Not a bad day all told

Some days are better than others. That pretty much goes without saying. What is really nice is when a small part of the day makes the whole thing and turns an otherwise ordinary, spending time til retirement kinda day to a pretty good one. It was simple, surprisingly so. I got to go for a ride after work. That was it. 90 minutes of turning pedals over and over. Not even any sort of special route, nothing new, a route that I do as a default when I want to knock it out in under a couple of hours. It was perfect weather wise. I worked the legs a little hard at the gym yesterday, so I wasn’t expecting anything special. But after I got warmed up, I was out on a long flat 3-mile section. The cadence came up, and I was off. It was all just really nice. Speed was a little higher than usual; I smoked everybody but one guy who just sucked wheel for about 7 miles. Even then, he didn’t get away so much as our paths went different directions. It was just a good day. Back to the salt mine tomorrow.

I saw one of the first smart bike depots in Farragut Square yesterday. It will be interesting to see how this all wears, with tagging, abuse and weather. I really do hope this works. Cities will not solve their traffic and pollution problems until they actually eliminate cars from the road. Make roads wider and/or more roads will only lead to more traffic. At the end of the day the only answer is to get people out of their cars. Full stop. There lots of parts to the solution, but the end result has to be less cars: period.



Hillary pulled just enough out of her ass in Pennsylvania to prolong the agony. My question is; how many of the more conservative democrats that are Hillary’s stronger pull, will opt for “the maverick” John McCain anyway, no matter who wins the Democratic nomination. Good news is that while McCain isn’t spending money or taking political hits, he’s only getting part time press.

Anyway, there it is for now

270 days left

Astana is out (so far)

So, did anyone really *not* see the chances of this coming??? ASO which owns the Tour De France and most of the other important races in France has banned or rather summarily not invited Astana to any of their parties this year. Its a huge blow. Especially in light of the fact that other teams who have also been naughty in years not so far past, have been invited to at least the first of the major ASO races, Paris Nice.

I think a good part of ASO shutting out Astana is political as much as anything else. The major tour operators have been battling with the UCI for a couple of years now over invitation lists and wild cards in their events. UCI wants to dictate that the organizers have to have the 20 UCI Pro-tour teams. While the 3 different tour organizers want to have more control over who races in their events.

Dont get me wrong, Astana has alot going against it. It was born out of scandal. When Operation Puerto broke just days before the '06 tour, Liberty Seguros had 4 riders eliminated, leaving just 5 and not enough to start as a team. Alexander Vinokorov went to his homeland and drummed up enough support to buy the Liberty Seguros license and started Astana. Since then no fewer than 4 of Astana's biggest names have been busted for doping, most notoriously Vino himself during last years tour, after proclaiming that all the cheats left with the previous management team.

This year they hire John Bruyneel of Postal/Discovery team fame. Johan is not the most outspoken critic of doping. Some might say that he is actually a bit cavalier in his attitude towards doping as a matter of fact. Tho to his credit he has developed a team policy and policing practice that is certainly as thorough as anybody else's at this point. But history being what it is; and the cries of "but were different now", doesnt helps things any.

So, Astana is out. Partially due to history, partially due to politics. And for all those conspiracy freaks out there, saying that the French are just doing this so they can actually win their own tour; I point out that of the highest placed French rider from last year was Michael Boogard in 12th.

Now enough but bike racing. I've written on it almost exclusively for a while now. Sorry. I didnt intend for this to become a bike racing blog only.

I've started at a gym for really the first time. A bunch of years ago I tried for about 2 months and quit. This time has a better chance of taking. Mostly because both Mrs Culimerc and I have friends to work out with. Makes the whole thing a bunch different. So hopefully, I'll turn my flabby, pasty, white butt into a tone, pasty white butt. Good luck to Me.

We're having a wine tasting here this weekend. Should be a good time, its kind of like a tupperware party with alcohol. We'll see how it goes. My brother had no last week (that he didnt invited me to crash.....hmmm). He said it was a good time, s much because it was an adult party as much as anything else. Not having chosen a life of servitude to children, all our parties are adult parties. Take your diaper talk somewhere else breeder. Anyway, should be fun, wine, cheese, pate and all that other good stuff. (read bad for your heart).

Go Slipstream

340 days and counting.

Bike VA

w00t!!
Excuse for bein' stupid, but the Bike VA folks just came out with the first 2008 route details.

This is one of those basic state tours that changes routes every year and offers 5 days or so of supported rides. Couple of metrics, couple of full centuries, a little camping and wayyyy too much hokey, sanitized for your protection, family entertainment ( although the first year I went they showed " The Triplettes of Belleville" in a indoor pool, that was cool). There's the usual "camping" in a high school practice field. The school cafeteria breakfasts, bad white bread sandwich lunches, but all in all a good time.

Usually there is some sort of diversion at most of the rest stops, usually themed according to the theme of that years ride. This year, it's "the Crooked Road", Virginia's own roots music. Now, I'm not much on modern country music, but old skool?? Oh hell yeah! Too bad so much of it is reproduced so poorly. Hopefully, I'll be proven wrong in this particular case. I like me some Bluegrass and Ol' time and this is the place for it.

I usually dont submit myself to the dinners on these things, opting instead for the local cuisine. This can be hit or miss for the most part. 1st year was in BBQ country so we ate pretty well. Last year we found a bar that had ok food, and good drinks. Everyone gained weight.

Mostly tho, its nice to have the chance to ride in some else's back yard and have most everything taken care of. Bring a bike, a tent and some beer money, sit back relax and put some miles in. Yeah, I'll be there again this year.

BikeVA 2008

I suck

Wanting to ride and manning up and actually riding are 2 waaaaay different things. I of course pussed out and didnt ride. Not that it was that cold, but it was chilly enough. and gray, and -looked- like it was going to rain. So I was a pussy. Instead I went to look at crap I had NO intention of buying and drove an hour (as long as I was 1/2 way there anyway) to see friends at their Xmas tree farm (no I didnt bring one back for us). And that was pretty much my day. Whole fat load of nothing, and I'm only a little annoyed at my fat self. Not nearly as annoyed as I should be. No givin others crap when I cant manage to pound out the miles either. I did manage to get in 18 yesterday to and from the soccer fields, late in the day. I would've gone farther, but I didnt want to run out of day light. Or at least that's my excuse.

I suck.

Fall Riding

So I went out for a ride on my usual "hilly" loop. It's not all that long, but its never really flat either, so you get a good bang for your buck, training wise.

When I started it was in the hi 40's and the wind was blowing around. I was sitting on the couch watchin tube, knowing I should go out. Knowin' that it wasnt *that* cold. Why is always so hard to get rolling once the weather changes?? All I want to do is sit on the couch, drink beer, eat something hot and starchy, and watch movies I've already seen a dozen times. I had a good time once I got warmed up. And I considered stretching it out a bit. Another 5-10 miles or so. Oh well. Beer is good.

In other news;

Chris Horner, Chechu Rubiera and Vladimir Gusev have all signed with Astana for next year. Rumor is that they'll be riding Treks. Ahhh, the new look Disco boys. Will they actually have *any* Kazakh riders on this team or what. In a solid move to improve the image of both Bruyneel and Astana, they have hired the Doctor (Rasmus Damsgaard) that ran CSC's drug testing program last year. Last year 28 CSC riders subjected themselves to over 600 doping tests. Lets see any major league team of any sport live up to that. Good luck Astana; you've got a HUGE hole to dig yourself out of, but at least your trying.

GO Slipstream!!

F U Barry Bonds.