Posted in Cycling at May 23rd, 2010. No Comments.

Seriously, this is just over the top.  Once was funny, but I’m starting to look forward to the day he moves to Sky so I can stop caring.

Nice to see a little more tooth in this shot, after all he went through he should show them off.

Posted in Cycling at May 2nd, 2010. No Comments.

Louisville, KY – Who’s In?

Posted in Cycling, Travel at April 14th, 2010. No Comments.

Nothing I can say more than this, reminds me of when Bob died – living the life we loved them for living and it killed them:

Dear Frank Vandenbrouke,
I was a loyal member of your posse, and I will miss you. You were my rider. You were the one I wanted to see in the break away. Your courage and willingness to suffer inspired me, and your inability to live outside of that suffering broke my heart.

You were a cheater. There is no denying that. You doped, both for performance and for absolution. Personally, I don’t blame you for seeking glory, and neither do I blame you for chasing oblivion. I spend the better part of each and every day doing both. I don’t know what is worse. Feeling the pain… Or feeling nothing… If I could take a drug that would make me write like Samuel Beckett, I’d do it. I’d do it no matter what it cost me.

We asked you and the rest of the peloton to do the impossible. We asked that you not only ride 200 kilometers a day with your ass up and your head down, but we demanded that you do it without weakness, without faltering and without complaint, day after day, year after year. We asked that you do it for our pleasure, and for our entertainment, and when you buckled under the pressure, when you gave in and used drugs to improve both your ability to recover and your ability to perform, we crucified you.

In the end, I don’t think it was the drugs that made us turn on you… The cycling world is full of heroes that use dope. It’s not the cheating that bothers us. What bothers us is that you got caught.

Your wife left you. You got depressed. You drank too much. You took drugs, and now you’re dead. I, for one, think the world is a poorer place for it. Rest in peace Frank. I’m drinking whiskey tonight in your memory.

Punk rock is as punk rock does,

Gypsy

Posted in Cycling at October 24th, 2009. No Comments.

Kenny van Hummel crossed the finish after the climb of the Verbier this Sunday with a fistpump and a loud scream. The rider on Skil arrived in time only to start again after a rest day. “Today I literally ate my handlebar. I didn’t care if I was gonna make it in time or not. I’m tough, I’ll quit when I fall off my bike. A lot of sprinters went home already, but Kenny van Hummel is still here. And I’m proud of that.”

It’s so easy to forget these guys as we all focus on the front, but the race in back is no less hard:

Posted in Cycling at July 21st, 2009. No Comments.
Fake Abs, big nuts, and those are some big names behind him..

Fake Abs, big nuts, and those are some big names behind him..

Posted in Cycling at February 20th, 2009. 1 Comment.

More signs pointing to the demise.  I’m shocked.

Posted in Cycling at January 3rd, 2009. No Comments.

L’étape d’analyses effectuées après le Tour de France sur des échantillons sanguins pour l’EPO Cera est terminée

Sure, those that gave unbelievable performances were cheating, and you appear to have to be on drugs to win the KOM, but CSC, Columbia & Garmin came out OK.  Spartacus’ skipping the Worlds may really have been because he was tired, and his TT losses were because he was robbed.

Interesting that Damsgaard saw this all coming.  Gives me hope for the teams he watches, and frustration at the ineffectiveness of the UCI.

Posted in Cycling at October 14th, 2008. No Comments.