FYI: Spaghetti and meatballs isn't even an Italian dish. In Italy they never serve a meatball on top of a plate of spaghetti. They have great wine, though. And the dudes there wear $500 shoes and live at home with their mothers until they're 40 years old. No joke. They know how to live.
European cycling is like single Italian guys. Sometimes it's too good to be true.
Checking out today's Giro results I noticed an article on Velonews titled Tools of the Pro Tour mechanics. It's an interesting piece of fluff. Until I started actually sort-of wrenching for the LIttle Lady I thought all pro mechanics were set up with shit loads of Snap On tools and a rig full of fancy ass spare parts. Like NASCAR or F1. Turns out those euro freaks have some homemade stuff in their tool box. Like fancy homemade truing stands and work stands. The most interesting tool though was a butter knife which was being used by a naked fat guy who wrenches for Astana!
Away from The Boot, The Belgian Federation has Boonen's back. How is it that testing positive for Cocaine isn't a doping violation? It's DOPE!
The UCI statement said: "Following the control ... on the Belgian rider Tom Boonen, which revealed the use of cocaine, the UCI President Pat McQuaid has decided to refer the matter to the UCI Disciplinary Commission.
"The behavior of Tom Boonen, even though it does not constitute a violation of the anti-doping rules, can be considered unacceptable (Art.1.2.079) and liable to harm the image, reputation or interests of cycling or the UCI (Art. 12.1.005).
"This infringement is punishable by a suspension of 1-6 months."
All I know is that if I blew a drug test at work they'd fire me for the cocaine and wouldn't care about EPO or cortisone. Do you still want to believe? Well, check this out: an expose on Telekom, the doping years 1995-2006:
The findings of an independent commission have broken new ground on systemic doping on one of the sport's most successful teams. It has been revealed that two doctors from the Freiburg University Clinic ran an organised doping programme for the enormously successful German Telekom/T-mobile squad from 1995 to 2006. Cyclingnews' Susan Westemeyer reports.
Is it my imagination or does Telekom's stool pigeon, Patrik Sinkewitz, look a lot like Chris Kattan? Mango!
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Along with hundreds of pounds of mud caked to my truck, I seem to have brought a nasty cold or sinus infection or whatever back from Tennessee. I'm not surprised. I'm prone to what Mark Hendershot would call wussitis. A little putrid pasture mud and rain and I'm fracked. Now I'm flat on my back and home early from work. No evening hammer ride for me tonight. I'm on down time. All the better, cause tonight is the season finale of Lost. The pounding in my head makes me wanna do something old school, like call the local barber/veterinarian/doctor and have him get the toxins out. I'm speaking metaphorically here, of course. Better to let the Sudafed do its job.
More and more the bicycle blogosphere seems to be hitting on the impending wave of Dutch City Bikes coming our way. Not content to stay out of the fray, the Grey Lady is chiming in.
But City Room isn’t quite so sure that the masculine, messenger-centric bicycling culture is ready to embrace a style of lumbering, erect bicycling-riding that is reminiscent of, well, Pee Wee Herman.
Either way, 200 Dutch-style bicycles are coming to New York as part of the 400th anniversary of the Henry Hudson’s landing in New York City. Not just any Dutch bicycles, orange Dutch bicycles. “Very orange,” as the deputy mayor, Robert C. Lieber, put it at a ceremony introducing the bicycles.
Will the hipster fixie kids embrace the upright posture and civility of european city bikes? Sounds like a bad question. As trendy as the fixie craze has been it's only been a trend. And a trend for a relatively small number of people at that. Very very few people ride bikes in this country. Especially here in the heartland. And messenger bikes, whether reclaimed vintage frames or new single speed versions from Redline or Cannondale will never be seen as accessible or practical by the general public.
Yeah, initially I'm sure that some of those annoyingly precious hipster chicks and their emasculated boyfriends will plop down a couple of grand for a Jorg & Olif or a Velorbis. But the truth is that city bikes require that you actually live in a city. A city that's built around them. They don't move very fast. These bikes are usually three or five speeds. They're designed to be ridden slowly in normal street clothes and shoes. Not in congested vehicular traffic. If your commute is 5-10 miles through busy suburban or city streets one of these city bikes might not do the job. You'd be better off with a Shimano 10 speed rear deraileur, drop bar and set of panniers for your work junk.
I'm rooting for bike share programs in American cities. A metropolis like Gotham might be a good place for these Dutch machines. But out here in the midwest we don't even have simple public transportation. No subways. No light rail. No fancy commuter buses. There's one Amtrak train that comes through my town and goes strait to Chicago, but you aren't allowed to bring your bike or even a checked bag onboard. Don't even get me started on the lack of bike lanes here.
Civilized european style bikes won't take a firm hold here until the cities in which we live become more civilized. If we're going to get around on what is essentially a fancy slow moving cruiser bike we'll need a more civilized city. We'll need to live closer to our destinations. We'll need more bike lanes and bike only roads. More racks. A more comprehensive public transit system to fill in the gaps. After all, if so many of us live in the suburbs, we can't really ride our city bikes 30 miles to work downtown.
Ain't nothin' like mud. Wallow in it. Roll in it. Rub your bum in it. Some mud is better than others, though. Some mud is good for makin' bricks. Some mud is good for mud pies. Some mud is good for racin' trucks.
DS&G Blog Roll..........
Cyclingdirt.org has an insane amount of videos and coverage of Dirt, Sweat & Gears 2009. You want photos? They got photos! You want videos of helpless people in the woods freaking out about killer mud. They got that too.
Danielle Musto was humbled by Tennesse's rich native soil.
Jeremiah Bishop bummed a Kenda Karma off me Friday night and used that freakin' tire to win a bike race! (but he may not have updated his blog yet, so check back later)
"I can appreciate now what I didn't see before, that I'm not going to be young forever, that If I am going to win the Tour, then it would have to be within the next three years," he muses. "But I never wanted to win as many Tours as possible, full stop. It's more a question of getting to the top of the world hierachy in the sport, exploiting my talent 100 per cent."
Maybe all these guys never listened to Nancy Reagan. Just say no to drugs you dopes!
I have just returned from what I can only call the most horrible trail conditions I have ever seen at a 12 or 24 Hour race.
But don't take my word for it. Listen to the guy who won...
Around these parts The Detroit Red Wings are the top of the sports food chain. A winning team year after year. The kind of Dynasty not unlike the New York Yankees. You want to get your ass kicked? Go into any bar around here wearing a Mighty Ducks jersey. Is there a parallel in cycling? Maybe CSC or Telecom (before doping finally blew everything to hell). Or maybe Johan Bruyneel and his succession of teams. In the past decade his riders have won Le Tour 8 times, plus the Giro and Vuelta. In the cycling world the guy is Lou Holtz, Bo Schembechler and Scotty Bowman all rolled into one.
Crazy to think that Bruyneel's team is flat broke! Not even paying their riders. Busted. Kaput. Cyclingnews says it may be so bad that the team might not make it to The Tour de France this year!
The Astana cycling team may be getting its Giro d'Italia campaign underway, but its future in the sport appears to be under question. According to the website Sports.kz, the team is under real threat of financial collapse and has a week to sort things out before the International Cycling Union (UCI) withdraws the professional licence.
In April it was reported that riders had endured a period of time without payment of salaries, but that the Kazakh cycling federation would cover the overdue amount while it was waiting for the team backers to pay up. However the financial problems have lingered and it is now understood that the team must receive $2 million in the days ahead in order to replenish the UCI bank guarantee. That guarantee has been depleted, presumably to pay overdue salaries.
This shows how screwed up cycling is. The constant hunt for money and sponsorship. Unlike franchise team sports like Football and Hockey, cycling is constantly chasing the money. Imagine the Detroit Red Wings making it to the Stanley Cup Finals and announcing that they don't have the money to fly to the games and pay Chris Osgood.
Crazy days. We'll see how bad Mr Armstrong wants to ride in France. He may have to foot the bill.
Poor kid. Probably thought he was some kind of local hero with a public access show in the Detroit suburbs and a chance to interview Black Flag. OOPS! Gotta give the kid some credit, though. Back in the day I'd have shit my pants if Henry Rollins got up in my face like that.
Monday morning and another weekend bites the dust in "dog bone fucking Michigan."
There's an election in Grand Rapids on May 5. Lots of local stuff going on. Since only the Geezers vote in these local elections, will grandma and grandpa support the schools? There's a Bus Rapid Transit system (BRT) on the ballot. Seems like a good idea, since Grand Rapids destroyed it's streetcar system 60 years ago there hasn't been much of a public transit system. Of course, like all things in the 616 area code, the Reich Wing is shitting bricks and wants you to be afraid...be very afraid.
The results are in from "The Fort." I had an acceptable day at the races, back down with the rabble in the age groups. Had a nice lead going and my 1x9 gave up on me. I have all the accoutrements on board my rig to keep the chain in line, but the damn chain has a mind of it's own. Took me a lap to get back the lead. I once watched Chris Etough win 24 Hours Nationals on a 1x9. Maybe I need a pit crew to keep that chain on. Oh wait...I AM THE PIT CREW.
Once again Christian Tanguy threw down some serious hurt on all the rest of them "elite" guys. The dude is fast. Scary fast. Nice to see old man Meyers was not far behind. Gotta respect the old man who can throw down on the trail and still put down some good quality beer afterwards. Did you know that the old man Meyers got fancy new glasses?
Ain't if funny how that Bells MTB Team color matches the Smurfs?
