Category: Cycling

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I need to mention that the most common way people get to this site, by far, is to google big nuts.

Thank you, internet.  And you’re welcome, disappointed new visitors.

Now back to our apparently blogging-free summer.

 

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Bikes and Drugs

I’m glad CyclingNews saved me from having to do this. Yes, the wife makes fun of me for being suspicious of southern Europe, but… but…

And way to go GB!  Punching above your weight and out of your class.  Bradley Wiggins is a tosser.  St. Millar?  Garmin does alright (first non-French, to turn an ironic phrase), but would have done better without their part owner.  A little disappointed by Tyler (F. not H., this is 2010) and very by CVV.  If you’d told me that Lance & Levi would be in the same 0-10 group as Christian and Cadel I probably would have called you a tosser, too.  It is me doing the tossing, I guess.  Everyone dopes, get used to it.

BUT THEN!  Jens, Andy, Fabian!  So, yes, technically anything > 1 is suspicious, but it’s hard to not give a little slack to the 2s, which means that most of lEHoPARD-T, most of the guys that everyone loves (Stuey! again: Jens!), keep on being loved. Think about this: no one understood why Matti & Nicki didn’t make the jump… could it really be really true?  Really?

Big George’s irrelevance extends to the level where he doesn’t even cheat anymore, just shows up.  Maybe it was all Lance making him do it.   A boy can dream.

And French housewives can continue dreaming about Sylvan & little Tommy V.  And on July 14th so can I.

Ok, enough dreaming.  I know that this isn’t the true/false list we’ve all been looking for lo these many years.  But it’s not like the list isn’t made for reading into.   L’Equipe highlighted the Frenchies to show that they averaged right.  It’s born of politics, released on the eve of the (A)TOC in order to embarrass the UCI to the betterment of ASO.  If you wrote this plot people would call you lame.  It’s the soap opera that is professional cycling, and I don’t think there’s anyone left paying attention after these long last 13 years that can’t handle it.

Bradley Wiggins is a tosser.

 

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Bikes & Politics

A great summary of recent history.

I blame Critical Mass.

Some people say that the growth of bikelanes over the last few years has sparked the backlash, but it’s hard to argue that those aren’t a net positive.

I commute to work by bike, and have for nearly a decade.  I’ll admit to not stopping at every light, but for the last six years I’ve been fortunate that there aren’t many lights between home and work.

I’ve been noticing lately (because I’ve been trying to pay attention) that when there is interaction w/ a pedestrian, either on the commute or on the weekend, it nearly always ends with them apologizing to me for jaywalking in front of me.  I’m no saint, but this city’s filled with people who aren’t following every law they’re supposed to follow.

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God is Dead

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

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I’ll quit when I fall off my bike

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: