and I froze my ass

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I was able to escape the office early yesterday to go for an afternoon ride. It was a lovely 48 degrees, the sun was shining, and it was officially my first ride in long sleeves and tights. I took a new route through town and then hit the hills. Climbing was a sweat fest going up and a lesson in hypothermia on the way down. It ended up being about 30 miles total but I felt like I'd ridden a double century. The first ride in the cold always kicks my ass and zaps my motivation to the point where I want to hang up the bike till May...but alas I always climb back on and chances are it will be an even colder day and I'll probably enjoy myself.



Here's some mood music, courtesy of stevil over at ahtbm. Rock!

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Have a great weekend...and if you're out at the 'Basin or Loveland, I'm jealous as hell!

Speechless...

Think about this:
Here's something that's not going to brighten your day. Matter of fact it may just ruin it, but I feel that I need to put this out there. http://www.tucsonbikelawyer.com/heavy/.

it's the end of the season as we know it.

Wow, first one in 3 months... get comfy and open a Hamm's.

I've been riding my bike to work all summer and it's been awesome. There's no easier way to get in some base miles than just commuting by bike. A Monday thru Friday commute allowed me 100 extra miles a week and with that came a fast and fit summer. Sure, you're increasing your odds of running into the angry motorist and the mess that that can bring, but keep your eyes on your surroundings, always throw the first punch, and you'll be fine.

Next up, Tour de France. I'll just leave it to this. Though I wish they inserted this line from Rocky MCMXLMCII or whatever the hell one it was.

This one's going on the wall . Right next to Team Work and Motivation.

Ever wonder if bike thieves get caught in the act? Well, here it is NYC style.

Links to get you through the work week:

decoration is good

stevil is god

bored on monday nights?

And to prove once and for all that winning IS indeed everything:

until we meet again, enjoy the ride.

talk

Holy shit, did Garmin actually win something? I have no idea what the Delta Tour Zeeland is, but it appears that they finally got a win.

Valverde won the Dauphine today and will probably be suspended for being a "Top Fuel" athlete any day now. Italy has already banned him and it looks as if the UCI is going to follow suit. Due to the TDF crossing into Italy, he can't ride it without running the risk of getting arrested as soon as be crosses the border. Which reminds me, why do individual countries have the power to say who can ride and who cannot? What really does the UCI do besides come up with some bullshit rules about bike weight and time trail bar design? It seems like sanctions should be handed out by the governing body, not a country holding a grudge.

Wow 3 hours of cycling on Versus today. That means 1 hour of racing and 2 hours of natural enhancement commercials.

Speaking of TDF, here's the route.

LA has been twitting away about training in Aspen with Levi and Simon Garrens. Simon rides for Cervelo and is Australian, what's he doing in Aspen riding with LA every day?

and now it's raining...strange...it was 80 and sunny.

My new favorite blog: competitivecyclist no bullshit from an industry insider.

and now it's hailing like hell...

Will Tom Danielson ever win anything? Will David Millar ever win anything...other than his countries TT championship and hell while we're at it, will DZ ever win anything other than the US TT championship. I like Garmin but winning seems to be something that they're not good at. If you're a team of time trialist's, wouldn't you think you'd win a TT from time to time...

Any expectations or predictions for the TDF? Will LA finish or will some crazed fan body check him on a climb? Does Evans have any chance in hell? This is what I think, I think Contador and Sastre are going to be scary strong. Sastre showed us a little at the Giro and Contador seemed to be "auditing" the Dauphine. The unknown is going to be VdV and one LA. I think that Astana has a chance of sweeping the podium. The big question mark is LA, is he racing or is he fucking off?

Did anyone else expect to see more of Landis this year? It's been pretty quiet but that's probably a good thing in his eyes.

go for a ride, you'll feel better. Promise.

Rad.

Big Ring Classic

Weekend

So far so good. I had the Friday afternoon group ride with the gang. I felt pretty good, I yo-yo'd a bit but was holding my own until I flatted...and then chased for 10 miles to get back on. I never did and I took about 10 wrong turns...which pushed my mileage up to about 50. No worries though, I got back to Red Eye and replenished some carbs (read: drank heavily).

Got up early on Saturday morning to check out the Giro coverage. I started watching on Universal Sports before the commentary started. The feed was brilliant but the odd thing was that they just had open mikes on the motorcycles, so all you heard was an intermittant word or two of Italian and the "whoosh-whoosh-whoosh" of a TT bike going by. Eventually the commentary came on and it was a great race to watch. I'm looking forward to watching it and you can't beat the price.

According to velonews, Universal Sports signed a 4 year deal to broadcast the Giro and according to that article, they might be showing a lot more cycling in the future. (I think the line about being a "couch potatoes network" was aimed at Versus.) I'm already a fan, as there isn't a commercial every 2 minutes and when there is a commercial it's not for "natural male enhancement." Anyway, have fun this weekend. Check out the Giro, wear your helmet, and try to get someone hooked on bikes.

The best T-shirt ever, get it here.

If you wanna hang out...

D-U-M-B

pic courtesy of velonews

So I've always talked alot of shit about the worst BICYCLING magazine on the planet. Taking a cue from the lads over at Competitive Cyclist , I decided to check out a column that they said was pretty good. I'll hand it to them, the column is good and sometimes downright impressive. Check this recent post about everyones favorite team, named for a country that no one can point out on a globe.


I have DZ to thank for this. Also speaking of DZ, he remarked on Twitter that his TT bike flew off the top of a team car, yet none of the usual suspects ever reported on it. Hmmm.


The fuckstick of the week award goes to this ass clown. Good idea, why didn't you just say "Fuck my country" or actually "Fuck il mio paese." Smart thinking there guy.

Next.

Schumacher.
Kohl.
Rebellin.





All on Gerolsteiner last year and now all HOT for Cera. Kohl showed the scrotal fortitude and took the bullett, meanwhile Schumacher stated he was the next contestant on "Science is wrong and I'm the one that's been cheated." Well dumbass, your numbers come up again and this time it's from the IOC and guess what they're saying...CERA! Good luck explaining that to the CAS next month, I'm sure they'll cut you some slack since you pissed positive in a test from the IOC, not one taken by the evil french.





Also congratulations to Mr. Rebellin, who instead of keeping his mouth shut, has already stood up and said he didn't do it. Winner, winner! Here's two years of time-out for you as well.

Who'll be the next ex-gerolsteiner rider to be crowned an idiot? I think only time will tell, but this piece http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2009/apr09/apr29news3 where the old Gerolsteiner manager says he's disappointed might provide some clues. He may have been naive, not paying attention, or whatever...but clueless? Come on.

April nonsense

I awoke to this scene this morning. I knew it was coming and every meteorologist had a hard-on talking about it on the news last night. With the hill having closed last week, there was nothing more to do than sit and watch it snow the nice big, wet flakes of Spring. I'd planned on maybe doing some nordic if the snow kept up, but as of about noon the snow stopped and chance for more keeps getting dwindled down in probability. I nordic skiied exactly ZERO times this past season. I was too busy at the hill and was having way too much fun skiing over 80 days.

So far, I've riden outside a whopping two times. I've got maybe 500 miles in my legs and all but 60 miles have been on the trainer. My legs are a bright butt-white and hairier than a Hustler shoot from 1970. It should eventually warm up, but it won't be "short" weather for another 4 weeks or so. I have until then to continue to bitch about the weather and my fitness I guess.

Big Jens!

pic courtesy of velonews.

M-SR

Working on base miles.

ToC

...finally something to watch on Versus.

tuneage

A day in the life

Go that way very fast, if something gets in your way, turn.

X Games

Dear ESPN,

Are the X Games for real?? I mean, is it really a competition or is it just a really long energy drink commercial?

Skiing, training, and family life.

Wow, it's been a week with no posts....

I've been busy at work and time not spent at work was spent at the hill, which I guess is still work. My bike is still in the trainer, where I put it about a month ago, which isn't all-in-all bad, except that I haven't ridden it. I was all super motivated and thought that I'll just leave it in the trainer as a little motivation, "look, all you have to do is get on and spin." Didn't happen, or hasn't happened yet and with all the free hours going to skiing and the urbandaughter...well it doesn't leave much for the biccletta.

I did get to pass on another family tradition the other night though. Oreo's are my only weakness...or well one of them.





Be good or be good at it.

this space for rent

Have fun.

Wind chill be damned

It was -7 when I left the house this morning... knowing that there wasn't a chance in hell anyone was going to want a lesson today. I rolled up to the hill and there was no one in the parking lot, I mean no one. The good news was that it had snowed during the night and there was a few inches of freshies, with no one to track it out except for myself and maybe 6 other die hards.

First chair for freshies...it was a great morning!

...long week

It was a long week at the hill. Lot's of lessons, a few beers with some friends, and a tragic event that devestated a family.
A 25 year old snowboarder was killed on Wednesday night.The report was that he lost control on a mogul run and experienced "blunt force trauma" to the chest. Most of the 'boarders on the hill knew him and it was said that he was a great person and a great snowboarder. The mood on the hill Thursday morning was one of shock and the feeling that something was amiss accompanied everyone that day. They took snowcat's up and flattened the mogul field (as more of a karma move than a liability one)around noon and many of us stated that we were in no big hurry to ski bumps anytime soon. I like to think of myself as a safe skier, I ski in control, I pay attention to my surroundings, and I always wear a helmet. The truth is that you never know...


Live a life that you love.

Teaching Charlie and Lola to ski.

So if anyone doesn't know, I'm a ski instructor at a local hill here in WI. Over this past weekend I had a group of english kids that were flat out hilarious and reminded me of Charlie and Lola. I've never laughed harder on a chair lift until an 11 year old leaned over and called me a "sausage".

Enjoy: