Another week down, another weekend of races missed. Although, given the late-July "hazy, hot and humid" forecast, I am not devastated about missing the Lost River Classic in WVa. We (Team CycleLife) have spent a lot of time on those roads in the spring/fall; I can't imagine those climbs in this kind of heat. I suspect this will be more of an epic than a race and I can't wait to hear all the trash talk that comes out of it.
Tour Musings
Speaking of trash talk and its close cousin, drama, I'm strangely disturbed and yet comforted by the amount I've seen through the media coverage of the Tour. I think we all like to have these idealistic ideas about how much more mature and professional bike racing is at those levels. As long as we realize it is idealistic, not realistic, that's all fine and dandy.
Trash Talk: It's really funny to see how a little bit of success can turn the nicest, sweetest person into an arrogant arse. When the Tour first started, I thought Mark Cavendish was a cutie- confident but not arrogant. After the first few stages, where he completely dominated the sprint finishes, he crossed that line into arrogance and I can't stand to hear him talk right now. Okay, I have no idea if he was "nicest, sweetest", but we've all seen it happen in real life so work with me, here.
Drama: Hincapie and his almost-yellow-jersey. Interesting that Lance calls Garmin out after Hincapie called Astana out and, honestly, for 5seconds, couldn't Hincapie's own team's leadout have made that difference ? That whole day went badly for Columbia, as Cavendish was relegated after a dangerous sprint.
Bummed about Jens - that crash looked awful but it sounds like he's doing much better than I'd have expected. A broken cheekbone sounds terrible, but he's already talking about next year.
Another sad instance: a spectator was killed by a police motorcycle while crossing the road in the middle of the race. I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often with the crazy fans running around on the race course ... I'm truly amazed (and thankful) that this is "rare".
As you can see, I'm racing vicariously through the Tour - I have no idea what I'm going to do with all of my spare time when it ends on Sunday.
Happy Friday.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
TGIF - 7/17/09 - One Month to Go
The countdown is on - I have a doc appt on Aug 18th to get this damn cast off and it can't come soon enough. I feel bad that I am wishing the summer away, but summer isn't much fun with a cast. Even when it's super-awesome-cool green. Teammate Sonja took some pics of me sporting my cast at Hains Pt earlier in the week - havent seen them but will post when I do just so you, too, can appreciate the shock value.
On a very-much-related subject - seems all the cool kids are doing it. No, not THAT - I mean breaking their respective wrists. First it was Gesink, then the Pope (he had surgery this am) and now Levi. I don't know the detail for the first two, but Levi said he broke the schaphoid which means he will be sporting a cast similar to mine for at least a couple months. Wonder if he'll get it Astana blue ? Or green, to be like me ?
Very sad to see Levi have to abandon - he was riding strong and, as someone said in some blog somewhere recently, Levi is one of the few men who can make bald kinda cute. Hey, I'm single, I'm allowed.
These last few stages of the Tour have been less than exciting as we await the Alps ... the long, flat stages simply aren't exciting until the finishing sprint unless there's a wreck (bad karma to hope for that). The best of those stages was Stage 3 where Columbia used the cross winds to create an unexpected split.
As an aside- I appreciate a good sprint as much as the next girl (especially since I can't sprint my way out of a paper bag. wait. that doesn't really make sense. you get my point.) but each stage that Cavendish wins seems to give him that much more arrogance - as a general rule, guys, confidence is hot. Arrogance, not so much.
Happy Friday - enjoy the weekend.
On a very-much-related subject - seems all the cool kids are doing it. No, not THAT - I mean breaking their respective wrists. First it was Gesink, then the Pope (he had surgery this am) and now Levi. I don't know the detail for the first two, but Levi said he broke the schaphoid which means he will be sporting a cast similar to mine for at least a couple months. Wonder if he'll get it Astana blue ? Or green, to be like me ?
Very sad to see Levi have to abandon - he was riding strong and, as someone said in some blog somewhere recently, Levi is one of the few men who can make bald kinda cute. Hey, I'm single, I'm allowed.
These last few stages of the Tour have been less than exciting as we await the Alps ... the long, flat stages simply aren't exciting until the finishing sprint unless there's a wreck (bad karma to hope for that). The best of those stages was Stage 3 where Columbia used the cross winds to create an unexpected split.
As an aside- I appreciate a good sprint as much as the next girl (especially since I can't sprint my way out of a paper bag. wait. that doesn't really make sense. you get my point.) but each stage that Cavendish wins seems to give him that much more arrogance - as a general rule, guys, confidence is hot. Arrogance, not so much.
Happy Friday - enjoy the weekend.
Monday, July 13, 2009
A little courtesy, please ??
The thought had occurred to me, now that I'm back on the road, that having a mechanical or a flat tire would bum me out more than usual since I lack full usage of my right hand. On Saturday, I found out just exactly how much ...
After procrastinating all morning, I finally turned off the Tour coverage and donned my lycra. Did one lap through Patapsco Park and started to head down the trail to pop out on Ilchester. If all went well, maybe I'd take a spin up the hill. All did not go well, so I never made it.
About 3/4 of the way down the trail, I realized my rear tire was going flat, quickly. No problem... Pulled off to the side and dumped out my seat-pack. Tire levers, cO2 cartidge, tube - all present and accounted for. I grabbed the levers and got to it - still holding onto my fairly sunny outlook on the ride. About 10mins later, I lost that sunny outlook. The levers were sh*t; wouldn't hook under the tire bead to save my life. My lack of a right hand didn't help. A few riders sped past, not slowing a half-second to see if the clearly disabled chick needed help.
Another 10mins and I finally get my hands under the tire to pull it free from the rim. Out comes the tube, where I discover that it was the valve that failed. Good, at least my tire is okay. Now to the new tube, all put together - time for air and I'm home free. Still annoyed that no one bothered to ask if I was okay.
Then I realized that I had the wrong cartridge. I had a threaded inflation-thingy but I grabbed a non-threaded cartridge. It wouldn't work no matter how hard I tried. After pondering the idea of walking 4miles home, I flagged down two kids on MTBs. They begrudgingly stopped, gave me what I needed (thank you) and rode away before even seeing if it worked.
It almost didn't work- I lost a bunch of air because I'm not that adept with my left hand. I managed to get enough air to get home, where I promptly emptied the tire (did you know that cO2 cartidges carry traces of oil that will weaken your tubes if don't drain out the air ? Thank you for the insight, Josh!) and refilled it with my floor pump. Having wasted a good 45mins on this little escapade, I hooked up to my trainer and finished my ride while watching the rest of the Tour.
If I see a rider on the side of the road, I always - ALWAYS- slow down, take out the earphones and ask if they need anything. Am I really the only one who does this ? I understand that I'm an odd sight right now in my bright green cast, but c'mon- I'm a cute (if I do say so myself), fit female in lycra. WTF ? People suck.
Take away lesson: Chivalry is dead.
After procrastinating all morning, I finally turned off the Tour coverage and donned my lycra. Did one lap through Patapsco Park and started to head down the trail to pop out on Ilchester. If all went well, maybe I'd take a spin up the hill. All did not go well, so I never made it.
About 3/4 of the way down the trail, I realized my rear tire was going flat, quickly. No problem... Pulled off to the side and dumped out my seat-pack. Tire levers, cO2 cartidge, tube - all present and accounted for. I grabbed the levers and got to it - still holding onto my fairly sunny outlook on the ride. About 10mins later, I lost that sunny outlook. The levers were sh*t; wouldn't hook under the tire bead to save my life. My lack of a right hand didn't help. A few riders sped past, not slowing a half-second to see if the clearly disabled chick needed help.
Another 10mins and I finally get my hands under the tire to pull it free from the rim. Out comes the tube, where I discover that it was the valve that failed. Good, at least my tire is okay. Now to the new tube, all put together - time for air and I'm home free. Still annoyed that no one bothered to ask if I was okay.
Then I realized that I had the wrong cartridge. I had a threaded inflation-thingy but I grabbed a non-threaded cartridge. It wouldn't work no matter how hard I tried. After pondering the idea of walking 4miles home, I flagged down two kids on MTBs. They begrudgingly stopped, gave me what I needed (thank you) and rode away before even seeing if it worked.
It almost didn't work- I lost a bunch of air because I'm not that adept with my left hand. I managed to get enough air to get home, where I promptly emptied the tire (did you know that cO2 cartidges carry traces of oil that will weaken your tubes if don't drain out the air ? Thank you for the insight, Josh!) and refilled it with my floor pump. Having wasted a good 45mins on this little escapade, I hooked up to my trainer and finished my ride while watching the rest of the Tour.
If I see a rider on the side of the road, I always - ALWAYS- slow down, take out the earphones and ask if they need anything. Am I really the only one who does this ? I understand that I'm an odd sight right now in my bright green cast, but c'mon- I'm a cute (if I do say so myself), fit female in lycra. WTF ? People suck.
Take away lesson: Chivalry is dead.
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