0 Mayo tests positive

Iban Mayo tested positive for EPO during the last week of the 2007 Tour de France. No comments.

0 The exciting sport of Keirin

Heard of the name? Probably not. I did just a few hours ago, and its quite interesting.

Keirin is a Japanese bike race that originated in the country in 1948. It is a track event of 8 laps and 2 kilometers. Sort of like an individual sprint, having 6-8 riders rather than two. These riders are motorpaced by an individual riding a moped like bike called a derny. After gradally increasing the speed from 25kmph to about 50 or 60 kmph,
the derny leaves the riders to sprint among themselves like wild beasts with about 1.5 laps to go.

Top speeds in excess of 70 kmph are reached! I'm interested to see what their legs look like :)

Some forums I visited talk about how the riders generate in excess of 2000 watts of power! Ofcourse, thats only for a short time. But putting it into a little perspective, that could light 30 normal electric bulbs, in a very environment friendly way!

A couple of things I was very impressed by this sport. Every equipment and gear used by the riders have to be approved by stringent standards set by the Keirin Association under the Bicycling Federation of Japan (NJS or Nihon Jitensha Shinkokai). Guess what kind of bikes they ride for a gruelling event like this? Plain old Cromoly double butted steel, made by a select few bike makers from Japan ! Thats awesome retro.

No rider will have any disadvantage or advantage over another as far as equipment is concerned. Every bike is checked prior to the race by the Kencha, the inspection
authority. So no bladed spokes, deep rim wheels, Mavics, Zipps or crappy Cannondale frames. No weight weenies allowed... aaah!! Damn it..

Second. Riders have to go through a formal entrance exam before being selected, and go through an entire schooling process. So your brains gets some work to do too..

The event is a huge sensation for betters. Betting cards are available at Velodromes or designated places in the city. Pretty cool. Like horse racing. Japanese riders are paid very well and in 2000 the event became an Olympic sport.

Its not uncommon for people as old as 60 to take part in a race. The average age is around 35.

Check out more here.

0 Jim Carrey as Count Olaf.

This is so off topic, but the clip is so damn funny. This is Jim Carrey from the film "A series of Unfortunate Events." Here, he tries to communicate with the baby girl Sunny. Hahaha..

0 Extreme Power

I still "lust" for this bike. Someday, someday :(

And no its not made in Taiwan.

0 OCLV broken steerer

Hey, remember this when it happened? Paris Roubaix 2006, Big George broke his steerer and off he goes over the handlebars, 30 mins from the finish. It makes for some good television. Poor George broke his clavicle.

I know I'm not getting Trek's OCLV. Be like the CSC boys, ride a steel frame in Hell (superprodigy).

0 Marcus's accident

Carbon fibre wheel crumples like a beer can after hitting , a what? a dog!

T-mobile rides Giant bikes and Shimano equipment. Someone prove to me that's not a Dura Ace carbon wheel!

0 Great Cycling Advocacy Video

This is a nice 20 min video from John Burke, President of Trek Bicycles.

0 High end pedals to the metal

By Marco R. della Cava, USA TODAY, USA Today Posted: 2007-07-16 07:06:04

If bicycling has a nirvana, the bucolic back roads snaking throughout the Bay Area would qualify.
Bikers here tend to be fit, fanatical and - thanks to high-tech-enterprise success - flush. As a result, the region does not lack for fancy bike shops. Which is why ultra-exclusive Above Category stands out.

Tucked into the small Marin County town of Mill Valley, the shoebox-sized shop sells some of the coolest bikes you've never heard of. Bike fanciers know about Trek and Specialized, but how about off-the-wall names such as Moots, Parlee and Land Shark?

Didn't think so.

"The so-called Lance effect got people onto bikes that you could describe as mainstream," says owner Chad Nordwall, whose customers include weekend warriors, talented amateurs and even area celebrity and bike fanatic Robin Williams. "But now people are saying, 'I want something unique, something no one else has.' "

While European-made bikes once represented the ne plus ultra of the bicycling art form, a small but increasingly popular brigade of American bike builders is gaining momentum across the USA, thanks to cyclists with deep pockets and taste for the extraordinary.

"Thanks largely to boomers, who have little free time and therefore want that time spent in a quality way, my shop has gone from nothing to super-busy in a year," says Kevin Saunders of KGS Bikes in San Antonio. "They're all looking for more than just a bike."

Though it comes as no surprise that pros in the Tour de France, now underway, often ride custom machines that brush the five-figure mark, it's another matter to learn that mere mortals will spend as much to slip the state-of-the-art into their garages.

"When I first started, I rode around on a $100 bike and loved it, but slowly I got addicted to the technology of it all, and that was it," says Robert Vasquez, a radiologist in San Antonio who recently had KGS spec out a Parlee to the tune of $22,180.96. "It's just like computers, where, if you want to, you can keep seeking out the smallest and lightest parts. It all adds up."
A quick ultra-bike primer: You start by being measured for a frame. Then you choose your components. The bike is then built to your specs. You ride, adjust and repeat, until it fits like a glove.

For $22,000, you're certain to blow past rivals like the space shuttle overtaking a Cessna. Right?

"There is no way a $12,000 bike is six times better than a nice $2,000 bike," says Steve Madden, editor of Bicycling magazine, which nonetheless named Parlee its Editor's Choice cycle for 2007.

"Having said that, what you're buying is an emotional attachment to something that means a lot to you," Madden says. "Buying a hand-built bike is like sipping a great wine, slipping into a bespoke suit or having coffee roasted just to your taste. In the past few years, there's definitely been a surge in the number of people who want just that."
Bicycles represent a $5.8-billion-a-year business; an estimated 43 million Americans ride with some frequency, according to the National Bicycle Association. Today, 99.3% of bicycles sold in the USA are imported, largely from factories in China and Taiwan.
That only serves to make a hand-built, made-in-the-USA ride - often from a shop that builds no more than a few hundred examples a year - an even more impressive statement. Despite the fact that admission to this club starts at around $4,000, interviews with a half-dozen top builders reveal that demand far exceeds supply.

"The death knell for hand-built bikes rang about 10 years ago (with the rise of quality mass-market brands such as Trek), so I could have never predicted this resurgence," says Richard Sachs, a one-man operation based in Chester, Conn., who makes six frames a month and has a 51/2-year waiting list. "I get some older folks ordering, but most are young people who see the value in something made carefully by hand."
Sachs makes most of his bikes the old-fashioned way: out of steel. On the opposite end of the spectrum is Bob Parlee, a former boat-builder of Olympic-class sailboats whose expertise in carbon fiber was transferred to the bicycle in 2000. Since then, it has been a rocket ride to the forefront of the genre.

"People today want way more than just some fancy paint job," Parlee says. "They're looking for creations with real technological value."
For many, a super-light bike is the holy grail. You get an instant appreciation for Parlee's feathery frames when you consider that a light bike hovers around 17 pounds. Tour de France bikes (by regulation) weigh in at just over 14 pounds; some Parlees have rung in at just over 9 pounds.

But for those who do want a fancy paint job and then some, other builders are happy to oblige. Among them are Richard Schwinn - yes, that Schwinn, great-grandson of Ignaz Schwinn, founder of the iconic American brand now made in Asia - who has been making his own bikes under the name Waterford Precision Cycles.

Beyond crafting a flame-motif frame valued at $10,000, Schwinn's shop in Waterford, Wis., has a flair for hard-carved lugs, the sleeves that connect a frame's tubes. For one particularly religious customer, three crosses were incorporated into the $3,000-plus steel frame.
"You might pay $6,000 for our bikes when all is said and done, but we're a cheap date compared to a Harley-Davidson" motorcycle, which can easily top $20,000, Schwinn says. "We keep stretching in what we can build, and the customers just keep coming with us."
Even so, Schwinn says making a living as a small-volume bicycle builder is a challenge, made even more so because of competition.
"There are a growing number of hobbyist builders out there now," he says. "The smart ones keep their day jobs."

There are an estimated 175 custom-bike builders in the USA, many of them one-person operations, says Don Walker, a bike builder who for the past three years has staged the North American Hand Made Bicycle Show. About 400 people came to the first show; last year, more than 4,000 attended.

"This niche is expanding as the riders out there grow more sophisticated," Walker says. "People just don't want to pull up to a group of riders and see 10 other bikes just like theirs."
So some are even making their own bikes. Enrollment is surging at the United Bicycle Institute's two-week frame-building course, says John Baxter, administrator at the school in Ashland, Ore. Four years ago, the classes ($2,300 for steel, $3,000 for titanium) booked up a few weeks before starting. Today, they're full roughly eight months in advance.
"We get some people who work at bike shops, but we're seeing a growth in another category: folks who have a lot of expensive bikes at home and just want to add one more that they've built themselves," Baxter says.

Baxter, bike show organizer Baker and a number of top builders say the Internet has played a crucial role in their success. "There's no way we'd be as well known to the biking community without blogs," builder Sachs says.
Rick Guggemos started a blog a few years back, only to discover that countless others shared his passion.

"There are two groups of people chatting about this online," says Guggemos, a real estate agent from Northbrook, Ill., who now also builds his own frames. "Those who have the means to buy this stuff, and those who just like to dream."
Mill Valley's Above Category - a translation of hors catégorie, the most difficult stage of any professional race - gets a good number of both crossing the threshold.
Customers often linger before a shelf brimming with shiny bike parts, gawking like brides-to-be before a Tiffany window. Some walk out with just an $80 biking jersey advertising his shop, while others slip out with a childhood reverie come true.
"I guess not long after I got into riding I realized I would try and get something really special," says Rhett Hobgood, 34, a shoulder surgeon who has popped by to switch out the wheels on his new Moots, a Steamboat Springs, Colo., company that makes frames solely out of titanium.
"I love the notion of coming into a small shop like this, getting treated like you're special, and winding up with a bike that you can tell someone spent a lot of time on."
Nordwall slips a pair of Campagnolo wheels on Hobgood's ride, a $2,000 piece of his $9,000 puzzle. The native of Jackson, Miss., smiles: "That's all right."
Asked what his wife, Shane, 33, an interior designer with a passion for music, thinks of his indulgence, Hobgood grins again.
"Let's just say she's looking after her interests," he says. "I think we'll be going shopping for a new piano soon."

Copyright 2007 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. All Rights Reserved.07/16/2007 07:03

0 Notable comment

Bitemail says :

Listen carbon is comfort, Carbon is light, Carbon is strong...hell its the sh*t diamonds are made of....do I need to say more.

JfMckenna says :

pencil 'lead' is the s*it diamonds are made of too :D

Source : http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-49895.html

0 Congratulacion Alberto!

Alberto Contador wins the Tour de France. After an amazing ride of a little over 90 hours in the saddle (thats almost 4 continous days, and 3000 kms!), 24 year old has given a fresh face to put on in the record books. What a finish to the greatest race in the world.

Ever since I saw him on cycling.tv's Paris Nice final stage, I knew it took someone extraordinary to pull the victory from Rebellin in such a dramatic way. I was an instant fan then, amazed and surprised altogether at this unheard of name in pro cycling! Ofcourse, I still love Rebellin and wish he had done the Tour.

Looks like Boonen eased off in the final sprint in Paris. Obviously, whats the point of pushing yourself like a silly lad when you know that all those top 5 sprinters were going to end up with the same times. Benatti was awesome though and cunning as a fox, after sucking the wheel of Boonen's leadout guy. 2nd stage victory and lots of paychecks for him! Speaking of sprint, I do have to encourage you to watch Robbie Hunter's hammering style. The bike is all over the road, rocking from side to side like as if the evil spirits in the frame underneath him want to pop out and be set free of the torture. Boy, he's gotta learn to keep his line, and also time his kick.

Lets put the tour aside now. The stories of the past 20 days will make good discussion over a cup of tea for the years to come.

0 Three things

As I watch stage 19, I noticed three things :

1) Time trial bikes can't handle corners for nuts.

2) Alberto might lose the jersey. In the event that all three leaders end up being very close together on the GC, they might have to change plans for tomorrow at Paris. Traditionally, the final stage of the Tour de France is one of honor for the yellow jersey, where he rides easy in the pack. It'll be interesting to note that all that might change historically tomorrow. Or maybe not..

3) All three leaders, I felt, started at the house before the countdown ended! Or maybe my ears are tricking me, if you do get a chance to watch the start of Levi, Cadel and Conty, see for yourself.

0 Bud Light Commercial

0 Robbie's Ridley Noah

Bad ass bike for a bad ass sprinter. Boy, I can just stare at this for hours. By the way, that saddle you see there. Its the San Marco Regal saddle, famous for being used by top sprinters like Boonen and Robbie. This white leather version, especially with the san marco logo embroidered on the leather is so damn rare that I spent 5 days looking all over the internet for one.

After countless hours of research I found there probably might only be two sources you can get this saddle from.

1) A beautiful plain white leather with copper rivets and Ti rails from Richard Sach's website here.

2) Or, with logo on it, from Cecil Walker Cycles from Australia! (As of today 29th July, their website was not working. Keep trying. They're a reputed store.)

Go get yourself one if you have the cash, and you'll seriously thank me for it.

0 FSA's carbonio thoughts

This article from FSA calms be a bit regarding carbon fibre material makeup for most of today's high end bike components. I've always disliked riding on carbon fibre, but with the leaps in manufacturing technology, proven performance and awesome aesthetics, I can't disregard them anymore. I just may end up getting a carbon fibre bike sometime down the line. Anyway, this is from FSA, read on. Pretty general info... I do like the nail polish solution!

ON CARBON FIBER BICYCLE COMPONENTRY

Dave Anthony and Ric Hjertberg – Design, Research and Development, Full
Speed Ahead 2004

Current bicycle materials technology is appropriating from
Formula 1 and aerospace and approaching the same narrow safety margins of those
fields. So, along with the benefits of ultra-high performance comes the
responsibility and necessity of the user to continuously inspect and maintain
equipment, just as those other fields demand and require. Of course, in F1
or aerospace the user (driver/pilot) is supported by mechanics and technicians.
Most cyclists enjoy no such infrastructure.

In reality, its necessary is for the user to match his/her up-front equipment investment with an appropriate budget for maintenance and repair. This includes both time (education and frequent inspection of components) as well as expense (the cost of engaging a skilled mechanic or the replacement cost of damaged components).

For example, the reliability and cost of maintaining a high-end $100,000 super-car
is not the same as a mass produced $25,000 sports car. In the same way, a
$6000 bicycle has a different maintenance requirement vs. a $1500 bicycle. It’s
up to the consumer to consider needs vs. resources and accept the hidden costs
of ultra high-performance components.

Twenty years ago, composites were already well established in aviation and sporting goods industries, and current composite bicycle components benefit from a further 20 years development of materials and manufacturing. Most of today’s products are
“high tech” far beyond of the technology of 20 years ago, although some are even
more advanced, benefiting from recent developments in composite materials and
design. They demonstrate exceptional strength, durability, and light weight that
older technologies can’t approach.

Carbon fiber components can be extremely resistant to heavy use and abuse. Notice skis, white water kayaks, tennis racquets, sail board booms, and hockey sticks, all made of carbon fiber. At first glance, the material is softer and easier to damage than aluminum. But the outside layer of fibers is often a 3D weave placed exclusively to resist damage (impacts, scratches, etc.). The fibers that do the principal load bearing are safely encased within. So, cosmetic harm to the outside layer is often not as
serious as one might assume.

The dark, varied appearance of carbon components doesn’t show abuse as easily as aluminum. Sure, a ding is disappointing, but years down the road, carbon components often don’t look as beat up as their aluminum counterparts. But as a result, a user can’t always easily identify damaged parts that need replacement. Impacts and hairline cracks are hard to spot.
For small, superficial scratches to the surface clear-coat, an easy cosmetic repair is available. Simply clean the mark and brush on clear nail polish. For a nearly undetectable result, orient the chip facing up. Lay a drop of polish in the recess with a toothpick. When it fully dries, lay in another drop. Eventually, the chip is filled up to its original level. Very light polishing with something like Simichrome can make the damage disappear. We recommend not paying so much attention to the finish.
Well designed carbon components can resist mechanical deterioration very
effectively. Their complex, layered structure creates many barriers to crack
propagation. Certainly, any serious damage recommends replacing the component.
Properly designed carbon components are designed to fail in a controlled
manner without catastrophic failure. Damage to the fiber layer warrants, at the
least, periodic inspection against crack development.

Carbon fiber components can deliver outstanding fatigue properties. Typically, the fatigue life of carbon components is far superior to that of aluminum alloy components. Carbon fiber composites are very corrosion resistant, they are essentially reinforced plastics. The specter of galvanic corrosion of adjacent metallic
components is controlled through proper design of bonded metal-composite joints;
thorough coverage of fiber with resin and non-conductive interfacial barriers of
glue and/or glass-fiber and surface clear-coats to electrically insulate the
joint prevent galvanic corrosion of neighboring metal components.
In our industry, carbon fiber is far from being fully harnessed. Design is taking huge
leaps forward. With metals, the technology is also advancing but at a far slower
rate. Conventional metal bicycle parts are nearing their theoretical potential,
but fiber composites have still un-tapped potential. Big developments lie ahead.

0 Tour de Kazakh!

You might have already seen this, but just for memories. Obviously, seems like a Borat impersonator. Or maybe not. Liggett I think refrained from commenting, maybe he wasn't even aware of the movie. The only person that laughed most was Bob Roll..

I double considered putting this picture here, I couldnt hold back. What absurdness! Do I see Eric Zabel on the left smiling there? (Apparently, Zabul can even climb better than most top sprinters.Bravo!)

0 TDF Highlights (Super Hilarious)

0 Vino's crotch mantle

Selle, the Italian saddle manufacturer, is quite commonly seen in the peleton these days, warm under the buttocks of notables like Robbie Mcewen and Tom Boonen (both prefer the same saddle, the beefed up but timeless San Marco Regal, which I'm getting my hands on soon!)

Selle Italia and Selle San Marco, I do not know if they are sister companies under the same name. Or else, Selle might mean 'saddle' and Italia and San Marco are two different things.

Anyway...

Talking of beefed up! Look at this baby. An Italia Flite Carbonio, white with custom etched graphics, just for Vino's blood doped bum. Yeah! Looks quite comfy, wouldn't you say? 

0 Richard Sach's Cyclocross experience!

0 The Tour - A Pharmaceutical Farce!

Right. Thats what reporters are calling it.

Believe me, no one can cover cycling like in a controversy. As you might all be knowing by now, the CHICKEN has been thrown out of the Tour. Within 24 hours, there were 1000+ news articles covering the story all over the internet.

Christian Moreni is the latest suspect for a positive testosterone test. His team, Confidis, is sent home and Bradley Wiggins is just pissed off! Cant blame him, after putting the best of his training to the test, he must have rode the best rides of his life so far. Now he has to sacrifice everything that he came hoping to do because of an idiot in his team. What a shame!

Now what is this year's Tour coming to?

Race organisers say the Tour will go on. Others, like this reporter, firmly thinks that the Tour this year should be pulled off under the legs of the riders, so that everyone clearly understands the severity of the embarrassment to the sport. We may be left to ask ourselves, what is the future really of this sport. Is a 100 years
just too much for the Tour to take, and as if out of some magic book, all the evil knowledge of human body and the pharmaceutical industry are taking out the very substance of the grand race - a showcase of pure human performance, mental and physical.

Its funny. He claims that Alberto's potential Tour victory will leave fans and sponsors politely accepting the fact, but now will start to ask , 'How did he beat the dopers?!' Silly as it sounds, thats how grave a situation the sport is. The Tour winner may no longer be a public hero, because he can't be a champion for his own sport. He leads a bad example. He may no longer be a climbing God, or a sprinting rocket. 

All the credits for those performances will be taken by the pills at the pharmacy.

Or someone else's blood.

0 Pelo Pics

The Chicken meets the chicken! Hahaha...

Look at the rabid fan on the left. Put some clothes on and ride a bike duuuude!

To be very honest with you, I think its terrible that everyone calls Rasmussen a chicken. Alright, granted that some riders in the peleton are known by certain names. For example, Hinault was named "The Badger" because of his aggressive riding style. But chicken?! Chicken is the worst thing to be called... haha, sure Rasmussen looks like one. But rider database says he weighs more than Contador, and ofcourse there are much lighter and smaller riders in the peleton. Chicken can't have a power-to-weight ratio like Rasmussen's... I feel a bit bad for the man, and I'm not ready to call him that until it is proved that he DOPED! Until that point, its going to be a self esteem issue for the poor Dane.

This picture is funny. Soler, with little experience riding in a grand tour, is downing everything he can find around him, to muster the energy to stay with the leaders. With his weird cycling helmet on, he reminds me of a character from ET hurriedly climbing up the slopes after a heinous crime. Brave Soler!

Cadel Evans - boy, does this man have the courage or what. I say balls!! However, he doesn't look too graceful in a stance like this one here, where the reporter must have been prudent about Evans puking all over him.

Rasmussen has a tattoo , or is it just me? Wonder what is says? Suppose the chicken has a dragon on his right shoulder? Hmm...

Great pics though. Epic man. Epic!

Note : These are courtesy of PezCycling News. http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=pelopics/pelopics07/pelopics-jul07c

0 Team Astana out of the Tour

As of this afternoon, I'm very disappointed to learn about Team Astana's withdrawal from the race.

Reason?

Cruelly betraying as it sounds, the heroic time trial victory of Alexander Vinokourov in front of a million cycling fans and his stage victory yesterday has been overshadowed by testing positive for a banned blood transfusion.

I want to yell out, I'm quite disappointed and angry. Considering a man of his reputation, age and experience, I never expected him to come out with something like this.

Another big big blow to cycling and the Tour de France. Its disgusting.

Because of one man's fault, the whole team has to leave the Tour. What a waste of effort, time and money.  Think about how the team members might feel, after sacrificing all personal ambitions to pull the leaders into the massive Alps and Pyrenees.

I can't help thinking about Astana's sponsors, the Khazakastan Railways, who, after discovering the potential of the team and Vino amazing stage performances agreed to sponsor the team for the next 10 years!

Very disappointing news indeed.

0 The Real Cyclist

And... the man of the year award goes to ....

0 Something is just weird about him...

Notice anything fishy? The way he sits, talks... his body language. Its funny.





Boonen's comments.

0 Templates, to do or not to do?

Chucking out a template from the WWW is easy as eating apple pie. Not until I discovered bandwidth problems have hit my template and its going whack. When I do get more time, I'll look for a rarer species.

Meanwhile I completed a hard century in the hills of East Aurora with buddy Kina last Saturday. At some points , I arrived at near to heat exhaustion in the sub 80 degree temperatures... not to mention the fact that I had 25 pounds worth of water and supplies on my back as I climbed mighty Centerline. Hey, not recommended... but I feel you get better pushing yourself. Thats fine...

Im more confident to ride to the Aurora's and I'll be doing hills there more often.

This is a week of active recovery from the past days of hard riding. Upsetting is the fact that the UB criterium race is contantly being thwarted by the wet summer this July. So I hope I can get to race one more before I do some nice rides in August, mainly the Tonga Denali Tri State Tour.

Adios.

0 My Rides in Weeks Ahead - 300+ Kilometers

I'm going to be doing quite some riding in the next few days, and weeks ahead.

10:00 AM July 14th - Going to rock out my bicycle on an trainer and ride at 70% Vo2 Max Power Output...

9:00 AM July 15th - Road Race in Buffalo called Corfu West.

If that doesn't work out, I'll probably end up doing some 8 or 10 hill repeats on this local climb in Lockport. Thats some 15 miles one way, so it'll be a sweet 50 miles in total.

July 19 : Jean Masse' Memorial Local Criterium Race - 30-40 mins of high speed action! I'll try and stay with thefront pack, usually its just too darn difficult for me because I don't do things right. I have to find a sweet spot.

July 21 : (If weather willing...) A super cool 1 day 100 mile ride through the hilly village of East Aurora and back. Thats some 4500 feet of climbing in total.  Let's call it Tour de Sore. I named it! Some guys from our collegiate cycling club might also join, so its going to be sweet. I hate being lonely for a long onee...

August 6th-11th - The Tonga Denali Tour, a Tri State bike ride from Connecticut to Massachussetts and then back to Oneonta (around the Catskills).. I don't have much official information about it, but its more like a 200 mile ride, so we could be doing 30-40 mile rides everyday for a week though some awesome hilly roads and the excellent scenery offered by the Hudson River Valley. 


I'm positive some of these rides will continue to make my leg sore and my lungs heavy, 
but hey, theres tremendous fun in this suffering. You don't get it, do you?

Try riding a bike!

0 Real Tour heroes

Unfortunately, these boys have to go home from the Tour. Kudos to them for putting up a brave fight. The Tour de France is decidedly the hardest physical and mental thing one could do, so the fact that they atleast PARTICIPATED for their various teams and countries should be a matter of pride and encouragement to us all....

Stage 1: DNF Eduardo Gonzalo Ramirez (Spa) Agritubel - broken collarbone
Stage 3: DNS Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu) Discovery Channel - broken thumb stage two
Stage 4: DNF Xabier Zandio Echaide (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne - broken collarbone
Stage 5: DNS Rémy Di Grégorio (Fra) Française des Jeux - broken elbow stage four

I also wonder what it is with the human collarbone, that it is so fragile. So many riders break their collar bones. Is it that at such an elite level, the bones around the shoulder are soft? Is it the way they fall during a crash?

0 Hello to my readers!

I believe I'm getting a fair share of readers from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. I've seen some new readers pop up in Germany, England and France. Bonjour! Cheers mate!

Anyway, thanks for reading guys. Feel free to share comments with me.

0 Tour's most difficult climb?

Whats the most difficult climb in the Tour de France this year? 

I don't know, but now I want to find out. Okay, maybe I knew this a bit late, but 
seemingly the legendary Alpe d'Huez, the staggering uncategorised 13.1 km climb at 8.1% with 21 hairpin turns (ooooph thats a pain!) is not featured this year. Since it is located in 
Isere, France.. I did not find it anywhere in the 21 stage profiles of the Tour. So, the riders
probably won't go on Alpe at all.

Then what?

Look at Stage 8 : Le Grand-Bornand Tignes (165 km).

Mountain passes & Hills
Le Grand-Bornand Tignes - 165 km
Km 15.5 - Col du Marais - 3.8 km climb to 4.1 % - 4 Category
Km 22.0 - Côte du Bouchet-Mont-Charvin - 2.0 km climb to 7.1 % - 3 Category
Km 46.5 - Col de Tamié - 9.5 km climb to 4 % - 2 Category
Km 99.5 - Cormet de Roselend (D.925-D.902) - 19.9 km climb to 6 % - 1 Category
Km 136.5 - Montée d'Hauteville (N.90-V.C) - 15.3 km climb to 4.7 % - 1 Category
Km 163.0 - Montée de Tignes - 18.0 km climb to 5.4 % - 1 Category

Now that's a hilly stage!!! At km 99.5, the boys will go 19.9 km at 6% straight up on a Cat 1! That will be a pain!

Look at stage 9 : Val-d’Isère - Briançon (159.5km).

I don't know if Alpe d'Huez comes somewhere in this stage. Maybe not. Here's what is known:

Mountain passes and hills :

Val-d’Isère Briançon - 159.5 km
Km 15.0 - Col de l'Iseran - 15.0 km climb to 6 % - H Category
Km 99.0 - Col du Télégraphe - 12.0 km climb to 6.7 % - 1 Category
Km 122.0 - Col du Galibier - 17.5 km climb to 6.9 % - H Category

Look at that last one there. 17.5 km at 6.9%. We won't miss the great Col du Galibier,
deemed to be the highest point in the Tour de France where legendary cyclists have shown
spectacular performances in the past years. Note however, in the stage profile, that Col 
de I'Iseran is 2770m, more than 100 meters above Galibier. Technically, that shouldbe the
highest point this year, when riders will breathe most hardest and meet the angels of cycling.

Now lets go to stage 15 : Foix Loudenvielle - Le Louron (196 km)

Mountain passes & Hills

Foix Loudenvielle - Le Louron - 196 km
Km 27.5 - Col de Port - 11.4 km climb to 5.3 % - 2 Category
Km 98.5 - Col de Portet d'Aspet - 5.7 km climb to 6.9 % - 2 Category
Km 114.0 - Col de Menté - 7.0 km climb to 8.1 % - 1 Category
Km 159.5 - Port de Balès - 19.2 km climb to 6.2 % - H Category
Km 184.5 - Col de Peyresourde - 9.7 km climb to 7.8 % - 1 Category

This could easily be the most difficult stage! The Col de Mente, at an amazing 8.1% gradient is sure to make some dizzy, I would most certainly puke going up that at racing pace!

Hold your horses though. When the riders are in Mazamet for Stage 14, lots of pain mightawait them.

I mean, just look at this staggering profile.

From 187 m at 67.5 km, riders will be riding at almost a constant uphill until the 94th kilometer,
when boy, that road will rise above their wheels like a rug. The boys will be going straight
up to Port de Pailhères.

Check out the info :

Mountain passes & Hills

Mazamet Plateau-de-Beille - 197 km
Km 9.0 - Côte de Saint-Sarraille - 9.0 km climb to 5.3 % - 2 Category
Km 146.5 - Port de Pailhères - 16.8 km climb to 7.2 % - H Category
Km 197.0 - PLATEAU-DE-BEILLE - 15.9 km climb to 7.9 % - H Category

Even though are two "H" category climbs (God knows what H stands for, if you ask me,
I would guess HORRIBLE!) in stage 9, stage 14 will most likely be the killer course, with both
those climbs looking solid at excess of 7%, 15-17 kms each.

17 km  = 10.6 miles.
1711 meters of climbing from kilometer 94 to 176.5.. thats 5612 feet of climbing in 82.5 km or 51.56 miles.... That, according to me, will take 
a lot of nerves.

I mean, who knows whats the most difficult. Its purely subjective and will depend upon the race
conditions, breakways etc. The pressures will be immense, I would say, in each of these
stages.

I'm just worried about who the King of Mountains will be...and who will take that Yellow Jersey
away from Cancellara and when. I put my hopes on Vinokourov, but he has been known to break at the wrong times. I really want him to win!

Source info : http://www.letour.fr

0 What was he thinking?

I imagine what drinks Pope Benedict took the night before he said this. It is ridiculous that he thinks the Roman Church is the only legit church. Makes no sense to me. Read...

0 How the Tour Works

Picture courtesy of www.velonews.com.

MAIN COMPETITION

There are a number of official and unofficial competitions that are contested in the Tour. The key competitions are :

• The General Classification – The winner of the General Classification is the rider with the lowest cumulative time over the entire race. Since 1919, the leader of the GC at the end of the previous stage wears a yellow jersey on the following day’s stage. Standings in the GC are reported with the total time of the leader and the number of minutes and seconds slower each of the other riders is than the leader. The standings for the GC are subject to two adjustments. First, riders can earn “bonus” seconds (more accurately, deductions from their cumulative time) by winning or placing highly in a mass start stage (as much as 20 seconds off for winning one of the flat stages in the first week) or by being one of the first 3 riders across pre-determined points on the course called “intermediate sprints”. The second adjustment is that, for reasons of safety, all riders who cross the finish line in a group are credited with the same time, even if it takes the group a number of seconds to get across the line. Also, if there is a crash within 1 km of the finish (as in Stage 1 of last year’s tour in which Tyler Hamilton broke his collarbone), all riders in the group that crashed who eventually cross the finish line are credited with the same time as the rest of the group. The combination of bonuses and “same time” finishes means that aggressive riders who make long break-aways (and thereby get the intermediate sprint bonuses) and strong sprinters (who typically get the stage winner’s bonuses) fight it out for the yellow jersey early on – and the gap between first place on the GC and 100th place is measured in a handful of seconds. Once the race hits the mountains (or a large break-away succeeds – as in the stage to Pontalier in 2001), gaps of many minutes open up in the GC and the tight fights for a 2 second bonus in the first few stages are soon meaningless.

• The Points Competition – In addition to the GC, there are a number of other competions within the TDF. After the GC, the next most important is the points competition. Riders earn points based on the order of finish in each stage. For example, the winner of a mass start stage earns up to 35 points with lesser points awarded to finishers down to 20th place. In addition, a handful of points are also awarded at each of the intermediate sprints. The leader in the points competition wears a green jersey. In each of the last 3 years, the final winner of the green jersey has not been decided until the very last stage finish at the end of the Tour.

• The King of the Mountains competition – The next most important competition is the climbers’ points or “King of the Mountains” competition. Over the course of 3 weeks, the Tour goes over a number of mountains and mountain passes. Key stages finish at summits in the Pyrenees or the Alps. Each of the major climbs in the Tour is categorized based on its level of difficulty from a relatively painless category 4 up to long, steep category 1. The nastiest climbs of all, like the Galibier, Mont Ventoux, the Tourmalet and the Alpe d’ Huez, are classed as “hors categorie” or “outside of the classification”. Points are awarded to the first riders over the top of each climb – the tougher the climb, the more the points. The leader in the KOM competition wears a white jersey with large red polka-dots.

• Other Competitions – Prizes are also available for the leaders of the Team Competiton – a separate GC based on the total time of the first three riders on each team (exclusive of bonuses) on each stage. The leader of the Best Young Rider competiton (the highest placed GC rider under the age of 25) wears a White Jersey. A purely subjective assessment by the race officials determines who has the honour of wearing a red race number as the leader in the Most Aggressive Rider competition – awarded to the most stubborn of the break-away specialists. There is also the unofficial “competition” not to be the Lanterne Rouge – the rider in last place on the GC.

TYPES OF STAGES

Each racing day, the riders race one of the following types of race:

• A Mass Start race – most of the stages of the Tour are mass start races. The riders all start off together to cover a set route from one town to another. The stages in the first week to 10 days of the Tour are normally relatively flat. Later in the Tour, stages will involve riding up and down mountain passes. The winner of the stage is the first rider across the finish line.

• An Individual time Trial – Each year the Tour will include about 3 stages that are run as individual time trials. In an ITT, the riders start out one at a time at a set interval. Each rider is timed separately from the moment he is scheduled to start until he crosses the finish line. The rider with the lowest time for the day is the winner of the stage. In 2004, the first long ITT will be run very late in the race on a course up the Alpe d'Huez on stage 16.

• A Team Time Trial – The TDF usually includes a Team Time Trial stage. A TTT is like an ITT except that in a TTT, all members of a team start off together. If all goes well, the team rides together over the whole course and all members of the team are credited with the same time as that of the 5th team member to cross the finish line. Riders who cannot keep up with their team-mates, however, are on their own and will be timed individually. In a controversial decision, the Tour organizers have decreed that in 2004 no rider on a team that finishes within the time limit on the TTT stage will lise more than 2.5 minutes on the General Classification regardless of how far back the team finishes from the winning team.

OTHER THINGS TO KNOW

There are 21 teams taking part in the Tour this year, and there are 183 riders in total. Each team is supported by team cars that drive behind riders offering spare tires, wheels, and whole bikes in case of accidents. The person who usually drives the team car is the head coach, or director for that team and is known in French terms as "Directeur Sportiff".

Each rider or lead rider in a team's training protocol is so devised by his coaches that it is ensured that he peaks at the start of the Tour. Peaking means reaching ones highest and most optimum performance point that year, when he's most likely to achieve his maximum for that year. This is an interesting subject in sports science called Periodization.

Interesting thing about the Tour is that, as Phil Ligett remarked on Versus TV the other day, the Tour is the single most prestigious race in a cyclist's career, and that you may or may not be employed if you win a lot of other races. Once you win a stage in the Tour, you stay employed for sure!

0 Tour comments

By now, most of you might have heard about Robbie's spectacular comback after a crash yesterday at the ride into Canterbury.  He appeared from nowhere towards the final meters of the sprint, his wrist hurting, knees bruised... and packed such a hard punch into the sprint that not one could stay behind his wheel. Man, did he own the field.

Meanwhile, news is that he stayed away from getting his wrist X-rayed? Nervousness I believe?

I'm sitting in my office right now and I'm following the 2nd stage into Ghent on here. What are you using?

0 Tour Trivia

For people who know nothing of the Tour de France, here's a nice historic tabulation of the great race beginning in 1903. It will make an interesting read.

For teams, sponsor information, and jerseys, look here. It would be nicer to have a website that told possibly everything, including rosters, what each rider specialized in, etc. Must I have to buy a special Tour de France guide to watch out for that, or must I play the official computer game?

I think its spectacular. Everyone should be talking about it. Apparently, I feel like I'm the only person excited about it from western new york. Not interested to know who's going to win, but I'm literally in the Le Tour cycling mood!!!! If by a stroke of the supernatural, the atlantic ocean yields a path to the riders to cross into the United States, man you bet I'll be hererunning besides them! Haha....! Crazy am I, eh? I'm freaked out.... !

Speaking of the Tour history, a great thing I have with me on my computer is the History of the Tour de France, a superb documentary on the Tour, its champions and their lives. I'm not sure where you can buy one from, I got mine from here. :) Le Tour de France is here, if you know how to handle bittorrent files. 

To conclude the day, here's an interesting read on Robert Millar, one of Britain's top cyclists. Nowadays, no one hears about him. Why? I don't know. Read.

Once you conquer a great race of truth as the Tour, you acheive the path to instant hero-dom. Your pedal worthiness is now instant value, value for your sponsors, your village, your country,
your family. If you're shrewd like Lance, you'll probably end up making millions of dollars a month, a super-luxary home, tons of media contracts and ad campaigns...you name it.  You are household.

Some, like our Robert Millar though, has disappeared off the face of the earth. 

6 Why I hate Chinese Food?

Folks have asked me why I hate Chinese food.

First of all, hey, Chinese are great people okay?! I have no problems with them. They're just a bit different, and that's fine. But me and chinese food are no match for each other. Drinking a bottle of soy sause is not my idea of bon-apetit. I'm okay with their fried rice, but then that's pretty general.Anyone can make fried vegetable rice!

The dintinctly chinese foods are, to me, awful! They're cheap, maybe healthy, maybe not. I can't stop to think why most Chinese are so frail.. What? They all ride bikes? Ofcourse I knew that, and thanks for the prompt....but does it also have to do something with what they eat? My roommates at the moment are a chinese couple, and I haven't seen them NOT eat meat a single day.... beef, pork,chicken,pish,prawns you name,  Chinese eat anything that moves, all topped off with soy sauce, and canola oil!

Wow, maybe I'm really ignorant.

But then what about China being on the top of the list of countries whose food products have been banned by the FDA?

What about all those pets that got sick after eating foods imported from China?

Here's a list of those food products!

They say everything you bring to your mouth these days are poison. Milk is hormone injected, red meat raises cholesterol and bp, spinach is infected with bacteria, bread is not bread anymore yada yada.

Like my best friend says, I'd rather die eating what I love and what tastes good to me than living on what everyone eats, or what money buys for the cheapest, or what culture dictates.

Chinese food is not one of them.

0 Tour de France 2007 - 2 days to go!

The Tour is decidedly the biggest sporting event on the calender. Almost 200 riders crossing
3-4 countries, bridging 3500 miles for 21 days with hardly much time to rest. You tell me whats more hardcore than that.

And as is traditionally the case, the events before the Tour are packed so much heat and drama. Italian sprinting sensation Alessandro Petacchi is out of the Tour, adding another substance to
the list of blackmarked wonderdrugs - Albuterol, a.k.a Salbutamol, a relieving cure for Asthma. A glance at the official site for the drug lists one of the properties of the medication 
as, "It works by relaxing the muscles and air passages in the lungs so that air can flow into them more freely and improve breathing.

Research papers across the internet testify to the anabolic effects that it has on peak power.
Eric Zabel admitted to doping in '96, but he remains in the Tour, so atleast we can see some
clean action from him this year.

All that aside, Riis has opted out of the tour, so that leaves team CSC with his backing and support. Mr. Riis doped as well, in his Tour days.  Andreas Kloden is being pressurized with doping charges as well, and the man is 
enervated,making people believe his story.

Doping here, there everywhere. Its funny. Were all these people stupid? In abattle to please sponsors, team organisers, wild fans, and selfish personal aims, these crooks resorted to popping pills, sacrificing their own lives and careers and delivering a tainted image of the wonderful sport that is cycling.  This sport has taken a consistent beating over the past couple of years. What remains to be now seen is who the hell can beat the odds and have a clean victory and restore
the sport to being legit human performance! No more freaks of nature, no more pill popping, just a nice clean victory.

Sometimes I feel like a rabid fan standing around the Colosseum, waiting for the Tour to begin, to frantically cheer the gladiators of modern cycling, screaming out to them


"Give us more, give us more!"

When I'm sane, I think of the numerous sacrifices the riders must have gone through, 
the challenges of training and preparation, the media battles, the drama everyday in 
their lives...just to get selected for the Tour. 

The Tour still remains, open-minded. The roads are wide open to swallow the bravest of men.

She's a virgin and she needs her next hero.

0 Trek Madone 2008 Testride - 2

Okay. I did the testride. It was a Performance 5.2. I got to the LBS 30 minutes before closing, so honestly, I got only 10-15 minutes of pure carbon fibre ride, and that too for the first time in my life!

Sure, I'll tell you there was a subtle difference in the ride, when compared to my current aluminium frame. The huge lugs of carbon fibre I was sitting on was slowly soaking up the road, but again, it was subtle. I rode on stock platform pedals, so that was a major drawback. I wanted to try out a sprint, and sprinkle a few jumps here and there. From my backpack, I produced my crappy camera that sent the LBS guys raising eyebrows. As if this were a major setback to them, they enquired whether I was a spy from Specialized. I kept clicking away...

Notice the seatstay material above the brakes. Totally solid. That sign looks sweet, like a Ferrari or something.

Made in Waterloo, Wisconsin.

My first impression of the frame - huge! Beautiful yes. Probably in the 17 pound range with the X Lite wheels on, maybe tad lighter than that. The frame is a work of art. Ultegra SL wasn't that great of a deal.

Now I like this, internally routed brake cable that runs diagonally within the frame to rear brake.

Massive bottom bracket region. I really need clipless pedals on to know the subtleties of Q-Factor.

The bottom bracket is massive. The downtube was quite big as well, and this I could easily tell from what I had in mind about my own bike. I am not sure how much stiffness the frame brings about, but the thing is built like a chevvy silverado or a Mustang or something. I had an upright position on this model, and it felt quite comfy. Not very aggressive. The area on the toptube, where it met with the headtude was so wide one could place a cup of coffee on it and go out for a ride without bothering.

Like sitting on a couch.

LBS has agreed to notify me when the Pro's get to store.

I'll tell you one thing. If you're openminded about a new design, you'll like it. If you're kind of style is hammering away on something minimalistic, this may not be for you. But as Trek claims, they have taken the bicycle back to the drawing board and rethought possibly everything. An important aspect of mechanical design is reducing the number of working parts and making a bike easy to fix, maintain, understand. For a novice biker who wants to play around with his bottom bracket on a conventional road bike, think about the number of tools and good working knowledge he would need. Just an example...

I'll take it with a pinch of salt for now...dang, there should really be someone out there who ought to take frames and do a side by side comparison of stiffness, weight,...

Marketing hype is one thing, testing is another.

0 Trek Madone 2008 Testride - 1

I've just heard from the nearest Trek dealer that the new Madone, probably a 5.2 Performance Fit, is in store. I am going to take the baby out for a testride today, and I'm pretty excited. Needless to say I'm itching to see the new bike, and take some sweet pictures for you folks.

That's coming soon.

0 Some great Tour de France Moments - 2

Inspite of a crash due his right pedal, Armstrong uses his rapid acceleration to hammer this climb, catch Ullrich and win the stage.

Tour de France 2003.

0 Some great Tour de France Moments - 1

Watch carefully as Vino attacks that sends Lance and Beloki on a wild high speed chase. Somewhere along that point, comes some spectacular moments. Watch!

Vino eventually won that stage.

0 New Doping charges!

Shocking is the word when I turned to International Herald Tribune to read of fresh doping allegations coming against Di Luca (whom I know will not race the tour), Alessandro Petacchi (one of my favorite sprinters, tell me he didn't do it!! ) Jörg Jaksche and a select few others.

I'm not ready to conclude anything here, but its almost obvious that they might not race the Tour de France next week. If thats the verdict, we all are going to miss some spectacular sprinting action on the first couple of flat stages.

I'm disappointed. Hell with doping!

Its funny how a few months back, on a winter training camp, my friend called to me saying "you look like Fausto Coppi on the climbs". I gleamed at the idea back then, but now I'm more like "Dude, stop comparing me with the guy. He doped, and he doped a hell lot. Worse, he admitted to it to the French back in the days with no remore. "

Times have changes, rules of competition have changed. I cannot entertain the idea that some one will win the Tour on hormones and banned substances... I love the Tour too much. Its a pity!

Cycling needs a new hero to open a new, clean chapter in the book of winners. At the moment, I put my bet on one of my favorite riders, Alexandre Vinokourov. But only time will tell whether his admittance of working with notorious Dr. Ferrari will throw him out of competition.

0 That was a nice week!

A post race snap in cool down mode. Hows the cycling cap? :)

Alleghany State Park!

Looking back at the week, I raced the superfast Jean-Masse Crit, and did the Racoon Rally 25 mile road race in some of the hilliest roads I've been. I'm not sure of my standings in the race, but I did have a sprint finish up on the last climb. I was sucking the wheel of a local American racer, and about 60 meters to the finish , I broke off from him and edged past him at 19-20 mph while racer organiser and friend Larry Mordue cheered me on....


Looking back at the race yesterday, I am surprised I was strong enough to take the decision to sprint. It was good training, and I think I'll do more of it from hereon.


Oh did I tell you.. Some really young kid with a street bike and panniers was with us in the main pack and I was surprised he could take the 26 mph speed so easily. I keep imagining of the wonders of DRAFTING.... boy saves a lot of energy. I saw it first hand right there. The guy was racing with platform pedals!! Just awesome and hardcore....! Larry told me later that day that he finished the race, because on the climbs I never saw him!


Later that afternoon, after the races, we witnessed some hardcore trials, on trial bikes. Trialists (if you will) ride a special bike and maneuver them across boulders as big as houses to finish a short course. Bunnyhopping and balance are the names of the game, and every time you put your feet down, and your points increase. The person with the lowest points win. Amazing stuff. Never seen this anywhere before!


Letting that week go, I have to head to Church in a while, and rest my slightly sore legs. I'll post up my race results as and when I get it, including a photo from a pro-photographer who clicked me on the second climb.