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idroolinmysleep asked: Lance Armstrong's $15,000 helmet. You might get a kick out of this.
http://www.wired.com/playbook/2010/07/armstrong-helmet-exclusive/

Yes, I read early on about the work Giro put into get Lance the “perfect helmet”. Giro got a special effects team to create a $15,000 replica of Lance in the time trial position. Then they put the model in a wind tunnel to find the perfect fit.

Giro isn’t the only helmet manufacturer that is shortening their helmets for similar performance in a head wind, but great performance in a crosswind. Kask has also done one, here you can see Bradley Wiggins wearing his helmet that I’ve affectionately called, The Bun.

(Sorry for the late reply.)

Ask your question, here: Ask BtB

3 days ago

July 28, 2010
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Top 3 Finishers

Top 3 Finishers

Four Jersey Winners

Four Jersey Winners

Best Team Winners

Best Team Winners

So the Tour de France is complete and there are lots to talk about. The good, the bad, the crashes, headbutting, fistfights, chaingate, and jerseygate. It was a great race. I’ll sum up my comments here:

Prudhomme and the other organizers almost screwed up this Tour, and should be grovelling at the rider’s feet, thanking them for correcting their mistakes. It sucks to see a guy like Hushovd work 5x harder than Cavendish and Petacchi for the Green jersey, but loose it like he did. Renshaw shouldn’t have been kicked out for what he did, but he’s an idiot for thinking things were going to be ok. The king of the mountains jersey was won by a midget. Canadian news (which is indicative of many mass market news organizations) disgusts me. The UCI needs to take a step back and reevaluate many, many of their practices or it will bite them in the ass. And finally, Contador should sleep knowing that this win wasn’t really his.

The Organizers Should Be Punished

Prudhomme is obviously hitting the French media market talking up the huge success this year’s Tour was. He’s probably gloating in his achievement, but he shouldn’t be. This year’s tour was spectacular only because of one group of people: the riders. That sounds odd, right? Isn’t it always the riders that make the Tour so special. One can argue that, but the organizers could put together a course that heavily favors one group and would make for boring television. Remember how boring the NBA finals were when the best team in the East was probably only the 4 or 5 best team in the NBA, behind all West teams? Cycling, like other sports, are entertainment markets. This year’s Tour was full of people that could have really caused some heartache in the top 5 placings. Contador, Shleck, Menchov, Sanchez, Van Den Broeck, Armstrong, Basso, Evans, Sastre, Roche, Wiggins, Leipheimer, Kloden, and Vinokourov. All these guys had the capability to podium in this years Tour. As an organizer, you should make a challenging and course but make it so that all (baring any unplanned things, sickness, bad form, or random crazy crashes or mechanical incidents) have a chance to contend. Instead, Prudhomme kicked off the Tour with a cobbled filled course that basically eliminated many contenders, crashed out many riders, and pissed off more people than I can count. This AFTER a horrible stage with a rainy descent that all the riders expressed was to dangerous to be in the Tour. Schleck, Contador, Menchov, and Sanchez made it a race, but Prudhomme’s arrogance made me wish of things that could have been. These guys shouldn’t get off scott-free for the danger they put the riders in and the financial trouble they almost put the Tour investors in. More on their “punishment” (if you can call it that) later.

Poor, Poor Hushovd

I was pulling for you Thor…I really was. In the Sprinter’s jersey (green) classification there are point for stage wins and points out on the road. Petacchi and Cavendish only fought for stage wins, where Hushovd fought for stage wins AND intermediate points. I really felt he deserved the win, although you could tell towards the end of the race he wasn’t in the kind of form he was earlier on. It’s really upsetting that he had to take the hit when they neutralized stage 2 because only he and McEwen were the only ones that could have really fought for the points behind the breakaway stage winner. Worst case, assuming McEwen took 2nd place and Hushovd took 3rd (which is unlikely because McEwen was injured) and all other points remained, he would have been 1 point behind Petacchi but being that close can give you the extra bump Thor needed to grab a few more in his lower placed finishes. Second place would have him 1 point up on Petacchi. Thor fought, it makes me sad he finished third. (By the way, when McEwen retires, Versus should immediately offer him tons of money as a commentator…the man is awesome!)

Headbutting, Fist fighting, Ejections, Oh My!

Renshaw, Mark Cavendish’s leadout man, was ejected from the tour after head-butting Dean and breaking his line into Farrar. Couple things to note here. Dean did move into Renshaw, pushing him over. Instead of Renshaw holding his line which would in turn push Dean back, he headbutted him in the shoulder to stop the movement. Then after letting Cavendish go, Renshaw broke left blocking Farrar’s way to the line, almost forcing Farrar into the barrier. In my opinion the second part is more egregious than the first. As a leadout man, he know that after he’s done, he rides in a straight line as people pass all around him. Farrar could have seriously been hurt with his move left. So the two together makes the punishment have to be more than simply fined and relegated to the back of the field. BUT! After the stage 6 fist-fight between Barredo and Costa, and the ASO reporter walking right in front of McEwen all these sprinter should have been on edge and their best behavior. Most people thought Barredo should have been kicked out, and since he wasn’t, the officials were looking for a way to save face. Here came Renshaw and now all is better, right? Nope, but again Renshaw should have been on his best behavior. Riders were on edge, the ejection shouldn’t have come as a surprise.

Charteau, Short-teau

Did you see how short Anthony Charteau is? He has to be classified as a midget in some areas. Look at this video, the woman on the left had to bend down for the kisses. She’s on the shorter podium step! I guess that’s why he’s a great climber, he doesn’t have a whole lot of himself to carry up the mountains.

Hesjedal Is Getting Screw By His Home Country

Hesjedal, a Canadian cyclist for Garmin-Transitions, had the ride of his life. He finished 7th overall in one of the best showings for a Canadian ever. I follow cycling news outlets all over the world (English ones at least) and Canada’s media outlets said next to nothing about Hesjedal’s ride. He was in the top 10 for a long time, yet you barely heard a blip. Now finally as the Tour has ended, Hesjedal is getting news coverage. This guy could have rode with the country behind him and instead has to settle for the Johnny-Come-Lately News….disgusting.

The UCI is close to being bitten…

The UCI has done much for the sport of cycling, but as with any large governing body, it’s been infiltrated with lobbyists and politicians that have forgotten the people that has actually brought the sport to where it is. The riders, and that’s the good and the bad. If you followed Jerseygate, where Team RadioShack chose to change jerseys into ones in support of 28 million people suffering from cancer and were threatened to be kicked out of the Tour, then you know one of the things I’m talking about. The UCI is full of people that inconsistently enforce rules among other items that routinely piss-off the cyclists. With Jerseygate, the rules do say you aren’t allowed to change your kit once the race has started, yet there is precedence with this when an Italian cyclist (his name is alluding me right now) often wore unapproved kits and was never kicked out, but was fined heftily. I’m sure Armstrong would have happily paid all the fines out of his pocket to help the message, but NO the UCI threatened to kick the team out of the Tour. Race radios, the lack of cycling technology acceptance, allowing dangerous routes are among the few things pissing off cyclists today. Not to mention fans like me are getting tired of hearing about past dopers. The UCI should take a lesson from American baseball. The longer you let this linger the more you will alienate fans. Just stop and say, “Listen, riders doped for the past few years. We caught and punished the ones we know about, we’ve changed our practices to catch new dopers…but there will be no more investigations into previous dopers. That time is past, let’s look to the future.” I would be so happy with that, time to dust yourself off and move forward. I’m not a fan of standing unions, I think they have a time and a place and should be dissolved. But if the UCI keeps taking advantage of the cyclists the way they are doing, a cyclist union does not sound to far off. I don’t like the idea of a cyclist strike, but slow riding through multiple stages of major races would upset many investors into these major races. This would in turn push the money men hard on the UCI to change things. The riders need official representation in many of the decisions that are coming down the pipe, or else the UCI will be bitten.

39 Seconds and 1 Mechanical

There’s no rule that says you shouldn’t attack when someone has a mechanical problem. Can you really say you were the better rider when all the time you gained over your opponent was because of a malfunction and not talent. Problems happen, tires (or tyres) blow out, chains slip, brakes catch…and in general this is part of cycling. But it’s professional courtesy and ethical to not take advantage of these malfunctions. It’s an unwritten rule of the road to not attack when the Yellow jersey has a problem, it’s bad form and you’re asking for trouble up the road. If Contador would have won by anything more than 39 seconds, this whole conversation would be mute…but he didn’t. And Schleck would have most likely ridden last in the time trial, which could have made the difference. Contador knows this and no after-the-fact apology changes that this was his “doping” win. I say this because Contador should know that he wouldn’t have won this race if it wasn’t for his lapse in judgment (which is what you could call doping, a lapse in judgment). I know this may not be the popular opinion, and I could get flamed for it, but it’s true. Schleck was the strongest rider this year, stronger than Contador, but he’d better not hope that someone else will wait for him when he has trouble.

5 days ago

July 26, 2010
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The Yo-Yo

Things have been good. Really good. When I look at my weight loss progress and compare it to other people’s weight loss progress, I’ve done really well. I don’t mean to be arrogant, but the fact remains that I’ve read numerous people’s weight loss troubles and have been extremely blessed in that I’ve consistently lost weight week-to-week. I didn’t have to write those post doldrums about how I ate so much pizza that I gained a few pounds and that I’d do better next week.

That ends today.

Why haven’t I posted lately? Well, I’ve had some problems. I hit the 50lb loss mark a few weeks ago and have had horrible eating issues lately.  I had a workshop at work last week where lunch was provided, and it was horrible. An extreme deviation from healthy eating. I haven’t watched my points because I’ve been scared of what it would result. I’ve said at the beginning of every week, “I’ll do better this week”. Only to eat just as horribly as I did the previous week.

The only saving item is that I haven’t blown my weight up to dangerously. I Yo-Yo’d around the 220lb mark, and I’m still dancing around it. For you guys that don’t know, I want to hit 200lbs…in fact a few pounds less. So another 20lbs is going to be dangerously hard to hit if I keep eating like I had. I’ve also not ridden my bike as regularly as I could have. I’ve had some big family things come up, as well as events that I’ve attended that has precluded me from riding. It’s beginning to wear me down.

So, for all of you people that liked the fact that my posts tended to always be pretty rosy, I apologize.  And for all of you that have read my posts in disgust that I was always loosing when you might be having trouble, here you go. I want to say: I’ll do better, but after over month of saying this…if feels like just words now. But that’s what this blog is for, maybe by finally telling you all, I’ll actually do what I have been telling myself for the past month. Thanks.

1 week ago

July 20, 2010
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Remember This Friends:

Hello friends, remember this. You cannot ride away from the rain. It will attack you every time.

It has rained almost everyday last week, which really put a damper on my riding. So Saturday I pull out the old weather.com guide, it says 15% chance of rain. So I’m good to go. Ten minutes out, it starts sprinkling. I look at the sky to change direction to try to ride away from the rain, well it doesn’t work. After 30 minutes of drenching myself, I give up. I park at a CVS and wait for my brother-in-law to come pick me up. Sucked too because I only went half as far as I wanted to. The rain didn’t ease up until another hour later, so I guess I made the right choice.

I hopped on the trainer last night, but my computer battery died. I accidentally left it on yesterday. Oh well.

2 weeks ago

July 12, 2010
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photo The Tour de France is underway… Wondering who to support?
This graph makes me laugh, especially the bad victory salutes. Enjoy.

The Tour de France is underway… Wondering who to support?

This graph makes me laugh, especially the bad victory salutes. Enjoy.

3 weeks ago

July 7, 2010
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Two Rides for the 4th

YEAH! I got in 2 rides this weekend (long weekend for me). The first one was after 1.5 weeks off the bike due to rain and other things. It was bad. I was huffing and puffing and hurting and feeling like throwing up and trying to eat something and failing…but still got in a decent amount of miles. Just a few miles became really really slow. Had a hard time riding above 10mph for a stretch, but did alright.  The second ride I did much better, but still went down a road which I hate. There’s this one road that for some reason if you ride in this area everyone feels it’s a must have part of the ride. I don’t know why this is, but it’s horrible.

This road is a steady uphill run on a chip-seal surface that hasn’t been resurfaced in decades. Oh, some of the pot holes have been sealed, but we (as in fellow cyclists) all know what sealing a pot hole means…either a bump or it’s settled and is still sort of a pot hole. The start of this road also contain a nebulous vortex that creates a low pressure system guaranteeing that the wind will be in your face no matter when you ride this road…or what the weather is doing elsewhere.  So after that road, I felt pretty spent and so the trek back wasn’t as fast as I had hoped but, I did feel better.

Thanks for all you guys support…I’m feeling good. I feel as though I’ve stagnated in my weight loss. (Only 1 lb over that past few weeks.) I might be at the point where I’m building some leg muscles but not sure. I hope I can kick this hump and shoot for my way down to my goal weight.

3 weeks ago

July 6, 2010
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Little Victory: New Belt

I said a while ago I would post my “Little Victories” to the site and then you guys sat there patiently waiting for them…only to be disappointed. Not anymore!

Little Victories, defined as situations in my weight loss journey where things happen that aren’t overwhelmingly awesome, but can give you just enough boost to keep going for a while. I’ve talked to people before that claimed they couldn’t keep on their diet, workout routine, etc. because it was difficult to see results. I contend they weren’t looking in the right spots or seeing the certain things that might have given them enough boost to see the results they were initially expecting. Here’s one of my first.

About a month ago, I had to buy a new belt. Not because my old belt was worn out and needed replacing. Not because I saw this belt on the rack and OMG! I had to buy it. Not because of any of those…I ran out of holes. Putting my old belt on the tightest hole still didn’t make my pants feel secure. So I needed a smaller belt. Pretty awesome, huh!?!?

Keep in mind this is my “Little Victory”, yours may simply be you moved down one hole in your belt. But the key is to recognize these and treat them for what they are: results!

What are your “Little Victories”?

1 month ago

June 28, 2010
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This guy makes me feel like a horrible cyclist…oh well. I’m good for it.

If you haven’t seen this video yet, here you go.

1 month ago

June 23, 2010
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Tour Talk: RadioShack

Just moments ago Johan Bruyneel announced on their website the team for the 2010 Tour de France. I totally called this team! I was going to post my predictions today but found out this morning when I got on the computer that Team RadioShack was listing their team this morning….so I can’t prove my calls were predicted correctly…but you trust me right!?!?

Here were my predictions:

  • Lance Armstrong - 7 time Tour winner, placed 3rd last year, now with a team completely devoted to helping him through the race. This should be awesome.
  • Andreas Kloden - 2 time Tour podium finisher. The man should be leading a team himself. Great rider and did so much for Contador last year that supporting Armstrong (the better tactician) should bode very well for him.
  • Levi Leipheimer - another rider that could probably be leading his own team. I like Levi, but I feel he likes the support role. He should have been the leader when Lance last retired, but Bruyneel brough in Basso and Leipheimer was happy to sit second again. Should support Armstrong very well.
  • Chris Horner - Chris missed last years Tour because of a political rift that forced him out. Horner even tried to find a new team before the Tour to ride with, but Bruyneel wouldn’t release him. When Horner signed with RadioShack, I knew that it had a stipulation that said (as long as he is healthy) he was definitely in the Tour. I’m also pleased with this pick just because of what a cool guy Horner is. After watching him drop out of a break in the Dauphine to pull Tejay Van Garderen back so he wouldn’t loose his podium finish time (Tejay isn’t on Team RadioShack), it was just the kind of classy move that I like about this guy.

So those guys were the shoe-ins. Horner because of last year gets on that list. The last five were a little more difficult, but there are a couple things based on hearing the political stuff from last year and understanding some of Bruyneel’s choices that I picked these guys (which as of this morning are confirmed for the team).

  • Jani Brajkovic - Jani just won the Dauphine Libere in front of Alberto Contador. Jani might not have had the legs for a grand tour against Contador, but showed he can stay with him in the short term. Because of this performance, I knew Brajkovic was in for the Tour.
  • Gregory Rast - this man is a beast. And he fits Bruyneel’s need for a yellow jersey defensive person. Rast can take the front of the peloton and seem like he can pull for hours! He’ll keep breaks roped in as well as keep attacks down to a minimum…almost single handed. Love watching this guy ride.
  • Yaroslav Popovych - Popo is a veteran on the road and knows exactly how Lance rides and understands Bruyneel’s tactics. He was a easy pick for this year’s Tour.

The last two people are a bit more difficult. These guys are the kind of domestiques that you need in the mountains as well as the guys that can possibly hit a break if necessary. There are a number of choices: Zubeldia, Muravyev, Paulinho, Rubiera, Vaitkus, or Beppu.  Out of these, my guess is that Bruyneel (in this Lance comeback team) would want some tour experience in these last two riders. So that leaves Zubeldia, Muravyev, Paulinho, Rubiera, or Beppu. Vaitkus might be a good choice if Rast wasn’t on the team. Out of that group I removed Rubiera—age would be a factor and his lack of selection last year, good rider but doesn’t fit this Tour team—and Beppu—new to the team and Bruyneel would want someone that helps solidify the team dynamic…Beppu needs more experience on this team.

So here were my choices and why. I’ll also add what I think lead Bruyneel to choose this team.

  • Sergio Paulinho - Paulinho proved himself well last year even in the face of a political battle. Paulinho is a good climber and will be very beneficial in Stage 16 with 2 Cat 1 climbs and 2 Cat HC climbs.
  • Dmitriy Muravyev - Why did I pick him? Wasn’t he the political choice that last year was chosen because the Kazakh based team demands at least one Kazakh rider? Yeah, I think he might have been, but if you look at what he did last year it’s hard to count him out. This guy can pump it with the best of them and showed how well he gelled with the team in the midst of the power struggle last year. He’s a good rider and deserves a spot.

So why didn’t I choose Zubeldia, McCartney, Impey or Steegmans?

  • Haimar Zubeldia was a difficult choice to leave out. He works hard, but I think he was only chosen last year because Contador thought that with Horner on the team it would be Armstrong’s team and not Contador’s. So for this years team it appeared that it would again be either Zubeldia or Horner, since these two guys have very similar contributions. But since there was no way Horner would be sitting out, Zubeldia has to wait. This may be Horner’s last year (age) so Zubeldia will definitely have a place in the future.
  • Jason McCartney, another great climber and stage racer, was also difficult to leave out. He’s shown great promise in American races but much in the European theater. He’s got a stage at the Vuelta, but there are just too many powerful riders on the team. He’d probably fit well in Muravyev’s spot, but Bruyneel also like diverse teams and another American would not be that diverse.
  • Daryl Impey is young, and has many chances at a Tour in the future. I don’t think we need to worry about this kid’s future.
  • Gert Steegmans is a sprinter. And having sprinters on your team is good for stage wins but hurts the GC run. Often you need a sprinter and at least one lead out man, this means you truly only have 6 riders for GC support. If Bruyneel didn’t have 3 people that could be GC contenders it might work to have a sprinter on the team. But until there’s one standout leader in place, you won’t see a sprinter on Bruyneel’s TdF team.

Hope that helps, I was pumped when I heard I got it right. I hope Bruyneel’s predictability doesn’t hurt the team, maybe he’s saving the unpredictability for race time!

Thoughts?

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More Tour Talk

Again, since the Tour de France is coming up, I am talking more about it rather than my weight loss progress….well, because it’s the Tour.

I talked last time about my predictions for Team Garmin-Transitions and this time I’ll talk about one of the other US teams in the Tour this year, HTC-Columbia.

Velonews released their Tour edition and talked about each team and their strengths and weaknesses. Here’s the team they presented:

  • Mark Cavendish (GB)
  • Bert Grabsch (G)
  • Bernhard Eisel (A)
  • Tony Martin (G)
  • Maxime Monfort (B)
  • Marco Pinotti (I)
  • Mark Renshaw (Aus)
  • Michael Rogers (Aus)
  • Hayden Roulston (NZ)
  • Kanstantsin Siutsou (Blr)
  • Peter Velits (Slv)

Not a bad set of choices, and honestly pretty much what I would have said save Siutsou and Velits. Not sure who I’d put in their place, Andre Greipl (G) maybe…but not clear on who else. With Kim Kirchen moving on (who by the way got completely shafted when it came to team support in last years Tour, Hincape didn’t even help out…really made me feel for the guy…now with him in a coma it upsets me even more since I felt Katusha would provide much better support and improve his chances of winning), HTC-Columbia has no leader for the GC outside Tony Martin. Monfort maybe, but Martin is looking much better this year. The problem? If Cavendish puts on a show like last year, HTC-Columbia will—once again—drop GC hopes and Tony will get very little team support.

1 month ago

June 21, 2010
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