Postcards from Cali! (...and bye-bye Mr. Balls)

-That was quick. Shortly after I mentioned the ASO one-upping the Giro by pushing the Tour of California to May, Cav has decided he's going, going, back, back, to Cali, Cali!

First off, I love Italy and the Giro really does it for me. The last two years have been outstanding. Ricco's attacks (both on the bike and verbally) made for a riveting 2008 Giro. (The post-2008 Giro show where half the Italians were busted for EPO was also quite riveting). Then, Menchov's relentless defense of the maglia rosa in 2009 was truly inspiring, especially on the final day in Rome (if you haven't seen that you must).

But, when forced to choose, between flying 5000 miles to see Cav (and Lance) in May and walking 5 minutes to Hwy 1, I'll stay put.

(Speaking of, check out this course map of the stage from SF to SC. This year they'll go up Tunitas, down King's Road, then back up Old La Honda!! Last year, I saw them come up Tunitas and despite my dreams of pushing the sprinters up the hill Alp d'Huez style, they flew by in the big ring. This year, is going to be sick. King's Road is a winding descent that will be unreal to see them come down. I digest, but more on this later.)

Zomegnan (journalist turned Giro Race Dictator), you got your wish. No one will be protesting or talking back to you this year about any of your poor decisions. Instead, they just won't be there. One asinine decision after another you'll take the Giro from being the most exciting race since the Tour, to another Vuelta. (But at least Cuddles may finally have a shot at winning a Grand Tour.)

Long Live the Tour of Cali!!!

-In other news, Rock & Republic has rocked its way into bankruptcy. According to the article, it's "not clear what this [means] for the cycling team." Of course not! It never has been clear what anything you're doing, Mr. Ball, means for the cycling team. That's the kick.

Rock Racing, despite all Mr. Balls' [sic] purported concern for the riders and what not, has always been about the Rock & Republic show. Now, with Rock & Republic no longer 'rocking,' it looks like they'll be looking for contracts. (Just like Baden Cooke and Michael Creed had to do last year--I'm sure there were more.)

Just to be clear, I supported Rock. I pulled for them when the Tour of Georgia stuck them and others tried to. I said, 'Hey! These guys are good for cycling!' And for a time, I think they were...ok I can't do this. I liked them for a time, saw how they treated their riders, then could care less. Period. Besides, was it not obvious this was coming? Anyone who survivedJnco's knows that jeans, no matter how cool, only have a year, maybe two before they're OUT.

So, goodbye Rock, I'll miss seeing your killer kits (no sarcasm), your Scotts, I mean De Rosas, no wait, Fujis, no, Kestrels, wait, no Rock Racing bikes (sarcasm) at races. (For those of you who've followed Rock over the past few years, this is a hysterical post.)



-More importantly, Vania Rossi is innocent! Or at least now she's only guilty by association. I wonder if they'll be getting back together. What a shame, they were such a cute couple!

-So apparently the Shiv is now legal to ride (see bottom of this post). I wrote about this not long ago. Looks like the UCI realized having Specialized NOT manufacture one of the sickest TT bikes ever, wasn't, in fact, good for cycling. Go figure.

-PS Gent-Wevelgem is Sunday, so set your alarm clocks! Last year's is worth checking out too.

-Lastly, in case you have a hard time understanding Belgian cycling, here's a good guide. I would repost the map this guy made but it's so cool I just wouldn't feel right.

“Always attack as late as you can, but before the others do.”

-I was chatting with a guy while riding Tunitas the other day when something occured to me: the rationale behind the Tour of California's move to May. Zomegnan (Journalist turned Race Director of Il Giro d'Italia) has become increasingly dictatorial with the Giro which is held in May. The two other Grand Tours (Le Tour and La Vuelta) are owned by the ASO. Thus, with Mr. Z digging himself deeper and deeper into a hole (through every fault of his own), the ASO decided to one up him and take a chunk out of his May market share by changing the Tour of California date. Now, instead of just the Giro in May, there's a major competitor for mid-May racers. Yes, California is twelve hours from Europe. But DC is 6, and that's not stopping them. Oh and did I mention cycling's cash cow, Lance, isn't coming to the Giro this year?? (I don't think Contador is either so it looks like it'll just be Evans, Menchov, and hopefully someone who can do a wheel change)

-For those of you who want to hear bike commentary, this site has regular podcasts. Like with this blog, I can't vouch for quality. But they're consistent!

-Recently I've been thinking about a name change for the blog. I started this blog back in 2008 with the intention of just recording the runs, rides, adventures I was having. Since then it has morphed into lowly bike commentary and the occasional adventure.

After a recent email from my biggest fan I decided it was time to make the switch. What do you guys think? BikeBoy? The PedalPhile?

-Lastly, my favorite piece:



Looks like the brilliant people over at Rapha made a slight error in the design ("fashion disaster" as they call it) of their recent Italian flag jersey. (The flag is upside down.) Not to worry, they'll be back to making more overpriced hipster crap soon, at least until their market wakes up, discards the bikes they can't ride, and realize the tattoos...are here to stay.

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Alla San Remo!

-What a race. Although, for me the most exciting part wasn't the finish. (Spoiler coming...) It was watching the descent of the Cipressa and hoping, praying, Cav would catch back on!

Cav had missed some early season races due to some dental problems. I can't help but be reminded of the Mike Meyers' "British Toothpaste" skit. You don't have to brush your teeth every week, but you just might want to...

Carrying on, the race was riveting. Freire surprised us all with his sprint to victory. My heart goes out to Haussler who will spend another year grieving his 2009 loss to Cav.

-By the way, did anyone else notice Cav's trucker beard? During the race I thought it was just mud but afterwards I saw this interview. Also, the commentators mention he's got a model girlfriend in Milan. Does this mean he's Lance'd the homely British wife to whom he was married?

-Here are some great pre-race pics of the gear. And some even better ones of the rest.

-In other news, there are still crashes in Cat 4 races...

-This new site, Velofight.com has fantasy cycling. I've yet to try it out but the idea of spending hours making imaginary and fruitless bets sounds appealing (aren't I still blogging??).

-Lastly, coming soon will be my "Rider types" blog. For example: "The Sherpa": This rider knows nothing of the culture of cycling, nor its propensity for generating heat, which in fact warms you. Consequently, you'll often see these riders armed to the hilt with their heaviest North Face jacket AND pants along with a full Camelback. Take them off their bikes and they'd easily survive in say, Greenland.

-I'll leave you with more cycling music...

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A few quick notes...(I got a real J.O.B.)

-Stop putting GRAFFITI ON BIKES!!!! Yes, graffiti has its place and preferably on an abandoned building, train car, or water tower. NOT on brand new carbon bikes! Weren't Lance's 2009 Toor bikes disaster enough??

-Good to see collegiate action being reported. I was out in Virginia last summer when I happened to run into Switters (guy who wrote article I just linked). He raced for Rock for a while and had some good stories about the Tour of Columbia and 60k climbs. Whew!

-This is really disturbing. It's a shame to see riders so young doping.

-This guy support my claim about cycling.tv.



-Some of you have seen these space boots before. I'd be interested in trying a pair. Not that my legs have anything to recover from anymore...

-Check out this INCREDIBLE feat (check out the right side of the road around 2:25).



You can see more slow-mo pics on the killer SRAM blog.

-Lastly, whatever you do, don't forget about Milan-San Remo this Saturday. Last year's was breathtaking and this year's is stacked.

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A Win for Jens and a Team for Floyd!

-Jens nabbed the overall at Paris-Nice today! Peter Sagan got the win for today's stage. By the way, he's 20!

-Landis, who formerly rode for the Please-Anyone-TakeMe squad, now has a team. GM, Steve Owens stated: "We're confident in Floyd's commitment to being a powerful ambassador for the Bahati Foundation." I assume by "powerful ambassador" Owens didn't mean to other countries, say France??

-In a recent issue of Procycling Hinault stated: "In 1986, it was all clearly set out - LeMond would win and that was the end of it." I wonder if anyone else knew that.

He also debuted his new clothing line.

-Can't ride like Lance? Want your kids to at least look like him? California Cryobank is offering Lance Look-A-Likes. They don't say whether or not the child could ride like Lance. Maybe I'm missing the point...

-This Stephen Roche interview is pretty interesting.

-Lastly, my new favorite blog. I added them to my feed and found this killer post on the 2009 season. He aptly notes Hoogerland's incredible efforts at the Vuelta and the Haussler pic from Milan-San Remo makes my skin tingle. He also mentions that, okay well go read the article.

I'll leave you with this pic:

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The socks...

-On Friday I was riding into SF on BART. I pulled out the Ricco-covered edition of Procycling to read the article about Levi's Gran Fondo.

"You race?" said the BARTer next to me.
"Yeah, I used to...you?"
"Yeah."
"Out here, or..."
"Europe."
"Cool! What team?"
"Domo-Farm Frites."

My jaw dropped. The fact that he rode for Domo-Farm Frites was cool in and of itself. What took this from 'cool,' to one in a trillion was the fact that I happened to be wearing a pair of Domo-Farm Frites socks.

I pulled up my jeans to expose my socks.

"Cool..hehe" he replied, unenthusiastically.

Being a probability guy (of the informal variety, of course) I was shocked. At any given moment I'm going to guess there are maybe a handful, I take that back, I'll say .4 people, of 'Domo-Farm Frites' socks, on feets. The fact that while wearing my (I'll abbreviate from here on) DFF socks (okay that smacks of Bike Snob so I'll just spell it out) I happened to run into an ex-Domo-Farm Frites rider is mind-blowing. But I digest.

He told me about living in Europe and about the crash that ended his career. He had tore up his knee and could no longer ride.

I told him I had wanted to be a PRO only to realize, I didn't ['want it' enough]. He said you have to have an inner, well anger, that fuels you. You have to want to beat that guy no matter what. I occasionally get that while watching a 40 plus grouprider slog up Diablo, but that's about it.

We parted ways and I got his email. Cool guy.

-Looks like Zirbel is upset. I don't blame him. What I'm saying is either he did it, and is upset he got caught, or he didn't and is upset he got caught. Either way, I don't blame him for being upset.

The guy on BART and I had briefly talked about doping and it got me thinking. Since really getting into cycling I've felt that American cycling fans, you can take out 'cycling' and this will still fit, were quite righteous. I believe that's a product of the fact that our national cycling heros [LeMond, Armstrong, Hincapie...] have, as Lance puts it, "never tested positive." That our other national sports rarely test merely compounds this problem.

Let me cut to the chase though. If I'm a 18 year old (insert third world nationality) and my choices are either poverty or take the pill so that I can compete against the other (use same nationality as above) I'm going to take the pill. Better to take the pill and make it than to never take the pill. After all, if I take the pill and I get caught, I stop riding and end up poor. If I don't take the pill, I can't hang with the rest of my nation's talent and so I stop riding, and end up poor. At least if I take it, and get some recognition, maybe one day I won't have to take it because I won't be competing against such a doped field (ie internationally or outside my country).

What I'm getting at is for many of these upcoming PROs or almosts there really is no choice. In most places the national field is so doped it's impossible to stand out without doing it. Here in the US I said I no longer wanted to train for cycling. Within weeks of deciding not to aspire to PROdom I had a job. I can guarantee if I were in (third world country, can be different from above - example will still function) I would have wanted 'it' a lot more.

This isn't even bringing into account those who have addictive personalities and the effect that might have on one's 'choice' to dope. To wax grandiose, in life, there are many choices, few of them we choose. Besides, at the end of the day, knowing Ricco (holla!) doped doesn't diminish my enjoyment of watching those 2008 Giro and Tour stages.

-On a lighter note, I listened to the Millar podcast from Velocitynation the other day and I really liked it. I'd read the interview but the live thing was nice. He says some interesting things about Kimmage, with some of which I agree.

I have more but I'll save it for the next blog. I'll leave you with the last few k of of the Montepaschi Strade Bianche (monte-passkey stradaay biankaay). I had no idea this race was so crazy. They're still winding through city alleys in the last 100m!

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