Pro Vino' - one of the better race analysis I've seen

From a blog that I'm going to start following more regularly Cyclocosm.com, here is a great post that really captures how I wish Versus covered bike racing. Of course, post-race analysis gets the time to re-watch and piece together all the parts that made (or didn't) make the race work. But Cosmo Catalano knows his bike racing and knows what makes a race.

This video on Cyclocosm is a good rebuttal for those more interested in Vino's doping than his riding. He's not David Millar and thank god, because we already have one of those.

Now for something completely different. I just starting using Cadmus to helping organize my Twitter feeds. Drawing from your Twitter followers, Cadmus groups together trending topics so that you can see what your friends are conversing about. It's a great social media tool that makes Twitter a lot more focused and useful, especially for smaller businesses and organizations looking to get the most out of their social media presence.

When can/should we believe cyclists?

After winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège last weekend for the second time, Vino called his victory "revenge."

Revenge for what? Revenge against whom?  And why is Vinokourov - who was pretty quiet during his two year suspension - so vocal now? Is this guilt speaking? Another cover-up?

All the news outlets have been all over his victory with headlines like "Vino's victory overshadowed by questions about his past" (Cycling News), "Vinokourov's Liege win leaves mixed emotions" (Cycling Weekly UK) and even the truly classy The New York Times published an article more about the doping controversy than Vino's race.


He's riding the same as a he did two years ago, aggressive, unforgiving and really f-ing hard. So how can we tell the difference between the clean Vino and the doped-up cyclist?


I get that both Bjarne Riis and David Millar have launched effective counters to their doping pasts that don't (completely) overshadow them every time they show up for a race. But Millar's never reached the individual success he had when he was doped to the gills. And like Vino, both men only admitted to doping/"mistakes of the past" AFTER it was clear that they had. 


So is that the price you pay for risking everything to end up with an asterisk next to your name in the history books?  I'd like to hear Vino respond to that. Because that asterisk seems like the best revenge against a doper. A little star saying that weren't strong enough to do it alone. You paid for your strength. You didn't have what it took.


In the meantime, I'm going to keep buying decorations like these cool Far and Near Housing Covers for my bike that aren't really necessary and don't make me fast but look really cool anyway.

"Come and Gone"

I saw a friend had gotten a copy of Joe Parkin's follow-up to "Dog in a Hat," and I borrowed/stole the book for the weekend. She's going to write a review of "Come and Gone" for a cycling magazine and has to get all articulate and prose-y to talk about it. I do not.

I wish I could tell you it was good. At best, it's ok. And ok is the best word to describe Parkin's book. Parkin sticks so closely to the story line of only talking about bike racing and his career, that it gets kinda boring at times. And that's too bad because Joe Parkin sounds like an interesting guy. Every other page is a failure or letdown in cycling. The book could be called "Bummer Life" for all the bummed-outness. Yeah, cycling is a lot of work and sacrifice and dedication... but I still don't get why Parkin decide to commit so many years of his life to the sport. Where was the reward or whatever sustained him throughout all the crap?

After finishing the book, I thought about one of my favorite books about sports "The Amateurs" by David Halberstam, and how it's also a story about disappointment, failed potential and sacrifice. But the books are so different: at the end of "Come and Gone," I felt like I knew very little about Joe Parkin as a person while at the end of Halberstam's book I was blown away. You knew each rower, their family, their personal life (what little there was) outside of their sport, and it made their own struggles that much more compelling.  I already know cycling is hard. But I really want to see how hard.

It's not a bad book. Hopefully more racers will start writing this type of honest, unromantic stuff about bike racing. But I just wanted more.

I'd Livestrong for that: 24 Hours of Booty

Was out on a ride with some friends last weekend and saw a dude wearing a cycling jersey with "24 Hours of Booty" across the back. You have to stop and ask about that, right? So we flagged him down and got the story. As it turns out, "24 Hours of Booty" is not a euphemism for weekend with Tiger Woods but a 24 hour bike ride to benefit the Livestrong Foundation that takes place in North Carolina.

                                                                This is not how to ride a bike
Ok, so they've got a good (ok, great) cause in raising money for cancer research for the Lance Armstrong Foundation, and like Relay for Life 24 hour events are a good time. But booty? Is there a campaign to "drop cancer like it's hot?" Or to include thongs along with those scratchy paper hospital gowns?

The dude filled us in. In Charlotte, North Carolina there is an infamous running circuit for runners and cyclists that circles a local college. College campus = college girls, and college girls usually equally girls in tight clothing for exercising. Hence "Booty Loop." A couple years ago, a local dude (NASCAR attorney Spencer Lueders) got inspired by Armstrong and decided to spend 24 hours riding on the booty loop to see if he could do it. Oddly this guy is married. Oddly spending 24 hours of which at least half is being surrounded by college girls can qualify as "charity." Nearly ten years later, the event is still going strong.

That man is a genius.

Pins and Needles: Acupuncture and cycling, Tucson-style

A friend of mine recently returned (very tan) from Tucson, and the lucky bastard had spent a couple weeks riding around Arizona. Of course he did the famous Tucson Shoot-Out ride and ran into the infamous "Grey Wolf" a couple of times.

From Missing Saddle - and check out their hilarious interviews with the Grey Wolf

Though he returned with stories about how he'd held his own on the Shoot Out, he also had gotten some acupuncture done to treat a nagging back injury from cyclocross at Acupuncture del Sol run by Claudia "Nanie" Carrillo. A few days ago, I had coffee with a friend and mentioned how my tan friend had gone "under the needle," and she said that she regularly sees an acupuncturist to deal with everything from fatigue and stress to muscle and joint pain.

When acupuncture goes wrong

I'm sold on the benefits of massage but I've never seen a professional cyclist post-race on a table with needles stuck all over. Cyclocross and sitting at a desk for long periods of time aren't great for my back. But my two friends (both avid and excellent racers) swore by acupuncture's effectiveness. I decided to try it out, called a recommended place and made an appointment.

Not knowing what to expect, the acupuncturist began by asking me about my bowl movements - had I done the emunctory testing I posted a couple days ago, I might have had more detail to give him. "Why does my poop have anything to do with my back?" And he kind of shook his head. Western medicine, the pill-popping Walgreens version that I so often use, focuses on localized treatment. Have a headache? Pop a pill. In contrast Chinese/Oriental medicine is holistic. In other words, he wanted to know all about my body before addressing my back. We then chatted a bit about how acupuncture can be beneficial for athletes: reducing spasms, swelling and inflammation. He inserted needles not only in my back but all over my body - hands, legs, forhead - and I relaxed for a half hour.

Afterward he gave me some green tea and explained a little more about acupuncture. Each internal organ relates to a different aspect of the body:  heart to blood, the spleen to muscles, kidney to bones, and the liver to tendons. Treating the organ meant was an attempt to fix the my aches and pains before they expand across my body. He also said that another concept of acupuncture is balancing the body which was especially important for athletes. Imbalance led to ineffectiveness. Balance led to better performance. Leaving the clinic, my body felt light, tingly and relaxed. I made a follow-up appointment.

Frank and Andy Schleck should not play poker

March 10, 2010: Andy Schleck tries to reinforce his and brother Frank's faith in Bjarne Riis finding them a sponsor after Saxo-Bank pulls out.

March 13, 2010: Marc Biver announces he's trying to put together a cycling team that would be made up by the entire population of Luxembourg, i.e. the Schleck brothers.

Any day now: Bjarne Riis attempts to sell kidney/first born child in exchange for money to keep the Schlecks with him.


Take notes from the Brad Wiggins-Sky-Garmin debacle; professional cyclists are bad at acting.

And...

The real secret to winning Olympic gold? Bill Demong and teammates put in lots of practice on the bike, like racing Gila and Tour of Utah. Before winning a gold medal in Vancouver, Demong was also known as "the dude Chris Horner hauled to the top of Mt. Bachelor at the Cascade Cycling Classic in 2008."

Finally! Google gets on the bike!

Though I always thought Google was ahead of the trend, it took a long time for them to roll out their bike map feature on maps.

I decided to take the maps for a little test drive versus some of the other mapping websites, like Map My Ride and see how they compare. I picked a short route that I ride very often from my house to the Nike campus using bike paths, bike lanes and busy roads. Here's what I got from both.

Map My Ride

• Total ride distance:8.53 miles
• Auto-routed to bike paths? Yes
• Shows elevation: Yes
• Pros: Picking own route
• Cons: Having to plot every point.

Google Maps

• Total ride distance: 8.6 miles (estimates that it'll take me a little over an hour to get there. A nice feature but not very accurate)
• Auto-routed to bike paths? Yes, and shows paths on "bicycling" filter
• Shows elevation? Well, shows terrain and I guess I could use that to see how hilly it is.
• Pros: easy, like all other Google maps.
• Cons: probably best for commuting and getting around town.

I'm going to keep playing with routes but according to the feedback on BikePortland.org, Google seems to have gotten in right.

Glad to see that cycling is being supported on this level especially in light of all the public transportation cuts that are happening/planned.

To Paris-Nice via Twitter

Favorite Twitter feeds for cycling stuff (non-Lance Armstrong).

@Steephill for non-Versus coverage of cycling events. This guy has the best live feeds.

@allencolim, Garmin's former docter headed to Radio Shack is usually in the follow car giving some good play-by-play (or pedal-by-pedal).

@andy_schleck and @schleckfrank are the best for Euro semi-English tweets. Even better is when Jens Voigt takes over their feeds and goes renegade.

@bradwiggins. Subtle f-bomb usage.

@pro_cycling. Neither Cycling New or Velonews.

Rim to the road

Someone in the rubber industry hates me. This is the only logical way to explain the rash of flat tires I've had recently. And like all kind of rashes, this one is driving me a  bit crazy. I spend more time on the side of the road using a pump the size of a tampon and looking like I'm giving a handjob to someone than I do actually on my bike.All this pumping action is going to give me biceps like one of those dudes on "Jersey Shore."

 

Here's the part where most people say things like, "you should try new tubes/tires/not riding through fields of glass," but in truth I've been a rubber-whore. I've tried out Continental, Schwalbe, Vittoria, Specialized, Panaracer, Michelin, chewing gum, etc. I've booted, patched, replaced what at last count I estimated to be about 423 tubes over the past couple years.

Coincidentally some one at this PDX company must have had me in mind when designing the Magic Flute, a stylish bike pump made for those down on on their tire luck. If only they needed someone to product test...

Riding around Reykavik

What better way to start off a blog than one of those "look-at-what-cool-thing-I-just-did?" Well, hell. I did do something cool and since I've only had one cup of coffee today, I don't have the creativity to think of something else.


I should have probably known better than to try cycling in a country that recommends fur parkas (like the ones this stylish Icelandic company make) over lycra for its preferred riding clothing. But taking a bike tour seemed like a great way to see Reykavik. Our guide's outfit was a hint about what the weather would be like.


Though we were told Iceland was in the midst of a "warm spell," the Arctic translation of "warm spell" was still bitter cold but with rain instead of snow. My inner Viking was not meant for biking. But we still held out for two hours we rode some cushy Trek Navigators around the city stopping at the requisite touristy places (churches, parliament) and then going to some off-the-beaten-path stops, like the University of Iceland and Bjork's small, black house.

And what do you do after you're done riding around Europe's most northern capital city? You can either go native and enjoy some grilled puffin or whale sushi, or keep your remember your home land with some junk food. We kept true to our roots.