adios!

it is too bad that scott bicycles has had to pull their sponsorship of team american beef.

really too bad. i feel terrible.

where will they find a team to sponsor that will give them the same bang for their buck as a pro-tour (tm) team?

you know; almost limitless exposure, bigg victories, positive press, and -of course- one that gets invited to the big races?

stairway to heaven?

cx!

oh boy! it is coming!

i am checking the calendars, and as of now it looks like 3 weekends in wisconsin, plus one in iowa for jingle cross... plus all my faves here in minnesnowta.

k-murder will be in wisco at the time, so i'll have a smoker on a single speed as a rabbit to chase all day...

fantastic.

holy balls.

it is on now!
the best thing to happen to the olympics since... i don't know, table tennis?

in other news, i got a motorcycle permit today.
booya!

the biggest losers.

not theo, that much is clear. where is the rider i love to watch so much?

disappointment of the games so far, for me anyway.



i don't hold anything against jennie reed for not nabbing a medal as "america's best hope" on the track... sure she is the world champion, but in the keirin.

i know they are both sprint events, but still the keirin and the match sprints are pretty different.
reed had an uphill battle the whole time if you asked me.

and, what's up with the coverage? pretty slim.
(i mean from our troops on the ground, i didn't expect nbc to come thru for me).
youtube is light on beijing track racing, i expected the track aficionados to be uploading all night every night.

i did find this keirin heat from round one. you can see nsc golden boy roberto chiappa qualify, only to be dq'd later.
you can see him get flicked way high, by the japanese rider nagai, which opened the door for ross edgar who had been pretty seriously boxed in. chiappa comes back down into the sprinters lane on top of the japanese rider.
right on top of him.
all but on nagai's bike. roberto earns the dq. can't blame him, only the top 2 move on. so if there is a chance the judges won't call it you aren't really any worse off.

edgar went on to take the silver medal. i think the owes the japanese team a cookie.

monday!

i can relate to binky.

go net flik shakes the clown right now.

greatest movie ever.

...ok, definately in the top 5 though.

tough break.

the usa's best shot at a medal on the track, ended up on the track.
...and with a busted clavicle. ouch indeed.

sounds like the cause was a touch of wheels after the second sprint. apparently the usa still need to be weary of cuba.
yes, cuba has always been sketchy, ever since that missile thing back in the day...

too bad for sarah, it is a tough way to end a long process of getting to the games.

initial impressions!

even donimater's porsche is jealous of staff's power.
the brits did a great ride (42 sec team sprint in qualifing!), and put the frogs in their place.
not sure what france was thinking switching up the team members between starts... oh well.



the americans actually did better than i thought they would and finished 8th.
that's ok. we will do well in the pursuits.




poland actually had a faster team sprint than the usa by a tenth, but they are listed in 13th place. i assume they got some sort of relegation for riding part of the race on their backs.
some one fill me in on the rule specifics.

my pick is the darkhorse josiah ng for the keirin.
think it ain't?

olympic rr's.

the men's rr sounded tough. sweltering heat, and all that jazz.
sanchez is a reasonable winner. he's been riding well, and it was a course for him.
cancellara is a beast, but that is no surprise.
valverde was a disappointment, but that is no surprise either.

they say this olympic course is the hardest ever. so, with that in mind, how could it get even harder?

well, the very next day however, the womens race lined up expecting the same 100 degree weather and humidity. instead a few miles in they got a downpour. torrential style.

that makes for miserable racing, but the attacks were still flying, and the race report is way more exciting. it seemed like it was really and epic race. i can't wait to see some video.

a truely epic day for them.
one they'll remember.

mostly because of the weather, party because for the flurry of attacks and counters, and possibly because the womens field was more wide open... who knows.

congrats to nicole cooke, she is a bad ass.

cheese with that?

i like horner.
or, at least i did.

not sure why, but i just didn't like it when he signed with astana. i thought it was tacky. whatever, he can do what he wants.
but this, this is just poor form. what a world-class whiney baby he has turned into! maybe it's the levi rubbing off on him. seriously, chris? you have a freaking broken collar bone, and you a bitching about not being on the olympic team? guess what? even if they selected you, you wouldn't be there.

you have a broken collar bone.

not only would'nt you be there, but the person in your spot wouldn't have been training for the event. so, it actually worked out ok, huh?
go ahead and be salty you didn't get picked, but what is the point of blabbing off to the media about it?

the big show.

the strib printed a nice little piece by dave zirin about the political climate of this years olympic games.
he wrote it far better than i will take the time to here, so go read it. it's good.

he poses the question about todays athletes, and really, the climate of the world today, on it's dedication to human rights issues.

would an athlete today risk a medal, (and not to mention endorsment deals), to make a statement?
is it even possible to make a statement like the one pictured above in today's world?
and, is there a point?

i have doubt any will, but i do keep hold on a small hope that someone will.


1968.

that is ten years before i was even born.
that photo, that statement, speaks clearly to me. i can feel the pride and the strength in it.
it says so much about the world in 1968.

way more than 1,000 words.

there are very few things in this world that hit me in the chest the way that this photo does.

smoggy.

i stole this link from my very favorite soccer blog.
i'm not gonna tell you what it is, for two reasons;
1) you don't care, and
2) super rookie does.

anyway, it was explained well enough in the original post so i will just post that text without further comment, except to say that i believe the exact same thing can be said about cycling... the olympic road race is gonna be boring as hell.

hopefully the track event will be ok...

here is is:

Press play on the image of US Olympic midfielder Maurice Edu in China (from his personal website) and you will see 1st hand why this maybe the most low-energy athletic event in history. Ever. Period.

FACT! When you have superb physical specimens like Edu, Jozy Altidore, and Brian McBride saying that it's too hot, they can't see and they can't breathe WHEN THEY ARE JUST WALKING you know there is a very real problem.

If the smog --which is as thick and dirty as Kyle Beckerman's dreads-- in this video is any indication, these matches will be decided in the first 20 minutes due to mass respiratory failure; if no one scores by then it's going to be nil-nil draws all around.

Posted by SF at 8/05/2008

let's continue our discussions...

quite possibly the best show on radio, is 'the breakfast jam' on minneapolis' kmoj (89.9fm), hosted by sonny day.

how can you not host a morning show with a name like sonny day? clearly, it is what you were born to do.

sonny has some great mannerisms that make his show unlike any other morning show that i've ever heard. for one thing, he's calm.

i really appreciate that in the am.

his show is a call-in style show, where he selects a topic from the news headlines or that affect the community in general, and asks people to call-in with their opinions.
he just acts as a facilitator to the discussions.

he's super respectful, and appreciative of everyone and their (sometimes hilarious and insane) opinions.

the topics are usually really good, and it is interesting to hear the range of opinions without some fat, blowhard, radio guy yelling over them not listening and putting words in their mouths... even if the blowhard agrees with the caller.

my favorite mannerism of sonny days is how he gently reminds you too get your ass to work;

"it's 8:42am, if you were supposed to be to work at 8:30, you are late. If you have to be to work at nine, well, your doing ok".

and;

"we're gonna listen to a nice song or two. then, we'll come back and continue our discussions".

sonny day. check him out.


there are some discussions going on in the local cycling world right now as well. i think we are gonna need sonny day to help us remain clam, and not get all heated about this stuff- but, unfortunately he's booked.

one is bergman v. doping. boy, that is a topic that has been done to death. i, for one, am not interested in getting involved.

bergman is a nice guy, and he got a shot at the bigtime. for one reason or another he blew it. i won't judge him on that.

but, i guess people still want to act like they know what's best for the man...
the price he has to pay for getting "famous", i guess.

seems like it would suck to have all kinds of folks chirping about you all the time.
...i mean, that's why i never pursued that acting career. otherwise i'd be the new brad pitt.
(oh, you know it's true.)

another good one is this discussion over at trissels weblog. actually, there is very little discussion on the blog, but i'm sure there is plenty behind-the-scenes.

the topic is cat 1/2's leaving birchwood for other teams, and trissels/birchwoods frustrations about not being able to hold on to them.
the question (if i understand it right) is basically, should bwood create an "elite team" that would receive more benefits than the "regular" team members?

in my opinion, i would say that even asking this question is skipping right over the problem, and missing point completely.

if i were on birchwood, (and i was), i would look at the question of why they are leaving very carefully.
i wouldn't look at bribing guys to stay at, (or join), the team.

i would try to answer the question of what are they looking for in a new team, rather than what can we give them not to leave.

think about it;

are they really leaving because they don't get free stuff?
are they getting free stuff at their new teams?
what benefits are these new teams offering?
so, what if they aren't offering free stuff, what is the draw?
is it the smaller size of the team? the functionality? the teamwork?

now, i don't know the answers to these questions, but, if i had to guess, i'd say added benefits will;
a) not keep riders like you might expect.
b) not entice many new elite riders to the team. (at least, not for the right reasons)
and,
c) piss off the lower cat riders who bear the burden, so to speak.

birchwood is a fast growing team, and i think that growth was a little unexpected.
but, elite team or no, i think birchwood should be very proud of their role as a fantastic beginning team, with a ton of enthusiastic members that really make racing fun, and accessible. a really great team to start racing for.
not very many teams do a good job at that.
it really is something to take pride in. guys/girls may move on, but you provided a solid foundation to move on from. that is just as important.

these issues they are grappling with are part of the growing pains, and whatever decision they come up with, the cycling scene will keep rolling.

"it is 9:45am, if you were supposed to be to work at 9:30, you are late. If you gotta be to work at 10, you got a good job".