Whitewater Horn

Visma Crash-a-Bike.

I’ve never been into MCU, X Men, and other superhero/mutant worlds, so I’m not up on the rules for all of these abilities and powers. When Hughie teleports using Temp V, he is either rendered naked or has to undress himself. His clothing doesn’t make the trip. When Hughie’s dad “phased” through walls and people, the hospital gown was also imbued with the same ability from the Compound V injection and made the trip with him. Is there an established difference between the rules for teleportation and phasing, is it lazy writing, or is it just “doesn’t matter, enjoy the show about shit that isn’t real?”

Amen.

Same. Once I aged into mid-50s, my tolerance for riding, running, rucking, etc during Texas summers later than 11:00 am was toast.

Bardet gave great props to his teammate at the finish line. All joy and pure class. Speaking of UAE, Nils Politt wasn’t so hot, either.

It certainly wasn’t taken that way, but who among us on Surly isn’t guilty of being a know it all cocksucker and making snarky, cunty replies sometimes. I would post elsewhere if I was fragile, took myself too seriously, and lacking a sense of humor. I’m constantly guilty of being a long winded blowhard using way too many words to try express a thought.

It’s always an epic view to see the charging sprinters trying to catch the escapees and they’re within a couple hundred meters of the finish line. That was such a smart move, and in hindsight the winning move, when young VdB slowed dropped back from the break to wait for Bardet. Together they made quick work of taking the lead and fought all the home. Great stuff.

Of course. The point was that a guy who fractured his ribs and punctured a lung two months ago, shows up on Stage 1 with seven categorized climbs in nearly 100 degree heat and easily finishes in the first group with the favorites. It’s not a full measure of his health and fitness, but I’ll bet the guys in the VLAB camp feel pretty pumped about the result. A lot of riders who haven’t recently punctured a lung lost significant time today. I’m not sold on him being well enough to content based on today, I’m just surprised that he didn’t lose time or even look to be in any difficulty.

On a first stage where 117 riders finished more than 14 minutes behind the winner and the main peloton, I have to say I’m surprised and impressed that Jonas didn’t lose any time to the other contenders. With the combination of the stage profile and oppressive heat, I fully expected him to outwardly suffer and lose time, maybe even to the point of VLAB changing focus to support Matty for the GC. He certainly cannot be in winning form, but the only bother I saw from Jonas today was the bike change after the mechanical. Still have to see if he can respond to an attack. Also glad Cav made it within the cutoff.

Obviously the musings of a confident, secure, well adjusted man. Not weak, petty, or bitch-like at all. Now I’m even more frightened to attend games on their turf.

Mike Judge is a prophet.

Texas takes an alleged beating in the media. *crickets* Aggy takes an actual beating from Texas. *much cry* Advantage aggy.

Nice of them to show us that moment in slow motion. We’ll see if that helps him recover. Two of the upcoming climbs are nearly 8%, and one of them is 10k long. I think if he can make it over those two climbs without losing too much more time, he should make the cutoff.

Read the piece on Eurosport about Jan Hirt. Freaking fans and their bags.

Damn. How does that happen? Poor Cav looking rough on that first climb, but no judgment. It’s 95 degrees out there.

That’s a lot of strong feelings about the “big brother-little brother” labels that have no real significance beyond shit talk. If aggy called me “little brother” or referred to The University of Texas as “little brother,” my only response would be to laugh. That’s not even worth a debate. It’s just words. Even if they want to insist upon being the “older brother” by creative use of founding dates, that fine. Due to academic rigor and rankings, athletic accomplishments, and public reputation, Texas will always be the “big brother” even if aggy insists on being the “older brother,” which is all that matters in rival smack talking.

Those butthurt goobers can make a coach waiting until the season was over to move on to another opportunity sound like Cold War era international intrigue, rife with double agents, complicated and secretive planning, traitors and betrayal. A coach who never attended that school took another job. He was never one of them. Also, where was all of the outrage about the this pathetic man of low character whole they were enjoying that historic run?

I saw your post on the Netflix thread promoting this season of TDF Unchained, and it reminded me of an interesting and very surprising conversation I had with my elderly mother a couple of weeks ago. We were chatting about the weather in Colorado and which birds were showing up outside her window, just chit chat like that. Out of nowhere, she casually asks, “Do you think Wout Van Aert will be ready for the Tour?” This is surprising because my mother, as far as I knew, had not kept up with anything to do with bicycle related sports since coming to some of my BMX races when I was a kid and teen, then later in my 30s when I was doing some TMBRA MTB races, she and a couple of friends came out to cook and provide all around support for our team in the 24 Hours of Rocky Hill. Since then, I don’t recall is ever discussing cycling with her outside of my travel that revolved around attending races. She told me she stumbled upon a televised race last year, but couldn’t remember which one, but it made her fall in love with Wout, and that she began seeking out world tour races. Imagine her joy when I told her there were two seasons of TDF Unchained on Netflix, as well as other cycling related shows focusing on professional world tour teams. It’s given us something new to talk about, and she’s all about it. She loves the Netflix show and texts every few days to thank me for telling her about it, and then we’ll talk in the phone about the episodes. I can see where Unchained could make cycling fans out of curious viewers the way Drive to Survive did for F1.

Yes, he really seems to using his words in the last few days to to do just that. Even WVA has been saying that he’s all in for supporting the GC goal and foregoing the pursuit of stage wins for himself. I wonder if that changes if it’s clear early on that Matty will be the most viable GC rider for Visma? They have some great results in 2024, but certainly aren’t looking to the machine they are in the last few editions of the Tour.

Saw that earlier this afternoon and didn’t post here because I checked several sources and they weren’t all consistent at the time. The first story I read made it sound like he just discovered he was positive for covid, and other stores made it sound like he had it a couple of weeks ago, barely noticed the effects, and is recovered. Man, at this point, everyone’s form and fitness at the start is going to be a mystery. Who is really limited by injury/illness and who is playing possum or sandbagging? I don’t have much of a take on that, but I bet Chris Horner will…

I support where this is going.

Seeing Cav score a stage win and take that title at his age and circumstances would be pretty emotional and great for the sport. Still plenty of time and occasions for Jasper to get his teef punched in.

Damn. Texas and all of us in it was better for Kinky Friedman. They sure don’t make ‘em like that anymore. R.I.P.

I had just relocated to the UK that year a few months before the Tour. We didn’t make it to Paris that year, but just being caught up in the race and watching that final TT live in our local pub with some other Americans and amazing Welsh friend & neighbors is one of my best memories. Most thrilling cycling moment for sure, and high up on general sport moments as well. For so many reasons, I just don’t see how that ever gets topped.

Maybe they’ll start pushing OUR sweet grandmas down stairs and cussing our innocent little burnt orange clad children. Oh noes, payback is gonna be a bitch! *clutches pearls*