So do you still blog?

That was Dick's question to me a few weeks ago at the Pinnacle Town Meeting. Without even thinking i replied, "I like to write when i'm riding" which explains my absence pretty well.

Not that i haven't been riding, i have, but usually at 6AM alone, damn you Rocketboy! you frickin Nostradamus in a speedo.

Too much to write about, so here goes stream of consciousness.

A tale of two shows in two months
Show 1
Amy gave me tickets to Particle / Matisyahu / 311 and it was awesome. What was really cool, was seeing Matisyahu blend in with the crowd after his performance to hand out flyers for a cause. What wasn't cool was getting patted down on the way in, what happened to wands and metal detectors? I think it was because they weren't looking for weapons, instead hunting for the apparent duraflame-sized logs of weed which were being smoked inside. Good God man.

Show 2
The Wiggles enough said.

gotta run, PLAY FANTASY VUELTA!
DJW is setting up the league.
I still promise to document his come from behind victory in the drug scandal plagued TdF.
PEACE

back online

So it's been a while since i've blogged or been online for very long for that matter, let's just say we've been VERY BUSY.

The big news in our household, Charlotte Grace is here! Some photos are available at that link, more to follow. We've been switching from the zone defense to a man-on-man and it's definitely an adjustment.

Charlotte came the night before the Vineman, so that turned out to be a wise decision on my part.

Congrats go out to the Courville's who welcomed young Champion into the world last week, that's great news and i hope they're doing well.

Too much to report on the Tour and the much more important Fantasy Tour, i'll try to recap the championship run that Taylor's squad made later this week. I wasn't able to view the final days, but somewhere in there Taylor and i leap-frogged Eric's squad to make it on the podium. If i'd only picked Contador over Fast Freddie. Ok, well i'm out.

Stage 11 - DJ Whitebread goes 2 in a row

Robbie Hunter won today and Taylor grabbed his second win. Eric, do you hear us coming?

1. Le Pain Blanc 146
2. Vlad's Wild World of Karpets 117
3. EPO MAKE RIDERS GO! 112
4. Spunky Spinners 90
5. I see Paris. I see France. I see Lycra underpants. 74
6. A La Testosterone UnderDogs 71
7. RED ASS EXPRESS manged by the artist formerly known as ROCKETBOY 62
8. Mellow Johnny 57
9. Bacon Spinners 55
10. i want to ride my bike 53

Stage 10 - Haven't seen the footage yet ...

... but life is good, for the first time in many days, a few of us were able to put points into Mr. King's EPO squad, so his lead is down to a measly 757 points. No RocketBoy, you're not winning. Hat's off to BBT for taking the stage today. Voigt got me close, but not close enough, sticking 3rd behind Lisa's boys.

1. Le Pain Blanc 208
2. I see Paris. I see France. I see Lycra underpants. 197
3. Vlad's Wild World of Karpets 194
4. Spunky Spinners 165
5. A La Testosterone UnderDogs 149
6. Bacon Spinners 138
7. EPO MAKE RIDERS GO! 123
8. i want to ride my bike 80
9. RED ASS EXPRESS 59
10. Mellow Johnny 52

Stage 9 - I'm a Contador Believer

You really have to love the 1-2-3-4 punch treatment from Disco today, very impressive. If you watched the coverage early, you have to love the fact that even in France, cycling mecca extraordinaire, there are dumbasses who let their dogs run around at bike races without a leash. I couldn't believe the way that Marcus Burghart's carbon wheel taco-ed like it was made out of paper when he broadsided the yellow lab, ouch.

Eric is continuing to kick ass, and slipped just one point to 43rd overall.

1. EPO MAKE RIDERS GO! 388
2. Vlad's Wild World of Karpets 350
3. Le Pain Blanc 262
4. RED ASS EXPRESS manged by the artist formerly known as ROCKETBOY 230
5. A La Testosterone UnderDogs 203
6. I see Paris. I see France. I see Lycra underpants. 196
7. Bacon Spinners 178
8. Spunky Spinners 130
9. i want to ride my bike 128
10. Mellow Johnny 118

Stage 8 and the Funky Chicken

Don't you wish that Robbie would have asked the question he wanted to ask?

"So Levi, tough day today, now tell me. Was it the team's strategy for you to pretend not to be a contender, then get George to pretend he's a breakaway specialist, and finally psyche Contador up enough to make him look like he has the most talent on the whole squad?"

Ok, enough of that, i've been pretty busy, i didn't even put together the idea that the Chicken might make this thing stick until i talked to Jeff today. It's true, when you climb like a chicken who can follow? At this pace, he might exit the Pyrenees with a 15 minute lead, which may be enough for him to carry it through the final timetrial, during which he'll crash 8 times. ba dum bum

I predicted that Eric would win today, what i didn't predict was that he would place 4th overall out of 2,493 teams! INCREDIBLE. His performance stomped the crap out of the rest of us, and moved him into 92nd overall. 654 points is more than Webb has turned out in 8 stages, amazing. Could the overall lead be far behind? Stay tuned

1. EPO MAKE RIDERS GO! 654
2. Le Pain Blanc 416
3. Vlad's Wild World of Karpets 377
4. RED ASS EXPRESS 242
5. i want to ride my bike 226
6. Bacon Spinners 224
7. I see Paris. I see France. I see Lycra underpants. 220
8. A La Testosterone UnderDogs 204
9. Spunky Spinners 174
10. Mellow Johnny 113

Squad Quick Reference

If you're anything like i am, you're probably finding the bandwidth on the Velogames site suffering these days, here's a quick reference of everyone's team. I'm going to go out on a limb here and pick Eric as today's winner AGAIN.

Sebastian - A La Testosterone UnderDogs
Alejandro VALVERDE BELMONTE GCE 22 25
Juan Jose COBO ACEBO SDV 10 6
Carlos SASTRE CANDIL CSC 16 57
Igor ANTON HERNANDEZ EUS 6 9
Robbie MCEWEN PRL 16 303
Jens VOIGT CSC 8 57
José Luis ARRIETA LUJAMBIO A2R 4 0
George HINCAPIE DSC 8 313
Thomas DEKKER RAB 10 131

Amy - I want to ride my bike
Alexandre VINOKOUROV AST 26 142
Oscar PEREIRO SIO GCE 14 23
Iban MAYO DIEZ SDV 12 6
Manuel BELTRAN MARTINEZ LIQ 6 8
Thor HUSHOVD CA 16 429
Juan Antonio FLECHA GIANNONI RAB 6 63
Fred RODRIGUEZ PRL 6 5
George HINCAPIE DSC 8 313
Thomas VOECKLER BTL 6 0

Eric - EPO Makes Riders Go!
Cadel EVANS PRL 14 43
Christophe MOREAU A2R 12 30
Michael RASMUSSEN RAB 16 9
Iban MAYO DIEZ SDV 12 6
Robbie MCEWEN PRL 16 303
George HINCAPIE DSC 8 313
Thomas VOECKLER BTL 6 0
David MILLAR SDV 6 218
Erik ZABEL MRM 10 485


Char - Spunky Spinners
Levi LEIPHEIMER DSC 16 15
Frank SCHLECK CSC 14 57
Carlos SASTRE CANDIL CSC 16 57
Egoi MARTINEZ DE ESTEBAN DSC 6 20
Tom BOONEN QSI 16 633
George HINCAPIE DSC 8 313
Jens VOIGT CSC 8 57
David ZABRISKIE CSC 6 77
Thomas DEKKER RAB 10 131

Jeff - Mellow Johnny
Levi LEIPHEIMER DSC 16 15
Frank SCHLECK CSC 14 57
Egoi MARTINEZ DE ESTEBAN DSC 6 20
Manuel BELTRAN MARTINEZ LIQ 6 8
Tom BOONEN QSI 16 633
Vladimir GOUSSEV DSC 6 205
David ZABRISKIE CSC 6 77
Leif HOSTE PRL 4 5
Alexandre VINOKOUROV AST 26 142

RED ASS EXPRESS manged by the artist formerly known as ROCKETBOY
Denis MENCHOV RAB 16 11
Alexandre VINOKOUROV AST 26 142
Manuel BELTRAN MARTINEZ LIQ 6 8
Iban MAYO DIEZ SDV 12 6
Tom BOONEN QSI 16 633
George HINCAPIE DSC 8 313
Geraint THOMAS BAR 2 3
Ronny SCHOLZ GST 2 0
Yaroslav POPOVYCH DSC 12 12

taylor - le pain blanc
Levi LEIPHEIMER DSC 16 15
Frank SCHLECK CSC 14 57
Michael RASMUSSEN RAB 16 9
Manuel BELTRAN MARTINEZ LIQ 6 8
Tom BOONEN QSI 16 633
Fabian WEGMANN GST 6 70
Jens VOIGT CSC 8 57
Laurent LEFEVRE BTL 2 108
Carlos SASTRE CANDIL CSC 16 57

lisa - I see Paris. I see France. I see Lycra underpants. Alexandre VINOKOUROV AST 26 142
Frank SCHLECK CSC 14 57
Manuel BELTRAN MARTINEZ LIQ 6 8
Egoi MARTINEZ DE ESTEBAN DSC 6 20
Erik ZABEL MRM 10 485
Christian VANDEVELDE CSC 4 57
Francisco PEREZ SANCHEZ GCE 6 2
Sandy CASAR FDJ 6 0
Alejandro VALVERDE BELMONTE GCE 22 25

Me - Vlad's Wild World of Karpets Levi LEIPHEIMER DSC 16 15
Vladimir KARPETS GCE 14 170
Michael RASMUSSEN RAB 16 9
Félix Raphael CARDENAS RAVALO BAR 6 3
Thor HUSHOVD CA 16 429
Jens VOIGT CSC 8 57
José Vicente GARCIA ACOSTA GCE 4 2
Fred RODRIGUEZ PRL 6 5
Cadel EVANS PRL 14 43

Ward - Bacon Spinners Alejandro VALVERDE BELMONTE
Paolo SAVOLDELLI AST
Egoi MARTINEZ DE ESTEBAN DSC
Patrik SINKEWITZ TMO
Stuart O'GRADY CSC
Jens VOIGT CSC
Michael BOOGERD RAB
Thomas VOECKLER BTL
Denis MENCHOV

Stage 7 - Hats off to Girlyman

Rather, Linus Gerdemann. If he's on your team, i think you've got the Nostradamus mojo happening. He didn't get the winner, but Taylor's White Bread squad did get Lefevre and Wegmann was good enough to get 46th out of nearly 2,500 teams... NICE!

1. Le Pain Blanc 207
2. Bacon Spinners 62
3. EPO MAKE RIDERS GO! 60
4. Mellow Johnny 53
5. Spunky Spinners 50
6. A La Testosterone UnderDogs 48
7. I see Paris. I see France. I see Lycra underpants. 47
8. RED ASS EXPRESS manged by the artist formerly known as ROCKETBOY 33
9. i want to ride my bike 33
10. Vlad's Wild World of Karpets 30

Stage 6 - Boomin on Friday the 13th

Big Tom did it right this time and it's Char AGAIN
I think Ward has his eye on the Lanterne Rouge, eh?

1. Spunky Spinners 252
2. Mellow Johnny 221
3. Le Pain Blanc 212
4. RED ASS EXPRESS manged by the artist formerly known as ROCKETBOY 203
5. EPO MAKE RIDERS GO! 172
6. I see Paris. I see France. I see Lycra underpants. 152
7. Vlad's Wild World of Karpets 109
8. i want to ride my bike 101
9. A La Testosterone UnderDogs 54
10. Bacon Spinners 33

Stage 5 - Pozzato at nearly 50mph

Pozzato wins the sprint
Vino and Kloden go down hard
But my favorite memory of this stage will be Popo's attack on the final descent. He was slamming just like he did back at MSR in the spring, then he went off roading and jedi mind tricked Fabian into doing it too. But the very best part was when he reentered the road at about 15 mph in front of a Lampre dude probably going 35. With a flick of his wrist he misses Popo's back wheel by what appears to be inches, too cool. Big surprise, Eric "the powerhouse" takes another stage.

1. EPO MAKE RIDERS GO! 211
2. Spunky Spinners 150
3. A La Testosterone UnderDogs 123
4. I see Paris. I see France. I see Lycra underpants. 118
5. RED ASS EXPRESS manged by the artist formerly known as ROCKETBOY 104
6. i want to ride my bike 98
7. Mellow Johnny 62
8. Le Pain Blanc 51
9. Vlad's Wild World of Karpets 50
10. Bacon Spinners 33

Stage 4 - Beware the Hammer

Amy and me pull the 1,2 thanks to Thor's sprint. Here's hoping for many more, maybe this will help me move up a bit.

1. i want to ride my bike 263
2. Vlad's Wild World of Karpets 206
3. EPO MAKE RIDERS GO! 140
4. Spunky Spinners 126
5. I see Paris. I see France. I see Lycra underpants. 120
6. Mellow Johnny 111
7. RED ASS EXPRESS manged by the artist formerly known as ROCKETBOY 103
8. Le Pain Blanc 90
9. A La Testosterone UnderDogs 50
10. Bacon Spinners 25

Stage 3 - Holy Cancellara

The finish of this stage was unbelievable, a man among boys, Fabian Cancellara rolled away from the sprinters and through the breakaway like they weren't even pedaling, giving way to this new term which i like a lot. The balance of power slid back to Eric's boys, this is the beginning of a trend.

1. EPO MAKE RIDERS GO! 240
2. Spunky Spinners 190
3. I see Paris. I see France. I see Lycra underpants. 171
4. Mellow Johnny 169
5. RED ASS EXPRESS manged by the artist formerly known as ROCKETBOY 147
6. Le Pain Blanc 146
7. A La Testosterone UnderDogs 115
8. i want to ride my bike 57
9. Vlad's Wild World of Karpets 45
10. Bacon Spinners 35

Stage 2 - Steegmans? Steegmans? hello

Boonen had this to say, "There was no one coming and when there is a chance like that he should be able take it, ... He has done a lot for me in the past."

Yeah, like that time a few minutes ago when he kicked your ass? When i read the report on this stage they make it sound like Boonen graced him with a gift, watch the tape and you tell me. I don't think big Tom could have come around him if he'd had another 100 meters.

In the UCC league, it was the husband/wife duo of Char and Jeff taking the top spot from Rocket Boy, nice job Roberts!

1. Spunky Spinners 216
2. Mellow Johnny 206
3. RED ASS EXPRESS manged by the artist formerly known as ROCKETBOY 194
4. EPO MAKE RIDERS GO! 178
5. Le Pain Blanc 177
6. A La Testosterone UnderDogs 116
7. I see Paris. I see France. I see Lycra underpants. 87
8. i want to ride my bike 54
9. Vlad's Wild World of Karpets 35
10. Bacon Spinners 25

Stage 1 Report

Stage 1 was all about Robbie McEwen's turn of speed in the last 100 meters, pretty incredible, especially after his crash and all. Good enough to give Eric's doping team the win.

1. EPO MAKE RIDERS GO! 263
2. A La Testosterone UnderDogs 211
3. i want to ride my bike 188
4. Vlad's Wild World of Karpets 177
5. Spunky Spinners 172
6. Mellow Johnny 166
7. RED ASS EXPRESS manged by the artist formerly known as ROCKETBOY 149
8. Le Pain Blanc 131
9. I see Paris. I see France. I see Lycra underpants. 37
10. Bacon Spinners 25

Fantasy Tour de France Update

You are right to demand an update, blogging is a luxury that i can hardly afford these days, but i'll try to remedy that promptly. Amy and i have struggled a bit with the Velogames interface, more to come...

Prologue Results

We just got in, nothing like a 3.5 hour drive from Diamond Head to Baton Rouge. We were at a complete stop on the Interstate for probably 45 minutes total. Horrible traffic, road construction, asshole merging, you name it. The good news ... Riley dog has obviously overcome her motion sickness problems, that's even better news for us. Always fun bonding with other dog owners at the Louisiana Welcome Center, complaining about the traffic, etc. etc.

Anyway, the mini leagues aren't ready yet on Velogames but the scoring for the prologue is in. Please let me know if this isn't you or if i've excluded anybody, looks like Char jumped on the early lead by virtue of her Dekker and Dave Z picks. I'm particularly proud of the team names in our league. We shall see how it goes, i hope to do better today after reading of Thor's 2nd. You just can't keep the little Aussie down can you? I read the report at 20k to go and figured he was out of it. Lemme run, later gators.

897. spunky spinners (char?) 204
967. i want to ride my bike (amy) 195
967. RED ASS EXPRESS manged by the artist formerly known as ROCKETBOY (Pat) 195
1062. A La Testosterone UnderDogs (Sebastian) 184
1147. Mellow Johnny (jeff) 174
1431. EPO MAKE RIDERS GO! (eric) 143
1823. Vlad's Wild World of Karpets (me) 81
2004. I see Paris. I see France. I see Lycra underpants. (lisa) 64
2408. Le Pain Blanc (taylor) 0
2408. Bacon Spinners (ward) 0

The Fantasy Tour de France is on!

Registration is now open at Velogames
Go check it out, it's challenging to stay within the 100 credit budget.
Turns out they provide their own mini-league competition, so once it opens, i'll create the league and post the name here.

No idea yet on a league prize for the winner, i'll be curious to see how this one devleops, the point system is pretty complex to say the least.

What if...

We all joined this Fantasy Cycling League, it's not my rules. Team selection is easy, pick 9 riders with specified requirements (2 all arounders, 2 climbers, etc.). I can lift the results off their site and we can run our own sub-league here at UCC, but we let them do the heavy lifting. I like this idea a lot, b/c of the reduced workload on me. It's free to join it, maybe we'll run some prizes for our competition as well. So far i've got Me, Eric, Jeff, Sebas and Taylor, come on, i know you want to...

News and Fantasy Tour de France

So SeaBass has entered the world of blogdom, i'm happy about this, because i've never really gotten into MySpace.

In other news, Eric made an excellent suggestion to create a Fantasy Tour de France. Since i'm a bit out of the pro cycling scene this year, it will make for a great way to get more familiar with who's where, etc. I'm thinking about running it in the original format which was pick 9 for week 1, a different 9 for week 2, a different 9 for week 3. No big whoop, if you're interested reply here.

The Tour of Suisse coverage blew in my opinion. I was most interested in the climbing stages that took place during the week, not 2 hours of the final timetrial.

That's all for now...

coffee talk

you know, coffee, we talk, no big whoop
here's a topic to discuss:

The Guru warranty does not cover improper use, use in races, wear and corrosion due to salt or extreme climates, accidents, poor maintenance, commercial activities, addition of unfit parts or accessories or parts and accessories that are not intended for a particular bike, as well as any modification to the frame, fork or other components.

haven't blogged in a while due to the large amounts of bile in my mind