Txzen

I guess as someone who got into cycling watching Greg Lemond compete and win at the TdF, I bristle that the 'Lemond/Armstrong feud took down US cycling'. Armstrong was the aggressor and basically cost Greg his position within Trek because he dared to say the emperor had no clothes - early, consistently, and loudly. Lance poured so much energy into discrediting him personally, in business, and psychologically to quiet him so he could continue with the greatest sporting fraud in the history of the sport. Lance fucked an entire generation of riders, and we still don't know the extent his corruption within the establishment which I have no doubt is still in play given the recent Froome debacle. I don't think the dearth of top-caliber US athletes is completely due to Lance, but it certainly is not due at all to a 'Lemond/Armstrong feud'. Frankly, there seems to be few top-caliber athletes capable of challenging Sky these days. I have a feeling that Doumoulin is having a very Cadel Evans-like career - constantly second to guys who seem extraterrestrial.

If we are going to keep repeating things, can we get back to how this is all Tim Beck's fault? Thanks.

Van Garderen is not having a great Tour, but he has struggled to find what really suits him. A change of teams may be a good thing. Phinney is a rouleur, whose job is to bodyguard Rigo. His best results are in TT or on the cobbles. He's doing just fine. Not so much for Rigo.

It doesn't look like anyone really has legs to attack, or at least attack over the pace of the Sky train - which is as dull and predictable as 'Le Train Bleu'. It's either tomorrow on Alpe d'Huez or maybe stage 17 - those are the only two mountain top finishes where I would think the opportunity to crack Geraint and/or distance Froome would occur. I could see someone taking time on the Portillion and descent on stage 16. There won't be any shakeups on stage 19, unless there's a crack on the Tourmalet. The Soulor/Aubisque isn't hard enough and there's too much descending to be decisive. Geraint might not survive that long, but Froome will have no problem keeping with his rivals. Now or never, Movistar.

Nice write up of the stage (which was the Etape, this year) : Link And the memorial : Maquis des Glières

Not a motor. Please don't start this, it's asinine. Utter carnage, but it made a great spectacle. I'm always amazed how some people (and teams, frankly) just fare better at the cobbles with respect to flats and mechanicals. While it seems like so many are on similar equipment (at least on the rubber side of things) there's clearly some dark magic with the mechanics, as well as the fact that the guys who grew up racing that stuff just know how to guide the bike better so that they have less chance of it. Bardet, not so much. Haven't seen a train wreck like that since Rasmussen's time trial fiasco in 2007. TVG seems like a nice kid, and let me say that he's 100x tougher than I am. But he doesn't have 'it' and I struggle to see where he would be most competitive. Good TTer, good climber but only on steady grades with no attacks, and always seems to fade physically or mentally in a 3-week race. Porte must be one of the least lucky cyclists ever, and while I wasn't sure he'd really challenge the podium this year, it sucks to see him leave so early. And from a rest day, they go straight to an epic mountain stage. All of the climbs tomorrow are nasty, but I don't know Gileres...and with 6km at 11.2%, I plan to keep it that way.

My personal favorite. Sagan parks bike on top of car

If you want cycling perspective from a human being, I would suggest Greg Lemond. Greg Lemond - What I've Learned

What has never really been uncovered is how he managed to evade a positive drug test. From either being tipped off to the testers coming, 'donations' to testing agencies, and who know what sort of backchannel skullduggery, they not only operated an unbelievable doping program but did so at a time when almost everyone one else was getting popped. The full extent of the corruption has never been uncovered, and those repercussions are still with us today with the latest Sky/Froome bullshit. For his lingering effect on the sport, I say fuck off.

Sure, the top 20 were mostly doped to the gills. The victims were the ones who couldn't afford 'the program', or were determined to ride clean and were thus deprived of an untold amount of professional achievement. Then's there's also the clean riders who he literally bullied out of the sport. So, fuck him.

This one hits hard - I worked with her really closely, and she was a lovely human being. She was on a delayed honeymoon / 1st anniversary. A woman originally from the Chicago area was shot and killed in Mexico, where she and her husband were celebrating their first wedding anniversary. Senseless.

Someday, Movistar will have to realize the importance of TT, let alone the ITT. Tough to see Nairo continue to go backwards. Froome gained a little on some of his rivals, but it's interesting to see him still down at this point. The cobbles stage could be intense, but I would bet some of the interim stages with those Cat 3/4 rollers might also be interesting as people try to make up some lost time. I wonder what form NIbali has. I'm sure he's not happy about losing his advantage due to the TTT.

Houston is where I developed an education and appreciation for Turkish, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese, food, while finding little gems like a great Belgian restaurant (and yes, almost all in ugly strip malls). It's an amazing food town for many of the same reasons LA is.

Nairo can’t catch a break, and that three leaders thing is really working out well for Movistar. Sheesh. And Porte - guy must have done something wrong in a previous life as bad luck follows him Heck of a day for a ‘boring’ stage.

Little places like this are what makes LA a really interesting food town. Once you get past the endless strip mall hell, there's some real gems to be found.

I like Quartino, but perhaps the vibe is better than the food. Don't get me wrong - the food is solid, and I would go back, but ultimately there may be better choices closer to you. The Gage is great - prefer to eat at the bar solo when I'm there on business. The tasting menus are interesting at Topolobampo, I quite enjoyed the recent 'Art Menu'. The margaritas there are seriously good. Jotting down notes here for my next visit. . .

It's not surprising that this happened, more so that it didn't happen for others busted previously for the same infraction. The main issue is that there's too much scientific grey area in the salbutemol test, which was so easily exploited by Sky. The biology is too complicated for such a stringent failure line. It's easy to get over the limit without really abusing the drug. Worth a read. The second issue is that even from their press release, WADA quotes the rule to say that they need the CPKS to prove that this wasn't an attempt to gain advantage, but then accept that there are all these mitigating circumstances which render the CPKS unnecessary. This should open the flood gate to any challenge in the future for salbutemol, as they basically quoted the rule and then decided it was invalid. What's the purpose for a rule if it is then thrown out in the face of scrutiny. Third, TUE exemptions are off the charts. Without it, we wouldn't be here.

Eh, I don't know it's all that dire (the death of WADA). A shit-show indeed, though. Month of this crap, and all it took was the ASO threatening to ban his start for this remarkable ruling to occur. That said, so many of these tests are remarkably qualitative and noisy - it's the nature of the beast. I'm absolutely sure in my heart that Froome/Sky have pushed to the edge and abused his therapeutic exemption. But the study which gave birth to the threshold of the test appears to be somewhat flawed. Scientist behind salbutamol threshold admits 'terrible blunder' The founding scientific work for salbutemol abuse and threshold came from work with swimmers. The urine is even more concentrated in a cyclist at the end of a three hour stage, which makes that threshold determination more tricky. It's not a blood test, and it's not a test detecting the presence of a man-made cytokine (like recombinant EPO) or something which should not be there (a simple yes/no), it's a threshold detection. There's a factor for 'urine dehydration' built into the test, and even with that, he was 19% over the limit. But that's frankly not very inspiring, when you consider the variation of the biology, and however they decided to factor in the dehydration. Of course, that would have been a nice way for Sky to attack the finding, but yet we've subjected to months of reports suggesting that their defense would be that a kidney problem caused adverse drug metabolism, which is a fun argument. Not only is it likely utter horseshit, but it would be darn near impossible to re-create, even if they did do in-patient pharmacokinetic test they were supposed to do. I'm sure they'd argue that no resting test would re-create the stress of a stage. The fact that they decided to go the whole Tyler Hamilton Vanishing Twin route is pretty telling, in my opinion.

It's such a fine line between stupid and clever.

Agree with this - even a short ride mid-week will do wonders. I'd recommend signing up for something like The Sufferfest and getting a trainer - it makes it even easier to add in those additional workouts.

My too favorite quotes : 'It never gets easier, you just get faster' (Greg Lemond), 'Don't buy upgrades, ride up grades' (Eddy Merckx). I have the body of a Belgian Spring Classic Rouleur, but my spirit animal is an 100 pound flyweight Spanish climber (my Basque climbing name is 'Patxi'). That means that I too, suck. Nothing gets you better than just doing it as much as you can. I think there's good evidence that finding a nice long tempo climb (say 4-6%) for training is great for cardio, particularly if you work in some intervals. That said, nothing gets you in better climbing shape than regularly doing a nice hard climb. I know many people bring in deadlifts, squats, and sled workouts to their training. I just try to ride more. Obviously, drop as much weight from your body as possible. You didn't mention what sorts of hills give you problems. Gears and cadence are important - I'd argue that most people in my neck of the woods (SF Bay Area) are well-served by a compact front crank and a slightly higher cadence rather than mashing the pedal in a higher gear. You may find that some hills will just always be a problem. No matter what sort of shape I'm in, once it gets beyond 10% (and sustained), I'm in pure survival mode.

He was a real inspiration to me - his whole philosophy of travel and eating (and eating while traveling) is something I still aspire to. I will admit that the last few seasons of his show were a little less interesting personally - they often seemed to devolve into fun trips he took where he would meet up with friends from the industry and dine like Gods in a remote location. It just didn't seem as attainable or important. The original series of his was really far more profound, and searched to find commonality in foreign places by bonding over food and what people found to be important in their lives. It was good stuff. His writing, though, was always on point and implored us to explore and embrace the unknown. I simply can't imagine the demons one has in their head which would make you take your life when you have a young child who likely still depends greatly on your love and attention (he wrote a cookbook based solely on the foods she liked to eat). His depression must have been oppressive, and I hope he's at peace. But I sure as hell will miss his voice.

Looks like Lake Tahoe to me. At the very least, it's damn cold.

Part of the problem with this city is all the tourists who feel the need to drive to Fisherman's Wharf.

Well, one way to get a rise out of him is to insult UT apparently. Kevin Durant had to be held back after a Cavs heckler said his alma mater was 'butt'