is sidelined for medical reasons. Damn. And he's one of the few guys around here that #1 i can get a draft off of and #2 that can push me just to the edge of my comfort zone without leaving me for the wolves. It is nice to have a well matched training partner ya know? Kinda sucks to have him sidelined. But then he'll be back for cross and we can ramp the hell out of it then. I'm taking it easy now anyway. Need to get into a lull period. Let the body relax, chill, take it easy, so i don't burnout mid-season in cross.

Yes, i don't like crits and the only way to work on a weakness is to work on it, and the only way to work on getting better at it is to do it. Work on the weaknesses and become better all around. Problem is, right now, i have so many weaknesses that i can wait to focus on an "advanced" skill once i get the rest of the stuff in order. Like power, endurance, speed... that sort of stuff. Next year might be good to start working on that.

It is really the cool part of cycling, at least racing and all that. Building takes time. Esp when you ain't just wicked gifted right from the start. But even when you ain't wicked gifted you can still make gains and improve. That's the really cool part. Great bit of advice from fast guy: focus on the Joules... that's the secret to training with power...

I ain't revealing the rest of the secret just yet tho.

Friday friday friday...

Ah Friday.

Smile, Be Happy...
G

A little worn perhaps?

Bike To Work

It ain't just for May you know!

This is a great little write up from, where else, Bikeportland.org.

There is another great article too... and a 10 minute short about Vanilla and Sacha...

If there is a freaking cooler bike out there than a Vanilla... i've yet to see it...

4.5 year wait list? Holy freaking Schit!

The camera work (Panning and zooming and what not ain't pro but damn subject is cool)...

The last frame says it all.

Support Local Craftspeople.

Support your local community. Make your community stronger and it will make the world stronger. Keep your dollar feeding the folks around you, not the folks elsewhere. make sense?

Biking to work does this in that you have much more control over the resources consumed. Namely food. The wear and tear items may not originate locally but they can be purchased locally at locally owned and staffed store fronts. Certainly the impact of commuting to work not only is a huge physical benefit to the individual but also greatly impacts the community in a positive manner!

respect
G

135 days until the World Cup comes to Providence!

The Constitution gives every American the inalienable right to make a damn fool of himself.
- John Ciardi

There is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise.
- Gore Vidal

wow...

BKW unloaded the best break down of the Landis situation. Like it is written... it no matter anymore if the sumbitch is innocent. Again, damn well written piece.

And ya know... GeWilli had a great ride. The big boss around here gave the okay to come in a bit late to the factory and well... a nice 50 mile morning ensued... the big MiG was driving and sprinting up every fucking power rise in the road, out of the saddle for every fucking Town line and generally driving the fucking pace hard... And yeah... big MiG was on his carpet fiber ridley, and Ge-Dub was on his 21 year old Paramount with a 1x8 gear set up. It was only about 2,000kJ of work tho. hard but not too bad. legs are pretty hosed right now. GeWilli's thinking that he needs to stop trying to hang with the guys on bikes 10 pounds lighter than his... And lemme tell ya - STI? That stuff is nice. These down tube shifters? Pain in the ASS. But... i can tell ya even doing a 35+ mph sprint for a fucking TOWN LINE the 50x12 wasn't a hinderance... I think the POS trek system cheap aluminum touring fork i have on here is but... heck... it is just a bike... the bio mechanical position is about right.

I missed my daily live feed of the Giro, so i'm now watching Colin's kraftwerk vid. Ifn any of ya were to buy the Kraftwerk Tour De France CD ya'd get the full rez version of it... fucking cool... I'd have to dig out the CD to confirm that the vid is the same but it sho looks like it... seems a bit shorter than i remember it tho.

Woops. This has been sitting here for a while.

Oh and one thing. About that smiling at people? Don't go from being stone faced serious to smiling... just freaking SMILE... "put on a happy face"
it is contagious... and it NEEDS to be spread... so yall... freaking SMILE if ya smiling all the time ya won't have to deal with the problem's that Joel is afraid of...

peace, respect, and smile!
G

Must Watch Commuter Video

Humorous. Oh so making ya chuckle...

those west coast folks with the massively wide streets and left wing hippies running the place have all the bike luxuries...

(did ya hear? CX World Cup is coming to Providence)

On the down side to World Cup... Southhampton's weekend might go in the pooper... These Vandooferhover i mean Zonhoven and Neerpelt venues are obviously pooping a monster load as the super stars go race in the "New World" but those Long Island folks...

Ya know what? I didn't go there last year... and well... i guess i'm not going there this year. I wonder if Coach Curly has a cyclocross program? NegaCoach certainly does. I also wonder if anyone will stick around for Gloucester the following weekend. That could be freaking SAWEEEEEET.

Oh and it is now official over at Cyclocross.info.

For those who read what ever this is written in:

Providence (VS) opent wereldbeker cyclocross met Safety Jogger als sponsor

Providence (VS) opent wereldbeker cyclocross met Safety Jogger als sponsor
Providence - Rhode Island opent op 6 oktober wereldbeker cyclocross

UCI-coördinator Peter van den Abeele is er dan toch in geslaagd de Wereldbeker veldrijden naar de Verenigde Staten te halen.
De Bellemnaar was in het verleden al over de Atlantische Oceaan op zoek gegaan naar een geïntereseerde organisator. De interesse was er dan wel maar het kostenplaatje die aan een dergelijke wereldbekermanche hangt was meestal het struikelblok.
Providence, hoofstad van Rhode Island, zag na lang aarzelen een wereldbeker dan toch zitten. "Klopt" klinkt het bevestigend op onze vraag of er een eerste Amerikaanse wereldbekerwedstrijd op de kalender voor het komende seizoen staat. "Het contract is eindelijk getekend. Het duurde een poos voor het zover kwam maar nu is alles rond. Alhoewel, honderd percent zeker ben je ginder nooit... Zo had ik 3 organisatoren die een verbintenis hadden om de wereldbeker mountainbike te ontvangen. Uiteindelijk moest ik noodgedwongen naar Canada om er een vervanger te zoeken" vervolgt de Belgische kampioen cyclocross van 1994.
Zoals het er nu naar uit ziet worden Nys en co verwacht op zaterdag 6 oktober voor de eerste wereldbekerwedstrijd op Amerikaanse bodem. "We plaatsten de wereldbekermanche op zaterdag. Maar ook op zondag is er een wedstrijd voorzien. Zo kunnen de renners een extra centje verdienen en wordt de dure verplaatsing gecompenseerd," besluit van den Abeele. Deze eerste Amerikaanse wereldbeker zorgt ondertussen voor heel wat kopzorgen bij de Limburgse organisatoren Zonhoven en Neerpelt die hun wedstrijd op 6 en 7 oktober hadden voorzien.

Double check...

Is it still true?

Are they really coming here?

OH MY WORD...

giddy giddy

WHOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOO

HOLY STHIT

Providence - Rhode Island Opens the World Cup Cyclocross on Saturday October 6th
May 23, 2007
UCI-coordinator Peter van den Abeele has succeeded in bringing a World Cup race to the US. After several tries, Van den Abeele finally found a promoter that was ready to pull it of. In the past UCI’s financial requirements could not be met.

Providence, RI, was able to get the deal together. “The contract has finally been signed. It took a while, but we got there in the end. But I’m still not 100% confident; you never know what can happen. I once had three promoters for a mountain bike race, but in the end I had to go to Canada to find a replacement” says Van den Abeele. The way it is shaping up now is that Nys et al will be racing in Providence on Saturday for World Cup points. “We will do the World Cup race on Saturday, and on Sunday we’ll have a race as well. That way the riders can make some extra money to compensate for the additional travel expense” concludes the UCI-coordinator.

In Belgium in the meantime the promoters of the cross races in Zonhoven and Neerpelt are not thrilled. They were planning on organizing races on October 6 and 7.

Tail winds are AWESOME

Nice southerly breeze pushing me into work...

Ahhh the luxury... too bad it means a stiffening head wind (i'll let the solobreak type of person add their own beavis and butthead sounds after reading stiffening head) on the way home.

Red Wings... damn shame, but heck at least it is one less thing to pay attention to. I could give a crap who wins, although i do kinda hope Ottawa kicks some Duck butt...

"Training articles are more gay ass than town line sprints, for sure."

That is the best line i've heard in a while, made me chuckle.

And on the blog radar, check out twoadventures for some great race reports in the Woman's 4 field. The Italian IBC rider who we all think very highly of is prominently featured in the photo essay and vaguely referenced in the write up.

Someone needs to pick up the slack for Solobuster. But with the live Giro feed, who needs his cynical ass posting and stuff (well cynical or not he does write well, just don't tell him - wait, i already have).

Oh and anyone else think the BikePortland.org banner is awesome?


And would you believe it? I'm ranked higher than Murat in RI Masters Road Racing! WOW ;) that is impressive... or not, we got a wicked small state.

Oh and for you parents out there... your kids learn how to interact with people by watching the adults around them interact... Don't make em disfunctional by being disfunctional... be respectful, act like you would want your kids to act... Why i bringing up such an obvious point? Well i offered some advice to someone and they said "Wow, you think ___ acts like that because ___ and I are always belligerent and yelling at each other?" Um... yeah...

Big Jonny as dropped his links to nek'd girls (although the chat/dvd adds are still there) and he had this nice succinct comment regarding that Lemond phone call:

Fucking ametuer. You didn't call up Lemond because you had a "beer or two", you called up Lemond because you're a dick.

That quote and

Training articles are more gay ass than town line sprints, for sure.

are my favorites today... the articles may be helpful, maybe more sore than town lines but it still is a great line, true or not! thanks strange!

peace out yall, respect and smile at strangers, you might just make their day!
G

Assessing what kind of rider you are

Essential Components - First and foremost, remember that road cycling is an endurance sport and no matter what your "specialty", you require the components of endurance and strength to be successful. For example, if you are a sprinter like Robbie McEwen you still have to make it to the finish line to be able to unleash your powerful sprint. And if you are a climber in a stage race, you still have to finish the "field sprint" events with the lead group (or close) to stay in contention.

How about that. If ya got a hill in the race and you can't stay with the group... and say "I'm a sprinter, i can't climb" well anyway... makes sense no?

Gotta finish the race to be able to sprint. Winning a stupid ass gay townline sprint on a club ride does what for you? Well it says that you can win a club ride sprint somewhere in the middle of the ride. Can you unleash the same thing at the finish?

Maybe all club rides should have one sprint at the end, when everyone is all pooped from stupid town line sprints and then you'll see who's got the legs... 'course you'll have some sand bagger who doesn't sprint and saves his energy (cause you know it'll be a guy all macho and shit) and tries to beat the legit fast folks...

Town lines are fun, but fun in the "i'll race you to the car" when you are kids kinda way... you get there first and then what? No relation to a real in competition sprint.

Or maybe it is? I dunno:

"Train your limiters"

damn good advice...

but better is to find your limiters first...

Anyway...

just another good article from PEZ with random weird commentary from GeWilli

5 second rule no more!

WHOOOO HOOOO

at least 30 seconds! YEAH! Suck them apples germophobes!

Full text for those who don't wanna click over:

To eat or not to eat: seniors prove the "five-second rule" is more like 30




Seniors Nicole Moin (left) and Molly Goettsche display the results of their "five second rule" research.

You hear it everywhere – a piece of food hits the ground and someone yells, "five-second rule!" The prospective eater must then pick the food up off the floor and make one of life´s most difficult decisions: to eat, or not to eat.

Seniors Molly Goettsche and Nicole Moin, both cellular and molecular biology majors, decided they would no longer blindly follow 'the rule,' which stipulates that dropped food will be safe to eat if it stays on the floor for fewer than five seconds. They tested it in their microbiology class with Anne Bernhard, the George and Carol Milne Assistant Professor of Biology.

"We had both just finished our senior theses, so we wanted to do something lighthearted and fun," Moin said, "and we chose the five-second rule, because it applies to everyday life."

They designed their procedure to test the rule in an everyday environment. Previous research on the rule, Goettsche said, was conducted by a University of Illinois researcher in 2003 and involved dropping food items onto e-coli contaminated tiles.

"That is not representative of what actually happens," she said.

Instead, Goettsche and Moin took their food samples – apple slices (wet) and Skittles candies (dry) – to Harris Refectory and to the snack bar at Cro. They dropped the foods onto the floors in both locations for five, 10, 30 and 60 second intervals, and also tested them after allowing five minutes to elapse. They then swabbed the foods and placed them onto agar plates designed to cultivate any bacteria that might have attached to the foods.

What Goettsche and Moin discovered may forever change the way people think of the five-second rule. "It should probably be renamed," Goettsche said. "You actually have a little more time."

The women found no bacteria were present on the foods that had remained on the floor for five, 10 or 30 seconds. The apple slices did pick up bacteria after one minute, however, and the Skittles showed a bacterial presence after remaining on the floor for five minutes. The results prove, Goettsche and Moin said, that you can wait at least 30 seconds to pick up wet foods and more than a minute to pick up dry foods before they become contaminated with bacteria.

So the next time you drop your favorite candy, cookie or other goodie you just can´t bear to toss out, you can rest assured that all you need to do is yell "five-second rule!" and continue enjoying your treat. Goettsche and Moin certainly will.

CTodding is catching

I think little and fast has been watching too many Todd_Casts...

But, wicked damn freaking cool idea there KL... Damn that's freaking cool...

And as always thanks for the visual about cute female bike racers in the shower (how could i not let that slip -like a bar of soap in the shower- by without commenting on it).

Food. Gonna be eating two lunches today. neither is quite a full normal one so i'm having one now, and one following my afternoon meeting. Gonna see if that helps. Cause i left my insect head fig paste wrapped in nummy cake at home.

Up first is peanut sauce noodles with stir fried tofu. TOFU? yeah... that hippie bean paste that some wackos think make your testicles shrink up and disappear...

Missed the live coverage of the stage today... damn

Garbage in Garbage out
*chuckle*

peace,
G

what a beautiful MORNING, oh what a...

GREAT day...

what a great day...

Valley street was open, it is repaved...

I made pancakes this morning...

little one slept all night (although still refuses to fall asleep in her own bed - and yah - i tried to let her fall asleep but after 15 minutes of Daaaaady daaaaady Da Da da da da da without ANY signs of succumbing to sleep i went to get her)...

Beautiful day out there, perfect temp (right around 60 degrees) sunny... calm...

Now i'm sitting down in the windowless basement and even that! Even that isn't bringing the man down!

Oh and Torque numbers are climbing like i thought they might... hit 80 yesterday... we'll see if i can get that overall avg # up more than one or two units (yeah the avg is up as well). Couple more weeks of this and i'll go back to little ring spin type stuff...

Scheduling might make it tough to get in a long ride this week in the AM, but there might still be a chance to get out and get the intervals in.

There is a Time Trial tonight. I gotta go up to wrentham so can't do the tt, but ifn't yall wanted to show up and do a great 6.7 mile loop TT (with some elevation changes):
Refunds Now™ Time Trial ©
Leaves the circle just east of the Henderson Bridge (providence) at 530 PM. Tuesday.
Yes, every Tuesday from now on.

We ride out to the corner of Read/Prospect (Wheeler School Track) and do a
6.7 mile loop.

Try and make it - it is a great course pretty hard actually.

Coffee Time (nice fair trade Tanzanian Peaberry stuff NOT over-roasted and bitter like Fourbucks crappy beans).

peace,
G

ah...

man...

why do i always seem to get wicked damn hungry at the end of the day?

why does it suck so much to get on the bike with an empty pit in your gut begging for food?

So i'm sucking down some bug guts, i mean fig newtons... Murat seems to have found some reference that fig paste has an unacceptably high allowable limit for insect parts... me? well i saw his link and think "meh, so what" i eat more than that unintentionally on the bike path....

I just find fig newtons a nice acceptable satisfying $/calorie snack...

Then i was wondering this weekend - would having a blood glucose meter be helpful for a non-diabetic athlete looking to maximize carbo loading? Whats the point of dumping loads of carbs in your system if your insulin doesn't spike to help reload the cells?

no?
or no... i dunno...


Peace,
g

What a change in the weather

This morning started off 15 degrees warmer than the high for Friday. And it was dry.

Rolled out and w/in about 50 yards of hittin the path i stopped to help a guy with a flat tire. He'd gotten the tire out but looked rather confused and wondering where to start. My good old HPx4 got a nice workout. Damn that think kicks so much ass over any mini-pump out there. 100 psi with almost no effort?!!! Very cool.

great ride in... found a double secret way around the construction so i don't have to ride through EP now that the 195 bridge is closed for 17 months or so to bike traffic (The underpass normally taken is closed usually in the AM for work on the same damn thing).

Tossing out one good link from the email this am... (yeah it is about yogurt)

I'm hoping to come back at lunch and read lots of reports about sunapee and north stonington and what not eh?

Oh made a killer KILLER chocolate cake yesterday. Actually the oldest did. Man i don't think a chocolate cake could be so light and fluffy. It was amazing!!! Wicked tasty too.

Didn't get on the bike once all weekend. Was a bit pre-occupied. I did pick up a six pack of mini 13w CFLs to replace 6 incandescent bulbs. Yeah they got some Hg in them but, longevity, and economy are pretty big points. And Yes, i'm buying into the pressure to "go CFL" they do make a lot of sense. Esp come summer time. Why add the heat load to the house of regular bulbs.

Oh and the Fucking Red Wings... I get to watch the game and THAT was painful... Total fucking suck at the end of the 3rd... Damnit... i hope they take it to 7 and go on to meet up with Ottawa, but then... if they don't? Well one less thing to keep track of i guess no?

Well we'll see what else i can shake out of my head that is off the rotation at the moment... Oh. Giro - good - got the live coverage on. So what has happened with that over the weekend?

And look, headlines there "Landis testifies to his innocence under oat"... Well NO SHIT! Perjury is a far lesser problem for him than being positive for using performance enhancing stuff... at least he appears to have shaved... at least once...

My velogames team has dropped down to 193... oh well... still it is doing better than i did this spring in competition.

Don't forget to check out the Foaming Rant (if you haven't already). I'm gonna jump to the end and quote O'Grady (read the link before clicking here if you don't want to read the punchline yet)

Landis may yet win exoneration on the charges against him. But even so, after Thursday, it should be pretty clear who the real champ is.

No shit. No shit.

I suppose it could come down to a definition of what IS is once more... no?

What is IS anyway?

respect, smile and eat well...
G

Okay - Reading and Laughing Out Loud at Frazz's sunday strip... then reading O'Grady's comments about his Rant... i had to pop a bit more content in here
and just qoute him

By Patrick O'Grady
ogrady at maddogmedia dot com

0 5 | 1 9 | 2 0 0 7
Why do you think they call it dope?

...It's never been clearer that WADA and USADA should be testing for brains instead of drugs. There would be a lot fewer positives, believe you me.

I don't know how much longer I can keep writing semi-fresh copy on that rancid heap of maggoty, dope-swollen turds in Lycra that calls itself the professional peloton. From the looks of things, most of these guys are so twisted that they need two soigneurs to help them screw their bib shorts on every morning for the ride down to the pharmacist's office. And writing about them, even in a satirical vein, is starting to feel like being a fisherman restricted to angling in septic tanks, porta-johns and water-treatment plants....

Bike To Work Day

over-shadowed by some fashion faux-pas dude who is probably guilty as hell...

It was a good day. But my second year in a row here it was cold and windy and raining. Third time in a row for Providence.

Why? It makes the whole promotional thing rather funny. The cyclists who braved the rain were the ones who don't need the extra incentive or encouragement to get out and ride. The speeches by the Major, council members, RIdot folks, and who ever else got up and talked into the mic seemed to be consistently aimed at an audience that needed to hear it, rather than at the audience that was there. Everyone there spent the time nodding their head in an "yeah i already know and am already doing it" kinda of way.

Hell what kind of wacko will ride in 15-20 mph wind in a heavy rain in low 40°F temps? For what? a fancy cool blinky triangle and some Taza(sp) coffee and Muffins and Scones and an assorted Cliff/Odwalla/Luna bar? No T-Shirts or Waterbottles this year even. How about that?

The whole hard core crew from umbrella corporation that my picture factory falls in was there. it was great. I didn't pull the camera out, but while waiting for system scan galore today (actually caught the bug that was blue screening our prime system) i attempted to document the gaps and wear shown on the big chainring... you see (or not) the chain don't exactly mesh 100% of the way around... Maybe it is time for a new one... :D I know i've got loads of 8 speed chains kicking it that prolly won't skip or at least won't skip for very long...

Anyway. These speeches could be better tailored, written to address the folks that WERE there. That or these guys gotta get better at planning an alternate date for the weather.

Well now that my riding kit is all dry (showed up today at the BTWD in my team kit for local "exposure" - heck channel 10 was there). All dry FINALLY. I can slip into nice dry (no clothes dryer here at the picture factory) chamois and Warsaw jacket and motor home as fast as possible (big event to prep for tonight). Okay the gloves are slightly damp but at least at room temp, they'll be soaking wet w/in a few minutes of being outside anyway.

Google blogger has finally added an Autosave function. ABOUT FREAKING TIME!!! Well after having one or four long posts eaten by the internet i've gotten much better and haven't really lost any lately. This monkey with the keyboard got a system figured out long before Google was able to implement any solutions on their end...

I fear today's trial reports will pale in comparison to yesterdays. Back to the boring crap about chain of custody, eyeballing peaks and judging, yawn.

Well the radar looks like if i hurry and change i can fly home between heavy bands of rain!

Good Luck to the bike racers braving the weekend's weather to do whatever... Solobreak, get that Yogurt Boy some good support like stuff! Yogurt boy? Rock the shit out of the 3s at sunapee.... Oh and KL and co, yall do well too... Rich? STAY OFF THE FREAKING BIKE!!! Murat, listen to your coach...

Me? Next week i'll start pretending to be a somewhat serious rider and actually devise a plan and see if i can stick with it! (yeah like that'll happen - well it won't if i don't actually try, ya know?)

RESPECT,
g

There is nothing better....

Nothing better out there than Belgium Knee Warmers blog.

Maybe it is the familiarity. The clarity and relevance of the writing.

What ever it is.

Absolutely a MUST READ. If you can only read one blog a day: This is it.

Radio Freddy has the blogging thing dialed down to ultimate precision.

Every post makes you want to comment "AWESOME READ" i have to pile heaps of restraint not to post that in every comment section.

-GeWilli

Frazz today supports my point about the couch

Still the best strip in print...

Oh and Big Jonny ain't on a much different wavelength:

The dumb fuck. If you're going to tamper with a witness, use a fucking pay phone.

My god these people are stupid.

On other notes... KL has a new link to a teammate's blog... check it out.

Not to mention she[KL] prolly has the best commentary on the whole thing...

Peace,
G

BTW i think i've finally started to warm up...

I'll add it here:
This reader wrote to Cyclingnews

To paraphrase CS Lewis, "Based on their behaviour, who do you think is telling the truth?"

Charlie Mack
Sunday, May 13, 2007

Based on the lastest behavior demonstrated with the whole Lemond issue? I've said it already. Put your chips on Landis's unethical ass as the one not telling the truth.

Wow....

All i can say is Wow. What will happen next.

Thanks Bruce. Didn't see ya this morning at the Bike to work day but, well one of your relations was there iirc.

That may 18th news report over there at cyclingnews... bomb...

Calling Greg Lemond like that, not to mention being SO FUCKING STUPID as to use a phone number traced back to Will Geoghegan? Does that not just shred every ounce of credibility in the Landis camp? It makes them positively 100% assholes.

If he is willing to stoop to those levels... i'll write him off and convict him right now. Lifetime ban. So this story that Lemond told him in confidence... and then this "close friend" of Floyd's knows about the story... who else did Landis tell about all this?

And wanting to bring up Lance in the testimony? Um... who's on trial here brainiac?

Sick.

Oh and I spend a few minutes reviewing the runway shows for '07 from some of the bigger design houses. Wide ties are NOT the standard. Yeah there are a few, but lemme tell you there are a few other neckwear styles and other stuff that no right minded person should be wearing to court. not to mention that despite the tie being too wide by my standards, his shirt still doesn't fit, AND he still looks unprofessional and shaggy with that fuzz on his face.

On the ride home i was thinking how can the panel let him off cause that machine stuff is definitely flaky... now, hell even striking the Lemond testimony you've got unavoidable evidence that Mr. Retard doesn't possess the moral or ethical character that would prevent him from doping. He is slimy. Yes i am convicting him again. You have good moral character or you don't. Your actions are pervasive in life.

That bitchy woman that yelled at Frank with the emasculated husband (biketopia reference) carries her whole life like that most likely, the snapshots rarely lie, and while they may be a distortion of the whole picture the elements are none the less grounded in the person's make up. If Floyd is condoning such actions as calling Lemond and saying among other things: "I am your uncle and if you want me to finish this... We can talk about how we used to hide your weenie." then how can he not truly be unethical enough to have had illegal substances in his system? he might be stupid for having substances that wouldn't aid in performance... but... circumstantially, wow.

I am going to refrain from adding more here until i've recovered from reading the brief news flash posted above and have read the full coverage from Day 4's testimony.

At least the Giro is on, and i can listen to the beautiful Italian language, watch some killer cycling footage and see glimpses of why Italy is a beautiful country.

respect, (of which Landis is showing he has none for Lemond, Cycling or his fans)
GeWilli

Okay,
I've read the rest of the reports. And what can i say but, i'm dissapointed in Landis's camp. The IRMS operators and the lab sound pretty clearly competent after this line of questioning. That testimony certainly does not favor the Landis camp's assertion that the results are speculative.

From all the spectrums i've analyzed (x-rays, not chromostuff) i will say, identifying the base of a peak is pretty freaking objective, even if it is a subjective cut off. But i should defer to, or at least ask a dear friend who more or less runs these type of things daily. Maybe i have too much faith in machines. that or i just understand how they work? Maybe it comes down to education and knowledge base.

OOO that's a new descending position.... damn

sorry Giro interruption

Someone wanna tell him?

Ya supposed to shave. ESP if you going to court. Right? Or is being clean cut and neat in appearance gone the way of the well tailored suit?

Come to think of it. he could use a bit of alteration on his shirt. At least tuck it in... and what is up with the tie that is 1/2 his size? Sumbitch (the tie) could be used as a freaking table cloth?

Floyd? YOU GUILTY OF BEING A FASHION DON'T...

Seriously. CTODD, get your ass over there, charge him a couple grand and get this kid some clothes that fit, and teach him how a razor works. Even that little tiny cappuccino catcher of a facial hair patch that CTodd sports is more presentable than that scruff Floyd Landis is sporting.

Esp some dude who's won the Tour. Some of that Euro Fashion style SHOULD have rubbed off on him. No?

Okay - the Article about Day 3 specifically the line about the maintenance on the IRMS. WTF?

Seriously. WTF! It sounds like it was under service contract. And either the service provider or the lab most likely both have extensive and COMPLETE service records for the machine. Asking a tech how many times it was broken? Just fucking subpoena the service records if you are wanting to establish that the machine is a worthless pile of crap. No wonder the Landis camp and followers are all riding around with a hard on about the lab and the "test" results...

It is pretty crazy.

I might yet actually start following this three ring circus. Assuming i can keep my own systems working right now (big *if* with some phantom blue screens of death on an XP machine running an in-demand system)

oh well...

yall have a nice ride home
G

Democracy is a process by which the people are free to choose the man who will get the blame.
- Laurence J. Peter

exercise and weight loss

or should i say activity?

Yo G, what's going on in your head? Why this obvious statement?

Well, when someone says "did you see _____ on TV last night?" or during the day? And This said person is working on kicking a few pounds to the curb, and knowing that this person spends a few buck a month on cable/sat TV and watches WAY more than i do... I am reminded of a back page add from a Blue Cross printed mail glossy newlettery thing...

simply says "30 minutes a day"
above the picture of a couch and some equipment of exercise (might even be a bike dunno)...

and some verbage about the choice you make...

Yeah, real stellar conveyance of the "add" maybe ya get the gist or maybe i'm being too gewilliesque now.

But that choice is pretty clear no? Now an exception would certainly be (choice of couch or bike -using the bike as an example only not a limiting factor) someone who's spent two hours on the bike getting to and from work. The couch certainly probably would be the healthy route. added recovery to start the day again. Now say the person was sitting on their ass in a car for those same two hours, getting home sitting on the couch is great. How do i know? I've been there. Sure, never been the massive pork-o-portly fatass but i've been fat enough not to be able to ride in the drops without knocking the wind out of myself. And i know how i got there.

not to get all preachy and maybe i'll see if i can dig up that print add and stick it in here to complete the completely WTF U Talkin bout foo entry here...

But seriously, it don't take much. And it really does come down to choices. Which ones are you going to make?

Not just in respect to fitness, but in daily life. You gonna take the easy way out? Or you gonna take the way that will make a difference?

Peace,
G

i did it again

damnit... ate my lunch already...

and ever since reading the 40th anniversary article about Kozy Shack, i've been having a "shack attack" well cravings at least. Wanting to eat that Vanilla-y pudding goodness... mmm...

It is just one of those nice things about being constantly in caloric debt... it don't really matter how much ya eat, it never seems to be enough...

Half Wheel Hell... long before i was a fan of the Grimy Handshake, before O'Grady started writing his rants (or at least before i found them), before Greg Moody's books, before Bob Roll started writing for VeloNews...

There was Maynard Hershon. Every issue's back page was filled with the clever words of this literary cycling genius. Maynard had great stories, about all stuff cycling. It was what i flipped to second. First i hit the O'Grady cartoon, then i flipped to the back. Skipping all that middle fluff and read the back page.

So why'm'i bringing up a short collection of shorter stories? Well, i was half-wheeled on the way in. I didn't want to push 300 watts to keep at the 18 mph pace the fellow bike commuter was ticking over, but i did, but tried to keep the pace down, and managed only to spend the whole time being half-wheeled at 300 watts... until... i said have a good ride, i'm slowing down. Actually i think he was suprised, thinking he was slowing down for me, maybe he was. He's skinny, fit, and decently fast (compared to me with the trailer into a light headwind). Anyway, Still the whole time i had Maynard's line floating in my head. Holy shit. the Giro live feed just showed two porcelain like full figured topless dolls, looked like they were sitting in the window of a wine shop... but it would have been somewhat less remarkable if they didn't have 3 big full breasts, you know, like in Total Recall... The random attractive Italian female also makes the coverage worth watching, not to mention the bike racing.

Anyway... Half Wheel Hell to Tri-Boobed dolls... maybe it is an Italian thing?

Great... now they are showing kids eating gellato... and not a couple hot gals wearing short shorts... OOOH AN ATTACK!

only the Italians can mix up food, women, and bike racing in such an attractive package!

One day i may dig out the story of living with an Italian summer theater class from my summer in Bar Harbor many many many years ago... and the torment one cute brunette caused... maybe i'll leave that part out...

Oh hey - Furlan's at 92% with a BPM at 166 doing 15km/h OUCH!

Okay - enough play by play - no need to torment Il Brucie...

Oh and last year's bike to work day? Cold, Raining, Windy same day more or less... middle of may... This year? Forecast to be about 20 degrees colder than it has been, windy and raining... WHOO hoo.. great.

*sigh* at least they've had good coffee and good bakery stuffs to eat in the past... This little Mikahl dude on Tinkov is kicking ass... And is 100% in the drops, as Murat has found to be much faster than the tops. Hmmm. I wonder why? What a shock! Drops? Faster? No WAY. *grin*

Respect...
G

Damn Italy is freaking beautiful... these overhead shots are stunning... stunning, is there anything out of Italy that isn't?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KOZY SHACK

Good stuff i tell ya. Domestic even. Them stuff is mighty tasty. Grab a tub or two and go nuts!

Happy 40th Birthday Kozy Shack.

Thanks to our own industry insider for that great bit of cheery news!

Wahoo.

live coverage rocks

Got in a couple hours this morning. Felt wicked hot, oppressive...

Fantastic riding partner, unlike Marky G draggin me around i was able to push when i needed too but also recover. It is different riding when you are being the motorpace bike rather than the one trying to constantly hang on.

Felt great on the bike. As soon as i was shutting down heading back to the picture factory i got all glum and gloomy again. Maybe i just need to be riding the bike all day long?

Get to head down to the remote facility today... which probably will be good to get me outa here for the afternoon.

Anyone got a spare Noah around that i can use for the next couple years?

Bike to work day coming up on Friday. Just another day riding in for the GeWilli.
peace,
G

velogames

After stage 3 i've managed to some how slide into 83rd place. WTF?

Cool.

Between Velogames and RAI i might become a pro-cycling fan after all...

or not...

No, gewilli isn't sick. Just a bit tired... or *shurg*

i dunno...

No worries tho. I'll be back to my introspective verbal diarrhea in no time...

peace,
g

Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.
- Albert Einstein

Haunting

this isn't the full version (blogger puked and used up about 15 megs of space before i resized it) still not small (if you decide to click)...

Best links of the morning

link


in lieu of me having pleonasm...

Belgium Knee Warmers "At All Cost": great read on the Lance Landis Saga... (damn i'm an idiot this morning)

Cycling Automaton is back online: nice little video and some other worthy insights.

Biketopia on "It's what's Inside": seriously one of the best all around over all entries i've read in ages.

Colin's BRRRR is worth a read for the Mt Bike voyeurs out there...


beyond that?

it is a wasteland... well not quite but more or less that's the remarkable stuff out there.

peace (give em all a read, eh?!)
G

Gridlock

Mentally (and yes... i've resorted to songs for titles again)

What to say...

*shrug*

the team's ITT series starts today. Yes it is a Tuesday one, 6.7 mile rolling loop. Finally found one mention of my times from last year:

Oh and I rode a 17:45 today… knockin 22 seconds off my previous time… and my HR was way up there – a good sign…

Pretty sure i got down to the 16s on that course last year. Dunno tho. Won't have a chance to try it today. Maybe next week? Nope gotta go to wrentham to meet up with some folks... kinda means no 'tuck for a while either?

Oh well...

New Tool Box entry at PEZ

Giro... I was geeked to come in and watch some RAI italian coverage... damnit... farking REST DAY? WTF?

Got a gwadzilla-esque photo series coming soon... but this might be about it for mr mental gridlock...

maybe it is time to let the stuff slide... chill for the rest of may and first part of june and then start building again in july for cross season...

This commute isn't really insignificant mileage and seat time...

-g

found it...

media.rai.it

i dunno if they'll have live Giro coverage again dis year... but you can still brush up on your italian

CA DU TAH... wonder if that means crash...

The Ultimo kilo footage is cool...

the overhead? WOW... Petacchi - what a win...

DAT is bike racing folks... wow...

burnt out?

on a monday?

yeah...

here... maybe this'll work...

FAITHLESS
MASS DESTRUCTION (PAUL JACKSON BIG WEAPON MIX)
CHEEKY

is playing right now on GrooveRadio.com

"inaction is a weapon of mass destruction"

pretty damn true words...

sobering thoughts considering the numbers of people inactively watching 6 hours of TV a day... inactively taking part in reducing their footprint on the earth...

sigh...

that ain't helping is it...

downward spiral...

respect,
g

Monday...

Yeah. Monday.

had a weekend off, sort of. Sat we loaded up the trail-a-bike and the trailer and took a family jaunt down to the Market (child street Warren - SHOP THERE DAMN IT) needed some more of that grass fed beef (people can't eat grass can they? and supposedly there are things in GFB that be really good fo ya), some lettuce, avocados and the most kick ass natural bacon ever... You see, most "natural" bacon seems to be wet, loaded with saline and other crap... this stuff "Farmland" is simple, nitrite and nitrate free, and honestly pretty cheap. It ain't walmart cheap. AND unlike the 12oz in the Whole Paycheck brand packs or 8oz in the Applegate (applerape for the prices they charge for stuff that doesn't really taste like bacon), this stuff is a full 16 oz of tastey nummy goodness.

Well it was decided that we head down south some more. My wife hadn't ventured past Warren on the bike path so we headed off exploring. Wound up at Colt State Park, played on the playground there for a bit and headed home. That was a longish ride for the oldest on her Trail-a-bike. But she did great. Little one finally conked out and took a nap along the last 3 miles and for about 10 minutes after we got home.

Sunday i got on the bike to head over to the market to help my little bro finish some stuff up so he could get home faster and because i needed just a few minutes of quiet. Before that tho we made up something special. cooked up that bacon cause while the little ones and i are big time pork links for breafast kinda folks my wife still prefers the bacon as a meat side. AND

and i made some waffles. Chocolate waffles. And this time they didn't just smell like chocolate. They TASTED like chocolate. Almost like chocolate cake coming out of the waffle iron. And yeah. I think i could prolly make em vegan and still be just as tasty! (Hey GeWilli, why ya bring up vegan after talking about bacon, beef and sausage? "I dunno")

Anyway... i got a few minutes in sunday, pretty mellow. Nothing crazy. Turns out, i can ride to the market as fast or faster than driving and even loaded up with everything the 4 of us can get to the market in 20-25 minutes or so on bikes.

People keep talking about feeling the pinch of fuel. Well. Compared to michigan when i was buying 17-18 gallons of diesel a week on top of filling the other car up once or twice a month, we are spending nothing on fuel. not to say there is extra cash, but the news outlets and all keep saying people are feeling it. cutting back on things to keep their cars filled with the devil's tea.

It is bike to work month, and now bike to work week for many states/cities. Here? I think we just get a day (18th). No matter.

On our ride down to Colt St Park there were a few other trailers and some trail-a-bikes in action. But Sunday? HOLY CRAP. The little ones and i walked over to our playground and i was amazed at the sheer number of trailers out in force. People have been asking me where i get mine, or "where should we get one" and I don't know if it is because i am out there every day riding with a trailer, but it must be part of it, it seems that people are taking note of what i'm doing.

Am i setting an example that people are following? I dunno if i would go that far. But if people see me with the trailer every day, maybe they can get to the point of thinking "hey i can do that" and maybe even if it is just around the block down to the bike path or what not. Getting out is good. Few trailers i am sure see the use mine does. Maybe only in Portland or Seattle are folks as grounded in their convictions as i am. Yeah, I'm a bike commuter first, racer second. Always will be like that. Alternative transportation is one way to help this place we are living on. Bikes are the best answer.

Feel a fuel pinch? Grab a backpack and ride to the grocery story...

One of the best pro cyclist/journalist has a great article up. Go Read It.

Oh - the other vanilla boy actually pulled his head far enough out to post something new... i was about ready to relegate that sumbitch to the inactive folder with Il Bruce... Not that the content there is worth checking out... but... content is content and there is only 125 days before cross starts here...

Sterling RR was this past weekend. GeWilli did not go and get schooled in the masters by the likes of Mahk and Company... I wonder how Rich's view was during the race...

GeWilli probably won't be racing this coming weekend either. Despite the proximity of the Stonington race. GeWilli's got other things going on... Maybe he'll race again... or not... pickings start to look slim... Housatonic looks like fun, but it is father's day and well we are supposed to be out on an island somewhere hanging with friends... The Tokeneke race looks promising. I've mentioned that before, it was the old road race course for UConn back in my collegiate days... at least it was one year - they had a massive crash fest crit on campus there in Storrs one year (Geo's last collegiate race IIRC).

We've got the Bikeworks and potentially the Refunds Now time trial series coming up, and maybe this lack of 'big' races is enough to get me out to the 'tuck? Who knows. Who knows.

Oh yeah, the Giro is going on right now. Live coverage or something. Hey last year some Italian channel had the coverage live over the 'net? Anyone know if they are doing it this year? I'd need to get a translator in here if i wanted to understand more than the rider's names... but it is the giro, and Italian is such a beautiful language - it would be like an opera maybe, ya don't need to always understand the words to understand the meaning, the emotion and the action. No?

Shit like this is horrible. Sure it is one thing to copy some shitty essay off the internet and turn it in as yours. Taking someone's photographs and putting them in a fucking Exhibit? Fucking shitty. Take that plagiarism index and kick it out the window man. It ain't about anything other than people stealing shit and being okay with it.

Damn... what a comment to walk away from for a while... kinda seeps in and clouds over everything.

I actually remembered i started off intending to mention (document) the ride in. Why? well it was sort of remarkable. in a way that i had lots of carrots (or rabbits) up the bike path. Two when i started, then... catching one early, the next visibile down the path barely, then add two more ahead... pulling em in... pulling em in... power power power pedal pedal pedal... legs feeling pretty decent, this hurts, shut up head, hurt is good, but, brain chill, breath, breath... keep that power up there... push it... almost catching them... okay the rise, up up up keep pushing... Anyway. It was good. The rest weekend was helpful. Although, rest? Standing on my feet cooking for most of it it seemed. I didn't race or go for some medium speed group ride so... yeah in the bike racer POV, it was rest. Not the legs elevated do nothing PRO bike racer POV tho... Maybe when i'm racing in the 55+ division i'll be able to do that... maybe...

I gotta get some tunes going or something, maybe go for a walk in the sun... the computer says it is a nice day outside...

ride ya damn bike,
G

Good Luck Bike Racers

Do well this weekend. I ain't got advice, at least about racing, i'm still a sponge that ain't filled up yet ready to leak what i've already absorbed...

Thanks to CA&M i can go home knowing everyone will be able to identify poison ivy and a jack in the pulpit orchid... or not... thanks to bart for the first ID.

The microscopes are all tucked in and ready for a quiet weekend, the factory is officially closed.

GeWilli is gonna lightly feather the pedals home and all that...

peace,
G

Name That Plant

Gonna give it a unique entry bump it up so it is not buried in the pile of mess...

Two One plants.

Name em both it, no need for the genus species, common name works. One should was be easy (actually both should be)...

#1

Toxicodendron radicans

Has no one stepped outside? Paid attention to the green stuff growing outside? Step right up, Step right up... give it a try...

You ain't gonna find a better picture in a taxonomy book for #1 than what's there...