The Battle of Brittany

Versus is currently running a commercial that equates riding a bicycle with flying. I can say, as a person who both rides and flies, they really aren't that similar. Let's say for argument's sake that both activities had certain qualities in common, I don't think many people would fly if the shared qualities occurred at comparable frequencies. Sure, in cycling as in flying you can go fast (relatively), feel the wind in your hair (if you're in an open cockpit aircraft and you ride your bike without a helmet), and explore new places, but luckily for those who tempt the gods of physics, crashing doesn't occur in flying nearly as often as it does in cycling. Case in point, today's stage in the TdF. Phil and Paul counted no less than ten crashes today. Two included pre-race favorite AC:

One forced Tom Boonen to fight just to make the time cut:


And one forced Shack rider Janez Brakjovic (who is not related to Erin Brockovich, or Julia Roberts who played her in the movie) to head to the hospital and eventually abandon the race:

The stage wasn't all blood though, as the peloton passed through the town of Saint Brieuc:

How would you like to live there? I can see it now,

You: Yeah, come on over for dinner.
Your Friend: Ok, where is your place?
You: It's the dull colored one, shouldn't be hard to find.

Just as I questioned Versus' comparison of cycling and flying, a couple weeks ago I questioned whether team Garmin-Cervelo would switch to a white kit for the TdF. Turns out they did:


I'm sure I'm not the only one who questioned (and secretly thought) if Garmin-Cervelo would switch to a "summer" kit. I guess professional cycling has become a little too predictable. And hey, wouldn't you know, Cavendish won another stage:

While Cav winning a stage isn't too out of the ordinary, winning a stage with an uphill finish in which the final sprint included classics extraordinaire Philippe Gilbert, most certainly is. Perhaps Cav is showing some of the form he showed in his 2009 Milan-San Remo victory.

On second thought, I'm not sure I should go so far as to compare two things that really aren't that similar.

Big Price, Big Expectations: You Don't Always Get What You Pay For

In my last post, I might have written that I would have another post on Monday, the 20th of June. Clearly that didn't happen. Lucky for you this blog doesn't cost you anything. Unlucky for me, this blog doesn't cost you anything.

While I was back east, my family and I visited the Mystic Aquarium. Seeing as how the aquarium is right on the shore (and the fact that each ticket was around $29), I had high hopes for what might have been inside. As the saying goes, always put your best foot forward, and that's exactly what Mystic Aquarium did:

Leading with their heavy hitters, the aquarium placed the whale tank directly inside the entrance. Needless to say the whales (there were three) were pretty cool. So how did the aquarium follow up? With this:

Yup, you got it, it's a frog. To be honest, it didn't get much better.

The next day we headed north up to Northampton, MA to do some sight-seeing. We visited the campus of Smith College, the largest of the Seven Sisters. As expected, the campus was beautiful. A scenic and calm waterway cut the area roughly in half. Crossing the foot bridge, we noticed a squirrel clinging to the edge of the concrete decking:

He moved around on the side of the bridge like a spider, until his grip gave out. At that point he fell, belly first, into the stream below. If he had started floating downstream I might have felt bad, but as it was he quickly climbed back up the bridge and scampered off into the woods.

On another part of the campus I noticed this graffiti:

I sure hope the artist's English teacher is for her. I'm no Slyvia Plath (who is, by the way, a Smith grad), but that is some horrible grammar. You would think for $53,460 a year even the freshwomen (yeah, I made that up, but I bet girls at Smith use something stupid like that to refer to themselves) would get some decent English training, as the clearly don't get much training in parking a motor vehicle:

On second thought, that horrible parking job might just be due to the driver being a woman versus any lack of training.

So, once again I visited a place that was expensive (luckily though I didn't have to pay tuition to walk to the campus) and in the end the product didn't impress as it should have.

Never fear though, as the day ended with a stop at the Northampton Brewery for a cold beer. I tried the Scuba Märzen (pronounced more like Mare-Tsen, not Mare-Zen) and completely enjoyed it:

Märzen, German for March Beer, is a lager that had its beginnings in Bavaria. The Scuba was caramel in color and had a delicious malty flavor - a great way to end the trip.

As we come to end of today's post, I must once again inform you of a leave of absence I will be taking. My wife and I recently moved into a new home and as such we have been busy, and will continue to be busy, getting completely moved in. I hope to be able to get back to regular posting next Monday with updates from the TdF.

Look on the bright side, whether I'm back on Monday or not, you aren't out any money.

The Grossglockner is Etna; Etna is the Grossglockner; LA used PEDs?!

What do you do as a sprinter knowing the stage you are racing will be your last in this year's Giro (because the road tips up and it isn't worth the effort if there aren't any sprint stages left)? You tell your teammates to go to the front and destroy the field for you:

If all goes your way you win, like Cavendish did for the second time this Giro:

In his excitement, Cav decided to use his fingers to create a visual representation of the number of stages he has won. Either that or he has jumped on the hippie bandwagon and is asking for peace. I only say that because his visual sign this year is a bit different from last year's.

In what seemed to be a replay of stage 9's climb of Etna (except today's stage was in Austria, was rainy, and was an entirely different stage), AC and the little Venezuelan (no not Hugo Chávez) José Rujano broke from the pack on the last climb. Unlike stage 9, Rujano won the stage - though it would probably be fairer to say that he was gifted it by AC:

Why do I say that it was a gift? For one, Rujano looked back at AC three times in the last 50 meters to see if he was going to pass him. For another, look at how short this guy is, there's no way he could have held off AC if he had wanted to accelerate and take the stage:

Fun fact - Rujano has won more races as a jockey than a bike rider.

The next question one would ask is why would AC let him win? Rujano has been the only person who can stay with AC on the climbs and is almost six minutes back in the GC so he posses no threat. The other riders who everyone thought could pose a threat? Look at these gaps (and add that to the 50+ seconds he took on Etna) and you'll see that as of right now they pose about as much threat as Donald Trump does to President Obama's chances of being reelected in 2014:

With today's effort AC is now leading in the GC, mountains classification, and points competition. You'd think the way AC has been riding despite his case being decided by CAS would be the big news in the world of cycling, but it's not.

In a 60 Minutes interview, disgraced Olympic Champion and former teammate of Lance Armstrong, Tyler Hamilton admitted he took performance enhancing drugs as well as saying the he saw LA use EPO. The response from LA's camp is the same one we heard when Landis made his claims of LA's drug use; "he has no credibility." So how did team LA respond to the news that his most trusted lieutenant and friend, George Hincapie, testified that he used EPO and testosterone with LA while with the Postal Service Team? They insinuated that since the reports are anonymous they are false - I guess that means that Hincapie still has some credibility. Another former USPS rider, though he left the team before LA arrived, has come forward and stated that he was offered PEDs while a team rider. The next, and probably last, big piece of the puzzle is Levi Leipheimer, another of LA's "inner circle" crew.

So what do you do when you are the greatest TdF rider in the history of the sport and it looks like this just may be your last race? You send your team to the front and hope you can pull out a victory.

Two Races, One Problem

As mentioned last night, the LBS put on a crit that I attended as a spectator. Here are some of the low quality pictures I snapped with my low quality camera:


There was one crash in the cat 5 race, but as there were a total of five racers and about as many spectators, I didn't feel it was right to take a picture of it. Thankfully the rider was ok.

Another race that occurred yesterday was the sixth stage of the Volta a Portugal. To be honest I wasn't too interested in watching it. Maybe it was because I was unable to understand the commentators due to the lack of a British accent or perhaps the lack of Team Radioshack. I guess that Bruyneel 'snubbed' the entire Iberian Pennisula after his team was 'snubbed' by the Vuelta organizers. Is the lack of Team Radioshack riders in both the Vuelta and the Volta the beginning of the end? Maybe Johan took a lesson from history and realized that even the great tactician Napoleon was unable to take Portugal:

Only time will tell.

Unlike the TdF, the Volta a Portugal truly is a tour that encompasses the entire country. If you don't believe me compare the stage six profile with the map of Portugal:


If you are having trouble deciphering them I'll help out. Please direct your attention to the legend on the Portugal map. Notice how from the north to the south Portugal is about 5.5 times the length of the 10 kilometer scale. Still don't get it? Ok, if yesterday's stage was 221 kilometers and Portugal is about 55 kilometers from north to south, than the riders would have to make about four and a half trips to complete the distance.

Enough of that. Joaquim Ortega, one of two Spanish riders on the Portugal-based Barbot Spider team, was victorious as he rode away from the day's break. No pictures of the winner, but check out the sweet team jersey:

Time to go, I'm not supposed to be on this website on Thursdays.

Pawns and Pretension

Last week I mentioned Coheed and Cambria's new album, Year of the Black Rainbow, but failed to actually talk about the music. Instead I devoted a portion of the post giving a weak overview of the book that accompanies the music. So, to back track, I will now give a weak overview of the music on the new album. It is clear that Coheed has evolved over the years, but I think the biggest difference on the Black Rainbow album is the influence of Chris Pennie. I know that he has been with the band since 2007, but he was unable to record with Coheed on No World For Tomorrow due to contractual issues. He may have been involved in writing for that album, but I think Black Rainbow has more of a 'mathcore' (DEP) feel to it on certain tracks. While there may be some mellower songs than there are on other Coheed albums, in the end Black Rainbow is impressive.

Last Wednesday I also took part in a 10-mile time trial with the local shop ride. By sheer placement I performed better than Vino did at the TdF, so I'm going to focus on that positive aspect:

When I first got back to the US I missed riding my bike in Germany because of the amazing bike paths. Now I understand that I miss riding in Germany for other reasons as well. The more and more I do group rides, I realize I like 'riding fast' when it is fast to me, not actually fast. I'm sure riding with a group will help me become a better rider, but I really do enjoy just getting on the bike with no particular goal in mind and exploring. Hopefully once it cools down here in Kansas (around October) I'll be able to do that again. Plus by that time I'll have already taken the LSAT and I won't have to study hours a day for it.

A while back I gave a spot on the DB Podium to LTC Terry Lakin. The reason is because he is a 'birther'who is refusing to deploy because he believes his deployment orders constitute an illegal order from the president. He is of this mindset because he believes President Obama hasn't produced a valid birth certificate or any other legal proof that he is a natural born citizen of the US. LTC Lakin has deployed before, including once to Afghanistan. He is facing a court-martial over his refusal to deploy. Perhaps I'm missing the boat here, but I would assume that any issue with Obama's citizenship would have been sorted out during his election campaign:

Although claims about Obama's citizenship were evaluated in 2008 by the McCain Campaign and ultimately rejected,...

Hey, look at that! Obama's citizenship was looked into during his election campaign, by his opponent.

What worries me is that 'birthers' are using LTC Lakin as a pawn. What better way to get patriotic Americans to support your cause than by having a decorated military doctor stand up to what he says (or probably more accurately they - The American Patriot Foundation - say) are illegal orders. I'm pretty sure his court-martial will end badly for him and The American Patriot Foundation will drop him and look for the next face of their cause.

Let's close up shop today with a movie that loosely mimics my real life experiences around bikes:

In The Beginning There Was Belgium And Things Were Not Good

Eerily similar to the start of the Giro, the first couple stages of the TdF have given us fans some spectacular crashes - including one that involved a loose dog. Perhaps the Vuelta committee can make a quick change to move the first few stages to Luxembourg where they can hope to round out the Grand Tour season with a smattering of early stage crashes. Besides Fränk and Andy Schleck's crash today, the Luxembourgers must be feeling left out of the excitement, what with their Benelux compatriots getting the opportunity to provide the general public with amazing racing (or unnecessary carnage). Don't ask Levi, he might tell you the infamous "they" want to see crashes (of course we do, this is the country of Nascar).

To be fair to Levi, here is photographic evidence of the conspiracy:

Perhaps it is just a handicap system, but I wouldn't give Lars Boom such a big handicap during a time trial as to have him ride it at night.

Speaking of the TdF (which we can't do here in America without mentioning Lance), Lance seems to be thumbing his nose at the D-O-double-G. Snoop created a "good luck" message for his man Lance and posted the video on YouTube. Yet clearly Lance is riding for another famous musician:

Anyway, being in America is good because I can watch the races on a large TV instead of the internet - or so I thought. It appears that Versus isn't on some cable subscription plans. No fear, I had the trusty internet as a back up. But alas, my two attempts were defeated by technology as the internet crashed and left me wondering if Christian Vande Velde had crashed out. I was happy to find out the next day that he had indeed crossed the line with the rubber side down. True to form, he unfortunately crashed in stage 2 and withdrew from the race with broken ribs.

On the academic front, I scored a sweet five out of six (including the bonus question) on BSNYC's 2 July quiz. If I keep up my high scores I might contact the Snob and see if I can get credit towards an associate's degree.

Big ups to Chavanel on his break away win on stage 2 and his ride into yellow. France really needs something to bring up their spirits after the horrible showing their national soccer team had in South Africa. What an emotional roller coaster those fans must be on: the French team "earns" a spot in the World Cup after a clear hand ball by Henry and then they make the US team look good after creating a mockery of the sport. That is just recent history, I don't feel it's fair to France to go on.

Happy belated 4th everyone. Enjoy the hangovers, ride the bikes, and support the minimum wage waiters.