Today started out as a traveling backyard bbq, without the burgers and beer. Everyone just cruised along, chatting and smiling. It looked like everyone in the peloton wanted a chance to congratulate Lance Armstrong.
Unfortunately the day didn't stay that way. There was still the green jersey to sort out and a few final spots in the top 10 of the GC were too close to call.
Going into today's stage Levi Leipheimer was in 5th place only 2 seconds ahead of Alexander Vinokourov. Well Vinokourov has showen that he is willing to attack anyone, anywhere, at any time. So if anyone out there thought he was going to sit back in the peloton and cruise into Paris just 2 seconds out of the top 5, you haven't been paying attention.
At the first intermediate sprint, Vino attacked and that attack was answered by Levi and 3 of his teammates. Vino went across one position ahead of Levi, essentially tieing up the 5th place spot.
The day was rainy and the road quickly became wet and slick. There were several small accidents on the road, but no one was hurt bad enough that they were unable to continue. Then after three Discovery riders went down on a turn and almost took Armstrong out at the same time the race officials announced that the general classification timing would end the first time the riders passed under the finish line on the Champs-Elysees. They decided that the only prizes at the end would be the sprint points and the glory of winning a stage in Paris.
I suppose this was a smart thing to do. If the road is slick this would eliminate most of the chaos during the circuit ride of the Champs-Elysees. There would be just the last big sprint to worry about and that takes case on a straight away.
So without the intermediate sprints to worry about the race settled down for an 8 lap cruise of the Champs-Elysees. Sure there were several breakaways but those were quickly squashed. Then in the last 1500 meters the sprint teams in the peloton found themselves chasing a breakaway of Fabian Cancellara, Bradley McGee and Alexander Vinokourov. This breakaway was run down at the line by the big sprinters of the day, but not before all three of them got across the line ahead of the sprinters.
It was a great attack and ride by Vinokourov. I haven't been that impressed with Vinokourov these last three weeks. He seems to just attack at random, and most of the time his attacks don't last, don't work and don't gain him anything except the annimosity of the riders he is attacking. But today it worked.
Phil Ligget kept saying what a great tactition that Vinokourov is but I disagree. He's not a great tactition. He's a loose cannon who every now and then actually manages to follow through with his wild attacks. Today was one of those days.
Regardless of his tactical ability he made a great ride today to win his second stage of this years tour. If nothing else he as put out a great resume for his job hunt, since he is looking for a new team to ride for.
Unfortunately there was a lot of controversy about the final GC standings. The officials after canceling the intermediate time bonuses and freezing the GC standings at the first crossing of the finish line. Then after the race they went ahead and gave vinokourov the 20 second time bonus for winning the stage. This moved him above Levi Leipheimer into 5th place overall.
We as spectators don't know what was decided and when. We don't know what the racers were told and when. We may never know. But we weren't alone. The broadcasters on the OLN network didn't know either.
You would think that the race officials would at least take the effort to let the "Official Broadcasters of the Tour de France" know what was going on. Leaving your official voices to guess what's going on just makes the whole show look amaturish and illprepared.
Final thoughts on the 2005 Tour:
Lance Armstrong wins his 7th consecutive yellow jersey. He was also 8th in points competition and third in the climbing.
America finished with 5 racers in the top 17 positions.
Michael Rasmussen won the polka dot jersey
Thor Hushovd won the green points jersey.
T-mobile won the team competition, Discovery Channel was second.
Yaroslav Popovych of Discovery Channel won the best young rider in the tour.
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Saturday, July 23, 2005
Tour de Kerry
My daughter and I had a Volleyball Camp this morning. My dear wife and the twins were out at Grandma's making plum jelly, so Chaos and I swung through a drive through and grabbed some lunch on the way home.
We got back to the house about 1 PM. I set out my lunch and grabbed the remote to watch the Tour de France on the TIVO. So there I am relaxing in my chair watching the OLN coverage of this mornings time trial when the scariest thing I've ever seen at the tour popped up on the screen.
John Kerry!
I grabbed for the remote, screaming at my beloved first born "Don't Look! Cover Your Eyes."
Being a good kid who always does exactly as Daddy says she naturally looked at the TV.
So there we were, me fumbling for the remote trying to hit the fast forward button and my daughter trembling in fear begging me to make the scary man go away.
I finally got the fast forward button pushed and the sound ended. But the picture remained. We sat there transfixed in horror. Curious about what the long face was droning on about, but at the same time to terrified to find out.
Eventually I was overcome by curiosity and I turned the sound back on just in time to hear:
"I'm John Kerry, I used to ride bikes in France when I wasn't in Vietnam. I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a bike in France. I remember what it was like to be passed by Lance Armstrong in a time trial, and have the president of the United States telling the American people that I was not there; the peloton were not there. I have that memory which is seared -- seared -- in me. I still have the saddle that Eddy Merckx gave me that day. It's a cherished possesion of mine, even though it gave me blisters."
"Do you want to see my blisters?"
So if anyone out there is wondering how Lance Armstrong can ride a bike as fast as he does? I know the answer. Just how fast if would you ride if you knew that John Kerry was in the team car behind you?
All Lance heard in his radio ear piece today was the voice of Johann Bruyneel begging him "For the love of God Lance - ride faster. If I have to listen to one more memory that is seared into this blowhard's mind I swear to God, Lance, I'm going to run you over just so he can talk to the media while they investigate the accident."
I'd be riding fast also.
One last question for OLN. You are covering one of the most popular sporting events in Europe. Lance Armstrong is fixing to win his 22nd stage of his career and sew up the yellow jersey for an unprecidenced 7th time. There are thousands of Americans there to watch and cheer him on. There are hundreds of cycling folks who have worked or ridden with, against or for Lance Armstrong and the only guy you can find to interview is a failed presidential candidate? Next time how about putting some kind of viewer warning on the screen: "Warning the following interview is not suitable for small children or rational adults with a low tolerance for bluster, pugnaciousness, diffusion, misdirection, pomposity and an undeserved sense of moral and mental superiority."
We got back to the house about 1 PM. I set out my lunch and grabbed the remote to watch the Tour de France on the TIVO. So there I am relaxing in my chair watching the OLN coverage of this mornings time trial when the scariest thing I've ever seen at the tour popped up on the screen.
John Kerry!
I grabbed for the remote, screaming at my beloved first born "Don't Look! Cover Your Eyes."
Being a good kid who always does exactly as Daddy says she naturally looked at the TV.
So there we were, me fumbling for the remote trying to hit the fast forward button and my daughter trembling in fear begging me to make the scary man go away.
I finally got the fast forward button pushed and the sound ended. But the picture remained. We sat there transfixed in horror. Curious about what the long face was droning on about, but at the same time to terrified to find out.
Eventually I was overcome by curiosity and I turned the sound back on just in time to hear:
"I'm John Kerry, I used to ride bikes in France when I wasn't in Vietnam. I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a bike in France. I remember what it was like to be passed by Lance Armstrong in a time trial, and have the president of the United States telling the American people that I was not there; the peloton were not there. I have that memory which is seared -- seared -- in me. I still have the saddle that Eddy Merckx gave me that day. It's a cherished possesion of mine, even though it gave me blisters."
"Do you want to see my blisters?"
So if anyone out there is wondering how Lance Armstrong can ride a bike as fast as he does? I know the answer. Just how fast if would you ride if you knew that John Kerry was in the team car behind you?
All Lance heard in his radio ear piece today was the voice of Johann Bruyneel begging him "For the love of God Lance - ride faster. If I have to listen to one more memory that is seared into this blowhard's mind I swear to God, Lance, I'm going to run you over just so he can talk to the media while they investigate the accident."
I'd be riding fast also.
One last question for OLN. You are covering one of the most popular sporting events in Europe. Lance Armstrong is fixing to win his 22nd stage of his career and sew up the yellow jersey for an unprecidenced 7th time. There are thousands of Americans there to watch and cheer him on. There are hundreds of cycling folks who have worked or ridden with, against or for Lance Armstrong and the only guy you can find to interview is a failed presidential candidate? Next time how about putting some kind of viewer warning on the screen: "Warning the following interview is not suitable for small children or rational adults with a low tolerance for bluster, pugnaciousness, diffusion, misdirection, pomposity and an undeserved sense of moral and mental superiority."
Volleyball Camp
We had or first school volleyball camp for the upcoming school year this morning. We think that we will have 15 players this year. All 7 of the eighth graders in the school signed up to play so we'll have our first 8th grade team made up of all 8th graders. We have 5 sixth graders and 3 seventh graders signed up to play so we'll have a 7th grade team that is mostly 6th graders, but that's better than 2 years ago when our 7th grade team was all 6th graders.
We held a 3 hour camp this morning. We started out with 45 minutes of warmup and conditioning. Then worked on passing, setting, court management and rotations, then serving and finally a scrimage. We started the day with 9 players there, and lost one along the way. So we split up the remaining four into 3 eighth graders and one 7th grader playing against the remaining two 7th graders and the two 6th graders. The 8th grade coach asked if I felt that the teams were a little unfair. I assured him that my girls would go easy on his 8th graders. (hah, hah)
The three seventh graders that I have on my team are real spitfires. These three are fantastic. They have so much strength, grace and energy for their age it's incredible. They sometimes lose focus but they never quit. Well my two spitfire 7th graders really stayed focused on the task and my two sixth graders were playing way above themselves. They won that game 26-24. They got a marvelous lesson in the importance of good serving in rally scoring.
When camp ended they were all tired and ready to go home. I hated leaving. I was so pumped up and excited that I can hardly wait for the next camp. I used to think that if I couldn't play the game I didn't even want to be around it. But the last two years coaching have changed my mind. It can be the most stressful, irritating and occasionally thankless job around. But watching the look on a young girl's face when she struggled with her serving all through practice then steps up with the game on the line and pounds three overhand service aces makes it all worthwhile. Have you every seen a 7th grader smile so large that her ears disappear?
We held a 3 hour camp this morning. We started out with 45 minutes of warmup and conditioning. Then worked on passing, setting, court management and rotations, then serving and finally a scrimage. We started the day with 9 players there, and lost one along the way. So we split up the remaining four into 3 eighth graders and one 7th grader playing against the remaining two 7th graders and the two 6th graders. The 8th grade coach asked if I felt that the teams were a little unfair. I assured him that my girls would go easy on his 8th graders. (hah, hah)
The three seventh graders that I have on my team are real spitfires. These three are fantastic. They have so much strength, grace and energy for their age it's incredible. They sometimes lose focus but they never quit. Well my two spitfire 7th graders really stayed focused on the task and my two sixth graders were playing way above themselves. They won that game 26-24. They got a marvelous lesson in the importance of good serving in rally scoring.
When camp ended they were all tired and ready to go home. I hated leaving. I was so pumped up and excited that I can hardly wait for the next camp. I used to think that if I couldn't play the game I didn't even want to be around it. But the last two years coaching have changed my mind. It can be the most stressful, irritating and occasionally thankless job around. But watching the look on a young girl's face when she struggled with her serving all through practice then steps up with the game on the line and pounds three overhand service aces makes it all worthwhile. Have you every seen a 7th grader smile so large that her ears disappear?
Tour de France - Stage 20
Today is the penultimate stage in the tour. A 55.5 km individual time trial that starts and ends in Saint-Etienne. Unlike many individual time trials in the past this is no flat course. There are several small hills along the route. There is also several turns in the villages that turn though almost 180 degrees.
Today was also Lance Armstrong's last real chance to win a stage in this years tour.
The race today had each rider starting 2 minutes apart in reverse order of their current standing in the tour. The last 20 riders, which are the top 20 riders in the tour start 3 minutes apart.
Today we got to see two different races. Lance Armstrong riding the course like a man possesed hunting down his closest rivals in search of an illusive stage win.
We also got to see Mickael Rasmussen's personal Tour of Terror.
First up - Lance Armstrong. Lance had very little to gain today. He was looking for a stage win, which he really doesn't need. But LAnce had plenty to lose, an accident or slip on the road could easily cost him the yellow jersey.
At the first 17 km time check Ivan Basso led the way with Armstrong seven seconds back and Ullrich another 10 seconds behind Lance.
At the second (35 km) time check Armstrong held the fastest time followed by Ullrich at 19 seconds and Basso at 53 seconds.
The third time check at 40 km showed Lance flying up the road a little over 30 seconds ahead of Ullrich and over a minute ahead of anyone else.
The fourth time check came at 49 km, Again Lance set the fastest time. Ullrich was 36 seconds back. The next closest rider was Alexander Vinokourov over a minute behind.
At the end Lance won by 23 seconds to finally take his 22 tour de France stage win.
Today Lance rode like a man possessed. HE just flew over the hills and through the turns. He certainly didn't llok like a man who is only a day away from retirement.
Then there was Mickael Rasmussen. Rasmussen went into the todays stage needing to just arrive in paris tomorrow to win the polka dot climbers jersey. But he was also sitting third in the overall classification just 2:12 a head of Jan Ullrich. Ullrich has been aiming at Rasmussen for several days trying to get himself back onto the podium in Paris.
While working his way through a traffic circle Mickael went down. He jumped back up right away and started fiddling with the rear wheel on his bike. Then he climbed back on the bike and started racing again. Over the next 15 minutes Mickael's Dream tour de France turned into the ride from hell. He had to have a wheel replaced on his bike. Then the whole bike replaced - twice. Then he went down again. He roade right off the road and tumbled over the handlebars. Then a third bicycle change.
When the bleeding was done, Mickael Rasmussen was passed on the road by Ivan Basso who started 3 minutes behind him, then he was passed by Armstrong who started 6 minutes behind him. Mickael dropped 7:47 seconds to Lance Armstrong. He dropped from his third palce podium spot all the way to 7th in the GC.
It was painful to watch. Rasmussen had ridden so well for the first three weeks. He had acheived his goals. In only his second tour he had won a stage and was going to wear the polka dot jersey into Paris. To see a rider's race tumble into disaster was heartbreaking. I wouldn't even wish that kind of bad luck on Bjarne Riis, and I don't like Bjarne Riis.
So Lance basicslly just has to stay in the saddle tomorrow and talk a wrong turn once he starts having a couple toasts.
The guys tomorrow who have to watch out are the sprinters and Levi Leipheimer He is in 5th place in the GC but only 2 seconds ahead of Vinokourov. So watch for some sprint attacks by Vino tomorrow. Levi needs to park himself on Vinos back wheel and every time Vino attacks he needs to outsprint him to whatever line he is chasing.
Today was also Lance Armstrong's last real chance to win a stage in this years tour.
The race today had each rider starting 2 minutes apart in reverse order of their current standing in the tour. The last 20 riders, which are the top 20 riders in the tour start 3 minutes apart.
Today we got to see two different races. Lance Armstrong riding the course like a man possesed hunting down his closest rivals in search of an illusive stage win.
We also got to see Mickael Rasmussen's personal Tour of Terror.
First up - Lance Armstrong. Lance had very little to gain today. He was looking for a stage win, which he really doesn't need. But LAnce had plenty to lose, an accident or slip on the road could easily cost him the yellow jersey.
At the first 17 km time check Ivan Basso led the way with Armstrong seven seconds back and Ullrich another 10 seconds behind Lance.
At the second (35 km) time check Armstrong held the fastest time followed by Ullrich at 19 seconds and Basso at 53 seconds.
The third time check at 40 km showed Lance flying up the road a little over 30 seconds ahead of Ullrich and over a minute ahead of anyone else.
The fourth time check came at 49 km, Again Lance set the fastest time. Ullrich was 36 seconds back. The next closest rider was Alexander Vinokourov over a minute behind.
At the end Lance won by 23 seconds to finally take his 22 tour de France stage win.
Today Lance rode like a man possessed. HE just flew over the hills and through the turns. He certainly didn't llok like a man who is only a day away from retirement.
Then there was Mickael Rasmussen. Rasmussen went into the todays stage needing to just arrive in paris tomorrow to win the polka dot climbers jersey. But he was also sitting third in the overall classification just 2:12 a head of Jan Ullrich. Ullrich has been aiming at Rasmussen for several days trying to get himself back onto the podium in Paris.
While working his way through a traffic circle Mickael went down. He jumped back up right away and started fiddling with the rear wheel on his bike. Then he climbed back on the bike and started racing again. Over the next 15 minutes Mickael's Dream tour de France turned into the ride from hell. He had to have a wheel replaced on his bike. Then the whole bike replaced - twice. Then he went down again. He roade right off the road and tumbled over the handlebars. Then a third bicycle change.
When the bleeding was done, Mickael Rasmussen was passed on the road by Ivan Basso who started 3 minutes behind him, then he was passed by Armstrong who started 6 minutes behind him. Mickael dropped 7:47 seconds to Lance Armstrong. He dropped from his third palce podium spot all the way to 7th in the GC.
It was painful to watch. Rasmussen had ridden so well for the first three weeks. He had acheived his goals. In only his second tour he had won a stage and was going to wear the polka dot jersey into Paris. To see a rider's race tumble into disaster was heartbreaking. I wouldn't even wish that kind of bad luck on Bjarne Riis, and I don't like Bjarne Riis.
So Lance basicslly just has to stay in the saddle tomorrow and talk a wrong turn once he starts having a couple toasts.
The guys tomorrow who have to watch out are the sprinters and Levi Leipheimer He is in 5th place in the GC but only 2 seconds ahead of Vinokourov. So watch for some sprint attacks by Vino tomorrow. Levi needs to park himself on Vinos back wheel and every time Vino attacks he needs to outsprint him to whatever line he is chasing.
Friday, July 22, 2005
Tour de France - Stage 19
Today's stage is a 153 km run from Issoire - to Le Puy-en-Velay. The final few stages of the Tour de France are usually flat or rolling hills stages that put the sprinters and the long breakaway specialists back into the game. But this year these last few stages have had some pretty good climbs in them. Today is no exception. There are three catagory 4 climbs with the catagory 2 Col de Pradeaux at the 68 km mark.
Lance Armstrong and the Discovery boys had a pretty easy ride in the French Countryside today.
There was a breakaway of four riders: Giuseppe Guerini - T-Mobile, Sandy Casar - Française des Jeux, Franco Pellizotti - Liquigas-Bianchiand Oscar Pereiro - Phonak.
These four at one point had a lead of almost 10 minutes. This put a lot of the higher placed GC riders into a bit of a snit. Oscar Pereiro started the day only 17 minutes back from Lance Armstrong. While he never worried Armstrong, the riders in 5th through 10th place were forced to chase the breakaway because Pereiro at one point had himself up as high as fifth place on the road at one point. Since none of the top 10 riders wanted to surrender their position they started chasing.
Today was a text book example of how to not ride the Tour as a team. In the four man breakaway was a T-mobile rider - Giuseppe Guerini. Guerini spent the whole day riding hard in the breakaway. His hard work was key to Oscar Pereiro's climb up the GC on the road.
This asks the question, with T-mobile having Jan Ullrich sitting in 4th overall, and Alexander Vinokourov sitting in 6th place overall. Why would a T-mobile rider in a breakaway work so hard helping a Phonack Rider - Oscar Pereiro gain enough time to possibly pass Vino and maybe even Ullrich in the standings.
In the end it was the T-mobile rider - Giuseppe Guerini who won the stage. So his hard work was rewarded with a stage win. But the big winner of the day was Oscar Pereiro. Who moved up to 10th place overall in the general catagory.
Tomorrow is the last individual time trail and Lance Armstrongs last real chance to win an individual stage in his last tour.
Lance Armstrong and the Discovery boys had a pretty easy ride in the French Countryside today.
There was a breakaway of four riders: Giuseppe Guerini - T-Mobile, Sandy Casar - Française des Jeux, Franco Pellizotti - Liquigas-Bianchiand Oscar Pereiro - Phonak.
These four at one point had a lead of almost 10 minutes. This put a lot of the higher placed GC riders into a bit of a snit. Oscar Pereiro started the day only 17 minutes back from Lance Armstrong. While he never worried Armstrong, the riders in 5th through 10th place were forced to chase the breakaway because Pereiro at one point had himself up as high as fifth place on the road at one point. Since none of the top 10 riders wanted to surrender their position they started chasing.
Today was a text book example of how to not ride the Tour as a team. In the four man breakaway was a T-mobile rider - Giuseppe Guerini. Guerini spent the whole day riding hard in the breakaway. His hard work was key to Oscar Pereiro's climb up the GC on the road.
This asks the question, with T-mobile having Jan Ullrich sitting in 4th overall, and Alexander Vinokourov sitting in 6th place overall. Why would a T-mobile rider in a breakaway work so hard helping a Phonack Rider - Oscar Pereiro gain enough time to possibly pass Vino and maybe even Ullrich in the standings.
In the end it was the T-mobile rider - Giuseppe Guerini who won the stage. So his hard work was rewarded with a stage win. But the big winner of the day was Oscar Pereiro. Who moved up to 10th place overall in the general catagory.
Tomorrow is the last individual time trail and Lance Armstrongs last real chance to win an individual stage in his last tour.
Set Phasors to Stun
According to this article from LONDON (Reuters) scientists are questioning the safety of a Star Wars-style riot control ray gun due to be deployed in Iraq next year.
The Active Denial System weapon is a 95-gigahertz microwave beam that can be fired at rioters and apparently causes heating and intolerable pain in less than five seconds.
But Neil Davison, coordinator of the non-lethal weapons research project at Britain's Bradford University has some concerns about the weapon:
Mr. Davison have you ever heard the story of the little old lady who tried to dry off her wet poodle in the microwave?
Actually if folks are worried about the safety of a non-lethal weapon we could just keep using the old tried and true methods of riot dispersal:
Riot Control Agents (CS & CR) - a pyrotechnic mixture or powder. It's pungent pepperlike order causes burning eyes, tearing, coughing, breathing difficulties, stining skin, sinus burning, vomiting and feelings of suffocation. These agents require significant planning for their safe use. Commanders must take into account - safety of the agent during shipping, storage and use, weather, riot escape routes, wind direction, the size of the area, and the proximity of children or the ailing.
Non-lethal weapons - rubber bullets, sandbags, batons, tazers. These devices usually work by inflicting blunt force trauma, shock, pain and discomfort on the rioters. Again they have their risks such as any force significant enough to stun or injure a person can also kill.
Neil Davison is worried about what happens if the rioters aren't able to move away from the microwave beam. A less flippant answer is: the same thing that happens when rioters don't move away from CS gas or spray or any of the other riot control devices currently in use today - they get hurt. This is called riot control. The object is to inflict enough pain and discomfort that people choose to run away instead of sticking around.
Assuring that the rioters have an escape route to disperse through is the responsibility of the force commander who is trying to qwell the riot.
Until we get Star Trek Phasors with a wide disersal stun setting. I guess 95-gigahertz of microwaves is gong to have to do.
The Active Denial System weapon is a 95-gigahertz microwave beam that can be fired at rioters and apparently causes heating and intolerable pain in less than five seconds.
But Neil Davison, coordinator of the non-lethal weapons research project at Britain's Bradford University has some concerns about the weapon:
"What happens if someone in a crowd is unable for whatever reason to move away from the beam. How do you ensure that the dose doesn't cross the threshold for permanent damage? Does the weapon cut out to prevent overexposure?"
Mr. Davison have you ever heard the story of the little old lady who tried to dry off her wet poodle in the microwave?
Actually if folks are worried about the safety of a non-lethal weapon we could just keep using the old tried and true methods of riot dispersal:
Riot Control Agents (CS & CR) - a pyrotechnic mixture or powder. It's pungent pepperlike order causes burning eyes, tearing, coughing, breathing difficulties, stining skin, sinus burning, vomiting and feelings of suffocation. These agents require significant planning for their safe use. Commanders must take into account - safety of the agent during shipping, storage and use, weather, riot escape routes, wind direction, the size of the area, and the proximity of children or the ailing.
Non-lethal weapons - rubber bullets, sandbags, batons, tazers. These devices usually work by inflicting blunt force trauma, shock, pain and discomfort on the rioters. Again they have their risks such as any force significant enough to stun or injure a person can also kill.
Neil Davison is worried about what happens if the rioters aren't able to move away from the microwave beam. A less flippant answer is: the same thing that happens when rioters don't move away from CS gas or spray or any of the other riot control devices currently in use today - they get hurt. This is called riot control. The object is to inflict enough pain and discomfort that people choose to run away instead of sticking around.
Assuring that the rioters have an escape route to disperse through is the responsibility of the force commander who is trying to qwell the riot.
Until we get Star Trek Phasors with a wide disersal stun setting. I guess 95-gigahertz of microwaves is gong to have to do.
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Apollo 11
It was 36 years (and one day) ago that Apollo 11 landed on the moon. I was going to write about this yesterday. But I got busy and it slipped my mind. But I should be excused this minor slip. Apollo 11 landed at 4:17 PM Eastern Daylight Time. But Neil Armstrong didn't actually walk on the moon until six and a half hours later - at 10:56 EDT. At that time in was 2:56 UTC in Greenwich England on July 21st. So in some parts of the world the first walk on the moon happened on July 21.
I was at my grandmother's house in Madison SD on July 20, 1969. I was 11 years old.
I spent most of my days at that age climbing in the trees in my Grandmother's yard. I remember my Grandmother coming out in the middle of the afternoon (around 2:30 PM) and telling me that Apollo 11 had landed on the moon. I was impressed, but also busy. I was trying to get myself across a 10 foot gap between two trees without touching the ground, so I didn't have too much time to pay much attention.
Later that night we all settled down in front of Grandma's TV to watch Neil Armstrong's moon walk. For a kid of 11 it seemed like things took forever. We spent a couple hours listening to Walter Cronkite telling us all about the lunar landing. There wasn't any video to see until Commander Armstrong moved out onto the ladder and activated the camera that was mounted on the side of the Eagle.
Waiting to see pictures from the moon about drove me nuts. After all I had all the patience of an eleven year old. I drove my Grandparents to distraction with endless questions. Finally we got to see the images from the camera mounted on the side of Eagle and watch Commander Neil Armstrong take that one small step. My grandparents and I sat and watched together for a couple hours. Once Buzz Aldrin finally got onto the lunar surface I got very interested. I watched these two men hop around like bunnies. I sat entranced, trying by the sheer force of my will, to cause one of the astronauts to trip and fall. I wanted to see how far he would bounce. Apparently I spent too much time believing what I saw in the cartoons.
Years later I realized how silly that desire was. In retrospect I'm glad I was disappointed. The potential damage to one of the astronauts from a fall would have been very traumatic to watch.
Once the moon walk was over I grabbed Grandpa's binoculars and headed out to the back yard. I spent several minutes peering at the moon trying to see the flag that Armstrong and Aldrin had placed there. I was sure that if I looked hard enough I could see it. Going back into the house that night without seeing the American Flag on the moon was a disappointment that almost overwhelmed the excitement of seeing the Armstrong's luner excursion.
At the age of 11 I didn't really understand the importance of that lunar landing. But I was hooked on the space program. I watched every rocket launch and every subsequent moon landing. I watched every shuttle launch. I stood in the hallway at work, watching through the door of the audio/video closet connected to the conference room, with tears running down my face as we watched Challenger explode during launch.
I have been down to Edwards AFB to watch the shuttle land.
I sat in the living room watching debris of the Columbia streak across the sky as more brave asrtonauts gave their lives in the exploration of space.
I didn't get to see anything about the Apollo 17 mission. By 1972 the news media considered the space program to be old news and the coverage was limited to a few articles in the newspaper and a brief mention of the evening news.
By 1972 I had decided that I wanted to be an astronaut. But that was the same year that I was diagnosed as near-sighted and my childish dreams of space disappeared behind a pair of wireframe glasses.
Instead I settled for a degree in Mechanical Engineering. I knew that I would never be accepted into the military as a pilot. So I took a clue from Harrison Schmitt on Apollo 17. Schmitt was the first and only scientist to walk on the moon.
I figured that engineering was my only hope to get into space.
Unfortunately during my high school and college days I got to watch the death of the United States Space Program. So that by the time I graduated from college there was almost no space program to join.
NASA still existed but it was an organization that was more interested in maintaining it's funding than they were in putting men back on the moon.
So I ended up working for a Department of Energy Contractor in Texas. From there I ended up at China Lake were I went from dreams of being an astronaut to being a rocket scientist.
My entire adult life I have been interested in space and space technology. For a variety of reasons I was never able to work for the space programs. But I have never lost my interest in space. It all goes back to that hot humid night in Madison SD when Astronaut Neil Armstrong traveled to the moon and then reached all the way back to earth and touched my soul.
I had given up on my dreams of getting into space. But watching Spaceship One last year fly out of Mojave and into space rekindled those dreams. Not so much for me, but for my children, or grandchildren. I just hope that someday a brave soul will reach out from the blackness of space and touch their souls the way Astronaut Armstrong touched mine.
I was at my grandmother's house in Madison SD on July 20, 1969. I was 11 years old.
I spent most of my days at that age climbing in the trees in my Grandmother's yard. I remember my Grandmother coming out in the middle of the afternoon (around 2:30 PM) and telling me that Apollo 11 had landed on the moon. I was impressed, but also busy. I was trying to get myself across a 10 foot gap between two trees without touching the ground, so I didn't have too much time to pay much attention.
Later that night we all settled down in front of Grandma's TV to watch Neil Armstrong's moon walk. For a kid of 11 it seemed like things took forever. We spent a couple hours listening to Walter Cronkite telling us all about the lunar landing. There wasn't any video to see until Commander Armstrong moved out onto the ladder and activated the camera that was mounted on the side of the Eagle.
Waiting to see pictures from the moon about drove me nuts. After all I had all the patience of an eleven year old. I drove my Grandparents to distraction with endless questions. Finally we got to see the images from the camera mounted on the side of Eagle and watch Commander Neil Armstrong take that one small step. My grandparents and I sat and watched together for a couple hours. Once Buzz Aldrin finally got onto the lunar surface I got very interested. I watched these two men hop around like bunnies. I sat entranced, trying by the sheer force of my will, to cause one of the astronauts to trip and fall. I wanted to see how far he would bounce. Apparently I spent too much time believing what I saw in the cartoons.
Years later I realized how silly that desire was. In retrospect I'm glad I was disappointed. The potential damage to one of the astronauts from a fall would have been very traumatic to watch.
Once the moon walk was over I grabbed Grandpa's binoculars and headed out to the back yard. I spent several minutes peering at the moon trying to see the flag that Armstrong and Aldrin had placed there. I was sure that if I looked hard enough I could see it. Going back into the house that night without seeing the American Flag on the moon was a disappointment that almost overwhelmed the excitement of seeing the Armstrong's luner excursion.
At the age of 11 I didn't really understand the importance of that lunar landing. But I was hooked on the space program. I watched every rocket launch and every subsequent moon landing. I watched every shuttle launch. I stood in the hallway at work, watching through the door of the audio/video closet connected to the conference room, with tears running down my face as we watched Challenger explode during launch.
I have been down to Edwards AFB to watch the shuttle land.
I sat in the living room watching debris of the Columbia streak across the sky as more brave asrtonauts gave their lives in the exploration of space.
I didn't get to see anything about the Apollo 17 mission. By 1972 the news media considered the space program to be old news and the coverage was limited to a few articles in the newspaper and a brief mention of the evening news.
By 1972 I had decided that I wanted to be an astronaut. But that was the same year that I was diagnosed as near-sighted and my childish dreams of space disappeared behind a pair of wireframe glasses.
Instead I settled for a degree in Mechanical Engineering. I knew that I would never be accepted into the military as a pilot. So I took a clue from Harrison Schmitt on Apollo 17. Schmitt was the first and only scientist to walk on the moon.
I figured that engineering was my only hope to get into space.
Unfortunately during my high school and college days I got to watch the death of the United States Space Program. So that by the time I graduated from college there was almost no space program to join.
NASA still existed but it was an organization that was more interested in maintaining it's funding than they were in putting men back on the moon.
So I ended up working for a Department of Energy Contractor in Texas. From there I ended up at China Lake were I went from dreams of being an astronaut to being a rocket scientist.
My entire adult life I have been interested in space and space technology. For a variety of reasons I was never able to work for the space programs. But I have never lost my interest in space. It all goes back to that hot humid night in Madison SD when Astronaut Neil Armstrong traveled to the moon and then reached all the way back to earth and touched my soul.
I had given up on my dreams of getting into space. But watching Spaceship One last year fly out of Mojave and into space rekindled those dreams. Not so much for me, but for my children, or grandchildren. I just hope that someday a brave soul will reach out from the blackness of space and touch their souls the way Astronaut Armstrong touched mine.
Tour de France - Stage 18
I have to say I really like Paul Sherwin. He has been a good commentator. But mostly I like how he doesn't let up on Bjarne Riss the team manager of the CSC team. Early in this years tour Riis ordered his team to leave David Zabrinski who was wearing the yellow jersey laying on the road after a crash. Then a couple days later when his teammate Jens Voight was wearing the yellow and got in trouble on a climb, he ordered the team to leave him.
Paul Sherwin doesn't like Riis's lack of respect for his team members who are wearing yellow and he isn't afraid to voice that displeasure.
Today in the prerace show OLN showed some footage of the CSC participating in a team building excercise this last December. They were taking part in a military style bootcamp. As the pictures showed the team in fatigues loading gear into a small inflatable boat the announcers were discussing how the individuals looked and Paul Sherwin asked "I wonder what happened when they got to the part about not leaving any men behind?"
Bob Roll responded that they obviously left that part out of the training.
OK, on with the race.
Stage 18 is 189 km from Albi to Mende. There are a couple sprints and two 2nd Category, two 3rd Category, and a 4th Category climbs.
This ride is pretty benign in the eraly part, they they climb up the central plateau. There is a couple harsh climbs in the last 10 kms.
There was an early breakaway, imagine that. 14 riders got out about 15 minutes at one point. But there were no contenders in the pack so they were allowed to run.
The 14 man breakaway spintered on the final climb and came down to Davitamon-Lotto's Axel Merckx, Marcos Serrano of Liberty Seguros and Cofidis' Cedric Vasseur.
Serrano outsprinted Merckx and Vasseur for his first stage in 8 tours. This is also the first win for Liberty Seguros this year.
The main pack did thier own fighting on the second to the final climb with Basso, Armstrong, Ullrich, and Evans running away from Vinokourov, Rasmussen, and Leipheimer.
There was not much change in the GC. Cadel Evan jumped back over Vinokourov to regain his 7th place finish.
Paul Sherwin doesn't like Riis's lack of respect for his team members who are wearing yellow and he isn't afraid to voice that displeasure.
Today in the prerace show OLN showed some footage of the CSC participating in a team building excercise this last December. They were taking part in a military style bootcamp. As the pictures showed the team in fatigues loading gear into a small inflatable boat the announcers were discussing how the individuals looked and Paul Sherwin asked "I wonder what happened when they got to the part about not leaving any men behind?"
Bob Roll responded that they obviously left that part out of the training.
OK, on with the race.
Stage 18 is 189 km from Albi to Mende. There are a couple sprints and two 2nd Category, two 3rd Category, and a 4th Category climbs.
This ride is pretty benign in the eraly part, they they climb up the central plateau. There is a couple harsh climbs in the last 10 kms.
There was an early breakaway, imagine that. 14 riders got out about 15 minutes at one point. But there were no contenders in the pack so they were allowed to run.
The 14 man breakaway spintered on the final climb and came down to Davitamon-Lotto's Axel Merckx, Marcos Serrano of Liberty Seguros and Cofidis' Cedric Vasseur.
Serrano outsprinted Merckx and Vasseur for his first stage in 8 tours. This is also the first win for Liberty Seguros this year.
The main pack did thier own fighting on the second to the final climb with Basso, Armstrong, Ullrich, and Evans running away from Vinokourov, Rasmussen, and Leipheimer.
There was not much change in the GC. Cadel Evan jumped back over Vinokourov to regain his 7th place finish.
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Tour de France - Stage 17
Longest stage in the tour at 239 km (149 miles).
Pretty much flat stage. A couple catagory 4 climbs and a cat 3 near the end. This stage stacked up to be one for a breakaway to get away and stay there.
Early in the stage there was a 17 man breakaway that contained two discovery channel riders - Paolo Savoldelli from Italy and José Luis Rubiera from Spain. This group rode hard and long. Couple that with the fact that the peloton wasn't interested in chasing them allowed them to drive their breakaway up to over 25 minutes at one point.
Late in the stage the T-mobile team realized that with a time gap of over 20 minutes and with two riders in the breakaway, Discovery Channel was set to take over the lead of the team competition. So T-mobile started chasing. Either they didn't chase well or the breakaway was riding better beacause the gap moved up to 25 minutes.
In the last 10 km the breakaway shattered apart as the 17 riders started attacking each other. With a 25 minute lead they knew they would finish ahead of the peloton so they attacked each other.
Eventually the race came down to Giro d'Italia champion Paolo Savoldelli and CSC's Kurt-Asle Arvesen. Arvesen made his move at about 1.5k. Savoldelli didn't look like he had what it was going to take to stay with Arvesen but he managed to get onto his wheel, then powered his way past him in the last 50 meters. One of the announcers described the final race to the line as a slow sprint. Two tired men giving it all they had left with Savoldelli being able to go that extra couple meters.
This was Discovery Channel's second stage win in the last 4 days. After racing for Armstrong for 6 years with no opportunities for personal victory the Discovery Boys have finally been allowed to join, and beat out some of the breakaways for stage wins.
Meanwhile almost 22 and a half minutes behind the leaders T-mobile was still chasing the team lead. But true to form Alexandre Vinokourov decided to do things his own way. He blew the peloton apart on the last climb. Only 10 riders were able to stay with Vinokourov. In a moment of inattention, Floyd Landis, Cadel Evans, and Christophe Moreau were left behind.
This resulted in Vinokourov moving up in the general classification to seventh place. Still more than nine minutes behind Armstrong.
So far in this tour, Discovery Channel has two stage wins, the yellow jersey, the lead in the team competition, the white jersey and Lance Armstrong is now second place all time in days in the yellow jersey. So far the only thing they don't have is a stage win for Lance Armstrong. But that is not necessary. He can win the yellow without a stage win. Greg Lemond in 1990 was the last person to do that.
Pretty much flat stage. A couple catagory 4 climbs and a cat 3 near the end. This stage stacked up to be one for a breakaway to get away and stay there.
Early in the stage there was a 17 man breakaway that contained two discovery channel riders - Paolo Savoldelli from Italy and José Luis Rubiera from Spain. This group rode hard and long. Couple that with the fact that the peloton wasn't interested in chasing them allowed them to drive their breakaway up to over 25 minutes at one point.
Late in the stage the T-mobile team realized that with a time gap of over 20 minutes and with two riders in the breakaway, Discovery Channel was set to take over the lead of the team competition. So T-mobile started chasing. Either they didn't chase well or the breakaway was riding better beacause the gap moved up to 25 minutes.
In the last 10 km the breakaway shattered apart as the 17 riders started attacking each other. With a 25 minute lead they knew they would finish ahead of the peloton so they attacked each other.
Eventually the race came down to Giro d'Italia champion Paolo Savoldelli and CSC's Kurt-Asle Arvesen. Arvesen made his move at about 1.5k. Savoldelli didn't look like he had what it was going to take to stay with Arvesen but he managed to get onto his wheel, then powered his way past him in the last 50 meters. One of the announcers described the final race to the line as a slow sprint. Two tired men giving it all they had left with Savoldelli being able to go that extra couple meters.
This was Discovery Channel's second stage win in the last 4 days. After racing for Armstrong for 6 years with no opportunities for personal victory the Discovery Boys have finally been allowed to join, and beat out some of the breakaways for stage wins.
Meanwhile almost 22 and a half minutes behind the leaders T-mobile was still chasing the team lead. But true to form Alexandre Vinokourov decided to do things his own way. He blew the peloton apart on the last climb. Only 10 riders were able to stay with Vinokourov. In a moment of inattention, Floyd Landis, Cadel Evans, and Christophe Moreau were left behind.
This resulted in Vinokourov moving up in the general classification to seventh place. Still more than nine minutes behind Armstrong.
So far in this tour, Discovery Channel has two stage wins, the yellow jersey, the lead in the team competition, the white jersey and Lance Armstrong is now second place all time in days in the yellow jersey. So far the only thing they don't have is a stage win for Lance Armstrong. But that is not necessary. He can win the yellow without a stage win. Greg Lemond in 1990 was the last person to do that.
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Golf on Tuesday 7/19
Tonight was the last night of the round robin part of our league. We have one more round to play next week - a position round. After tonight I think my team should write a book. We could title it - First to Last in 4 Ugly Weeks.
Actually we probably aren't going to be in last week place. But we have dropped quite a ways. Five weeks ago we were in a tie for first place. In the last four weeks we have a record of 4.5 wins and 19.5 losses.
Some of us have played poorly. Some of us have played well and lost anyway. Personally in the last 3 weeks I have been beaten by golfers having really good nights. I seem to bring the best out in my opponents. My opponents have shot net scores for 9 holes of 32, 34 and tonight a 31.
During my round tonight we started on hole number six. I birdied number 6, I shot par on holes 1, 2 and 4. For a 22 handicap to shoot a birdie and 3 pars in 9 holes is a great round. I lost my round 3 down with 2 to play.
Match play is like that sometimes. You can play well and lose anyway. I've had seasons where I have played poorly and still won a majority of my matches. This year I've won a few nights with poor rounds. I've also had matches where I played well and lost.
Tonight I was tempted to ride a cart. The temperature at the course when we started was 115 degrees. The wind was supposed to only be 7 to 9 mph. But by the second hole it was gusting to over 20 mph. Great, Hot and Windy. It was like golfing in a blast furnance. I went ahead and walked anyway. I had to lug a lot of water along with me, but didn't suffer too badly.
Actually we probably aren't going to be in last week place. But we have dropped quite a ways. Five weeks ago we were in a tie for first place. In the last four weeks we have a record of 4.5 wins and 19.5 losses.
Some of us have played poorly. Some of us have played well and lost anyway. Personally in the last 3 weeks I have been beaten by golfers having really good nights. I seem to bring the best out in my opponents. My opponents have shot net scores for 9 holes of 32, 34 and tonight a 31.
During my round tonight we started on hole number six. I birdied number 6, I shot par on holes 1, 2 and 4. For a 22 handicap to shoot a birdie and 3 pars in 9 holes is a great round. I lost my round 3 down with 2 to play.
Match play is like that sometimes. You can play well and lose anyway. I've had seasons where I have played poorly and still won a majority of my matches. This year I've won a few nights with poor rounds. I've also had matches where I played well and lost.
Tonight I was tempted to ride a cart. The temperature at the course when we started was 115 degrees. The wind was supposed to only be 7 to 9 mph. But by the second hole it was gusting to over 20 mph. Great, Hot and Windy. It was like golfing in a blast furnance. I went ahead and walked anyway. I had to lug a lot of water along with me, but didn't suffer too badly.
Cycling Tragedy
Yesterday the Australian women’s national team was dealt a fatal blow. While riding a training ride in Germany an 18 year old german driver lost control of her vehicle and slammed in to the group of Australian cyclists.
29 year old Australian rider Amy Gillett was killed and five teammates injured.
There were 5 other riders also injured.
Alexis Rhodes is in intensive care in critical condition. Alexis suffered multiple fractures in the thoracic region.
Louise Yaxley - is stabilized, but in serious condition.
Katie Brown - originally doctors feared that Katie may lose a leg, but surgery on her leg was considered successful. She is inserious condition from multiple fractures.
Lorian Graham is in satisfactory condition with both collarbones broken as well as broken hands and knee and leg injuries.
Katie Nichols - is in satisfactory condition with severe deep tissue damage including torn tendons. She has had succesful surgery for her injuries also.
My prayers and best wishes go out to the injured riders and thier team. My condolences and prayers to Amy Gillett'a family and friends.
29 year old Australian rider Amy Gillett was killed and five teammates injured.
There were 5 other riders also injured.
Alexis Rhodes is in intensive care in critical condition. Alexis suffered multiple fractures in the thoracic region.
Louise Yaxley - is stabilized, but in serious condition.
Katie Brown - originally doctors feared that Katie may lose a leg, but surgery on her leg was considered successful. She is inserious condition from multiple fractures.
Lorian Graham is in satisfactory condition with both collarbones broken as well as broken hands and knee and leg injuries.
Katie Nichols - is in satisfactory condition with severe deep tissue damage including torn tendons. She has had succesful surgery for her injuries also.
My prayers and best wishes go out to the injured riders and thier team. My condolences and prayers to Amy Gillett'a family and friends.
Tour de France Stage 16
Today was the last day in the Pyrennes Mountains. Compared to Sunday's stage today should be a ride in the park.
The stage starts in Mourenx and covers 180.5km to Pau. There are two big climbs in todays stage with the main climb being the final ’hors category’ summit of the Col d’Aubisque. The stage ends with a 72km downhill run to the finish.
Before the peloton reached the first climbs of the days eleven riders got out on a breakaway. They highest placed rider in the breakaway was Cadel Evans from the DVL team who started the day in 11th place almost 13 minutes ahead of Lance Armstrong.
This breakaway in several different incarnations stayed away for most of the day. Armstrong and the Discovery Boys had a fairly relaxed day. They didn't chase the breakaway. Lance had to mark a couple small attacks by Basso and Ullrich on the ’hors category’ climb of the Col d’Aubisque. But since he caught them easily, they didn't press too hard. Lance even took a short turn at the front of his group near the top of the climb.
Once they all started the long downhill race to the finish the teams of Ullrich, Rassmusen and the other racers in 4th through 10th place started really chasing the breakaway. At one point Cadel Evans had himself moved all the way up to 4th place in the GC on the road, and was threatening the third place spot.
Armstrong and the Discovery boys just sat back and let everyone else chase. Everyone from 4th through 10th place did all the work and Armstrong just cruised along with them.
Eventually four members of the breakaway stayed out all the way to the finish. The stage winners were Oscar Pereiro, Xabier, Eddy Mazzoleni, and Cadel Evans. Cadel Evan's final gap on the peloton was 3:24. This moved him up to 7th place in the overall classification. It was a great move and a great ride by Evans. The only thing he didn't get out of the day was the stage win. That honor went to Oscar Pereiro who finished second to George Hincapie on Sunday.
Todays win was a great coup of Pereiro and the Phonack team. The only dark spot on his win was his spoiled little childlike bitching that he and his team did 2 days ago when George Hincapie outsprinted him for the stage win. Oscar complained that Hincapie didn't work for that victory. He whinned that he did all the work and George stole his moment.
Oscar, that's called professional cycling. You didn't have to do all that work on sunday. You could have slowed down and let the peloton catch you. But you chose to do all the climbing work, George was lucky enough to be into a postion to take the win.
Well today the shoe was on the other foot. Cadel Evans broke away with several other riders early today. He worked hard all day to stay away. Oscar joined that break away on the last climb and stayed with Evans all the way to the finish. When they got to the lst 20 km, Evans did almost all the work. He had the most to gain so he worked to gain what he could even though he knew that that level of work would probably cost him the stage. Today Oscar sat in the back and let Evans do all the work. Then Oscar outsprinted the tired Evans at the finish for the win.
Oscar rode a good race, but I wonder if he will complain about himself sitting behind Evans and making him do all the work so he could grab the win at the end.
Probably Not.....
Congratulations to Paul Sherwin for asking (retorically} if Oscar would apoligise for sitting on Evan's wheel and not helping so he could win the stage. Thanks for asking Paul but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a comment from Pereiro or Phonack.
The stage starts in Mourenx and covers 180.5km to Pau. There are two big climbs in todays stage with the main climb being the final ’hors category’ summit of the Col d’Aubisque. The stage ends with a 72km downhill run to the finish.
Before the peloton reached the first climbs of the days eleven riders got out on a breakaway. They highest placed rider in the breakaway was Cadel Evans from the DVL team who started the day in 11th place almost 13 minutes ahead of Lance Armstrong.
This breakaway in several different incarnations stayed away for most of the day. Armstrong and the Discovery Boys had a fairly relaxed day. They didn't chase the breakaway. Lance had to mark a couple small attacks by Basso and Ullrich on the ’hors category’ climb of the Col d’Aubisque. But since he caught them easily, they didn't press too hard. Lance even took a short turn at the front of his group near the top of the climb.
Once they all started the long downhill race to the finish the teams of Ullrich, Rassmusen and the other racers in 4th through 10th place started really chasing the breakaway. At one point Cadel Evans had himself moved all the way up to 4th place in the GC on the road, and was threatening the third place spot.
Armstrong and the Discovery boys just sat back and let everyone else chase. Everyone from 4th through 10th place did all the work and Armstrong just cruised along with them.
Eventually four members of the breakaway stayed out all the way to the finish. The stage winners were Oscar Pereiro, Xabier, Eddy Mazzoleni, and Cadel Evans. Cadel Evan's final gap on the peloton was 3:24. This moved him up to 7th place in the overall classification. It was a great move and a great ride by Evans. The only thing he didn't get out of the day was the stage win. That honor went to Oscar Pereiro who finished second to George Hincapie on Sunday.
Todays win was a great coup of Pereiro and the Phonack team. The only dark spot on his win was his spoiled little childlike bitching that he and his team did 2 days ago when George Hincapie outsprinted him for the stage win. Oscar complained that Hincapie didn't work for that victory. He whinned that he did all the work and George stole his moment.
Oscar, that's called professional cycling. You didn't have to do all that work on sunday. You could have slowed down and let the peloton catch you. But you chose to do all the climbing work, George was lucky enough to be into a postion to take the win.
Well today the shoe was on the other foot. Cadel Evans broke away with several other riders early today. He worked hard all day to stay away. Oscar joined that break away on the last climb and stayed with Evans all the way to the finish. When they got to the lst 20 km, Evans did almost all the work. He had the most to gain so he worked to gain what he could even though he knew that that level of work would probably cost him the stage. Today Oscar sat in the back and let Evans do all the work. Then Oscar outsprinted the tired Evans at the finish for the win.
Oscar rode a good race, but I wonder if he will complain about himself sitting behind Evans and making him do all the work so he could grab the win at the end.
Probably Not.....
Congratulations to Paul Sherwin for asking (retorically} if Oscar would apoligise for sitting on Evan's wheel and not helping so he could win the stage. Thanks for asking Paul but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a comment from Pereiro or Phonack.
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Tour de France Stages 14 and 15
I'm late with these updates because they happened over the weekend and I was out of town most of the weekend. Thanks to TIVO I got to watch them when I get home.
Stage 14, a long stage with a Hor de Catagory climb followed by a catagory 1 climb to the finish.
Once again Lance was seperated from the Discovery teammates and attacked on the first big climb. He answered the climbs as needed, but mostly he stayed with Ullrich, Basso and Vinokourov. If one attacked he waited until the others realized that they also couldn't let him go if they wanted any hopes of winning the tour themselves. It was fun to watch Ullrich and Basso lead Armstrong back to Vinokourivs wheel.
It was even more fun to watch Basso and Armstrong pull away from the rest of the pack, and then watch Lance outsprint Basso to the finsh line for second in the stage. They tour leaders seperated Armstrong from his teammates in the hopes of breaking him and instead he increased his lead over every single challenger to his position as the race leader.
On Sunday was the last big day in the mountains and what a day it was. The route started with 2 sprints a catagory 2 climb then 4 catagory 1 climbs. The final climb of the day was the hor de catagorye climb up Pla-d’Adet, one of the hardest climbs in tour history.
Early in the stage a 14 man break away started. In a change of team strategy, Discovery Channel sent one of their riders - George Hincapie with the break away. His ordered were to stay with he group, do not help, be rested and ready to help Lance if he catches up, be ready to stop and wait for him if he needs it, if not, win the stage.
Since none of the riders in the breakaway were not real threats to Armstrongs yellow jersey they were let go. Once the pelton seriously started racing, it was T-mobile who did most of the chasing. Eventually Armstrong was isolated from his teammates again and found himself being attacked on the second to the last climb. But once again Lance answered all challenges.
Eventually the breakaway was whittled down to just George Hincapie and the Spanaird, Oscar Pereiro. They had a 5 minute lead on Armstrong's yellow jersey when George outsprinted Oscar for the stage win. Then a few minutes later Ivan Basso and Lance Armstrong who were all that was left of the race contenders crossed the line. Lance widened his lead on every rider in the top twenty except for Basso.
Basso moved up to second place overall. He is still 2 minutes and 46 seconds behind Armstrong.
Rasmussen who started the day in second and was dropped by Armstrong, Basso and Ullrich made a great late rush to get back to Ullrich and prevent him from taking over third place in the GC.
But best of all was George Hincapie. George did something that no other teammate of Armstrong has done in the last 6 years. He won a stage in the Tour de France. And oh what a stage. George who spent most of this career a road racing specialist and sprinter wannabe, wins the longest, hardest mountain stage of this years tour.
Also this is George's first ever stage win on the tour after 10 years of trying.
WAY TO GO GEORGE!!!!!!!!!
Tomorrow is a rest day then another mountain stage with sprints, small climbs, an Hor de Catagorye climb in the middle and a long downhill sprint to the end.
Stage 14, a long stage with a Hor de Catagory climb followed by a catagory 1 climb to the finish.
Once again Lance was seperated from the Discovery teammates and attacked on the first big climb. He answered the climbs as needed, but mostly he stayed with Ullrich, Basso and Vinokourov. If one attacked he waited until the others realized that they also couldn't let him go if they wanted any hopes of winning the tour themselves. It was fun to watch Ullrich and Basso lead Armstrong back to Vinokourivs wheel.
It was even more fun to watch Basso and Armstrong pull away from the rest of the pack, and then watch Lance outsprint Basso to the finsh line for second in the stage. They tour leaders seperated Armstrong from his teammates in the hopes of breaking him and instead he increased his lead over every single challenger to his position as the race leader.
On Sunday was the last big day in the mountains and what a day it was. The route started with 2 sprints a catagory 2 climb then 4 catagory 1 climbs. The final climb of the day was the hor de catagorye climb up Pla-d’Adet, one of the hardest climbs in tour history.
Early in the stage a 14 man break away started. In a change of team strategy, Discovery Channel sent one of their riders - George Hincapie with the break away. His ordered were to stay with he group, do not help, be rested and ready to help Lance if he catches up, be ready to stop and wait for him if he needs it, if not, win the stage.
Since none of the riders in the breakaway were not real threats to Armstrongs yellow jersey they were let go. Once the pelton seriously started racing, it was T-mobile who did most of the chasing. Eventually Armstrong was isolated from his teammates again and found himself being attacked on the second to the last climb. But once again Lance answered all challenges.
Eventually the breakaway was whittled down to just George Hincapie and the Spanaird, Oscar Pereiro. They had a 5 minute lead on Armstrong's yellow jersey when George outsprinted Oscar for the stage win. Then a few minutes later Ivan Basso and Lance Armstrong who were all that was left of the race contenders crossed the line. Lance widened his lead on every rider in the top twenty except for Basso.
Basso moved up to second place overall. He is still 2 minutes and 46 seconds behind Armstrong.
Rasmussen who started the day in second and was dropped by Armstrong, Basso and Ullrich made a great late rush to get back to Ullrich and prevent him from taking over third place in the GC.
But best of all was George Hincapie. George did something that no other teammate of Armstrong has done in the last 6 years. He won a stage in the Tour de France. And oh what a stage. George who spent most of this career a road racing specialist and sprinter wannabe, wins the longest, hardest mountain stage of this years tour.
Also this is George's first ever stage win on the tour after 10 years of trying.
WAY TO GO GEORGE!!!!!!!!!
Tomorrow is a rest day then another mountain stage with sprints, small climbs, an Hor de Catagorye climb in the middle and a long downhill sprint to the end.
Golfing at State Bowling Tournement
I am home again safe and sound. Well, safe anyway, I'm only as sound as a guy that would travel seven hours from here to Sacramento just to bowl and golf.
My friend, Scot, and I left here Friday morning around 7:30. We stopped over briefly at the Tehachapi Loop. I had heard about the loop but had never seen it myself. The loop is a section of railroad track that loops around on itself. Here's a picture I took of a train moving around the loop.
The the train wasn't long enough to wrap around on itself, and because of the angle we were forced to watch from we couldn't see the front of the train as it passed under the bridge that it had just crossed over.
Continuing on we stopped the other side of Bakerfield for lunch at an In-n-Out Burger. Double-Double with grilled onions, fries and a soda. In-n-Out has the best fast food hamburgers ever.
With our stomachs and mouths happy we continued North. We were just south of Stockton when the traffic on Hwy 99 started slowing down. Suddenly we saw a large alert sign that warned of us a traffic accident 9 miles ahead and recommended that we find an alternate route to our destination. Not being familiar with the area Scot and I were looking around for a service road or alternate route, but all we found was a exit ramp and a golf course. So we did what any good commuter would do in this situation. We pulled in to the French Camp Golf Course and played 18 holes to give the highway time to clear.
The course was a short 18-hole, par 60 course. It was a nice little course that only cost $8 twilight rate. Unfortunately I was still suffering from a case of the shanks, so in addition to my $8 I raised the ambient level of the water hazards the equivelent to 8 golf balls. Fortunately for me I had a lot of found balls in my bag that I had collected the last few weeks and those are what I dumped in the ponds around there.
Once our afternoon stroll was over we loaded back into the truck and headed on to Rocklin.
Saturday we bowled in the singles and doubles event. I didn't do too well in singles but redeemed myself somewhat in the doubles event. I didn't bowl well enough to place in either event. But I did OK in the side brackets. There was a lot of luck of the draw there, and I had good draws.
After bowling Scot and I played a round of golf at the Roseville Golf Club, a nice municipal course. There wasn't as much water on this course as the last, and I seemed to have cured my shanks by giving them to Scot. I did lose several balls in the thick rough, but overall golfed better than on Friday. Fortunately Scot and I decided to ride a cart. It was over 100 and humid. We were exhausted when we finished. I don't think that I would have made it trying to walk.
On Sunday we bowled the team event. It was a meaningless gesture on our part. We only had three of our 5 team members there. We managed to find one substitute but had to bowl without the other team member. That meant that we took zeros for the missing man.
I was rather irritated by this. One team member had car troubles and burned his bowling hand trying to fix the difficulty. So I can't blame him, that was a good reason to not show up. But the other missing player just didn't bother to show, no phone calls, no messages, nothing he just blew us off.
Once again I didn't bowl particularly well, but once again I got good draws in the brackets and broke even.
We left for home right after bowling and lunch. It was a long drive home and we got back around 8:15 PM. I was good to see my dear wife and family again. I like getting out and going places, but then there is nothing like going home again. We thought it was hot in Sacramento at 105, but we came home to 114 degrees.
My friend, Scot, and I left here Friday morning around 7:30. We stopped over briefly at the Tehachapi Loop. I had heard about the loop but had never seen it myself. The loop is a section of railroad track that loops around on itself. Here's a picture I took of a train moving around the loop.
The the train wasn't long enough to wrap around on itself, and because of the angle we were forced to watch from we couldn't see the front of the train as it passed under the bridge that it had just crossed over.
Continuing on we stopped the other side of Bakerfield for lunch at an In-n-Out Burger. Double-Double with grilled onions, fries and a soda. In-n-Out has the best fast food hamburgers ever.
With our stomachs and mouths happy we continued North. We were just south of Stockton when the traffic on Hwy 99 started slowing down. Suddenly we saw a large alert sign that warned of us a traffic accident 9 miles ahead and recommended that we find an alternate route to our destination. Not being familiar with the area Scot and I were looking around for a service road or alternate route, but all we found was a exit ramp and a golf course. So we did what any good commuter would do in this situation. We pulled in to the French Camp Golf Course and played 18 holes to give the highway time to clear.
The course was a short 18-hole, par 60 course. It was a nice little course that only cost $8 twilight rate. Unfortunately I was still suffering from a case of the shanks, so in addition to my $8 I raised the ambient level of the water hazards the equivelent to 8 golf balls. Fortunately for me I had a lot of found balls in my bag that I had collected the last few weeks and those are what I dumped in the ponds around there.
Once our afternoon stroll was over we loaded back into the truck and headed on to Rocklin.
Saturday we bowled in the singles and doubles event. I didn't do too well in singles but redeemed myself somewhat in the doubles event. I didn't bowl well enough to place in either event. But I did OK in the side brackets. There was a lot of luck of the draw there, and I had good draws.
After bowling Scot and I played a round of golf at the Roseville Golf Club, a nice municipal course. There wasn't as much water on this course as the last, and I seemed to have cured my shanks by giving them to Scot. I did lose several balls in the thick rough, but overall golfed better than on Friday. Fortunately Scot and I decided to ride a cart. It was over 100 and humid. We were exhausted when we finished. I don't think that I would have made it trying to walk.
On Sunday we bowled the team event. It was a meaningless gesture on our part. We only had three of our 5 team members there. We managed to find one substitute but had to bowl without the other team member. That meant that we took zeros for the missing man.
I was rather irritated by this. One team member had car troubles and burned his bowling hand trying to fix the difficulty. So I can't blame him, that was a good reason to not show up. But the other missing player just didn't bother to show, no phone calls, no messages, nothing he just blew us off.
Once again I didn't bowl particularly well, but once again I got good draws in the brackets and broke even.
We left for home right after bowling and lunch. It was a long drive home and we got back around 8:15 PM. I was good to see my dear wife and family again. I like getting out and going places, but then there is nothing like going home again. We thought it was hot in Sacramento at 105, but we came home to 114 degrees.
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Gone Bowling
I see a lot of bloggers that will post telling people that blogging will be light over an occasional weekend when they are going out of town.
I'm going out of town this weekend. I'd like to say that blogging will be light this weekend. But the truth is that blogging will be non-existant until Sunday evening. I'm heading for Sacramento to the California State Bowling Tournement. I don't intend to take the computer with me. This weekend is about bowling and golf. I don't want to spend any of it in front of a keyboard.
The guys I travel with like to joke around that State Bowling Tournement is just an excuse to go golfing out of town.
It's not a joke.
Have a great weekend, be safe.
Go Lance Armstrong!!!!!!
I'm going out of town this weekend. I'd like to say that blogging will be light this weekend. But the truth is that blogging will be non-existant until Sunday evening. I'm heading for Sacramento to the California State Bowling Tournement. I don't intend to take the computer with me. This weekend is about bowling and golf. I don't want to spend any of it in front of a keyboard.
The guys I travel with like to joke around that State Bowling Tournement is just an excuse to go golfing out of town.
It's not a joke.
Have a great weekend, be safe.
Go Lance Armstrong!!!!!!
Ridgecrest Sunset
Add together a few light evening clouds and the sun setting behind the Eastern Sierra Mountains and the result is a beautiful sunset. Since we average about 300 days a year of clear blue skies, we don't get too many of these sunsets.
Since Glenn Reynolds is always mentioning his cameras, I guess I should also.
That picture was taken with a Pentax *ist DS.
Since Glenn Reynolds is always mentioning his cameras, I guess I should also.
That picture was taken with a Pentax *ist DS.
Tour de France Stage 12
Stage 12 was a 187 km ride from Briancon to Digne-les-Bains.
Before the tour started Lance Armstrong pointed out this stage as a potential trouble spot. This stage has two catagory 2 climbs, a catagory 3 and two catagory 4 climbs. Just the type of stage that encourages guys to get out on a fast breakaway and try to stay there.
Today is also Bastille Day - the French version of our 4th of July, but without the hamburgers, hotdogs and watermelon. Sorry I just can't see watching fireworks with Brie and a Cabernet.
Being Bastille Day you can bet your best bottle of french toilet water that there will be several Frenchmen killing themselves trying to win this stage.
There were several early attacks but none of them survived past the first climb of the day. Unfortunately for the Discovery team another casualty of the first climb was Manuel Beltran, one of Lance's main climbers. I never got to see the accident but Phil Liggit described it as slow and silly. Paul Sherwin quickly added that the slow crashes were the worst because you landed harder - no slide.
Beltran eventually got back on his bike but before they could reach the second climb of the day he abandoned the race. The last report I saw said he was having knee problems. Beltran is the first teammate of Lance Armstrong to not finish the tour in Paris since 2001. That is impressive. When Lance's detractors say that he has won so many tours because of his strong team. They are right. He has a stong team, and its a team that also sticks together and finishes together. I hope the the Discovery Channel team doesn't miss Beltran too much in the upcoming Pyrénées.
Before the peloton reached the second climb of the day an 11 man breakaway occured. Eventually those 11 were joined by Stuart O'Grady (COF) and Thor Hushovd (C.A).
This 13 man breakaway contained no one who was a threat to either the yellow jersey of LAnce Armstrong or the polka dot jersey of Mickael Rasmussen. So the peloton let them go.
There was eventually some chasing done by the peloton when Robbie McEwen finally figured out that Hushovd and O'Grady were currently sitting 1st and 2nd in the points catagory (green jersey). Tom Boonen the green jersey leader did not start today. Tom has raced well that first week, but has spent a lot of time the second week on the ground. For many guys one crash is too many, Tom has had a couple. However McEwen's attempts to get the peloton racing didn't get very far. Without a lot of help from Discovery his team attempts to drag the peloton back into the race never materialized.
The Discovery boys spent a lot of time at the front of the peloton today but they weren't trying to run anyone down. The were protecting Lance, watching for breakaways from serious contenders, and just being in position to make sure that the 13 man breakaway did not get more than 17 minutes ahead - the time the best rider in the breakaway was back from Armstrong.
On the fourth climb of the day - the catagory two climb up the Col du Corobin French Cofidis rider - David Moncoutie attacked the 13 man breakaway. He stayed out until the end. So the French had a French Champion of Bastille Day. I love when good things like that happen. Even when they happen to the French.
Flat day tomorrow the Mountains on Saturday and Sunday.
Before the tour started Lance Armstrong pointed out this stage as a potential trouble spot. This stage has two catagory 2 climbs, a catagory 3 and two catagory 4 climbs. Just the type of stage that encourages guys to get out on a fast breakaway and try to stay there.
Today is also Bastille Day - the French version of our 4th of July, but without the hamburgers, hotdogs and watermelon. Sorry I just can't see watching fireworks with Brie and a Cabernet.
Being Bastille Day you can bet your best bottle of french toilet water that there will be several Frenchmen killing themselves trying to win this stage.
There were several early attacks but none of them survived past the first climb of the day. Unfortunately for the Discovery team another casualty of the first climb was Manuel Beltran, one of Lance's main climbers. I never got to see the accident but Phil Liggit described it as slow and silly. Paul Sherwin quickly added that the slow crashes were the worst because you landed harder - no slide.
Beltran eventually got back on his bike but before they could reach the second climb of the day he abandoned the race. The last report I saw said he was having knee problems. Beltran is the first teammate of Lance Armstrong to not finish the tour in Paris since 2001. That is impressive. When Lance's detractors say that he has won so many tours because of his strong team. They are right. He has a stong team, and its a team that also sticks together and finishes together. I hope the the Discovery Channel team doesn't miss Beltran too much in the upcoming Pyrénées.
Before the peloton reached the second climb of the day an 11 man breakaway occured. Eventually those 11 were joined by Stuart O'Grady (COF) and Thor Hushovd (C.A).
This 13 man breakaway contained no one who was a threat to either the yellow jersey of LAnce Armstrong or the polka dot jersey of Mickael Rasmussen. So the peloton let them go.
There was eventually some chasing done by the peloton when Robbie McEwen finally figured out that Hushovd and O'Grady were currently sitting 1st and 2nd in the points catagory (green jersey). Tom Boonen the green jersey leader did not start today. Tom has raced well that first week, but has spent a lot of time the second week on the ground. For many guys one crash is too many, Tom has had a couple. However McEwen's attempts to get the peloton racing didn't get very far. Without a lot of help from Discovery his team attempts to drag the peloton back into the race never materialized.
The Discovery boys spent a lot of time at the front of the peloton today but they weren't trying to run anyone down. The were protecting Lance, watching for breakaways from serious contenders, and just being in position to make sure that the 13 man breakaway did not get more than 17 minutes ahead - the time the best rider in the breakaway was back from Armstrong.
On the fourth climb of the day - the catagory two climb up the Col du Corobin French Cofidis rider - David Moncoutie attacked the 13 man breakaway. He stayed out until the end. So the French had a French Champion of Bastille Day. I love when good things like that happen. Even when they happen to the French.
Flat day tomorrow the Mountains on Saturday and Sunday.
Building Small Coffins
Greyhawk who writes the Mudville Gazette published an article yesterday called Building Small Coffins.
Read it, then as Greyhawk says:
Warning: Reading Building Small Coffins may cause intense feelings of anger, rage, hatred or sorrow. It may drive you to break things or start shouting loud obscenities at your computer screen. Or, it just make you sick to your stomach. Read it anyway.
Afterwards, if you feel none of the above, report to the lost and found office to see if anyone has turned in your soul.
Read it, then as Greyhawk says:
Some day you may hear someone describing the virtues of the "resistance" or "freedom fighters" in Iraq , or claiming moral equivalence between these animals and coalition soldiers. You may even hear someone say we're on a "crusade" against Muslims. When you do, send them here.
Warning: Reading Building Small Coffins may cause intense feelings of anger, rage, hatred or sorrow. It may drive you to break things or start shouting loud obscenities at your computer screen. Or, it just make you sick to your stomach. Read it anyway.
Afterwards, if you feel none of the above, report to the lost and found office to see if anyone has turned in your soul.
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
HOT!!!!!!!
The temperatures topped out today at 111 degrees F.
That's hot. Not near our record highs yet. But hot enough that if you touch the metal parts of your car after it's been parked in the parking lot you can burn yourself.
Days like this are the reason why almost every car in town has a custom fit carpet covering the dashboard, a padded steering wheel cover, and a sun screen for the windshield to protect the interior of the car while it is parked.
Seat covers are also a necessity. Especially if you wear shorts. There is nothing more painful that sitting down on a plastic or leather seat when the interior of your car is over 110 degrees inside.
You can usually spot the people in the grocery store that don't have good seat covers, they are walking around and the back of their thighs are bright red.
That's hot. Not near our record highs yet. But hot enough that if you touch the metal parts of your car after it's been parked in the parking lot you can burn yourself.
Days like this are the reason why almost every car in town has a custom fit carpet covering the dashboard, a padded steering wheel cover, and a sun screen for the windshield to protect the interior of the car while it is parked.
Seat covers are also a necessity. Especially if you wear shorts. There is nothing more painful that sitting down on a plastic or leather seat when the interior of your car is over 110 degrees inside.
You can usually spot the people in the grocery store that don't have good seat covers, they are walking around and the back of their thighs are bright red.
Tour de France Stage 11
The tour had a long hard ride ahead of themselves today. A couple sprints and three big climbs: the hors categorie Col de la Madeleine, the 1st Category Col du Telegraphe, and the hors categorie Col du Galibier, the highest point of the 2005 Tour. The stage will end with a 40 kilometer descent to Briançon.
So the riders get to climb till their hearts are ready to burst and then race downhill to the finish.
The Running-on-pure-guts award today goes to Thor Hushovd the sprinter who when out early with slim hopes of staying away over the Col de la Madeleine and then picking up the 6 sprint points that were available 42 km after the first summit. It was a grand effort, if a futile one. The 6 points for that first sprint would have put Thor in the green jersey at the end of the day. Unfortunately for him, Alexandre Vinokourov, the Kazakhstan rider for T-mobile had other plans.
Vinokoutov, looking a lot different in the saddle today than yesterday, launched an attack with 7 other riders about 28 km into the stage. Throughout the day this attack squad led by Vinokourov gained and lost members. Finally ending in Briançon with Vinokourov out sprinting Santiago Botero for the stage win.
Lance Armstrong rolled the dice today and bet heavily on his Discovery Teammates. He won that gamble. the entire Discovery team sat back and let the attack with Vinokourov go. Then once Vinokourov's lead on Armstrong got out to around four minutes, Lance got the Discovery boys together and started to try and make up some of that time.
Unlike yesterday where he blew out his teammates one at a time, Lance didn't push the guys as hard on the climbs today. Discovery Team actually went over the summit of Galibier with five of them still together at the front of the peloton.
Overall Vinokourov picked up a minute and 15 seconds on Lance, but is still way back. Christophe Moreau moved from 4th to 3rd overall. Lance is still secure in first, 38 seconds a head of Rasmussen, the polka dot jersey holder.
Tomorrow's stage has two early sprints then a mix of catagory 2, 3 and 4 mountains.
So the riders get to climb till their hearts are ready to burst and then race downhill to the finish.
The Running-on-pure-guts award today goes to Thor Hushovd the sprinter who when out early with slim hopes of staying away over the Col de la Madeleine and then picking up the 6 sprint points that were available 42 km after the first summit. It was a grand effort, if a futile one. The 6 points for that first sprint would have put Thor in the green jersey at the end of the day. Unfortunately for him, Alexandre Vinokourov, the Kazakhstan rider for T-mobile had other plans.
Vinokoutov, looking a lot different in the saddle today than yesterday, launched an attack with 7 other riders about 28 km into the stage. Throughout the day this attack squad led by Vinokourov gained and lost members. Finally ending in Briançon with Vinokourov out sprinting Santiago Botero for the stage win.
Lance Armstrong rolled the dice today and bet heavily on his Discovery Teammates. He won that gamble. the entire Discovery team sat back and let the attack with Vinokourov go. Then once Vinokourov's lead on Armstrong got out to around four minutes, Lance got the Discovery boys together and started to try and make up some of that time.
Unlike yesterday where he blew out his teammates one at a time, Lance didn't push the guys as hard on the climbs today. Discovery Team actually went over the summit of Galibier with five of them still together at the front of the peloton.
Overall Vinokourov picked up a minute and 15 seconds on Lance, but is still way back. Christophe Moreau moved from 4th to 3rd overall. Lance is still secure in first, 38 seconds a head of Rasmussen, the polka dot jersey holder.
Tomorrow's stage has two early sprints then a mix of catagory 2, 3 and 4 mountains.
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Tour de France Stage 10
Today looks to be a tough stage. Pretty flat with two catagory 1 climbs - the Cormet de Roselend about two thirds of the way through the 181 km stage and summit of Courchevel where the stage ends.
Two days ago Lance Armstrong gave away the yellow jersey without a fight so that some other team could do the work on today's stage. Good plan except for a couple flaws. First as I noted before, teams don't attack Armstrong because he is wearing yellow, they attack him because he is Lance Armstrong. The other problem with this plan was that Lance and his Discovery Channel team apparently didn't read page two of the plan. You know, the part where some other team tries to defend the yellow jersey now. Apparently CSC, the team of todays yellow jersey didn't read that page either. In a pre-race interview with Frankie Andreau a CSC spokesman admitted that Basso would be attacking today. Not the kind of behavior you would expect from a team defending the yellow. I'll say it one last time (I promise) CSC will not defend the yellow jersey unless it is on the back of Ivan Basso. Basso will attack today, he will attack Lance Armstrong, and in the process attack his teammate Jens Voigt, the man wearing the yellow jersey.
So the race is off, and in the early flat stages Discovery Channel's plan is working perfectly. There is a breakaway of riders that no one will worry about and the team doing the work is Credit Agricole, the team of Christphe Moreau, the man currently sitting is second place in the GC (General Catagory).
Then we reached the slopes of the Cormet de Roselend and who is at the front of the peloton doing all the work - Discovery Channel. So much for the best laid plans of mice and Lance Armstrong.
On the descent of the Cormet de Roselend Yaroslav Popovych, the heir-apparent of Discovery Channel once Armstrong retires crashed into a CSC team car. He got back up and continued to race. What is it about team cars this year that makes people want to run into them, Popovych today, Ullrich the day before the race started, are they blending into their surrounding too well?
So after the descent there was a sprint and the the climb up Courchevel. For the peloton this was time to make up ground on the nine riders who were away on attacks. So guess who leads the peloton in getting back the time on the leaders. Discovery Channel! There's that great plan at work again. Glad to see that the Discovery boys are taking it easy and letting all those other teams do all the work.
As the peloton approached the start of the climb up Courchevel, about 25 km from the finish, there were still 9 riders about 3 minutes ahead of the peloton that was being led in their chase by nine guys wearing blue and while. You guess it - Discovery Channel.
At this point I'm going to stop taking pot shots at Discovery Channels plan of giving up the yellow jersey. Because for the last 20 km of today's race the Discovery Channel team ran a great race. It was a thing of beauty to watch. The boys in blue on the front of the peloton set a pace that left riders scattered in disarray all over the road. For 10 km the Discovery boys shattered the hearts, lungs, minds, and in many cases the Tour de France hopes of some of the biggest names in the tour.
By the time Lance Armstrong decided to move to the front and taking over the pace setting himself the only riders who were able to match him were Francisco Mancebo (Spain) IBA, Alejandro Valverde (Spain) IBA and Mickael Rasmussen (Denmark) Rabobank.
That's right! No Vinokourov, No Basso, No Ullrich. Just four men, Lance Armstrong, the polka dot jersey of the king of the mountains, and two IBA riders.
These four men owned the road, the race and the mountain for the last 7 km. No one else was able to match their pace. They worked together for 6 of the final 7 km. In the end Lance attacked them and only Vlaverde was able to go with him.
At the line, Valverde outsprinted Armstrong for the stage win, his first ever.
When the dust settled, Armstrong is back in yellow. He holds a narrow 38 second lead over Mickael Rasmussen, the Polka Dot Jersey leader. Lance had better watch this kid. There are more mountains to come and this kid might start thinking that he likes yellow more than he does polka dots.
Behind Lance and Rasmussen is Ivan Basso, who is 2:40 back. Ivan spent the whole day attacking the Yellow Jersey that was on the back on his teammate Jens Voigt. Ullrich is more that 4 minutes back and Vinokourov is 6 and a half back.
Today was a great mountain stage and Discovery Channel rode it to perfection. You have to really respect Yaroslav Popovych. He crashed on the descent the Cormet de Roselend and yet he was there with the team and setting the pace on the climb up Courchevel that dropped both Vinokourov and Ullrich. Maybe he really does have what it takes to be Discovery's team leader next year. We'll just have to wait and see.
Two days ago Lance Armstrong gave away the yellow jersey without a fight so that some other team could do the work on today's stage. Good plan except for a couple flaws. First as I noted before, teams don't attack Armstrong because he is wearing yellow, they attack him because he is Lance Armstrong. The other problem with this plan was that Lance and his Discovery Channel team apparently didn't read page two of the plan. You know, the part where some other team tries to defend the yellow jersey now. Apparently CSC, the team of todays yellow jersey didn't read that page either. In a pre-race interview with Frankie Andreau a CSC spokesman admitted that Basso would be attacking today. Not the kind of behavior you would expect from a team defending the yellow. I'll say it one last time (I promise) CSC will not defend the yellow jersey unless it is on the back of Ivan Basso. Basso will attack today, he will attack Lance Armstrong, and in the process attack his teammate Jens Voigt, the man wearing the yellow jersey.
So the race is off, and in the early flat stages Discovery Channel's plan is working perfectly. There is a breakaway of riders that no one will worry about and the team doing the work is Credit Agricole, the team of Christphe Moreau, the man currently sitting is second place in the GC (General Catagory).
Then we reached the slopes of the Cormet de Roselend and who is at the front of the peloton doing all the work - Discovery Channel. So much for the best laid plans of mice and Lance Armstrong.
On the descent of the Cormet de Roselend Yaroslav Popovych, the heir-apparent of Discovery Channel once Armstrong retires crashed into a CSC team car. He got back up and continued to race. What is it about team cars this year that makes people want to run into them, Popovych today, Ullrich the day before the race started, are they blending into their surrounding too well?
So after the descent there was a sprint and the the climb up Courchevel. For the peloton this was time to make up ground on the nine riders who were away on attacks. So guess who leads the peloton in getting back the time on the leaders. Discovery Channel! There's that great plan at work again. Glad to see that the Discovery boys are taking it easy and letting all those other teams do all the work.
As the peloton approached the start of the climb up Courchevel, about 25 km from the finish, there were still 9 riders about 3 minutes ahead of the peloton that was being led in their chase by nine guys wearing blue and while. You guess it - Discovery Channel.
At this point I'm going to stop taking pot shots at Discovery Channels plan of giving up the yellow jersey. Because for the last 20 km of today's race the Discovery Channel team ran a great race. It was a thing of beauty to watch. The boys in blue on the front of the peloton set a pace that left riders scattered in disarray all over the road. For 10 km the Discovery boys shattered the hearts, lungs, minds, and in many cases the Tour de France hopes of some of the biggest names in the tour.
By the time Lance Armstrong decided to move to the front and taking over the pace setting himself the only riders who were able to match him were Francisco Mancebo (Spain) IBA, Alejandro Valverde (Spain) IBA and Mickael Rasmussen (Denmark) Rabobank.
That's right! No Vinokourov, No Basso, No Ullrich. Just four men, Lance Armstrong, the polka dot jersey of the king of the mountains, and two IBA riders.
These four men owned the road, the race and the mountain for the last 7 km. No one else was able to match their pace. They worked together for 6 of the final 7 km. In the end Lance attacked them and only Vlaverde was able to go with him.
At the line, Valverde outsprinted Armstrong for the stage win, his first ever.
When the dust settled, Armstrong is back in yellow. He holds a narrow 38 second lead over Mickael Rasmussen, the Polka Dot Jersey leader. Lance had better watch this kid. There are more mountains to come and this kid might start thinking that he likes yellow more than he does polka dots.
Behind Lance and Rasmussen is Ivan Basso, who is 2:40 back. Ivan spent the whole day attacking the Yellow Jersey that was on the back on his teammate Jens Voigt. Ullrich is more that 4 minutes back and Vinokourov is 6 and a half back.
Today was a great mountain stage and Discovery Channel rode it to perfection. You have to really respect Yaroslav Popovych. He crashed on the descent the Cormet de Roselend and yet he was there with the team and setting the pace on the climb up Courchevel that dropped both Vinokourov and Ullrich. Maybe he really does have what it takes to be Discovery's team leader next year. We'll just have to wait and see.
Monday, July 11, 2005
Tour de France - Rest Day
Today is a rest day for the tour. So what do tour riders do on a rest day? They go for a bicycle ride.
The difference being that today they went for a ride. The last 8 days they were racing. It's a big difference.
Since there is not much to report I thought I'd better clarify something. I am not a Tour de France reporter. I'm a guy who used to commute on a bike and who likes to watch the Tour de France on TV. I'd love to see it in person but that would require a visit to France. Not sure I'm ready for that yet.
So when you read my highlights you may not get a lot of details. You may not get a lot of times, splits, or placings. What you will get is my opinions of that day's stage.
If you want something other than my opinions on the tour here are some other spots you can check out. Some of them will be opinion sites also, some won't.
Tour de France Blog
OLN TV Tour De France Web Site
The offical Tour de France Web Site
Bicycling: Tour de France 2005
Cycling News - 92nd Tour de France
The difference being that today they went for a ride. The last 8 days they were racing. It's a big difference.
Since there is not much to report I thought I'd better clarify something. I am not a Tour de France reporter. I'm a guy who used to commute on a bike and who likes to watch the Tour de France on TV. I'd love to see it in person but that would require a visit to France. Not sure I'm ready for that yet.
So when you read my highlights you may not get a lot of details. You may not get a lot of times, splits, or placings. What you will get is my opinions of that day's stage.
If you want something other than my opinions on the tour here are some other spots you can check out. Some of them will be opinion sites also, some won't.
Tour de France Blog
OLN TV Tour De France Web Site
The offical Tour de France Web Site
Bicycling: Tour de France 2005
Cycling News - 92nd Tour de France
Hollywood’s Box Office Malaise
There have been several articles and news stories written lately about how the movie industry isn't doing too well these days.
Well Govindini Murty over at libertas - the self proclaimed forum for conservative thought on film scored a major coup when she managed to get the L.A. Times to publish an opinion piece about Hollywood's Box Office Malaise.
Well you can count me as one of the offended.
I am not an actor, producer, or director. I don't live in hollywood. I don't work in hollywood. I have nothing to do with the hollywood movie industry. But I am absolutely essential to the success of the hollywood movie industry.
I am a movie goer.
or at least I used to be.
My wife and I used to spend every saturday afternoon at the movie theater. We went to laugh, to cry, to be scared, to be excited. We went to be entertained.
We don't go to the movies much anymore. We find ourselves looking at the movie listings and asking the question: "Has anyone (actor, director, producer, etc.) connected with this picture done or said anything in public lately that would make us feel dirty or guilty for about putting money in their pockets?"
If the answer is yes, then we don't go see that movie.
We haven't been to many movies lately. Because we see way to many actors and directors shooting their mouths off about how much they hate everything that we believe in, love, and respect about our lives and country.
We don't mind seeing some high school drop out getting paid millions to pretend to be someone else for our entertainment. But when that dimwit tries to preach politics to us we refuse to continue to support their career. Hollywood needs to stick with what they are good at - pretending to be someone entertaining.
Everytime we see a news article about how hollywood is floundering our response is "Good!" Maybe if they slide far enough they will one day wake up and realize that we I want to see and hear Johnny Depp play an over the top pirate, not hear him tell us that
Also, besides being ex-movie patrons we are also the filter that determines what movies our children will see. Hollywood had better get their act together because my kids are growing up with my narrow-minded patriotic, pro-American biases.
I'm not saying Hollywood can't think and feel anything they want. Just don't expect me to pay you to insult us, and lecture us. What we want to hear you talk about is your job. Just your job! You need to put on your costumes and make-up, pretend to be someone else for a while, then show up at the Oscars and gush over how excited you are that everyone really likes you.
You do that and we'll see you around. I'll be the guy in the theater with the large popcorn, the beautiful wife and the three adorable children.
Well Govindini Murty over at libertas - the self proclaimed forum for conservative thought on film scored a major coup when she managed to get the L.A. Times to publish an opinion piece about Hollywood's Box Office Malaise.
"The most obvious explanation for box office malaise is consistently overlooked: Hollywood’s ruling liberal elites keep going out of their way to offend half their audience. Constant gibes about Republicans, Christians, conservatives and the military litter today’s movies and award show presentations like so many pieces of trash on theater floors."
Well you can count me as one of the offended.
I am not an actor, producer, or director. I don't live in hollywood. I don't work in hollywood. I have nothing to do with the hollywood movie industry. But I am absolutely essential to the success of the hollywood movie industry.
I am a movie goer.
or at least I used to be.
My wife and I used to spend every saturday afternoon at the movie theater. We went to laugh, to cry, to be scared, to be excited. We went to be entertained.
We don't go to the movies much anymore. We find ourselves looking at the movie listings and asking the question: "Has anyone (actor, director, producer, etc.) connected with this picture done or said anything in public lately that would make us feel dirty or guilty for about putting money in their pockets?"
If the answer is yes, then we don't go see that movie.
We haven't been to many movies lately. Because we see way to many actors and directors shooting their mouths off about how much they hate everything that we believe in, love, and respect about our lives and country.
We don't mind seeing some high school drop out getting paid millions to pretend to be someone else for our entertainment. But when that dimwit tries to preach politics to us we refuse to continue to support their career. Hollywood needs to stick with what they are good at - pretending to be someone entertaining.
Everytime we see a news article about how hollywood is floundering our response is "Good!" Maybe if they slide far enough they will one day wake up and realize that we I want to see and hear Johnny Depp play an over the top pirate, not hear him tell us that
"America is dumb, it's like a dumb puppy..."
Also, besides being ex-movie patrons we are also the filter that determines what movies our children will see. Hollywood had better get their act together because my kids are growing up with my narrow-minded patriotic, pro-American biases.
I'm not saying Hollywood can't think and feel anything they want. Just don't expect me to pay you to insult us, and lecture us. What we want to hear you talk about is your job. Just your job! You need to put on your costumes and make-up, pretend to be someone else for a while, then show up at the Oscars and gush over how excited you are that everyone really likes you.
You do that and we'll see you around. I'll be the guy in the theater with the large popcorn, the beautiful wife and the three adorable children.
Sunday, July 10, 2005
Tour de France Stage 9
Today was supposed to be another hard day in the mountains. At least as hard a day with several small climbs and two large catagory 1 and 2 climbs can be.
Unfortunately, the day started badly. David Zabriskie who held the yellow jersey for the first 4 days had to abandon the race after just 10 km today. David took a really hard fall in stage 4 and was mixed up in a couple small crashes in the subsequent days. I have taken a couple hard falls back in my commuting on a bike days. Unless the bike was unridable I was always able to get back on and ride inspite of some pretty nasty injuries. But I don't know how these guys can get back on and 'race'. Riding is one thing. Racing is a much much harder thing. Especially when you are hurting. David did a great job early on this year and I plan on watching and cheering him on in the years to come. I'm impressed that he held up as well as he did. Good Job David and I look forward to watching you next year.
Well the attacks started early and often this day. But the earliest and the longest was by a Danish Rider from Rabobank - Mickael Rasmussen. In only his second tour Mickael bragged before the start of the tour to a teammate that he was going to win the polka dot (climbers) jersey this year.
Mickael Rasmussen is a former world mountain bike champion who rides the mountains on pavement like he is commuting on flat ground.
Rasmussen not only won first over every mountain climb today, he also ultimately won the stage as well. This was a magnificent solo performance. That earned Rasmussen maximum climb points and a stage win. He climbed to fourth overall in the general classification only 25 seconds behind Lance Armstrong.
Which brings us to my beef of the day. Tomorrow is a rest day. The day after that is a long hard day in the Alps. Today Lance Armstrong kept the entire Discovery Channel team sitting together at the front of the peloton setting the pace for everyone else. They did not chase the break aways.
The announcers speculated that he was trying to get his team regrouped so that they wouldn't break apart like they did yesterday. They speculate that Lance wanted to give up the yellow jersey so that he would not have to work so hard in the mountains defending it.
Well that doesn't make any sense to me. The other riders in the tour don't attack Lance Armstrong because he is wearing yellow. They attack him because he is the favorite to win the race. Jens Voigt, the current yellow jersey holder, of the CSC team is not the kind of rider who will do particularly well in the high mountains. That is what Ivan Basso is on the CSC team is there to do - climb in the mountains and try to wear the yellow into Paris. That is the plan of Bjarni Riss, the CSC team manager. He will not sacrifce those plans in order to defend the yellow jersey if it is not on the back of Ivan Basso. He proved that in stage four when they left David Zabriskie wearing yellow and sitting on road after a crash.
So if Lance Armstrong thinks that CSC will expend a lot of energy defending the yellow jersey that Jens Voigt is wearing he is probably mistaken. All he has done is prove to his team that he wants them to do things his way, and that he is willing to throw away the yellow jersey to make them do that.
I may be wrong. Lance and his team leader, Johan Bruyneel, have a plan and I hope it works. I just don't understand how fending off attacks in the mountains is more work than having to attack in the mountains to regain something you already lost. The attacks are going to come anyway. Lance is a target no matter what jersey he wears and CSC will only work to put Basso in yellow. When the going gets tough, they will hang Voigt out to dry just like they did Zabriskie.
I hope that Lance and Johan's plans work out. I really hope that today doesn't turn out to be a major mistake. Voigt isn't a great climber, but with help he gets by, and he has 2:18 to play with. In second is Christophe Moreau, a rider who a few years ago was expected to challenge Armstrong for the yellow. What if it just took him a few extra years to reach his full potential. Now he has a 0:28 second lead on Armstrong to drive him.
Right behind Armstrong is Rasmussen, who climbs like a goat. He decends like an avalanche. Absoultely fearless. He's a past world mountain bike champion so he knows how to win. If he manages a time trial later he may have more on his mind than just a polka dot jersey in Paris.
On a strickly petty personal level I was really getting to like the idea of a Tour de France where the only men to wear the yellow were Americans. That dream is gone now.
In more pettiness Lance is only about 8 days in yellow short of Bernard Hinault's second place record of 77 days in yellow for a career. I would really like to see Armstrong take over that spot in the record books. Hinault has publicly said that Armstrong isn't as good a rider as he was in his prime. So I'm in favor of Armstrong taking any and every record away from Hinault that he can.
All in all a good day of racing to watch, just not the kind of results I wanted to see. Ignoring that Rasmussen turned in a great day that was really fun to watch.
Unfortunately, the day started badly. David Zabriskie who held the yellow jersey for the first 4 days had to abandon the race after just 10 km today. David took a really hard fall in stage 4 and was mixed up in a couple small crashes in the subsequent days. I have taken a couple hard falls back in my commuting on a bike days. Unless the bike was unridable I was always able to get back on and ride inspite of some pretty nasty injuries. But I don't know how these guys can get back on and 'race'. Riding is one thing. Racing is a much much harder thing. Especially when you are hurting. David did a great job early on this year and I plan on watching and cheering him on in the years to come. I'm impressed that he held up as well as he did. Good Job David and I look forward to watching you next year.
Well the attacks started early and often this day. But the earliest and the longest was by a Danish Rider from Rabobank - Mickael Rasmussen. In only his second tour Mickael bragged before the start of the tour to a teammate that he was going to win the polka dot (climbers) jersey this year.
Mickael Rasmussen is a former world mountain bike champion who rides the mountains on pavement like he is commuting on flat ground.
Rasmussen not only won first over every mountain climb today, he also ultimately won the stage as well. This was a magnificent solo performance. That earned Rasmussen maximum climb points and a stage win. He climbed to fourth overall in the general classification only 25 seconds behind Lance Armstrong.
Which brings us to my beef of the day. Tomorrow is a rest day. The day after that is a long hard day in the Alps. Today Lance Armstrong kept the entire Discovery Channel team sitting together at the front of the peloton setting the pace for everyone else. They did not chase the break aways.
The announcers speculated that he was trying to get his team regrouped so that they wouldn't break apart like they did yesterday. They speculate that Lance wanted to give up the yellow jersey so that he would not have to work so hard in the mountains defending it.
Well that doesn't make any sense to me. The other riders in the tour don't attack Lance Armstrong because he is wearing yellow. They attack him because he is the favorite to win the race. Jens Voigt, the current yellow jersey holder, of the CSC team is not the kind of rider who will do particularly well in the high mountains. That is what Ivan Basso is on the CSC team is there to do - climb in the mountains and try to wear the yellow into Paris. That is the plan of Bjarni Riss, the CSC team manager. He will not sacrifce those plans in order to defend the yellow jersey if it is not on the back of Ivan Basso. He proved that in stage four when they left David Zabriskie wearing yellow and sitting on road after a crash.
So if Lance Armstrong thinks that CSC will expend a lot of energy defending the yellow jersey that Jens Voigt is wearing he is probably mistaken. All he has done is prove to his team that he wants them to do things his way, and that he is willing to throw away the yellow jersey to make them do that.
I may be wrong. Lance and his team leader, Johan Bruyneel, have a plan and I hope it works. I just don't understand how fending off attacks in the mountains is more work than having to attack in the mountains to regain something you already lost. The attacks are going to come anyway. Lance is a target no matter what jersey he wears and CSC will only work to put Basso in yellow. When the going gets tough, they will hang Voigt out to dry just like they did Zabriskie.
I hope that Lance and Johan's plans work out. I really hope that today doesn't turn out to be a major mistake. Voigt isn't a great climber, but with help he gets by, and he has 2:18 to play with. In second is Christophe Moreau, a rider who a few years ago was expected to challenge Armstrong for the yellow. What if it just took him a few extra years to reach his full potential. Now he has a 0:28 second lead on Armstrong to drive him.
Right behind Armstrong is Rasmussen, who climbs like a goat. He decends like an avalanche. Absoultely fearless. He's a past world mountain bike champion so he knows how to win. If he manages a time trial later he may have more on his mind than just a polka dot jersey in Paris.
On a strickly petty personal level I was really getting to like the idea of a Tour de France where the only men to wear the yellow were Americans. That dream is gone now.
In more pettiness Lance is only about 8 days in yellow short of Bernard Hinault's second place record of 77 days in yellow for a career. I would really like to see Armstrong take over that spot in the record books. Hinault has publicly said that Armstrong isn't as good a rider as he was in his prime. So I'm in favor of Armstrong taking any and every record away from Hinault that he can.
All in all a good day of racing to watch, just not the kind of results I wanted to see. Ignoring that Rasmussen turned in a great day that was really fun to watch.
Tour de France Stages 8 - yesterday
OK, so I'm really late commenting on the tour, but I had to go pick up my oldest daughter today. She spent last week cabin camping with her Aunt and Uncle at Lake Trinity in Northern CA. Fortunately my sister-in-law was willing to meet me half way so I only had to drive 190 miles (each way) to the intersection of I5 and Hwy 41, instead of the 380 miles to San Ramon and then back again.
Well Chaos and I made it home OK, she had a blast at the lake and is already working on how she can get to go again next year.
I checked my E-mail quickly and found a letter from one of my few non-family blog readers wanting to know where my tour update was. I don't want to disappoint my small audiance so here's my update.
Stage 8 started with a moment of silence in memory of those who lost their lives in the London bombings. Then they were off to the mountains - sort of. OK it was a couple or four catagory 3 climbs followed by 120 km of sprints, then a catagory 2 climb, the first real climb of the tour, then a short downhill race to the finish.
Things went pretty smoothly until the final climb. Suddenly Lance Armstrong the American yellow jersey found himself half way up the final climb of the stage and he was surrounded by 30-40 opponents and one Discovery Channel team mate who was running out of gas.
Where was the rest of the Discovery Channel climbers? Good question. Unfortunately it is a question that we may never know the answer to. But there was Armstrong. In the same position that Miguel Indurain found himself in during his try for a 6th tour win. Indurain landed up isolated on a long climbing stage and when his opponents repeatedly attacked him he finally cracked and lost the stage, and his bid for a 6th tour.
Armstrong didn't want to repeat that event. Fortunately for Lance he had several things going in his favor. He only had to survive one climb. He was riding his first day in the mountains. Indurain had been several days into the mountains and still had a couple climbs to face that day.
Well just like Indurain's opponents, Lance's also started attacking. Lance did the smart thing. He decided who the 2 worst threats in the group were - Ullrich and Vinokouov. Then any move started by those two was immediately countered by Lance. Everyone else he just let go.
Last year's number 2 on the podium in Paris - German T-mobile rider Andréas Klöden took advantage of being ignored by Armstrong and attacked. Since Klöden hadn't ridden well the last few weeks Armstrong was willing to let him go.
Armstrong marked both Ullrich and Vinckourov and managed to keep most of his large group intact to the finish.
Klöden raced across the gap to a solo rider who was out in front of the main group. He closed the gap just in time to steal the mountain climber points at the top of the climb from rookie tour rider - Rabobank Rider - Pieter Weenin.
But revenge belonged to Weenin. He lost the mountain climber points but in an unbelievable finish that to me looked like a dead heat. Weenin grabbed the stage win away from Klöden by 3 mm. That's right millimeters.
Lance held onto the yellow jersey but the standings behind him was really shaken up. But he maintained his leads over Ullrich and Vinokouriv.
After the race, when asked where his teammates were, Lance replied "We have some talking to do tonight."
I sure wouldn't have wanted to be on the receiving end of that "talking" that night.
Well Chaos and I made it home OK, she had a blast at the lake and is already working on how she can get to go again next year.
I checked my E-mail quickly and found a letter from one of my few non-family blog readers wanting to know where my tour update was. I don't want to disappoint my small audiance so here's my update.
Stage 8 started with a moment of silence in memory of those who lost their lives in the London bombings. Then they were off to the mountains - sort of. OK it was a couple or four catagory 3 climbs followed by 120 km of sprints, then a catagory 2 climb, the first real climb of the tour, then a short downhill race to the finish.
Things went pretty smoothly until the final climb. Suddenly Lance Armstrong the American yellow jersey found himself half way up the final climb of the stage and he was surrounded by 30-40 opponents and one Discovery Channel team mate who was running out of gas.
Where was the rest of the Discovery Channel climbers? Good question. Unfortunately it is a question that we may never know the answer to. But there was Armstrong. In the same position that Miguel Indurain found himself in during his try for a 6th tour win. Indurain landed up isolated on a long climbing stage and when his opponents repeatedly attacked him he finally cracked and lost the stage, and his bid for a 6th tour.
Armstrong didn't want to repeat that event. Fortunately for Lance he had several things going in his favor. He only had to survive one climb. He was riding his first day in the mountains. Indurain had been several days into the mountains and still had a couple climbs to face that day.
Well just like Indurain's opponents, Lance's also started attacking. Lance did the smart thing. He decided who the 2 worst threats in the group were - Ullrich and Vinokouov. Then any move started by those two was immediately countered by Lance. Everyone else he just let go.
Last year's number 2 on the podium in Paris - German T-mobile rider Andréas Klöden took advantage of being ignored by Armstrong and attacked. Since Klöden hadn't ridden well the last few weeks Armstrong was willing to let him go.
Armstrong marked both Ullrich and Vinckourov and managed to keep most of his large group intact to the finish.
Klöden raced across the gap to a solo rider who was out in front of the main group. He closed the gap just in time to steal the mountain climber points at the top of the climb from rookie tour rider - Rabobank Rider - Pieter Weenin.
But revenge belonged to Weenin. He lost the mountain climber points but in an unbelievable finish that to me looked like a dead heat. Weenin grabbed the stage win away from Klöden by 3 mm. That's right millimeters.
Lance held onto the yellow jersey but the standings behind him was really shaken up. But he maintained his leads over Ullrich and Vinokouriv.
After the race, when asked where his teammates were, Lance replied "We have some talking to do tonight."
I sure wouldn't have wanted to be on the receiving end of that "talking" that night.
Cheyenne Frontier Days
Our Sunday newspaper - The Daily Independent carries Sunday suppliment called the American Profile.
Page 4 of this weeks American Profile has an Article called Cheyenne's Cowboy Classic. Sorry I can't link to the article, it's not up on their website yet. They website seems to lag a week behind the paper publication.
This article describes the week long event in Cheyenne called Cheyenne Frontier Days.
Cheyenne Frontier Days is a great event if you like country music, rodeos, parades, pancake breakfasts, and cowboys. For one week in July (22 - 31 this year) Cheyenne Wyoming a town of 53,000 people opens it arms to about 60,000 visitors. If you like the old west, the new west, or just cowboys and horses in general this is the place you want to be.
Everyday there are rodeos, and concerts. There are four parades. The parades will have hundreds of horses, horse drawn carriages and marching bands from all over the country. On the mornings that they don't have parades there is a free pancake breakfast held downtown. All you need to do to get breakfast is get in line and grab a plate. Even the breakfast is a show. With lines of volunteers cooking pancakes, and boy scouts scurring about catching and serving pancakes even standing in line watching is fun. The flippers once a pancake is done will scoop up that pancake on their spatula and toss it backwards over their shoulder. Behind them wiil be a gaggle of scouts with platters catching the griddle cakes as they fly through the air.
The focus of the American Profile article is the volunteers from the city of Cheyenne and how they get involved. I can tell you almost everyone in town gets involved in some way or another.
A few years ago I took the family there for the event. I was fun to attend and not have to work. We got to be tourists and just enjoy the fun. In previous years I had tried to go do the events as a tourist and it never worked. I would be spotted by someone I knew who was working the event and I would be recruited to help.
In the American Profile article the mention one volunteer specifically, Mister Bill Dubois. The Article mentions that Bill had sung the national anthem at every rodeo for the last 40 years. He was also instrumental in the formation of the Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum.
What the article didn't mention was that he spent his profesional career as a high school teacher at Cheyenne Central High School. I had Bill as a history teacher for three years. He was one of my favorite teachers and one of the more influental adults in my life. When I first had Bill as a teacher I had been convinced by other teachers in earlier years that I wasn't a very good student and didn't have many opportunities ahead of me. But I hit the jackpot for teachers my first year in high school. I had a science, math, french, history, and band teachers who very quickly taught me that my previous teacher were wrong. I could do well in school and I could succeed if I put in the effort. Bill was a key figure in that change in my life. and he remains a good friend to this day. I don't get back to Cheyenne that often and seldom have the chance to see him much anymore, but we treasure the occasional lunch we have had the chance to share with him. His Christmas letters always start the holiday season for us.
So if you get the American Profile in your local paper, read the article about Frontier Days. If you are looking for a place to holiday next year, look into Cheyenne that last full week in July. Its an event you will love, and never forget. If you do go to Cheyenne, pay attention to the volunteers, they are some of the finest poeple you will ever meet.
Finally if you are involved in a community event that you want your whole town to get involved in, you should take a really close look at Cheyenne Frontier Days because it is truly a whole communtiy event.
Page 4 of this weeks American Profile has an Article called Cheyenne's Cowboy Classic. Sorry I can't link to the article, it's not up on their website yet. They website seems to lag a week behind the paper publication.
This article describes the week long event in Cheyenne called Cheyenne Frontier Days.
Cheyenne Frontier Days is a great event if you like country music, rodeos, parades, pancake breakfasts, and cowboys. For one week in July (22 - 31 this year) Cheyenne Wyoming a town of 53,000 people opens it arms to about 60,000 visitors. If you like the old west, the new west, or just cowboys and horses in general this is the place you want to be.
Everyday there are rodeos, and concerts. There are four parades. The parades will have hundreds of horses, horse drawn carriages and marching bands from all over the country. On the mornings that they don't have parades there is a free pancake breakfast held downtown. All you need to do to get breakfast is get in line and grab a plate. Even the breakfast is a show. With lines of volunteers cooking pancakes, and boy scouts scurring about catching and serving pancakes even standing in line watching is fun. The flippers once a pancake is done will scoop up that pancake on their spatula and toss it backwards over their shoulder. Behind them wiil be a gaggle of scouts with platters catching the griddle cakes as they fly through the air.
The focus of the American Profile article is the volunteers from the city of Cheyenne and how they get involved. I can tell you almost everyone in town gets involved in some way or another.
A few years ago I took the family there for the event. I was fun to attend and not have to work. We got to be tourists and just enjoy the fun. In previous years I had tried to go do the events as a tourist and it never worked. I would be spotted by someone I knew who was working the event and I would be recruited to help.
In the American Profile article the mention one volunteer specifically, Mister Bill Dubois. The Article mentions that Bill had sung the national anthem at every rodeo for the last 40 years. He was also instrumental in the formation of the Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum.
What the article didn't mention was that he spent his profesional career as a high school teacher at Cheyenne Central High School. I had Bill as a history teacher for three years. He was one of my favorite teachers and one of the more influental adults in my life. When I first had Bill as a teacher I had been convinced by other teachers in earlier years that I wasn't a very good student and didn't have many opportunities ahead of me. But I hit the jackpot for teachers my first year in high school. I had a science, math, french, history, and band teachers who very quickly taught me that my previous teacher were wrong. I could do well in school and I could succeed if I put in the effort. Bill was a key figure in that change in my life. and he remains a good friend to this day. I don't get back to Cheyenne that often and seldom have the chance to see him much anymore, but we treasure the occasional lunch we have had the chance to share with him. His Christmas letters always start the holiday season for us.
So if you get the American Profile in your local paper, read the article about Frontier Days. If you are looking for a place to holiday next year, look into Cheyenne that last full week in July. Its an event you will love, and never forget. If you do go to Cheyenne, pay attention to the volunteers, they are some of the finest poeple you will ever meet.
Finally if you are involved in a community event that you want your whole town to get involved in, you should take a really close look at Cheyenne Frontier Days because it is truly a whole communtiy event.
Friday, July 08, 2005
Desert Babies
My Dear Wife took a new position at work a while back that required her to move to an office that was outside the main laboratory compound. The building she works at isn't that far out in the sticks. But it is far enough out that she gets to see a lot of critters wandering around there. Mostly it's just typical desert wildlife - rabbits, lizards, bobcats, etc. But yesterday she got a couple real treats.
Her building was visited by a couple feathered, or almost feathered, youngsters.
First up was this fledgling barn owl. It seemed to be in distress and obviously wasn't old enough to be out of the nest and on its own. Since no one in the building could figure out where it came from they loaded it up and took it to a local vet who has a good reputation for taking good care of strays.
Then the same afternoon this young crane wandered into the entryway of their building. It is a little older and able to get around better than the owl but still not quite old enough to fend for itself. They put some water out for it and it disappeared after a while. My dear wife hopes that it made it home safely. They are aware that there is a bobcat lair somewhere across the road from their building.
Her building was visited by a couple feathered, or almost feathered, youngsters.
First up was this fledgling barn owl. It seemed to be in distress and obviously wasn't old enough to be out of the nest and on its own. Since no one in the building could figure out where it came from they loaded it up and took it to a local vet who has a good reputation for taking good care of strays.
Then the same afternoon this young crane wandered into the entryway of their building. It is a little older and able to get around better than the owl but still not quite old enough to fend for itself. They put some water out for it and it disappeared after a while. My dear wife hopes that it made it home safely. They are aware that there is a bobcat lair somewhere across the road from their building.
Today, We're All British
Ok, I sat in front of the keyboard last night trying to write something. Here I am again today.
Anything?
I got nothing.
I kept clicking away from my own blog entry window and looking at what other bloggers had to say about the terrorists attacks in London.
There was the Tour de France that I'd like to write about. But it just doesn't seem important right now. I was going to write about my kids. But they are all safe and protected right now and there's not much else to say right now. I could write about how frustrated I get with the traffic in Ridgecrest, but when you get right down to it, as long as the cars aren't blowing up, I really have no complaint.
I tried to write down my feelings about the terrorist attacks. But just as when I tried to express my opinions about the 9-11 attack here in the USA I quickly degenerate in a stream of incoherent anger and frustration.
I tried to express my feelings of sorrow at senseless loss of innocent lives in London. But what difference would that make. They will not read my words.
So instead I think I'm going to say to the people of England. We were once one nation. We were once one people. We have been allies through 2 world wars, a cold war and now the global war on terror. While our cultures differ in many ways we are in oh so many ways - alike. We are the leading examples of freedom in the world.
Our thoughts, our prayers, and our helping hands are there for you.
Just as in the days shortly after 9-11 when Tony Blair delcared that "today we are all Americans". I saw that today we are all British.
Anything?
I got nothing.
I kept clicking away from my own blog entry window and looking at what other bloggers had to say about the terrorists attacks in London.
There was the Tour de France that I'd like to write about. But it just doesn't seem important right now. I was going to write about my kids. But they are all safe and protected right now and there's not much else to say right now. I could write about how frustrated I get with the traffic in Ridgecrest, but when you get right down to it, as long as the cars aren't blowing up, I really have no complaint.
I tried to write down my feelings about the terrorist attacks. But just as when I tried to express my opinions about the 9-11 attack here in the USA I quickly degenerate in a stream of incoherent anger and frustration.
I tried to express my feelings of sorrow at senseless loss of innocent lives in London. But what difference would that make. They will not read my words.
So instead I think I'm going to say to the people of England. We were once one nation. We were once one people. We have been allies through 2 world wars, a cold war and now the global war on terror. While our cultures differ in many ways we are in oh so many ways - alike. We are the leading examples of freedom in the world.
Our thoughts, our prayers, and our helping hands are there for you.
Just as in the days shortly after 9-11 when Tony Blair delcared that "today we are all Americans". I saw that today we are all British.
Thursday, July 07, 2005
London Bombings
Early this morning 6 bombs went off in the subway and bus system in London. So far there have been around 40 fatalities reported and over a thousand injured. An Islamic website quickly started carrying a statement from the Secret Organisation Group of al-Qaeda of Jihad Organisation in Europe, claiming credit for the blast. The BBC News has a copy of the statement up on their website.
One line in that statement really caught my attention:
Could these sick, twisted, demented fools be more wrong? Here are a few descriptions of the "terror and panic" in London from the BBC reporters blog:
Our hearts and our prayers go out to the people of London today. They are handling this horrible situation with the calm determination and resolve that we all have come to expect from the British.
We all know that Tony Blair is no Winston Churchill but on this day, at this time, he is the right man to deal with this attack.
Prime Minister Tony Blair had this to say:
One line in that statement really caught my attention:
"Britain is now burning with fear, terror and panic in its northern, southern, eastern, and western quarters."
Could these sick, twisted, demented fools be more wrong? Here are a few descriptions of the "terror and panic" in London from the BBC reporters blog:
The roads are almost empty with no cars, but the pavements are jammed. People have realised that they are not going to get home unless they walk.
the only places doing any business at all are the East End pubs which are all full of people quietly watching the live news coverage of the events.
I spoke to a nurse earlier from the University College hospital who said everyone has been pulling together and that there was a very calm atmosphere as staff got on with their work.
I'm a Londoner born and bred but I've never seen anything like this - it was fantastic to see everyone pulling together.
It's a sad fact of life that faith leaders in the East End have been preparing for the fallout of terrorism in London. The Bishop of Stepney, Stephen Oliver, and Dr Mohammed Abdul Bari, the chairman of the East London Mosque, have just spoken together outside the Royal London Hospital saying the East End and the whole of London must remain united in the face of terror.
Trying to get to work this morning I found myself at a pub in Kings Cross where the landlady was giving out free cups of tea and people were buying drinks; doing anything they could.
Everyone was trying to help each other out.
Our hearts and our prayers go out to the people of London today. They are handling this horrible situation with the calm determination and resolve that we all have come to expect from the British.
We all know that Tony Blair is no Winston Churchill but on this day, at this time, he is the right man to deal with this attack.
Prime Minister Tony Blair had this to say:
"It is a very sad day for the British people but we will hold true to the British way of life."
"It is important that those engaged in terrorism realise that our determination to defend our values and our way of life is greater than their determination to cause death and destruction to innocent people in a desire to impose extremism on the world.
"Whatever they do, it is our determination that they will never succeed in destroying what we hold dear in this country and in other civilised nations throughout the world."
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
A Note to David Zabriskie
David,
You rode a great prologue time trial. You did a great job defending the yellow jersey the four days you got to wear it.
You were a good race leader, humble to the cameras and from what we hear from the TV talking heads, a well liked teammate.
David, you need to find another team to join when your contract is up.
Yesterday while wearing the race leader's yellow jersey you had a bad luck crash and on orders from your team captain, Bjarni Riis, your entire team rode away and left you sitting on the road, bruised, battered and left to get yourself to the finish line.
Sure the team has a couple other riders who may have a stake in the overall race later on, but they were not the race leader at the moment. It was important at that time for the five strongest riders who were still in the saddle to keep riding. But one or two of the other riders should have stopped to help you.
Today, at the feeding station, one or two of your fellow riders had a small spill while picking up food. The entire team stopped and waited for them to get back on their bikes and helped them get back into the peloton.
Earlier you said you were surprised at how much respect you got from the other riders while you were wearing yellow. It's too bad you couldn't get the same respect from your team Captain Bjarne Riis. Riis himself a former tour winner apparently forgot what it's like to wear yellow. Maybe you should remind him that the year he won, he had a helper on the team named Jan Ullrich who finished the tour in second place that year and several times looked fully capable of taking the yellow jersey off Riis's shoulders. But didn't because Riis was wearing yellow and therefore it was everyone elses job to support him.
To Bjarne Riis, you made a tough call ordering the team to ride on withour Zabriskie. But was it the right call? YOu should have left a rider behind to help him. To bad you don't respect the yellow jersey as much as the guy who was wearing it and the man today who is reluctantly wearing it today.
You rode a great prologue time trial. You did a great job defending the yellow jersey the four days you got to wear it.
You were a good race leader, humble to the cameras and from what we hear from the TV talking heads, a well liked teammate.
David, you need to find another team to join when your contract is up.
Yesterday while wearing the race leader's yellow jersey you had a bad luck crash and on orders from your team captain, Bjarni Riis, your entire team rode away and left you sitting on the road, bruised, battered and left to get yourself to the finish line.
Sure the team has a couple other riders who may have a stake in the overall race later on, but they were not the race leader at the moment. It was important at that time for the five strongest riders who were still in the saddle to keep riding. But one or two of the other riders should have stopped to help you.
Today, at the feeding station, one or two of your fellow riders had a small spill while picking up food. The entire team stopped and waited for them to get back on their bikes and helped them get back into the peloton.
Earlier you said you were surprised at how much respect you got from the other riders while you were wearing yellow. It's too bad you couldn't get the same respect from your team Captain Bjarne Riis. Riis himself a former tour winner apparently forgot what it's like to wear yellow. Maybe you should remind him that the year he won, he had a helper on the team named Jan Ullrich who finished the tour in second place that year and several times looked fully capable of taking the yellow jersey off Riis's shoulders. But didn't because Riis was wearing yellow and therefore it was everyone elses job to support him.
To Bjarne Riis, you made a tough call ordering the team to ride on withour Zabriskie. But was it the right call? YOu should have left a rider behind to help him. To bad you don't respect the yellow jersey as much as the guy who was wearing it and the man today who is reluctantly wearing it today.
Lance Armstrong - A Class Act
Yesterday, Lance Armstrong took over the lead in the Tour de France due to a variety of events. First off, Discovery Channel rode a great team time trial. Next, current Yellow Jersey holder David Zabriskie crashed just a short mile from the finish.
Today Lance Armstrong showed up for the big roll out wearing his normal Discovery Channel jersey, not the yellow jersey of the race leader that he was entitiled to wear.
When questioned by a reporter about rolling out for the 67th day in the yellow jersey Lance Armstrong had this to say"
What a class act.
I agree Lance, without Zabriskie's fall, the Time trail which was only a 2 second win anyway would have been very close.
Now, Armstrong is wearing the yellow. After the rollout the race referees told Lance that he would have to wear the yellow or risk being disqualified from the race. So Armstong is racing with the yellow jersey pulled on over his discovery jerset. Let's hope it doesn't get hot today.
So there you go, in a day of overpaid, over egoed proffesional athletes we have one here that tries to take the high road and do the right thing and the race officials have to get involved and drag him back into the muck.
My hat's off to you Lance. You tried to do the right thing.
Today Lance Armstrong showed up for the big roll out wearing his normal Discovery Channel jersey, not the yellow jersey of the race leader that he was entitiled to wear.
When questioned by a reporter about rolling out for the 67th day in the yellow jersey Lance Armstrong had this to say"
"I'm not going to roll out with the yellow jersey, I'm gonna roll with the Discovery Jersey because after we watched the race last night on TV, we couldn't watch it at the finish, our TV was out. But we realize it was too close with CSC, and the accident with Zabriskie was, for us, left a lot of questions about whether or not we would have had the jersey. So with regards to honoring a little bit of history in this race and knowing the nobodys has ever really aquired the yellow jersy through a crash, we don't want to be the first in the last 30 or 40 years, so we're gonna honor the tradition and ride with the Discovery jersey and if we keep it through the day then we'll wear it tomorrow. But in watching last night I think if they had not had the crash it would have been very close and probably David would have kept the jersey so it wouldn't be fair to wear it."
What a class act.
I agree Lance, without Zabriskie's fall, the Time trail which was only a 2 second win anyway would have been very close.
Now, Armstrong is wearing the yellow. After the rollout the race referees told Lance that he would have to wear the yellow or risk being disqualified from the race. So Armstong is racing with the yellow jersey pulled on over his discovery jerset. Let's hope it doesn't get hot today.
So there you go, in a day of overpaid, over egoed proffesional athletes we have one here that tries to take the high road and do the right thing and the race officials have to get involved and drag him back into the muck.
My hat's off to you Lance. You tried to do the right thing.
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Golf on Tuesday 7/5
Wow, my team is starting to get a reputation that I don't think we want. The first half of this season our D player won 6 straight matches and never once shot within 3 strokes of his handicap. His opponents averaged 7 over net-par for that stretch.
Well the rest of us are paying for his incredible run now. Last week our A player shot an even net 36 for nine hole and lost his match 5 and 4. That means he lost the first 5 holes of a nine hole match and was done. Five holes is the quickest you can win or lose a nine hole match.
Well tonight I started out shooting a birdie on hole number nine. The number 6 handicap hole on the golf course. Then I parred the fairly easy hole number 1. Then it went down hill from there. Overall I didn't golf badly. I had some bad shots. But I also had some pretty good ones. I hit a nine iron 170 yards to within 10 feet of the pin on number 6. I normally hit a 7 iron there, but there was a pretty good tail wind on that hole tonight.
When we finished the nine holes I had shot a net 34 on the night and lost my match. My opponent shot a net 31. Our A player shot a net 36 and lost to a net 34 in 5 holes - again.
So early on we were golfing badly and winning. Now we're golfing well and losing. Well, that's match play. At least that's what we keep telling ourselves.
Well the rest of us are paying for his incredible run now. Last week our A player shot an even net 36 for nine hole and lost his match 5 and 4. That means he lost the first 5 holes of a nine hole match and was done. Five holes is the quickest you can win or lose a nine hole match.
Well tonight I started out shooting a birdie on hole number nine. The number 6 handicap hole on the golf course. Then I parred the fairly easy hole number 1. Then it went down hill from there. Overall I didn't golf badly. I had some bad shots. But I also had some pretty good ones. I hit a nine iron 170 yards to within 10 feet of the pin on number 6. I normally hit a 7 iron there, but there was a pretty good tail wind on that hole tonight.
When we finished the nine holes I had shot a net 34 on the night and lost my match. My opponent shot a net 31. Our A player shot a net 36 and lost to a net 34 in 5 holes - again.
So early on we were golfing badly and winning. Now we're golfing well and losing. Well, that's match play. At least that's what we keep telling ourselves.
Tour de France Day 4
Team Time Trial!
They start with all nine team members and their winning time is decided by the time of the fifith guy that crosses the finish line.
Discovery Channel and Lance Armstrong looked good the whole race. No one in distress and no accidents. They trailed at most of the time checks except for the one that counted - the finish line. Set the fastest time of the day with only one team still out on the track - CSC, David Zabriskie's team.
Unfortunately for David his run of Yellow in the tour ended today. And what a horrible way for it to end. With only 1.5 km to the finish and CSC looking like they were going to just beat Discovery channel's time, Zabriskie knicked the wheel of the bike in front of him and went down hard. The three riders behind him managed not to run over him. But at this stage of the race they also couldn't afford to pull up and wait for him. They rode on. David got to his feet and started to mount his bike when he realized that it was unrideable. But in a move to make a nascar pit crew jealous, his team car was right there with another bike for him. He climbed on and sporting some pretty nasty looking wounds on his shoulders and ribs continued the race. He finished 1 minute, 26 seconds behind his team. Which finished two seconds behind Discovery Channel. The exact time difference between Zabriskie and Armstrong when the race started.
The really bad luck about this crash is that it occured just outside the last km of the race. If it had happened inside the last km, David would have been awarded the same time has his team and then been in a virtual dead tie with Lance Armstrong for the yellow jersey.
Zabriskie wearing yellow was a great treat for the last couple days. You really hate to see a run like that end with a crash.
General Classification standings now have 3 Americans in the top four - Armstrong, Hincapie and Julich. With Discovery Channel holding 4 of the top 6 spots.
CSC and Discovery sure look like the teams to beat with those two teams holding all of the top 17 places except for Vinokourov in 7th and Ullrich in 14th both of whom ride for T-mobile.
Lance now has a 1:21 lead over his nearest serious competitor - Vinokourov.
Zabriskie dropped to 9th and is 1:26 back. We'll have to see how that boy can climb next week. I just hope his injuries aren't as bad as they looked.
They start with all nine team members and their winning time is decided by the time of the fifith guy that crosses the finish line.
Discovery Channel and Lance Armstrong looked good the whole race. No one in distress and no accidents. They trailed at most of the time checks except for the one that counted - the finish line. Set the fastest time of the day with only one team still out on the track - CSC, David Zabriskie's team.
Unfortunately for David his run of Yellow in the tour ended today. And what a horrible way for it to end. With only 1.5 km to the finish and CSC looking like they were going to just beat Discovery channel's time, Zabriskie knicked the wheel of the bike in front of him and went down hard. The three riders behind him managed not to run over him. But at this stage of the race they also couldn't afford to pull up and wait for him. They rode on. David got to his feet and started to mount his bike when he realized that it was unrideable. But in a move to make a nascar pit crew jealous, his team car was right there with another bike for him. He climbed on and sporting some pretty nasty looking wounds on his shoulders and ribs continued the race. He finished 1 minute, 26 seconds behind his team. Which finished two seconds behind Discovery Channel. The exact time difference between Zabriskie and Armstrong when the race started.
The really bad luck about this crash is that it occured just outside the last km of the race. If it had happened inside the last km, David would have been awarded the same time has his team and then been in a virtual dead tie with Lance Armstrong for the yellow jersey.
Zabriskie wearing yellow was a great treat for the last couple days. You really hate to see a run like that end with a crash.
General Classification standings now have 3 Americans in the top four - Armstrong, Hincapie and Julich. With Discovery Channel holding 4 of the top 6 spots.
CSC and Discovery sure look like the teams to beat with those two teams holding all of the top 17 places except for Vinokourov in 7th and Ullrich in 14th both of whom ride for T-mobile.
Lance now has a 1:21 lead over his nearest serious competitor - Vinokourov.
Zabriskie dropped to 9th and is 1:26 back. We'll have to see how that boy can climb next week. I just hope his injuries aren't as bad as they looked.
We Elected These Clowns
In just two little cartoons Chris Muir and his Day By Day Cartoon has captured some of what makes two of California's elected officals so special.
First up, Senator Diane "I own a gun but you can't" Feinstein:
and of course Congresswoman Nancy "There's superglue in my mascara" Pelosi
By the way if you are not regularly reading Day by Day, you are missing one of the funniest guys on the web. Most mornings I need my DamonSamZed and Jan fix more than I need a cup of coffee.
So do yourself a favor and start reading and supporting Day by Day. You won't regret it.
First up, Senator Diane "I own a gun but you can't" Feinstein:
and of course Congresswoman Nancy "There's superglue in my mascara" Pelosi
By the way if you are not regularly reading Day by Day, you are missing one of the funniest guys on the web. Most mornings I need my DamonSamZed and Jan fix more than I need a cup of coffee.
So do yourself a favor and start reading and supporting Day by Day. You won't regret it.
Monday, July 04, 2005
Fourth of July
Well I only have a few minutes left to get in a 4th of July post. Happy Birthday America. How does it feel to be 229 years old?
Well I had a busy day. Sterted out slowly. I got up a little after 9. I had gotten to bed late so it felt good to sleep in. I immediately parked myself in my chair to watch the 3 hours of today's Tour De France coverage that was waiting for me on the TIVO. Good day of racing. David Zabrinski held on to his yellow jersey for another day. David a young 26 year old rider from Utah is only the second American to ever wear the yellow jersey on the 4th of July. OK, so the French couldn't care less about the the 4th of July, but someone there in France did. There were a lot of American Flags flying along the race course. It was good to see. I love watching the tour for both the cycling and the scenery. I may not care much for French politics and many of the people I've met from France have been snooty and rude. But I love the scenery that they live in. The chateau's are nice looking but I like looking at the buildings, particularly the churchs in the small villages they ride thorough. You get the feeling that some of those buildings haven't changed in over a thousand years. It's kind of disturbing to think that some of those little villages have furniture in them that is older than our country.
About noon our guests started showing up. We mostly just sat around and chatted for a while. Turner Classic Movies had an Elvis Presley movie marathon going so we had that on for a while for those who wanted to watch some TV.
I set the waterslide up around 2 for the kids to play. They had a blast and no one mananaged to kill themselves. But not from lack of trying.
I put the meat on the smoker early in the afternoon. So we got to smell that nice hickory and beef smell all afternoon.
We had a good old fashioned American BBQ dinner around 5:30. Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, Smoked Sausages, Cajun marinaded/Smoked London Broil (no one had tri-tip on sale for the last couple weeks so I had to substitute), Potato Salad, then three types of cheesecake and strawberry pie for dessert. We all ate way too much.
Then we relaxed while the kids played with smoke bombs, snakes and snappers in the drive way.
The sun went down about 8:15 and it got dark enough for fireworks. So we all moved out to the driveway where we shot off all the fireworks we had. We had a couple of neighbors a half a block down the street the were setting off their own fireworks also so we got to watch theirs and ours. It's not a nice as 6 or 7 years ago when we had all fice families that live in the cul-de-sac out sitting around the sidewalk with everyone taking turns shooting off fireworks. We did that for a few year but then everyone else just stopped showing up. So the last few years it's been just us.
Oh well. We had a wonderful day with family and good friends who in a few cases are as good as family.
Now it's almost midnight we finally got the kids into bed, the house cleaned up and now it's my turn to get some shut eye also.
Happy 4th to all.
Well I had a busy day. Sterted out slowly. I got up a little after 9. I had gotten to bed late so it felt good to sleep in. I immediately parked myself in my chair to watch the 3 hours of today's Tour De France coverage that was waiting for me on the TIVO. Good day of racing. David Zabrinski held on to his yellow jersey for another day. David a young 26 year old rider from Utah is only the second American to ever wear the yellow jersey on the 4th of July. OK, so the French couldn't care less about the the 4th of July, but someone there in France did. There were a lot of American Flags flying along the race course. It was good to see. I love watching the tour for both the cycling and the scenery. I may not care much for French politics and many of the people I've met from France have been snooty and rude. But I love the scenery that they live in. The chateau's are nice looking but I like looking at the buildings, particularly the churchs in the small villages they ride thorough. You get the feeling that some of those buildings haven't changed in over a thousand years. It's kind of disturbing to think that some of those little villages have furniture in them that is older than our country.
About noon our guests started showing up. We mostly just sat around and chatted for a while. Turner Classic Movies had an Elvis Presley movie marathon going so we had that on for a while for those who wanted to watch some TV.
I set the waterslide up around 2 for the kids to play. They had a blast and no one mananaged to kill themselves. But not from lack of trying.
I put the meat on the smoker early in the afternoon. So we got to smell that nice hickory and beef smell all afternoon.
We had a good old fashioned American BBQ dinner around 5:30. Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, Smoked Sausages, Cajun marinaded/Smoked London Broil (no one had tri-tip on sale for the last couple weeks so I had to substitute), Potato Salad, then three types of cheesecake and strawberry pie for dessert. We all ate way too much.
Then we relaxed while the kids played with smoke bombs, snakes and snappers in the drive way.
The sun went down about 8:15 and it got dark enough for fireworks. So we all moved out to the driveway where we shot off all the fireworks we had. We had a couple of neighbors a half a block down the street the were setting off their own fireworks also so we got to watch theirs and ours. It's not a nice as 6 or 7 years ago when we had all fice families that live in the cul-de-sac out sitting around the sidewalk with everyone taking turns shooting off fireworks. We did that for a few year but then everyone else just stopped showing up. So the last few years it's been just us.
Oh well. We had a wonderful day with family and good friends who in a few cases are as good as family.
Now it's almost midnight we finally got the kids into bed, the house cleaned up and now it's my turn to get some shut eye also.
Happy 4th to all.
Sunday, July 03, 2005
Buying Fireworks
I told my dear wife about 4 PM this afternoon that I was going to run out and pick up some fireworks for tomorrow. She handled this well. She calmly kissed me goodbye and then settled down to figure out which of our three children we were going to have to sell to cover my explosives debt this year.
I can't help it. I'm a guy. I like things that burn or explode.
There's this lady, Gloria, who works the fireworks booth that is run by the Parent Teacher Guild at my kid's school every year. I swear that she could sell a cement block to a drowning man. I always try to avoid shopping while she is there because she is able to tap into my deep seated love of things that go boom and I end up spending way too much money.
Well this year my timing was horrible. Not only was Gloria there but the other two people working with her refused to wait on me. So as Gloria and I chatted and talked and joked together my bag of purchases just kept getting bigger and bigger.
I ended up spending about $20 more than last year but I don't feel too bad about it.
On display outside the booth was the biggest assortment of fireworks I have ever seen. It was a box of fireworks that was about 3 feet wide and between 5 and 6 feet tall. It cost $500. But claimed to have an individual retail worth of over $650.
I joked that I was glad that she didn't try to sell me that assortment. If I spent that much on fireworks I would never be able to go home again. That's when that other workers told me that I was too late, Gloria sold that assortment yesterday.
At that point I paid for my purchases and got out of there as quickly as possible. I didn't want to be the second guy in two days to succumb to Gloria's salesmanship. Because if she could sell that assortment she could sell anything.
I can't help it. I'm a guy. I like things that burn or explode.
There's this lady, Gloria, who works the fireworks booth that is run by the Parent Teacher Guild at my kid's school every year. I swear that she could sell a cement block to a drowning man. I always try to avoid shopping while she is there because she is able to tap into my deep seated love of things that go boom and I end up spending way too much money.
Well this year my timing was horrible. Not only was Gloria there but the other two people working with her refused to wait on me. So as Gloria and I chatted and talked and joked together my bag of purchases just kept getting bigger and bigger.
I ended up spending about $20 more than last year but I don't feel too bad about it.
On display outside the booth was the biggest assortment of fireworks I have ever seen. It was a box of fireworks that was about 3 feet wide and between 5 and 6 feet tall. It cost $500. But claimed to have an individual retail worth of over $650.
I joked that I was glad that she didn't try to sell me that assortment. If I spent that much on fireworks I would never be able to go home again. That's when that other workers told me that I was too late, Gloria sold that assortment yesterday.
At that point I paid for my purchases and got out of there as quickly as possible. I didn't want to be the second guy in two days to succumb to Gloria's salesmanship. Because if she could sell that assortment she could sell anything.
Tour de France - Days 1 and 2
I'm in Tour de France heaven. I have been a fan of the tour since 1986 when Greg Lemond won his first tour. For years I had to settle for one hour of TV coverage every sunday and an occasional write up in the sports section of the paper. Then for a couple years ESPN was covering the race. So I got to see about one hour a day of coverage each day. Then OLN network took over the tv coverage of the race and my cable company didn't carry the OLN network. So I was back in 1986, depending on one hour of coverage on sundays. The last few years I have had to depend on the internet for my daily TdF fix.
Well last year we dropped our cable subscription and started using Directv. Directv offers OLN network. So I have been anxiously awaiting the start of the tour. Because now I get several hours a day of race coverage. I love it. I get the prerace coverage, the race and the post race coverage. Enough bicycle talk and pictures to satisfy any race buff.
Then to top this all off, I get to watch the opening prologue yesterday. A simple little 12 miles individual time trial. Lance Armstrong turned in what was probably the best single time trial demonstration since Greg Lemond out raced Frenchman Laurent Fignon to win his second tour.
Watching Armstrong cruise past Jan Ulrich who started this short race a full minute ahead of him was a thing of beauty.
More so watching the young American David Zabriskie not only win the prologue to become only the third American to ever wear the yellow jersey was great.
Even better was watching Zabriskie defend the yellow jersey in today's stage. Today was a day for the sprinters. 182 km from Challans to Les Essarts. There was a four man breakaway that got run down by the peloton about 4 km from the end of the race, then a full peloton sprint to the finish. OK so not a full peloton sprint, just the truely insane members of the peloton get involved on those sprints.
Well last year we dropped our cable subscription and started using Directv. Directv offers OLN network. So I have been anxiously awaiting the start of the tour. Because now I get several hours a day of race coverage. I love it. I get the prerace coverage, the race and the post race coverage. Enough bicycle talk and pictures to satisfy any race buff.
Then to top this all off, I get to watch the opening prologue yesterday. A simple little 12 miles individual time trial. Lance Armstrong turned in what was probably the best single time trial demonstration since Greg Lemond out raced Frenchman Laurent Fignon to win his second tour.
Watching Armstrong cruise past Jan Ulrich who started this short race a full minute ahead of him was a thing of beauty.
More so watching the young American David Zabriskie not only win the prologue to become only the third American to ever wear the yellow jersey was great.
Even better was watching Zabriskie defend the yellow jersey in today's stage. Today was a day for the sprinters. 182 km from Challans to Les Essarts. There was a four man breakaway that got run down by the peloton about 4 km from the end of the race, then a full peloton sprint to the finish. OK so not a full peloton sprint, just the truely insane members of the peloton get involved on those sprints.
Saturday, July 02, 2005
This Week In History - 2 July
How often have you gone to the store to pick up a few items and thought to yourself "I should make a list". but, then decided that you could remember everything. Later when returning home you find out that you have forgotten one or two items that would have been on your list. Well, don't feel bad. This has been happening for over 5000 years.
In 3100 BC, before the Art of Writing was invented, a small timid man in the country of Sumaria had been sent to the market to get a few things. He returned home with only half the items he had been sent out for. His wife a large, loud, but gentle, loving woman, beat him about the head and shoulders, berating him for his stupidity and incompetence. In her anger she snatched up his favorite blanket and a piece of burned wood and made some marks on the blanket. The first mark meant meat, she explained. Then she made some more marks that she said meant bread. A third mark was supposed to mean apples. The last mark was for a new water pot. Throwing the blanket back into his face she said 'Here, now go back, and don't forget anything this time'.
He returned later with the water pot, some apples and some bread. When his loving wife demanded to know where the meat was he replied 'Oh I'm sorry Sweetie-Nookums, I couldn't read your hand writing'.
Epilogue:
Word quickly spread throughout the marketplace that a man was apparently using some sort of list to do his shopping. When word reached the King he sent his most trusted advisor to investigate. When the advisor told the King it was true, the King declared a day of celebration to honor this great discovery.
The next day our hero was honored, posthumously, for being the first person in history to make use of a written language.
In 3100 BC, before the Art of Writing was invented, a small timid man in the country of Sumaria had been sent to the market to get a few things. He returned home with only half the items he had been sent out for. His wife a large, loud, but gentle, loving woman, beat him about the head and shoulders, berating him for his stupidity and incompetence. In her anger she snatched up his favorite blanket and a piece of burned wood and made some marks on the blanket. The first mark meant meat, she explained. Then she made some more marks that she said meant bread. A third mark was supposed to mean apples. The last mark was for a new water pot. Throwing the blanket back into his face she said 'Here, now go back, and don't forget anything this time'.
He returned later with the water pot, some apples and some bread. When his loving wife demanded to know where the meat was he replied 'Oh I'm sorry Sweetie-Nookums, I couldn't read your hand writing'.
Epilogue:
Word quickly spread throughout the marketplace that a man was apparently using some sort of list to do his shopping. When word reached the King he sent his most trusted advisor to investigate. When the advisor told the King it was true, the King declared a day of celebration to honor this great discovery.
The next day our hero was honored, posthumously, for being the first person in history to make use of a written language.
Friday, July 01, 2005
Critter Golf
Today was a Flex Friday, which meant that I didn't have to go to work. The Navy Base here employs a flex schedule. Instead of working five 8-hour days a week, we work 9-hour days and then get every other friday off.
So today was a day off, It was also the front end of a four day weekend that will culminate of monday with the Fourth of July. So what better thing to do on the first day of a four day weekend than go golfing.
Well a lot of other golfers had the same idea. So too it seems, did several critters.
It started out on the practice green. I was taking a few practice putts and I noticed a couple dry leaves on the green. Then suddenly my ball struck the edge of one of those leaves and it hopped away. On closer inspection I discovered that these leaves were actually little frogs. And I do mean little. Stretched out they were about 2 inches long. When crouching they were less than an inch long.
When we had made our way to the third green, there was a small covey of quails scratching around in the sand nearby. There were only about 5 or 6 but they were the first ones I've seen out there since last fall.
Working our way around the course we encountered the normal adult and baby ducks and some adult and baby coots, Several jack rabbits and quite a few cottontails.
While waiting for the foursome in front of us to get clear of the 14th tee I decided to make a brief nature call and wandered over to the line of salt cedars that line the edge of the course. While making friends with a tree I noticed a little cottentail sitting about four feet away. He only thing that moved on this bunny were his nose and eyes. He never took those off me.
Many of the critters out there get pretty used to the people wandering around. At one point I was walking past one of the ponds and there was a duck sitting in my path. As I approached this duck nonchalantly waddles off to the water's edge. If I would have had a club in my hand I could have reached out and touched it. It let me get that close.
Now a golf course is usually located outdoors. Which means we are playing golf in some critters backyard. Today there just seemed to be a much larger selection of critters than usual. Or maybe these critters are always there, but today I had time to notice them. The course was pretty crowded. The round took us 4 and half hours. So I had time to look around a lot more than usual.
By the way, I golfed pretty good. At least for me it was pretty good. I shot a 91, which with a 26 handicap means I was 7 under par - net. Since net par is what you should shoot on a good day. I guess I should say I had a great day. The only detractor was the 109 degree temps. That was a little warm.
But like they say, a bad day golfing is better than your best day at work.
So today was a day off, It was also the front end of a four day weekend that will culminate of monday with the Fourth of July. So what better thing to do on the first day of a four day weekend than go golfing.
Well a lot of other golfers had the same idea. So too it seems, did several critters.
It started out on the practice green. I was taking a few practice putts and I noticed a couple dry leaves on the green. Then suddenly my ball struck the edge of one of those leaves and it hopped away. On closer inspection I discovered that these leaves were actually little frogs. And I do mean little. Stretched out they were about 2 inches long. When crouching they were less than an inch long.
When we had made our way to the third green, there was a small covey of quails scratching around in the sand nearby. There were only about 5 or 6 but they were the first ones I've seen out there since last fall.
Working our way around the course we encountered the normal adult and baby ducks and some adult and baby coots, Several jack rabbits and quite a few cottontails.
While waiting for the foursome in front of us to get clear of the 14th tee I decided to make a brief nature call and wandered over to the line of salt cedars that line the edge of the course. While making friends with a tree I noticed a little cottentail sitting about four feet away. He only thing that moved on this bunny were his nose and eyes. He never took those off me.
Many of the critters out there get pretty used to the people wandering around. At one point I was walking past one of the ponds and there was a duck sitting in my path. As I approached this duck nonchalantly waddles off to the water's edge. If I would have had a club in my hand I could have reached out and touched it. It let me get that close.
Now a golf course is usually located outdoors. Which means we are playing golf in some critters backyard. Today there just seemed to be a much larger selection of critters than usual. Or maybe these critters are always there, but today I had time to notice them. The course was pretty crowded. The round took us 4 and half hours. So I had time to look around a lot more than usual.
By the way, I golfed pretty good. At least for me it was pretty good. I shot a 91, which with a 26 handicap means I was 7 under par - net. Since net par is what you should shoot on a good day. I guess I should say I had a great day. The only detractor was the 109 degree temps. That was a little warm.
But like they say, a bad day golfing is better than your best day at work.
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