WADA seeking a lifetime ban for Tyler Hamilton ( Click HERE for full story). Is this really necessary for WADA spend time and money on? 8 years is already a life time ban from the sport (unless you're Lance), so why bother kicking a already dead horse.
Lance at the Tour: Doing quite well considering, but I don't think we've had a real selection yet. I really hope that if and when he realizes that he can't win it, that he switches gears and supports Alberto so that he can win it. My previous prediction of the final podium being Contador, Sastre, and Menchov in that order is looking about 33.3% on track. I still think Contador has it. Once we hit his favored(steep) terrain, he'll really light it up. Sastre is already almost 3 minutes back, and Menchov is 5 back. That's a lot of time to claw back. Why isn't Ivan Basso racing the Tour (Oh, THIS is why)
Training: Not much to speak of here, just riding. Trails have been closed.
Commuting: Up to 22 days, 792 miles.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Thursday, July 2, 2009
My Tour prediction
OK, you heard it here first: Contador 1st, Sastre 2nd, and Menchov 3rd.
Contador has been very quiet so far this year, saving everything for July. He also has a super strong team to support him, provided they are supporting him. As long as Lance and Levi place nice and put there individual ambitions aside, nobody important should get up the road. Sastre showed great form right at the end of the Giro. The Cervelo team is strong but lacks the big-gun climbers. Menchov will definately rock the time trials and maybe a hilly stage, but my hunch is he burnt too many matches in May.
Other predictions:
More dopers will get caught, big names just like years past.
Lance may be allowed a stage win (Ventoux i'm guessing), but for the most part, he'll be Alberto's bitch for 3 weeks. Neither one will win if they make this a repeat of the LeMond/Hinault spectacle from years ago. More recently, the infighting between Vino, Kloden, and Ulrich at T-Mobile. Speaking of Vino, interesting to hear what he is saying about already being back on Astana. I wonder what pull he really does have with the Kazakhstan supported team. Could get VERY UGLY.
Contador has been very quiet so far this year, saving everything for July. He also has a super strong team to support him, provided they are supporting him. As long as Lance and Levi place nice and put there individual ambitions aside, nobody important should get up the road. Sastre showed great form right at the end of the Giro. The Cervelo team is strong but lacks the big-gun climbers. Menchov will definately rock the time trials and maybe a hilly stage, but my hunch is he burnt too many matches in May.
Other predictions:
More dopers will get caught, big names just like years past.
Lance may be allowed a stage win (Ventoux i'm guessing), but for the most part, he'll be Alberto's bitch for 3 weeks. Neither one will win if they make this a repeat of the LeMond/Hinault spectacle from years ago. More recently, the infighting between Vino, Kloden, and Ulrich at T-Mobile. Speaking of Vino, interesting to hear what he is saying about already being back on Astana. I wonder what pull he really does have with the Kazakhstan supported team. Could get VERY UGLY.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Weekly Update - Commuting, Training, ect
Been a good couple weeks of solid training. Finally getting some off-road time in. Took a few days but the skills are still there. The HEAT WAVE from HELL (all of last week) is over. Heading up to KCK to catch the Tour of KC Crit, just to watch of course. Very cool course with a nice hill (or 2). The Pro/1/2 race was pretty animated from the start with Jenson and Moniger marking each other, and the Mercy and Tradewind Energy teams trying to control things. Matt Ankney and Chris Hall got away late and pulled out the 1st and 2nd. No wonder why those 2 smoke me at the 'cross races! Got a good couple of hours in on the road bike in the afternoon. Did the same loop I did the previous Sunday, but the temp was now about 10 degrees cooler than it was then. What a difference 10 degrees makes.
I've commuted all 3 days so far this week (Monday through Wednesday). I still hit the Tuesday Night Crit last night and felt farily fresh. it was a very-well-behaved group last night so kudos to all, especially the guys that always seem to be all over the place. Hitting the trails tonite so it's yet to be seem if I can do the commute a 4th day in a row tomorrow. Might have to cash in the chips and save something for the 3 day weekend.
I've commuted all 3 days so far this week (Monday through Wednesday). I still hit the Tuesday Night Crit last night and felt farily fresh. it was a very-well-behaved group last night so kudos to all, especially the guys that always seem to be all over the place. Hitting the trails tonite so it's yet to be seem if I can do the commute a 4th day in a row tomorrow. Might have to cash in the chips and save something for the 3 day weekend.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Weekly Update - The Heat, training, and Lance
Weather had been crap for the first week after getting back from San Francisco. Rain, storms, sticky air. Miserable. I rode into work last Wednesday, only commute #12 on the year. When I left my house in the morning, it was 75 degrees with 94% humidity.
The ride home that afternoon was about 20 degrees hotter but nowhere near as humid. Still hot and miserable. The hair-drying-in-the-face wind was lovely to.
Hit up Joe's BBQ on Saturday. Rain came through but blew over just in time for the outdoor festivities. I only got in about 1hour on the MTB(paved trail/gravel road only) so I tried to make up for that on Sunday. Got in a solid 3 hours on the road bike and included 3 laps around Lake Quivera (Holiday Drive, up Quivera Rd to Johnson Drive, Johnson Drive west to Renner, North on Renner back to Holiday). Plenty of climbing on this loop. Nice and hot since I was out there at Noon. I managed to get the first 2 hours in with one bottle, but the last hour involved riding from one drinking fountain to the next. I might need to start some indoor workouts. Hard to get any high-HR stuff going in this heat.
Warning: the following is simply my opinion!
Lance winning Nevada City! Why race the Tour de Suisse with the rest of your Astana team and prepare for the Tour when you can stay in the U.S and beat some domestic pro's. He isn't expected to be a factor at the Tour anyway (my opinion), but he keeps dragging Levi to these U.S. races, when Levi should be in Europe. I'm guessing Levi will now NOT be a factor at the Tour either because of this. My prediction is that the Tour winner is in Europe now and recently done one of the more-traditional Tour prep races like the Dauphine, Swiss Tour, ect. Of course there is something financial going on here. Most of those 20,000+ fans would not have been there if Lance wasn't there. Almost as bad as ProTour riders skipping ProTour races in Europe to race small races in the U.S., Ben Jacques-Maynes got 2nd behind Lance and ahead of Levi. I'm sure come December, we'll see Ben take his Pro Road/Cyclocross hat off for a day, and somehow race (and probably win) the AMATURE Masters class at 'cross Nationals.
That's the end of my opinion.
Heat Advisory all this week is nice. With the SMP trails finally open, I've been desperately trying to get my MTB tech skills back on par. Been a few weeks so i'm very rusty. Been out there the last two nights and it's been a steam bath in there. That place seems to get rockier and rockier every time i ride there, or maybe that's just me and/or the hardtail and/or the heat. Hmmmm.
Went out there again last night (before the big storm came through) and finally got some good technical speed work in. The Niner is a handfull at slow speed but as long as you keep it pinned, things tend to smooth out a bit. After the rain I figured the trails would be closed today, so it was commute #13 today.
The ride home that afternoon was about 20 degrees hotter but nowhere near as humid. Still hot and miserable. The hair-drying-in-the-face wind was lovely to.
Hit up Joe's BBQ on Saturday. Rain came through but blew over just in time for the outdoor festivities. I only got in about 1hour on the MTB(paved trail/gravel road only) so I tried to make up for that on Sunday. Got in a solid 3 hours on the road bike and included 3 laps around Lake Quivera (Holiday Drive, up Quivera Rd to Johnson Drive, Johnson Drive west to Renner, North on Renner back to Holiday). Plenty of climbing on this loop. Nice and hot since I was out there at Noon. I managed to get the first 2 hours in with one bottle, but the last hour involved riding from one drinking fountain to the next. I might need to start some indoor workouts. Hard to get any high-HR stuff going in this heat.
Warning: the following is simply my opinion!
Lance winning Nevada City! Why race the Tour de Suisse with the rest of your Astana team and prepare for the Tour when you can stay in the U.S and beat some domestic pro's. He isn't expected to be a factor at the Tour anyway (my opinion), but he keeps dragging Levi to these U.S. races, when Levi should be in Europe. I'm guessing Levi will now NOT be a factor at the Tour either because of this. My prediction is that the Tour winner is in Europe now and recently done one of the more-traditional Tour prep races like the Dauphine, Swiss Tour, ect. Of course there is something financial going on here. Most of those 20,000+ fans would not have been there if Lance wasn't there. Almost as bad as ProTour riders skipping ProTour races in Europe to race small races in the U.S., Ben Jacques-Maynes got 2nd behind Lance and ahead of Levi. I'm sure come December, we'll see Ben take his Pro Road/Cyclocross hat off for a day, and somehow race (and probably win) the AMATURE Masters class at 'cross Nationals.
That's the end of my opinion.
Heat Advisory all this week is nice. With the SMP trails finally open, I've been desperately trying to get my MTB tech skills back on par. Been a few weeks so i'm very rusty. Been out there the last two nights and it's been a steam bath in there. That place seems to get rockier and rockier every time i ride there, or maybe that's just me and/or the hardtail and/or the heat. Hmmmm.
Went out there again last night (before the big storm came through) and finally got some good technical speed work in. The Niner is a handfull at slow speed but as long as you keep it pinned, things tend to smooth out a bit. After the rain I figured the trails would be closed today, so it was commute #13 today.
Monday, June 15, 2009
San Francisco
Nice to inhale some cool Pacific Coast air for a change. Flew out on Thursday afternoon into Oakland. Kicked it with Kristine's parents Rich and Carrol, and her brother Craig and his wife Kirsten. Friday we did a fantastic wine-tasting tour of Napa Valley. Saturday was the big BBQ at Craig & Kirsten's house. Lots of family members on Kristine's side that I hadn't met before. Everybody was great.
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