Bellefaire JCB Biathlon Race Report

First off, much thanks to my sponsors, we raised $230 for a great cause: Dannon Svab of Explosive Fight Promotions, Crystal Bright Window Washing and Carpet Cleaning, Dr. Wayne & Bobbi Taylor of Crossroads Chiropractic Center, and Melinda Mock. Second, thank you to the volunteers who made the race happen, they did an excellent job. One suggestion to the race coordinators, however, would be to notify bikers of sand on the road, before the turn (maybe 25-50 meters in advance), not when we are already dipping into it at over 20mph. That was a close call, I almost hit the curb and the guy behind me almost ran me over. Third, thanks to my training partner Ryan, all those rides paid some dividends.

So anyway, for my first biathlon ever and my only event at all this year, I was very pleased with my performance. Given that I’m really just a cyclist trying to run, I was not surprised to find myself way down in the “pack” (pack would be defined as several hundred racers) with a run time of 23:12 minutes. Not horrible, but I could improve greatly there. To show just how good I am not at running, here is a nice pic of me around the 2 mile marker…..notice the guy about to pass me pushing the stroller! Yikes.



...and yes those are hot silver tri-shorts! :)-

The transition went well. I came in :13 seconds or so behind my training partner Ryan, but managed to get out around the same time as him. The bike was good. I made up soo much ground out there. There was only one guy who passed me, the bearded dude in the Shaker Cycling jersey. I pushed it hard on the way back in and ended up with a time around 1:00:25. I passed 77 racers. I knew my time was okay, but didn’t even consider that it may be good for my age group of 30-34. Good thing Ryan stuck around for the podium presentation and picked up my bronze medal for the third place finish in my group. Ryan picked up the silver for the 25-29 group! Great Job Ryan!!

My goal was a sub 1 hour time. I came up just shy of that, but I learned many lessons about multi-sport today. First, I know better than to be standing around near the back of the pack with only a couple of minutes before the start. I should have got up near the front. Second, I need to develop a legit running program, not just run a few times a week. Third, get there early for a better bike placement. Fourth, don’t screw around with my gloves on the bike, just go.


Speedy Ray smoked me on the run by about 3 minutes or so, then put another 5 or so on me on the bike. Check out his race report here: http://raysracingadventures.blogspot.com/

TDF is over. Looking forward....

Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian - San Sebastian
This Saturday 8/2/2008. This one day classic has a hilly 239km route. It should be interesting. Favorites are: Contador, Bettini, Friere, Sastre, Gilbert, Chavanel. Who I'm cheering for: Bobby Julich, of course. Haven't found a free site to watch the race, but you could watch it live with a subscription to cycling.tv

Rochester Omnium
8/8 - 8/10. Check it out here.

Olympics
Starts 8/8 for rider info, check out this site.
Aug 8 11:00pm ET Men's Cycling Road individual road race - Finals
Aug 10 2:00am ET Women's Cycling Road individual road race - Finals
Aug 12 11:30pm ET Women's Cycling Road individual time trial - Finals


National Criterium Championships
8/16 - 8/17 Downers Grove, IL. Check it out here.

The Colorado Stage Race
8/22 - 8/24 here.

USPRO Cycling Championships
For the third year in a row, the USPRO Cycling Championships will be held in Greenville, SC. August 30th, is the Time Trial and August 31st is the Road Race. The official site is here. To see the race live, try going to this site. I was there last year and my brother will be there this year. I'll post his pics as soon as I get them. Damn, I wish I was going, Greenville is a perfect town for the race.

Cop Decks Cyclist

Clearly this video shows unprovoked, unnecessary police violence by this NYPD Officer. What a piece of garbage! Now that the cop has been reassigned to a desk job, I hope he gets fat, gets tons of horrible paper cuts, develops carpal tunnel syndrome, and suffers from boredome, which leads to depression, which leads to the need to medicate himself to be happy, which leads to.....well you get the picture.

2008 Tour de France Recap:

That damn crash cost Christian Vande Velde (USA) (Garmin-Chipotle) a podium spot in the Tour de France.

Let’s rewind a bit so I can explain. Vande Velde, while always a strong domestique, was never a favorite for a podium spot going into the tour. I don’t think anybody (that matters) picked him for a podium spot. Some didn’t even have him on their radar. However, on stage 4, a 29.5km TT in Cholet, he proved he could time trial, 8th best, only 37 seconds behind Stefan Schumacher’s 35:44.

He proved he could hang with the favorites (and the dopers) in Stage 7: Brioude - Aurillac, moving up on GC to 4th, 44 seconds behind Kim Kirchen. He proved it again in Stage 9: Toulouse - Bagneres-de-Bigorre (224km), when he moved up to 3rd on GC, still only 44 seconds back. He was able to hold that placing during Stage 10: Pau - Hautacam (see above picture), sitting only 38 seconds behind Cadel Evans.

On Stage 15: Ebrum - Prato Nevoso (185km), Vande Velde, was leap frogged by Denis Menchov and Bernhard Kohl and dropped to 5th, but only 39 seconds behind leader Frank Schleck.

Crash
On Stage 16: Cuneo - Jausiers, Vande Velde was dropped on the days final climb. He was forced to descend like a mad-man. He was gaining on the GC group and was only 35 seconds behind when he crashed. He could not regain his rhythm and finished the day 4:04 behind the stage winner, and lost 2:36 to Carlos Sastre and Cadel Evans, 2:01 to Denis Menchov. At the end of the day, he was 6th on GC 3:15 behind F. Schleck, 3:07 behind Evans, and 2:26 behind Sastre.

Sastre rode into yellow on Stage 17: Embrum - L’Alpe d’Huez (210.5km), while CSC shut down the other GC contenders on L’Alpe d’Huez. Sastre put 2:15 into Vande Velde pushing him to 4:41 behind the eventual GC winner.

So, everything came down to the final TT, Stage 20: Cerilly - St. Amand-Montrond TT (53km). Schumacher powered to a stage victory, completing the course in 1:03:50 at 49.817 kph or 30.95 mph!! Vande Velde turned in an excellent time, finishing 4th, only 1:05 behind Schumacher and beating Menchov by 50 seconds, Evans by 1:00, and Sastre by 1:29. He moved up from 6th to 5th leapfrogging F. Schleck’s 54th place TT.

So in the end the top 5 was this:

1. Sastre
2. Evans (again....yawn) 0:58
3. Kohl 1:13
4. Menchov 2:10
5. Vande Velde 3:05

Had Vande Velde’s crash not happened, and he rejoined the GC guys on the descent in stage 16, which was about to happen, the top 5 would have looked like this:

1. Sastre
2. Vande Velde 0:29
3. Evans 0:58
4. Kohl 1:13
5. Menchov 2:10

Of course, if we played what if’s, then we have to remember that the returning champion and his super strong Astana team was banned this year. If Astana was not wrongfully disbarred from this year’s tour, the top 5 would have looked like this....

1. Contador
2. Leipheimer 1:15
3. Sastre 10:00
4. Vande Velde 10:29
5. Evans 10:58

On that note, I’m officially renaming this year’s winner: Carlos Sasterisk. We all know why.

JC

Tour de France - Live Update Humor

From Velonews, Stage 15 TDF 2008, 7/22/2008:

03:49 PM: Reader question, speaking of *&(#!
Reader Sean in Denver writes in to ask:
Hey LUG,
You've talked a lot about nature breaks and the courtesy of waiting for the yellow jersey. But I'm assuming all of this has to do with a number 1. What happens if a rider has to do a #2. Do they find the nearest bush or do the support cars carry TP?
Well Sean,
Now there's an unusual question. Generally riders don't find themselves in that position. A light breakfast and a morning constitutional generally allow riders to avoid that problem. Nonetheless, it does happen. Most often, when we hear about it, it involves a rider suffering from stomach problems. Most recently, Ivan Basso lost 48 minutes in a stage that went up the Stelvio. He had to stop three times on the way up that climb after suffering from what was some form of food poisoning. He was afforded a degree of privacy by a team car that would stop and block the view of the tifosi along the course.
One of our favorite stories from the old days on that topic involved Tom Simpson, as told by one of his domestiques on the old Peugeot team. Riding in his first Tour, the young rider was resplendent in his team kit, with his while cap perched perfectly atop his head. Suddenly his team leader dropped back and demanded his hat.

"You got your own hat!" the rider exclaimed.

"I know, I know," said Simpson. "but, I need to take a @$%^ and need something to wipe my &$$."

Ahhh, the life of a domestique.

Toledo death.

Horrible story. A horrible P.O.S. caused this. When the suspect is found, I hope that suspect is fucking dead.

Future of cycling....

She really does enjoy watching le tour....

Training & Landscaping Safety Lessons

If you haven’t seen me on the road it’s because I am was told to stay off the bike until my fingers heal. Lesson #1: Do not place your fingers on the mower exhaust when you are done mowing - ouch! Stupid, I know. This pain was much worse than when I weed wacked my toes earlier this year! Lesson #2: Don't wear sandals while weed wacking. I burned the fingers, luckily on my left hand, on July 4th, so I think the ER people only half believed my story and probably thought I was playing with fireworks.

I have, however, been ramping up my training for the Bellefaire JCB Biathlon (3 mile run, 12.9 mile bike) by running and riding the trainer. I’ve also been hitting the gym much more and working on my core (beer gut). Since I haven’t run competitively in 17 years, I’m not expecting much out of the run, but I hope to get a decent bike time.

I slacked off July 4th weekend, by sitting around, eating, and drinking, eating, and drinking, repeat again for 4 days. I even joked that I was erasing an entire month’s fitness level in one weekend. Which may have actually happened!!! Ugh! The extent of my cycling was watching Ray zoom past me and my family as we walked around Shaker Lakes.

Anyway, this week I’m taking it serious and have settled into a running and biking training routine that should bring me back to previous levels.

Monday Evening: 22 minute run - 30 minutes on trainer - Race Pace (if you could call it that)

Tuesday Lunch: Gym: legs - 5k Run - 28:24 an 8:49 pace - Route: Through Malls, left on Lakeshore, right on W.3rd around Browns Stadium, Out to end of Pier, N. Marginal to the bend, Up E. 9th, right on Lakeshore, Malls. HOT, humid and SLOW - Couldn’t extend.

Tuesday Evening: 60 minute trainer bike 3 x 1:30 powerclimbs

Wednesday Lunch: Gym: Chest/Bis/Tris/Abs (hi reps low weight) - 1.5 mile treadmill run with 1 mile @ 7:30 pace

Wednesday Evening: 27:40 run - approx. 5k - followed by 15 minutes of sprint drills/hill sprints. Instructed two kids to not ride their bikes against traffic. They argued with me, I told them to Google it. Yeah, that’s my comeback “Google it!”-I’m a real tough guy. Anyway, I did see Dave cruise by near GESU. Nice Kazahk Railways shorts.

Thursday Lunch: Gym: Abs/Legs - 10 minutes on Elliptical

Thursday Evening: 60 minute trainer 3 x 1 minute Sprints, 3 x 5 minute Fast Pedals

So it looks like I’m back on track. I’ll be out on the road next week to get some real miles in.

JC

Landis - Guilty.

Cycling - Landis v/USADA
Appeal by Floyd Landis dismissed by the Court of Arbitration For Sport (CAS)

Lausanne, 30 June 2008 – The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has dismissed the appeal filed by the American cyclist Floyd Landis and has confirmed the initial decision issued by a Panel of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) on 20 September 2007. Consequently, Floyd Landis is disqualified from the Tour de France 2006 and is suspended for a period of two years starting from 30 January 2007. Floyd Landis has been ordered to pay the sum of USD 100'000 to the United States Anti-doping Agency (USADA) as a contribution towards its costs in the CAS arbitration.


For more info click here.

Century 6/24/2008

I’m not sure if this counts as a ‘real’ century but this is how it went down yesterday.

Commute 2 Work:
5:30 AM
20.03 miles
1:06:32

Commute 2 Home:
4:00 PM
21.09 miles
1:12:19
1 flat (E. 148th & Lakeshore)

Summer Solstice Ride: (55 miles + 4 cool down miles to make an even 100)
6:00 PM
59.00 miles
3:14:51

Totals:
100.12 miles
5:33:42

During the Summer Solstice ride, I was too busy burying myself to try to catch back on to the group to see what roads we were on. I know we went out passed Holden Arboretum, on roads I’ve never been on before. Thanks to Ryan, here is the map:




Thanks guys for waiting for my slow a$$ to get back to the group. If I keep training like I have the last couple of weeks, hopefully we won’t have this problem much longer.

Post ride delirium. Seriously, I either didn’t eat or drink enough, or I just wasn’t physically prepared for a day like that. When I got home I was totally wasted. For about 1/2 hour I was delirious - at one point I was hearing voices shoosh me. Weird.

Tuesday Night Group Ride: 6/17/2008

I should have taken the dark clouds looming above as a sign of what was to come...

To prep for the ride, I replaced my front brake pads and thought about replacing my handlebar tape, but put that off until after the ride. I pumped up my rear tire, which is routine. Either it’s a super slow leaker or I still need to lose 20 more pounds. Most likely the latter. I usually never need air in the front tire, but I decided to give it an extra pump or two for good measure. Plopped on my new helmet (thanks Lily for my new helmet for Father’s Day!) and headed over to the church.

The six of us (Marc, Paul, Vince, Ryan, Brian, & me) headed out to County Line Road from the Church. The wind was all over the place, mostly a tailwind, but I knew at some point we would be heading straight into it. Everything was groovy until County Line. I felt like I was Ulrich and the other five were Armstrong. Except, I got 5-10 look backs instead of just one. As I faded back, I was saying “What the hell, I’m not this slow, am I?” I decided to stand up and mash it to catch them. With the side to side rocking action I felt my front rim hitting pavement. Damn it! Since, I was fading out of sight and I had some air holding, I sat down and tried to crush it to get back on. Finally, I reached the group to deliver the bad news - I’m stopping for a tire change. I guess that good measure pump pushed that tube to the limit. (thaks guys for waiting..and helping me)

After a painfully slow tire change, that included forcefully pealing my tube from the tire, (must have been out on a real hot day!) we were back moving. I was spent. My left calf was on the verge of cramping and I was having trouble holding the group’s wheel. The wind wasn’t helping at all.

Bad decisions....For some strange reason, as two of the guys pulled off to head back in, I said “let’s keep going a little further.” What?!?! Apparently my judgement/reasoning/entire thought process was severely impaired. What was I thinking? Sure, please serve me up a little extra pain to go with my mechanicals, a head/cross/wind, and my general lack of power! Yeah, you heard me a little more suffering will do. I just love getting the sh*t kicked out of me. It's so much fun.

By the time we were heading back home on Chagrin River before Berkshire, I was hurting. The group was down to the 3 amigos of Ryan, Brian and me. After a quick shout out to Steiner on the bridge we headed up Berkshire. Or, more accurately, Ryan and Brian shot up Berkshire, I crawled up it. Snails pace. 9:15 or so. Yuck.

To top it off....As I’m .25 miles from my house on a cool down, I sit up, take my hands off the bars for a shake out. I probably let out a whimper and a sigh. I was hurting, but home was so close. At that moment, my front tire caught a groove and shot to the right. I stayed upright, but my bike dropped down with my handlebars to my left. In that split second, I managed to think I’m definitely going down - how stupid and careless - and damn I’m so close to home - and at least I’m close to home! Ahh! Then, in either a freakish light speed reflex, or maybe I hit another groove, or maybe some divine intervention shot my bike right back up and I kept cruising like nothing happened. Well, okay, of course I looked around to see if anyone observed my foolishness. Nope, just me and my bike. My left knee had to be only 6 inches off the ground, how did I not crash??? So frickin’ weird.

Anyway to conclude my rambling: As the mantra goes...a bad day riding, is still better than not riding.

Stats:
1:53:34
34.53 miles
18.20 mph avg.
45.60 max mph

And on the third day, he rested....from the bike anyway!

PS: Props to Brian & Ryan for leading all the way in, when I could hold your wheel the draft felt real good.

JC

Route:

Taylor Phinney - NEW WORLD RECORD!!!!!

He has set a new world junior 3000 meter pursuit record of 3.16.65! Check out his site. Check out the article.

One Million Bicycles

Help change the world, one million bikes at a time.

Join the revolution:



For more info, go to onemillionbicycles.org

DZ Nuts - Protect Your Junk!

This is hilarious, but I'll have to get some to try it out.

DZ Nuts High Viscosity Chamois Creme

Vande Velde In PINK! Slipstream wins TTT

For the first time in 20 years an American is wearing the Maglia Rosa, leading the Giro d'Italia.

Today's Results:

1 Slipstream Chipotle Presented By H30 26.32 (53.366 km/h)
2 Team CSC 0.06
3 High Road 0.07
4 Liquigas 0.09
5 Barloworld 0.14
6 LPR Brakes - Ballan 0.28
7 Astana 0.29
8 Tinkoff Credit Systems 0.33
9 Quick Step 0.42
10 Lampre 0.45
11 Team Milram
12 Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni-Androni Giocattoli 0.51
13 Gerolsteiner 0.54
14 Caisse d'Epargne
15 Saunier Duval - Scott 1.02
16 Rabobank 1.04
17 Ag2R La Mondiale 1.05
18 Cofidis, Le Credit Par Telephone
19 CSF Group - Navigare 1.15
20 Euskaltel - Euskadi 1.17
21 Silence - Lotto 1.18
22 Française Des Jeux 1.26

GC Top 10 and Americans:

1 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Slipstream Chipotle Presented By H30 26.32
2 David Zabriskie (USA) Slipstream Chipotle Presented By H30
3 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Slipstream Chipotle Presented By H30
4 Julian Dean (NZl) Slipstream Chipotle Presented By H30
5 Magnus Backstedt (Swe) Slipstream Chipotle Presented By H30
6 Michael Blaudzun (Den) Team CSC 0.06
7 Nicki Sørensen (Den) Team CSC
8 Bradley McGee (Aus) Team CSC
9 Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Team CSC
10 Jason McCartney (USA) Team CSC
46 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana 0.29
172 Danny Pate (USA) Slipstream Chipotle Presented By H30 2.02

Giro Preview

While I'm pumped about Astana getting an invite to the Giro, Slipstream-Chipotle looks strong too. Here is Slipstream's start list:

Slipstream - Chipotle, (USA)
181. Magnus Backstedt, (SWE)
182. Julian Dean, (NZL)
183. Ryder Hesjedal, (CAN)
184. David Millar, (GBR)
185. Jonathan Patrick Mc Carty, (USA)
186. Danny Pate, (USA)
187. Christopher Sutton, (AUS)
188. Christian Vandevelde, (USA)
189. David Zabriskie, (USA)

The opening stage is a TTT!!! Very good for Slipstream, Pate, Millar, Zabriskie, and Maggie are superfast. I see them placing very well in the opener. However, three weeks is a lot of racing look for Stage 19 228km Legnano to Presolana/Monte Pora, Stage 20 224km from Rovetta to Tirano (includes the Gavia), and Stage 16 13.8km from San Vigilio di Marebbe to Plan de Corones, which is an ITT to be the deciding stages. With that said, a climber will win. My favorite is Contador, however if the Spider Juan Mauricio Soler can put together some good days in the end, he may be a contender. But he doesn't have half the team help that Contador will get from Leipheimer & crew. Anyway you look at it, this is shaping up to be a very exciting race!

Astana in Giro d'Italia?

Velonews is reporting Astana may get an invite, in this article. However, nothing is for sure yet. With Kloden, Levi, and Contador, the team is strong and they should be there. Kloden is about to seal up the Tour de Romandie, the team won the GC at the Tour de Georgia, Contador is delivering in Europe, etc.

Why would they not get invited?




!!!!!UPDATE!!!!!ASTANA HAS OFFICIALLY BEEN INVITED TO THE GIRO D'ITALIA! Check out this article! Since Astana will be in both the Giro and the Vuelta, it looks like the Tour de France will be even less legit without the strongest team competing! It's similar to saying "Let's exclude the Yankees this season because Roger Clemens doped...or might have?" I'll never understand ASO's logic.

Anyway, thanks to the Giro Organizer, Angelo Zomegnan, the Giro will be contain the best riders in the world and be truly competitive! I think Levi Leipheimer, Alberto Contador or Andreas Kloden will look good in pink:) All three will be there, check out this article from www.guardian.co.uk.

For live coverage May 10 - June 1, 2008, go to www.cycling.tv/giro

Last Tour de Georgia pics...

David Zabriskie (Slipstream-Chipotle)


Santiago Botero (Rock Racing):

Tour de Georgia Brasstown Continued

Hincapie hammering it out:


Chris Horner's bum (Astana):


After the race, we hung around the team busses and got autographs from Dave Zabriskie, George Hincapie, Tom Danielson, Johan Bruyneel and Ekimov!!!!! Seriously, I was amazed at how accessible the stars of cycling were. Check out these pics...

Dave Z!! Love the stache, kind of like Daniel Day Lewis!


Ahhh Danielson!


Johan Bruyneel...was directing and promoting his new book....

Tour de Georgia - Stage 6 Brasstown Bald

Brasstown Bald was an exciting day. The crowds were huge on the mountain and it was difficult to just find a place to park near the start of the climb. My Brother and I took the shuttle to up to the parking area and then had to walk the final section to the top. It was worth it. We were there in plenty of time to get a great spot 150m from the finish, just before the final turn. It was one of the longest views on the mountain. It must have been a good spot because a couple of photographers camped out very near us. We ended up walking all the way down because it would have taken forever to get a shuttled to the bottom.

Kanstantsin Siutsou (Team High Road) was able to sneak away from Levi and Trent in the final 300m for the victory, which lead to the overall victory.

Here's my Bro enjoying the day:


Note the "Puke Here" sign:


Go Bobby!!! Everyone loves Julich!:


The battle between Levi & Trent Lowe. Pain Anyone?:


Levi desparately trying to pull ahead...about 10 meters later he got smoked:


Next post, Brasstown Continued.....