Yay more Waiting !!

Wow- April 26th..... glad I could sneak one in before June. Please be aware that I wrote this while I was .......waiting (geee whiz who'da thunk) for someone to work with me from the NOC.

Here it is; sorry its a couple of days old

Whee; more waiting for me. Well its been a long time hasn’t it?? Sorry I’ve been away, after 6 months I still haven’t developed the discipline to actually schedule a time to sit and write. Oh well, life is hard. Wear a helmet.

Since last time much has happened. Barack has all but secured the nomination. Hillary fights on, in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds, staving off the inevitable perhaps as she should. McCain has secure the repugican nomination ago time ago and while not always being under the strictest of spotlights has managed some good gaffs. My favorites, which haven’t been played up by the right wing media nearly so much as it was when it involved a black preacher, is McCain’s courting the endorsements of -2- scary assed white preachers. The first, Hagy, is a proponent of backing Israel and military action against Iran in hopes of bringing on the End Days and encouraging the rapture. Oh, he also directly called catholicism, the "great whore". The second is a man named Parsley. He states that America was founded in the destruction of Islam etc. etc. etc. McCain has actually sought these people out and asked for their endorsement. Endorsements usually involve some sort of payback eventually either stipulated or implied. He also let his health records out; the Fri. before the memorial weekend. 20 reporters that he selected, had 3 hours to review 1100 pages. 9 seconds a page. Initial reviews were that he wasnt going to die tomorrow. Yeah this guy has nothing to hide........Should be a fun summer.

I been building bike regularly for a couple of months now. And more importantly, I’ve been in contact with MOOTS!!!!! I should be able to start the actual build process of the frameset next week (hopefully). 2 months later, I should be able to gaze upon the beauty of a frameset that will always be a better bike than I am a rider.

George Bush in the meantime has done what he has been doing for the last couple years, continuing his war in Iraq, to the benefit of few, mostly his friends, and to the great burden of both the American and Iraqi people. The soldiers obviously are the worst off of this side of the conflict. Long tours, stop loss policy, and under funding post deployment, and veterans support programs seems to be his way of supporting the troops. The Iraqis in the meantime have to live in perpetual violence and horror. Oh yeah; Did I mention that he also vetoed the latest GI Bill that would help our soldiers, not with health care, but move from military service to a further their education and get them out of the non skilled work force and into the ( what is quickly becoming) the minimum starting point for a skilled work force or job. Good times.

F U George. Can you go home early??

239 and counting........

Blog Jump start

Sometimes you just have to start. Or restart in this instance. It's been a month since my last post and so much has happened. Paris Nice, Milan San Remo, Tierrno Adriatico (sp), victories for Obama in a bunch of different primaries, more scandal from our administration, My trip to FL, a new tattoo. Oh the list goes on and on. Rather than try to address it all I thought I would instead, just get something down on paper (?). I didnt want this blog to fester in neglect, but March was exactly that. Oh well, Happy April. Spring is technically here. My company is going through restructuring after being bought, so I run the risk of lay-off (good times). Things are greening, and the days are getting longer and the weekends are warmer, so there are better chances for riding.

The Bike Lane is trying to start a spring fling bike weekend this weekend. I didnt know if I should volunteer to help or just show my face. I opted for the latter. I'm still waiting to build bikes for these guys, mostly for the pro-deals (shocker), but they wont be in their new space til at least next month. Either way, if ya got some time head over there on Sunday and check it out. These kind of things are always good to support, eventually they turn into events that raise awareness and options for cyclists everywhere.

293 more days

John Doe and Slipstream to the Giro

So, its been a week now and guess who's in the news again!! That's right, our boys over at Rock Racing.

So here's the deal; a couple of days ago a story comes out that a rider identified as "John Doe" is suing the USADA in order to stop the test of a "B" sample, after the "A" sample came back clean. Everybody's first question is "why" and the second question is of course "who is John Doe". Now why is the USADA testing a sample that has already been deemed negative. That's a fair question, especially when taken with the fact that teams need to submit their rider list to the Tour of California by Mon. and one of the new rules is no riders allowed who are even under investigation. Could this second test be viewed as an investigation?? And how many times should a rider have to pass screening with the same sample?? Are they testing for different agents?? Then again, if you've already passed the screen and you havent been doping, because we all know that cycling is all cleaned up now with the new attitude going around and all the testing being done, what are you afraid of?? So that is Thursday's news.

Friday's news?? Rock Racing's Kayle Leogrande is John Doe. Shocker Huh?? Kayle is probably literally the most colorful man in the peleton. He owns a tattoo parlor and is completely covered neck down in tats'. Dont get me wrong I like tattoo, I've got a couple and will be getting more and I think we need more people out there with tattoo so it ceases being some sort of discriminative choice. But between that and Michael Ball's antagonistic tirades you gotta know something like this is gonna happen. I do really hope the guy is clean. He's fun to watch, and I'm not ready for Rock Racing to implode quite yet.

In other happier news; Slipstream got an invite to the Giro in May!! Yay!! Go Slipstream!! And today was the start of the Tour of Qatar. An 8k team time trial was used as a prologue. I like team TT's and I wish ASO would put them back in the TdF. Anyway, Slipstream was holding on to the top spot with only one team to go. Quickstep, last years Tour of Qatar ended up finishing with the day's best time by just 2 seconds. But Big Maggie and David Millar drove the team to quite the impressive first showing. Beating 15 other teams including 7 pro tour teams. Way to go guys. Oh yeah, who runs the tour of Qatar?? ASO. Who was in the stands?? Tour Boss Christin Prudhomme. And while Mr Prudhomme hasnt actually said the Slipstream will be invited, he has said that he wants an American team there and that Slipstream's doping policy's and controls are in line with what he wants to see at the tour this summer. The ASO are really tired of scandal and are hoping for a comparatively quiet July.

Go Slipstream!!

Oh yeah and I got to haul my fat ass out for a ride today. 39 miles and my legs were starting to soften. Its gonna be a long early season at this rate.

Good News, Bad News

First the good news; Trent Lott has added his name to the growing list of Rats abandoning the ship. Trent has set his date for leaving to be sometime in December, barely a year after winning re-election. Probably most recently remembered for his incredibly, stupid comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party a couple of years ago (something akin to " we wouldnt be having all these problems now if you had been elected" Thurmond ran on a segregationist platform). I can actually understand how the comment came to be made. It doesnt make it any less offensive or stupid tho. Lott has been a heavy hitter in the GOP since 1972. He retires as party whip, the second most powerful Senator in his party. Now all of this would probably have most people scratching their heads especially considering that Lott is only 66 and has denied any health problems whatsoever. Then there is the little detail of the new senate rules that take effect Jan 1st. The most interesting being the new rule that senators must wait 2 full years before taking jobs as lobbyists.

Maybe he just wants more time to spend with his family.

Now for the bad news;

Saul Raisin has given up his quest to return to the professional peloton after his terrifying accident almost 18 months ago. Saul was a great prospect for American Cycling and a great personality. Always smiling and never taking things too seriously, he remembered the joy of just riding a bike.

More here