The Other Shoe has Dropped, and It Appears to be Worn Out

What could be more fitting to write about in this, my 100th post, than the man who really got Americans (ok, only about seven of us) excited in the sport of cycling - Tom Boonen. Seriously, he used blow while at least some other riders in the pro peloton were turning to EPO, CERA, testosterone, Fluff, etc. When he finally takes off his lycra shorts for the last time and calls it quits, he most definitely has a spot in Hollywood. Truth be told Boonen is my favorite rider and I wish him all the best - go get 'em Tommeke, just lay off the white stuff.

Actually, the man I speak of is none other than Lance Edward Gunderson, better known to the world as Lance Armstrong. With all the allegations from former teammates, including Tyler Hamilton and Floyd Landis (George Hincapie is said to have given some pretty damning testimony to a grand jury about LA's, and his own, drug use), it is harder and harder for people that use reason to believe that he never used PEDs. In this article, author Renee Gough describes how her son - who is/was a huge LA fan - comes to grips with the Hamilton interview on 60 Minutes. Gough uses the metaphor of her son's favorite pair of shoes, a set of Livestrong Nikes:

I'm not sure what's worse, the fact that she uses as her subtitle, "Lance Armstrong's Livestrong apparel may be unraveling at the seams" - I fear that 'unraveling' is a bit of an understatement:

Or her son's response to the allegations made by Hamilton. In what Gough claims was an expertly reasoned response, her son's retort to the allegations was, "I’ve read Lance Armstrong’s book, the reason he did so good is because before he had cancer he didn’t realize how much he wanted it.” Sure, if will power is all it takes to get a person from a hospital bed and chemotherapy to winning the TdF, than I would have slept with so many girls as a young, 20-something roaming the streets of New York City. Bringing the story full circle, as well as tying (yeah, like laces, I'm in on it as well) together the shoe metaphor/unraveling pun, Gough says she is happy for the first time in her life to go shoe shopping to replace her son's Livestrong Nikes. This is where the story gets fishy; a woman who claims she hasn't been excited to go shoe shopping before? I'm not buying it.

While I understand her desire to replace the shoes, a physical reminder of LA, she falls in the same trap as just about every other person who discusses the issue of LA doping - that the Livestrong Foundation has cheated the same way LA (possibly) has. Hitting close to home, KC's soccer team - Sporting KC - has a new stadium that the writer of this article seems to believe links them directly to LA. I don't know if Livestrong has ever done anything illegal or if LA was involved, but what I do know is that no matter how horrible a person LA may turn out to be, the foundation he started is one that has an honorable cause. LA and Livestrong will always be linked, but transferring the negative aspects of the person onto the foundation is ridiculous.

No matter what happens with LA, Livestrong will most likely take a hit, but in the end people will realize when they pledge money to Livestrong or purchase Livestrong themed articles of clothing, they will be helping those with cancer (as well as hurting those children who work in Chinese sweatshops). In the end this all would be much easier to sort out and result in a much neater clean up if LA had just joined Boonen for an eight ball instead of (possibly) injecting himself with drugs. It's not as if he couldn't afford to waste a few hundred dollar bills to make straws.

Back from the Brink - Boonen, Bikes, Beer, and Alliteration

Despite what the title may suggest, I fear there won't be much beer in this post. What there will be is a recap of the weekend that was.

Like most cycling fans (I assume), I was a huge fan of the Grand Tours and didn't care too much for the classics when I first began following the pro peloton. As I've gotten older, and perhaps matured a bit (or perhaps not), I've become a bigger fan of the classics. I have not given up on the Grand Tours and I still really enjoy the story lines they create (especially the Giro), but the classics are definitely on equal footing for me now. This weekend provided us cycling fans with two great races - though E3 Harelbeke isn't considered a classic.

On Saturday, Fabian Cancellara, known as Spartacus, attacked a lead group at the 18KM mark and ended up winning going away - by almost a minute!

Your are watching Fabian Cancellara destroy the peloton indeed.

In the spirit of full disclosure, Spartacus had already crossed the finish line when he rested his hands on his hips. Of course, he could have ridden like that for the last two kilometers and still won handily. So who finished second? A rider from Omega Pharma Lotto:

Must have been Gilbert or Greipel right?

What!?

Oh yeah, neither of them raced. Greipel did race on Sunday in Gent-Wevelgem. Unfortunately for him and his compatriots on OPL, once again there was at least one other rider to cross the line before him. After what seemed like forever, Tom Boonen has won another cobbled classic:

It's not the greatest quality picture, but trust me, it's Tommeke. What did he do to celebrate his victory? The only thing any real hipster would do, enjoy a PBR in the can:

Upon further inspection that can looks more like a Fanta than a PBR. I guess my opening statement concerning a lack of beer in today's post was correct. But wait! Perhaps two photographers at the finish line might have been a little tipsy when they decided to stand in the middle of the road, causing two riders to crash:


In their defense, the photographers who caused the crash were the first ones on the scene, but not to provided first aid:

Scooped ya, bitch! Now that I think about it, those photographers probably work for Cyclingnews. I guess the lag between races starts as soon as the winner crosses the line and news sources need to go out and create stories.

Speaking of creating stories, ESPN's Sport Science decided they needed to look into what makes Baylor star Brittany Griner able to dunk and block shots:

I'll tell you the science behind it - she's 6'8" tall! Solved, Galileo.

Getting back to bikes, I watched a video over at AHTBM of some young gentlemen performing tricks on their BMX bikes. I quickly spotted what I considered to be a weird sight:

I'll tell you, that young man never has to worry about rolling up his right pant leg in order to keep in clean. Interestingly, "the time-traveling t-shirt-wearing retro-Fred from the planet Tridork" also seems to have the same drive train set up. I'm beginning to wonder if perhaps the "curator" of BSNYC and the "artist" behind AHTBM are one in the same. The facts:

1. You never see them at the same place and the same time.
2. AHTBM featured a video from BSNYC this past weekend.
3. During the same week both featured media (picture and video) of bikes with their drive trains on the left side.

With that conspiracy theory simmering in your head, I must apologize for the lack of posting over the past two weeks. While I have no real excuse, I did have family in town (including a 2-year old), to which I was happy to move my focus from this endeavor. Since you're now in the forgiving mood, I will also not be posting on Wednesday as I will be in south Kansas attempting to pilot an aircraft from the ground, around the air, and safely back to the ground. We shall meet again on Friday. Who knows, there might even be some beer involved.

A Weekend in the Books

Over the last two months it has rained two or three times here in northeast Kansas. This Friday, the day I was scheduled to watch the Kansas City Royals, it poured. After about two hours the game was finally called and rescheduled for Saturday at 6:10 pm. We didn't get the same seats right behind the home dugout, but we did get a doubleheader. The first game went into extra innings and was eventually won by the Royals (that's right, they win a game or two every once in a while). The second game didn't start until after 10, so we watched the first two innings and left. Turns out the second game went into extra innings as well, but the Royals lost.

I watched stage 5 of the Eneco Tour yesterday morning. Unlike some of the larger, more popular races, there weren't many people watching it online, which allowed me to enjoy it without the broadcast skipping. Jack Bobridge from Team Garmin-Transitions rode away from the break with a couple kilometers to go to win the stage, at which point he raised his arms in victory:

While it was good to see an American team win the stage, I caught a glimpse of Belgian national champion (both road and TT), Stijn Devolder, in his national colors and was a bit sad:

Being a huge fan of Tom Boonen, it was bittersweet to see another Quickstep rider with the national colors, especially since Boonen wasn't even able to defend his win. It looks like he'll make a comeback at the end of this year, which is awesome.

In other news that is awesome, this young one with big dreams pedaled his way right into the sex offenders' registry. I would think that by the time you're seventeen, and riding in the Tour is your dream, you wouldn't go on training rides in jeans, a t-shirt, and beanie cap. What do I know though, perhaps he was wearing a pair of these. On second thought, it might have been better that he removed those and rode naked.

Let's hope that my LSAT results are much better than my BSNYC quiz results: