Crap

I am neither sleeping nor riding later on today.

Why is it kids get rid of colds in one or two days and adults can't?

Why am I the only one who can hear the bike crying out for me from the garage?

Bike Porn - The new Litespeed

A few pics of the new bike...

Sinister plot revealed

Oops. Better return that Caisse d'Epargne jersey

The French newspaper Le Monde has reported that 2006 Tour de France runner-up Oscar Pereiro tested positive twice for the asthma drug salbutamol. The rider's urine tested positive for the drug after stage 14 and again after stage 16. Poised to take the title of Tour winner ever since Floyd Landis' positive control for testosterone, Pereiro might instead find himself banned from the race because of a dispute between the UCI and the French antidoping agency over what the agency views as excessive medical exemptions.

The UCI had apparently granted Pereiro, along with dozens of other riders, 'therapeutic use exemptions' (TUE's) for drugs that are normally banned in competition unless the athletes can show a medical need for the substance. However, the French antidoping agency AFLD was not satisfied with Pereiro's documentation for his exemption for the asthma drug, and were suspicious of the large number of riders being granted exemptions.

AHA

Testing....1..2.... testing .....tap...tap...tap...is it working ??

I was in a fog and got bogged down trying to do a blog....( great stuff)

Special thanks to A TEAMER Art...Sluggo....New Wheels ....Gonzalez....for making it possible for me to get to the blog site......MY PEOPLE have the week off .... thus I have to do it myself....

Had a nice ride yesterday with Bert from Santa Barbara California....new to Jax......joined enroute in Bishop Estates by James Cardon who was told where we were by Mike M....

Margaret rode 40 big ones again yesterday..taking advantage of the fine weather for the 3rd day in a row...........she can tell Mike M and Art and Paul but not sure about Peter....Margaret does not were her glasses while riding

Powered down to the South Mandarin Library this morning.....windy and crisp...felt good....22mph average.....

So now I know where all the conversations between A TEAMERS--Cycling ICONS in the
HUB OF THE UNIVERSE ..have been taking place.....

Have a personal appearance in 2 hours...thus must get ready.....

We are low on A TEAM 8X10s

Mike, I want the miles

Brian, Charles and I didn't think we'd make it to Hooters in time so we parked farther south (those two at S&S, me at Verizon). We did 62 miles, about 30 of them with Bob.

That's 62 closer to the coffee mug if you please, Mr. Hannigan.

Full ahead Litespeed!

A busy 3 day weekend...started with the Zipp flat-fest on Saturday. Just so you know, there are still good people out there, while waiting for Holly in front of Berkman plaza I asked a security guard if there was a cafe in Berkman to get a cup of coffee. Turns out there is but they aren't open on Saturday, she said you can't get a cup off coffee around here, the only place is the Landing. So, I say have a nice day & off she goes...abut 15 minutes later she drives up in her security guard car, gets out & brings me a cup of coffee she had bought at Burger King...good folks are out there & that coffee was as good as any Starbucks!

Build the Litespeed - Marino assembles the Litespeed over the course of about 4 hrs which includes a road trip to Kent Lofton's place where Mike proceeds to take over the mechanic's station. Thank God he did or we wouldn't have gotten the Mavic converted to Campy.

Left Mike's to go referee a youth basketball game & the coach the following...our girls got pummeled 40 to 10.

Sunday - no church for me, instead I finished installing the new attic stairs into the new ceiling I framed & finished out last weekend. Oh yeah, did a 1 hr interval run before that. Left for the Cecil pool at 3:30 & got in a 4000 yard swim then home to grill some chicken. Tried putting the pedals on the Litespeed only to mangle my thumb (the wrench slipped & my thumb impaled itself on a tooth on the front chain wheel...OUCH!!!!

Monday - Small group meeting at the church at 7am followed by 48 mile Mandarin Loop ride. Saw Hannigan's better half, Margaret but I don't think she knows who I am? I said hello...
Home to do yard work some pressure washing of the front walk & then took Hannah to her 4pm Physical therapy session. Took the Litespeed to Drew to get the pedals put on, apparently I am a loser bike mechanic & stripped the threads so after several expletives & failure to get the pedals on, Drew saves the day.

So, the Litespeed is about ready, took it for more of a real test spin tonight with the pedals. The Zipps are off the tri bike as I don't want to use them for training...this is way more than you want to know & I won't post this crap again, just had one of those weekends.

That is all...

Sunday's ride

A Team members Sluggo and Heywood take their turns, curiously (and perhaps too) often, leading the Velo Brew ride that featured a guest appearance by Scott Summe and the usual polemics by Ed. 54 miles, one brief stop at 19 miles. A unique route, but it was a nice Northside/Westside outing that was done by 11:15. Take that, NFBC.

A beautiful day.

Good and Bad

Bad - The face plate on my stem is peeling.
Good - It will be replaced at no cost under warranty.
Bad - The shop found a couple of cracks in my rear wheel by the spoke nipples
Good - The wheel will be replaced at no cost under warranty
Bad - The new rear wheel will not match the front wheel. The front wheel's style has been discontinued.
Good - Renee insisted - insisted! - that I order a new matching front wheel. Something about safety.
Bad - The front wheel won't be free.

1989 World Championships finish

Is this the greatest Worlds finish ever? What about the look on Fignon's face? And LeMond's?

"Dick" Pound on Landis

"He was 11 minutes behind or something, and all of the sudden there's this Herculean effort, where he's going up mountains like he's on a goddamn Harley," Pound, the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency, told Michael Sokolove of the New York Times. "It's a great story. Wonderful. But if it seems too good to be true, it probably is."

"I mean, it was 11 to 1!" he continued, referring to the reported testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio in Landis' positive sample. "You'd think he'd be violating every virgin within 100 miles. How does he even get on his bicycle?"

Tevye!

Eddie Mekka? aka Carmon Ragusa

Ain't Google Images grand...Nishtkefelecht!

When the time changes, third week of March. There are no A Team rides that start at 9. Of course, I don't know why we can't have one at 7:30 and have another ride that starts at 9, either at Steakshaky or somewhere else. That's Mike H's suggestion. But of course, we can't. Because having only one Sunday ride is ... TRADITION!


Riding back solo along 13, makes me wonder if we should lengthen the Ruta and go down 210 instead of Greenbrier. Really nice road.

BTW, bonus points if you can guess who that is playing Tevye.

Paul's new bike

When's the next A-Team ride? Someone asked me about it today.

Ti spokes suck

Broke another one today. I guess 178 pounds is too much for them; that makes 2 broken ones in the last 3 rides on the wheel. I think I'll swap them all out for stainless and see if the ride is any different.

On another topic, I have a question: I understand the 60 miles on the bike, and the 3 miles running. But refereeing? Does that substitute for swimming? Good call throwing him out of the game, though. Go blue.

January 7 Ride

OK, here goes.
Like Peter, I like this format too. It's better than the original A-Team site that Mike built a year or so ago.
Sunday's ride was great. Rode to 1st Place Sports because my faithful 11 year-old Honda would not start this morning. It started when I needed to back the car out of the garage, but once it was loaded with the bike and gear, well, it decided not to crank at all.
On the way to 1st Place Sports I saw cycling icon Mike Hannigan going in the opposite direction. I took that as a good sign. I pulled in as the group was leaving.
A few guys did their pull, including cycling icon Mike M. Then Bob, Grace's BF, took the helm. He never got off the front. I was riding behind him expecting him to peel off any minute, especially after his first half hour. But he never did. Normally, I would not mind. But Bob is not built like Harmon. The guy provided no shelter from the wind. I felt like I was pulling. It was brutal.
So Bob lead us to the only rest stop on the ride: the Chevron station at 13 and 16. That's when someone mentioned that a rider had busted a spoke. When I didn't see Mike, the light bulb when on over my head.
It wasn't until I got home that I noticed that Mike M. had called and left a voice message stating that he'd busted a spoke and was going to limp back to the car. Sorry that I didn't see your mishap and missed your call Mike.
The car checked out OK at Sears. Turned out to be a loose terminal. Or so they say. If anyone gets a collect call from me in the middle of the night, guess what I'll be calling about?
Also took the bike to Bicycles Etc. for its annual check up. Paul was right; they are selling Scott bicycles now. One of the shop guys told me that Trek is planning on opening a concept store around Crown Point and San Jose. How 'bout that?
Oh yeah, I also filled out a profile for RAGBRAI. The registration is next. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. I'm really pumped about the prospect. Look forward to some hard and heavy training as the months go by.
Well, so much for my first blog ever.
Wonder what's going to happen when I hit the Publish button?

I Like it!

I like the Blog much better than a website for this "kind of activity." Solves the problem of content mamagement by letting the users create it...don't know if that's good or bad with this crew :)

Did a practice triathlon Saturday; rode 60, ran 3, refereed 2 youth games. In the second game, boys 17 & under, the testosterone flared as this one kid tackles another on a fast break. It was so flagrant I ejected him & we suspended him for a couple of weeks...I say we fine him ala the NBA...

PK

The last corner of Mont Ventoux

This is why no one ever sprints to win a stage here. It's a brutal last corner. At the top, though, you get a medal.

Alpe d'Huez 2003

Damn. No shots of the 1K to go banner.

Who's riding this weekend?

Saturday, low 60s in the morning, chance of rain.

Sunday, ditto, but more of a chance of rain.

Test post. Again.

Test post.

OK, it's redesigned and ready to go for the new year. Comments appreciated.