in the dust

Well another good weekend of racing - this time with some altitude and well some serious attitude. I'll defer to the other blogs for the bad attitude - guess that happens in a lot of sports. RR was a slugfest and I was KO'd on lap three and just missed hanging on. Damn.....made the steep climb and fell off on the short one. Ended up almost puking trying to get a wheel, recovered and jumped on with three for for a five man pack fill group. We all took even pulls the entire way and got some rare echelon practice so all was not lost. Picked up a couple more battered bodies along the way and then we had 8. Well everyone knew we were not gaining or losing ground - well more losing ground. We did get to witness a little fun with the 40's lead break catching us with about 3K to go in their race. A forth guy latched on and we got to watch the whole last 3K - good stuff. The only problem was we still had one more lap to go. It felt like we were out there forever and the wind was even tougher on the last couple laps. So the eight of us stayed together on the climbs and we rotated evenly right into the 1K to go then we had a fun little sprint fest. 14th is how I ended up, but at least we had JF up the road for 11th. Sounded like a brutal lead break. Disappointing, but a good training day on a fun course.

Found a room in South Lake and went to play some Hold em' on the 3/6 table since it was a solo weekend. Had a couple good hands and came out a whole $7 ahead. Not such a great hourly rate, especially with a few fish at the table......they kept sucking out on the damn river. Ok get out a there before I screw up and start suckin' down suds and blow off the crit.

Next day. I was actually feeling ok for the crit and got some great sleep. Line up in the second row and the guy in front can't get his pedal in and I'm out of frickin' position from the gun. Break right off the bat just like clockwork. Finally got into position and it seemed pretty fast with the break off and attacks trying too bring em in. Up to 25 secs pretty quick. Well we've got an hour to bring em in. Tried to let the otther teams do most of the work and stay positioned. It still hurt being up there though and did my fair share for being a lone guy with no team mates - well the winner had none either and just kicked ass! The break was brought in and there was still like 20 laps to go. I made the mistake of somehow thinking we split the group up more than we actually did some chasing that I probably did not need to do. On laps 8 down to 5 or so, I sat on Clark's wheel thinking that might be a decent strategy. Then I second guess and lost his wheel in a corner. OK positioned back up with about 3 to go was sitting in a decent spot. Three go off in an attack - I could not remember who they were, but the number 4 rings in my head and the number that can be successful so I went for it and burned close to the last match getting on. Well the 3 went no where and all I did was pull up some other guys. I like the action and cant stand just sitting in. Wrong move again I suppose, but instinct just said go for it. Have learn just a little more patience. By that time I was pretty spent and things were getting crazy fast. Lost position and did not even make the top 10. Well another good training day and learning experience. Tough sport.

WADA out of control

Looks like WADA is seriously considering banning altitude tents. So let's just ban living at altitude period for athletes. So what's next - ya gonna ban Thermolytes and Carbo Pro, ice packs? Wake up WADA wads - that's a waste of time & money.

Trading Season Begins

Post tour depression...........shit what the hell do I do in the morning now - wait what the hell do I do period.........I watched twice daily.

Not really trading like other sports but we've some big news to chew on.

Disco signs Levi and there's rumor of a couple other additions - "Portugal's Sergio Paulinho arrives from the former Wurth squad, and Lithuanian Tomas Vaitkus arrives from AG2R." Well I think paceline jumped the gun and deleted the post, but Specialized confirmed the Levi move here http://www.specialized.com/bc/SBCWhatsNewDetail.jsp?a=b&minisite=10029&refp=USHome&article=5552. Tough loss for our team's sponsor Specialized especially after Peter Reid announced retirement earlier in the year. What's wrong with that picture? Well maybe some new young blood will fill the shoes.

Burried in Phonak's site it says they resigned all 9 of the tour team yet Velonews is quoting Floyd as not having made a decision. He must have a buyout clause if he did reup for a year. Even with the fixable hip issue - I'll bet the offers are huge and he's gonna have a tough decision.

Jan is sacked ( a fuckin' fax - sheesh ..........has to be more to it) and rumor has it Basso and Riis are butting heads. So will Basso also get the kabasho?

Gonna be an exciting year in 07...............oh wait - we still have the Vuelta. Let's see what Tommie D's got!