With the passing of July, I have succeeded at my goal for the month and even surpassed it. From 450 to 500 miles. That’s more than I did last year.
What goal should I set for August? I am going on vacation for a week so I will lose at least 3 days or about 40 miles. Still, I think 150 miles wouldn’t be bad for the month of August. Currently, I am sitting at 530 miles. So I need to get to 680 by the end of the month. Perhaps a few metrics centuries would help?
The farce that is pro cycling ends. The current leader of the tour gets fired by his team. He wins today’s stage, but loses it all out.
I am so disappointed. I love watching the tour. I love watching pro cycling. Even if it’s boring to others, I find it exciting personally. I always wondered how they do it. Now we know.
Vinokourov out. Rasmussen out. Who’s next? Is even Lance Armstrong innocent? We know Landis was caught. It puts everyone in the sport in a bad position. It puts the sport in a bad position. WTF?! It’s sad.
Up until today le Tour was awesome. The alps. Rasmussen in yellow. The first time trial. The Pyrannees. Rasmussen v. Contador. Everything was exciting. The cycling was phenomenal. WTF? How did it come to this?
They really need to clean this sport up. I am sad again.
July 7, 2007
7:10 Ready for horses. Yesterday rode a bike on Water Island. Stacey was a guide and Jim was a hippy. Short ride about 3 miles. Ended up on Honeymoon beach. Swam in a thunderstorm.
Today I went down a spooky country lane known as Gores Mill Rd. It’s just off of Nicodemus and about 7 miles from the door to my house. This road is even spookier than Ivy Mill. Ivy Mill dives down towards Liberty reservoir in the shade, but it’s two lanes. Gores Mill quickly becomes one lane which goes through a few forests. Up and over a stream and then steep into another dark forest glade. You can go fast. You want to go fast thinking about what’s out in the woods here. Finally, you climb a small hill and are very soon close to Reisterstown.
From here, a dog chased me. She was a small little thing and I had to turn around and bring her back to her home where her master was waiting. I was down the road and knew she was still after me, but I couldn’t let her hang out there it would’ve been dangerous. So I turned around and pedaled her back to her house. Dumb dog.
The rest of the ride was uneventful. Reisterstown Road to Berryman’s Lane which is a usual part of my loop was easy. I only went out for an hour and about 15 miles. I was short on finishing up 150 miles this month by tenths of miles. Perhaps tomorrow I can cover that. What’s the weather supposed to be like?
Alexandre Vinokourov of Team Astana was a pre-race favorite. He’d finished 3rd in the 2003 Tour and is always fun to watch race because of his attacking style. I am in his camp and always cheer him on because he seems so wreckless.
Today he wrecked.
A nasty one. If you see the pictures, he’s pedaling with his ass hanging out of his torn shorts. Yet, to salvage his tour he kept on going minimizing the damage done. He finished 1 minute 20 from the winners. Overall he sits closer to the bottom at 2 minutes 10 to the leaders. Not far off since the race is still in the flats, but the Alps are coming this weekend. Can he do it? Can he rip off a crazy move? I am rooting for him. Allez vino.
This fifth stage was an awkward one with plenty of up and down hills, a very difficult stage. Not the mountains, but it played out like one. Le tour is cruel.
Capitol Swell asked where the podium girls are. He should check out the pictures posted at the end of the stages on the official site. They’ve changed their style and the podium shots are starting to include the girls. Or he can check out a flickr photo pool.
This year I’ve been cycling since May. My last post mentions that I’ve done about 400 miles. The last couple of times have been epic 20 milers for an hour and a half.
Today was just 9 miles. Easy right?
Look at this route’s profile. Notice those V shaped valleys. Those I climbed! If you know Caves Road, then you know that hill. I calculate it at a 12% grade. I have a map of cycling routes in Baltimore County which shows the grades of different routes. It’s marked as a red above 8%! It’s short and steep. It sucked, and I was sucking wind several yards from the top. There was also a dead cat on the road with flies buzzing around him. That sucked too.
I spent the next mile saving for the climb up Garrison Forrest. That was hell too. I was passed by two other cyclists who seemed to sprint up it. I stopped at the top to get my wind back.
For the rest of the ride, I was tired. Perhaps a rest would’ve had me going again, but at the time, I just wanted to sit down and die. The rest of the route was no cake walk either. If I read my Topo correctly, this 9.06 mile ride had 650 feet of climbing. I don’t think that’s true but it sure as hell feels it. I’m gonna need a ride with 1500 feet of elevation change or start a hill climbing workout!
With this ride, I’m officially past 400 miles, but barely. I need to step it up in order to get to 500 (450 is too easy as of now).
Ever since Miguel Indurain won his 5 tours in the early 90s, the way to win was a big show at the time trials but keep contact in the mountains. This continued with Lance Armstrong with his seven wins, but adding kicking ass in the mountains instead of staying with the pack. It’s been a while for the yellow jersey to go out and win a stage that should’ve been for the sprinters.
Fabian Cancellara goes into time trial mode in the final kilometer to take out the breakaway and beat the sprinters to the line to take the stage for the yellow jersey. It was awesome.
Except for the breakaway. Two of the riders were away since the 6km mark. The stage was the longest in the Tour 236kms. That a long way to lose it in the final kilometer. They spent that final kilometer jockeying for position. Did they not care about the peleton closing on them? Perhaps. Too much playing not enough doing. That’s unfortunate.
What a strange stage this one was. The cyclists took six hours to finish the stage. My Tivo didn’t even record it, because the finish occurred past the designated time. They lollygagged for quite sometime letting the breakaway go. Yet, they kicked it into to gear to make the stage exciting in the end. Except for the breakaway.
When I had that lame ass motorola phone, it was no problem to keep it in the back of my jersey. With an iPhone, I get scared that it will pop out of my jersey on a bump and that’s the end of it. So lately, I’ve been packing my light jacket to act as a buffer for the iPhone so that it sits tight in the jersey. I’m little heavier, but a little saner. I also have been packing it in a sandwich bag to keep it from getting too moist. It’s strange.
Anyway, I’m about at 400 miles so far this year. I am aiming for 450 by the end of July, which should be easy if I keep up my pace. If I can get past 500 this month, I’ll be really happy.
I need to also think about getting a longer stem. My position on the bike feels too upright. It needs to be stretched out. I’m going to go with a 120cm stem. There’s a 100 cm stem on there now I think. It would also be good to lower the stem as well. That means cutting some of the fork down. It’s gotta be done soon so that I get use to the position.
It’s been a fun year so far.
I’m blogging while watching the first stage of Le Tour de France. My legs are somewhat stiff from riding 30 miles yesterday. It was an adventure!
Anyway, vive Le Tour!
UPDATE: Robbie McEwan the ozzie rocket comes from back of the pack to take the sprint. Can anyone stop this guy? Watching the replay and he comes flying through leaving Tom Boonen and Thor Hushovd bobbing in his wake. Damn! That guys a fast finisher!
UPDATE 2: Even better than the sport are the podium girls. I love ’em. Girls in white and navy for the winner of the stage. Girls in yellow for the tour leader. Girls in green for the points leader. Girls in polkadot dresses for the King of the Mountain. Girls rock!
I’ve ridden so many times at home that I am sick and tired of it. So I hit the road for the BWI trail. I rack the bike this morning in order to ride after work. It’s a dicey proposition as the summer brings thunder storms. That worries me as I don’t want to have my bike soaked. But it happens and my bike gets soaked in an afternoon thunder storm.
