Uh-oh

Guys used to come into the bike shop in Fayetteville. It was always the same story: the time was early August; in walked a late-twenties/early thirties GI; fit looking and he would say, "I'd like to get a road bike. I just watched the Tour de France and I'm thinking about racing that next year." That crap never ceased to kill at the shop. I mean how ridiculous?

Well, fast forward fifteen years and now, that seems like an almost reasonable proposition given the huge swath that Operacion Puerto II: Electric Boogaloo is cutting through the peloton. Poor, alien Ivan Basso: we hardly knew ye. Yep, ol' Ivan has "voluntarily" left his contract with Disco'. Tyler and Jorg Jaksche are being further besmirched. Who will be left to actually start the Grand Tours?

I'm gonna start researching all of the domestiques to make my picks for the overall! Could this be Thomas Voeckler's year? Jimmy Caspar? Sebastien Hinault? Suddenly, the french riders are starting to look positively resurgent in their chances to win their home tour for the first time in 22 years! Maybe the peloton will become so decimated that riders will have to come out of retirement in a sort of glory days Tour! Imagine if Merckx, Lemond, Fignon, Hampsten, Poulidor, and every other hero of the past pulled on his kit or squeezed into in the case of some (yes, I'm calling you out Lemond, you puffy bastard...) and belly up to the line! This could be the most exciting Tour ever!

The Killer strikes

Danilo "the killer" DiLuca won Liege-Bastogne-Liege today. He pipped a huge field with a late surge to catch, and subsequently drop, Frank Schleck like a bad habit. This rounds out the true spring classics and now all eyes will turn to il Giro.

One guy who probably won't be toeing the line will be defending champ, Ivan Basso. I'm thinking that the poo poo is about to hit the fan since he is now going to have to submit a blood sample to satisfy the CONI investigation into the operacion puerto debacle. Remember the little spat between Basso and Simoni last year? Simoni described Basso as an "extra-terrestrial" with his riding...

I'm frankly getting fed up with the whole mess. Floyd is now in the process of being screwed by USADA as they barred his representative from witnessing the retest of his B samples from last years Tour. This is in direct violation of their own rules and procedures! That coupled with the fact that the lab that tested everything at the Tour is the same one doing the retests! So the scenario is this: "did the Amaury lab make a mistake? I don't know... Why don't we let the Amaury lab retest the B samples and see if they screwed up." Wow, that is some logic (not). Why don't we just skip all of the formalities and directly ask the Amaury lab if they made a mistake with Landis' sample testing. Then, they can tell us no, we can take their word on it and then we can get down to the business of disqualifying the first Tour de France winner since 1904. That seems much more practical and civilized.

The silver lining to this whole black cloud is that now Levi won't have to play second fiddle to Basso. Leipheimer could be the first american Giro winner since Andy Hampsten. Not that I'm down with Disco' or anything, but I would love to see Levi get a little vindication out of this whole mess. They signed him as a captain for the grand tours and then shanked him by signing Basso when CSC let him go for his puerto implication.

Enough ranting. Went for a hike to Lower Harper Creek Falls with Owen and Golden, today. It was nice getting out into the woods. It feels a little strange trying to make good impressions on a baby; trying to share the things you love in an effort to (hopefully) get them to love them, too. I'll post some pics tomorrow.

time to catch up

It's been a week since I last posted. Overwhelmingly busy would be one way of describing my week. The shop has picked up given the emergence of what will hopefully be more permanent good weather.

I'm managing to ride my bike about twice a week. I miss it and don't at the same time. Owen has definitely proven to be a greater pull on how I want to spend my time. Thankfully, he's getting big enough to start incorporating into the adventures we used to have. There is definitely a bike trailer in his near future!

Wednesday I gave a presentation to my future students at the Early College High School. I really can't wait to teach them. They are curious and not afraid to be intellectual or inquisitive. The best part is that they are excited about me coming to teach them! It is going to be a real challenge to keep up with them, but that is the kind of challenge I will relish...

There is just a couple of weeks left before the Cycle to Serve ride. It should prove to be a fantastic route with excellent support. I can't wait to watch "American Flyers" on the big screen, the night before! I know that the Rotary club is working very hard to make an excellent first impression, so join us for this inaugural event.

I'll try to be more diligent about my posting, but now to the end of school is going to truly be a whirlwind!

Whew!!!!!!!!!!!!

This has been a helluva week. Monday: get new job for next year, then lose power at school, teach in the dark for a couple of hours, go home early. Tuesday and wednesday: blurry fog of classes and meetings. Thursday and Friday: lockdown! We had "soft lockdowns" yesterday and today. I can't help but feel like there is just a little bit of "hopeful paranoia" when these sort of things take place. I cannot begin to comprehend the awful events at Va. Tech, but too often we seem to launch into an irrational exuberant fear mode that really needs to be examined. Our entire county was locked down today. There are all kinds of rumors circulating, but I'm not endorsing or even repeating any of them. I often consider a fact that I heard a few years ago: people have become so blase to "drills" (like fire drills) that when there is an actual emergency, not only do they not panic, they don't take it seriously! I don't know what I'm getting at...

Jeff and Chuck took off to watch the Brasstown Bald stage of the Tour of Georgia today. I haven't heard anything, but the story about how they and a whole lot of other people got lost due to bunk directions from Mapquest. Suffice to say that a dirt road and a Forest Service Ranger were involved. I'll give the lowdown when I get it!

Oh my, O'Grady!

I could not be happier to be wrong about my pick for winner of Paris-Roubaix! The man lovingly referred to as "The Freckle" by his Aussie compatriots in the peloton, was certainly due. And what a heroic performance he put in, placing a authoritative stamp on the race with a powerful solo effort that left the elites (and himself) gasping. The utter pain written on his face told a tale of just how much suffering it takes to win the Queen of the Classics.

I was utterly enthralled with the action and knew that it was going to take something epic to not have the race come down to a bunch sprint. So many riders threw the dice, notably Wessemann and Flecha, who really looked like they had made a dangerous move. Ultimately, Stewie made the effort that stuck!

Sorry to be psoting so late on this. If you are in our neck of the woods, you know that we have had some pretty high winds the past two days. Well, as fate would have it, right as I was settling down to an evening of internet work last night, we lost power. We got power back sometime today, while I was at work. Conversely, we lost power at school today at about 15 minutes into the first period and it never came back on. We released early (noon), but I had to entertain a classroom fool of teenagers for 4 hours, in the dark. That would be fun spelled with a capitol F and various other letters... It didn't matter, though. I found out first thing this morning that I got a great new teaching job teaching physical science at the Caldwell Early College High School! It was a huge relief to finally know where I will be landing next year.

Winds will hopefully die down enough to allow for a group ride tomorrow. See ya there.

and the winner will be...

Call it foolish or foolhardy. Call it a long limb of spindly proportions, but I am going all in for my man Leif Hoste to win L'Enfer du Nord in true, epic style. The weather isn't supposed to be a factor, so grit, toughness and sheer determination are the watchwords for the day. My feeling is that the bitter, acrid taste of defeat for the second year in a row at the Ronde is still in Hoste's mouth. I can't wait...

It approaches

My next door neighbor died tuesday. He was 84 and had developed Parkinson's. I remember when we first moved in he ambled over with the aid of his cane, turned up his hearing aid and asked me how I was doing. I said fine and returned the greeting by asking how he was doing. He said, "Fine, but if you know any different, don't tell me." He gave me a round tuit and walked off. We haven't been the best of neighbors, but I endeavor to watch out for his wife now that he is gone.

Well Gent was more than a little exciting. Tyler Farrar broke his knee cap on the Kimmell along with numerous other injured riders on that nasty cobbled descent. Petaachi ate it, along with the other hopeful for Milram, prompting the whole team to head for the cars and call it a day. I've seen a few articles about whether or not the Kimmel belongs in a "modern" bike race. My feeling is: hell, yeah. Where will the sport be if it does not test itself against the gold standard of time. The 5 monuments represent a continuum for cycling. Training may change, technology may change, but the cobbles will always hold that card of fate close to it's chest, waiting to deal it out at the right (or wrong) time.

So Roubaix approaches. Boonen has to win in order to consider this season successful. I mean, sure he could win the green jersey at the tour, but come on, he's Belgian. A Belgian sprinter, on a Belgian team not winning one of the beloved cobbled classics that make flauhutes into legends; that would be unthinkable. With that being said, you know Boonen will have more than his share of angry when he bellies up to the line, but can he seal the deal? There are a lot of guys chomping at the bit. Too many to make anything, but an educated guess. Here's the odds:
Cancellara, F 3.50
Boonen, T 3.50
Hoste, L 8.50
Van Petegem, P 11.00
Ballan, A 15.00
Gusev, V 15.00
Pozzato, F 17.00
Wesemann, S 20.00
Burghardt, M 20.00
Flecha Giannoni, J-A 22.00
Klier, A 22.00
Hushovd, T 25.00
Backstedt, M 25.00
Van Bon, L 30.00
Guesdon, F 30.00
Kroon, K 30.00
Gilbert, P 30.00
Devolder, S 30.00
O'Grady, Stuart 35.00
Steegmans, G 35.00
Nuyens, N 35.00
Hammond, R 35.00
Vaitkus, T 35.00
Eisel, B 35.00
Brard, F 250.00
Mengin, C 250.00
Meirhaeghe, F 250.0
Could Ballan double up? I'm waitin' to make my call...

Crap shoot

Tomorrow is Gent-Wevelgem, the cool down race from the Tour of Flanders and warm up race for Paris-Roubaix. Here's the odds:
Boonen, T 4.50
Bennati, D 5.00
Petacchi, A 10.00
McEwen, R 11.00
Pozzato, F 14.00
Hushovd, T 15.00
Steegmans, G 15.00
Haedo, J 16.00
Cancellara, F 18.00
Paolini, L 20.00
Vaitkus, T 22.00
O'Grady, Stuart 22.00
Kopp, D 25.00
Flecha Giannoni, J-A 30.00
Burghardt, M 30.00
Eisel, B 30.00
Van Heeswijk, M 35.00
Mattan, N 35.00
Gilbert, P 35.00
Nuyens, N 35.00
Davis, A 35.00
Sentjens, R 35.00
Eeckhout, N 40.00
Clerc, A 40.00
Devolder, S 40.00
Roesems, B 50.00
Bonnet, W 75.00
Muravyev, D 75.00
Chavanel, Sebastien 75.00
Steels, T 75.00
Caethoven, S 150.00
Hinault, S 200.00
Flickinger, A 300.00
Renier, F 300.00
Franzoi, E 300.00

I'm going with Cancellara. I don't have anything to base that on other than he was fuh-lying in Flanders.

Golden got me a really nice Belgian Beer called La Chouffe. It's brewed by gnomes in the Arenberg Forest. You'll be seeing that little locale on Sunday; you know the nasty cobbles with the iron gate above the entrance that reads: Abandon all hope ye who enter here. You know that looks encouraging from the middle of the pack...

So...Freakin'...Close...

I've gotta say I felt like the man for calling Leif Hoste as the winner for today's Ronde de van Vlaandren. Right up until the 10 meters to go mark. That's when Allessandro Ballan up and discovered he had enough real estate left to pip Hoste for a huge win. Oh well...

Quickstep put on an impressive display of how to put all of your eggs in one basket (aka How to lose a big bike race). Tom Boonen looked less than invincible (with the exception of an impressive turn of speed up the first half of the Muur). Unfortunately for Tom, you had to do better than just the first half of the Muur and that little tutorial was put on by none other than today's eventual winner Ballan. Allessandro made Boonen look like he weighed anchor and pulled into port he went backwards so fast. The only man able to bridge and stick was Hoste. It wasn't so bad that Quickstep was trying to get Boonen a 3rd in a row victory at De Ronde, but they made the impudent mistake of not seeing the forest for their big sprinting tree. With the ammunition they had (Bettini, van Petegem, and the on form Steegmans), they could have been playing cards left and right to insure a QUICKSTEP win, instead of a Boonen win.

And for those who still cling to the blue and black of Team Discovery, FrankenStijn Devolder had chances, but you've gotta have more than just Matt White to work for you in a classic. True, he's a belgian hardman, but Disco' seems to be the kiss of death for any rider that has an ambition for the classics. Bruyneel just has too much invested in big name stars to think beyond the Tour de France. Every other racers ambition seems to be an afterthought.

As for other notables, I want some of whatever Fabian Cancellara is on 'cause that guy looked like he was on a motorcycle he was flying so fast. It was unfortunate to see him having to pull 9 guys as he attempted to make a long break. Again, if Quickstep didn't have it's head firmly implanted up it's butt, they could have let Steegmans work with Cancellara and the two most likely would have been gone 'til the end. Instead they get caught right before the Muur and Cancellara was too blown to do anything else of significance.

Big props to all the racers who managed to stay upright. There were more crashes for stupid reasons than I've seen in a long time. Eric Zabel looked pretty rough after crashing on a descent with about 94km to go. He looked both dazed AND confused. Big props also to my man Jason D for picking Ballan as his man for the win. congrats on the call (and give me a call, I lost your #).

And now we've got Gent-Wevelgem on Wednesday and Paris-Roubaix next Sunday!

come and get it

"Sunday, sunday, sunday!!!!!!!!!!!! Come see the world's top cyclists hurtle over the cobbled bergs of Flanders in an attempt to win the infamous Ronde de van Vlaandren!!!!! There will be thrills. There will be spills. Who will claim the ultimate prize? Will it be Tornado Tom Boonen taking his third in a row? Will "Franken"Stijn Devolder fill the shoes of fading American classics hopeful, George Hincapie, who will sit this one out with a fractured wrist? Will the team-who-must-not-be-named (Unibet.com) pull out the angry? Can the upstart eastern bloc goombahs of Tinkoff Credit Systems throw down iron curtain style? Only the cobbles know for sure..."

Okay boys and girls the week of racing that makes you yearn for cold weather, rain, sleet and mud is finally upon us. Belgium and northern France are squarely in the center of the pro cycling world with the Tour of Flanders this Sunday and Paris-Roubaix next. If you have never watched any bike race, but the Tour de Lance, you better find a way to see these races. You are in for a treat; a true look at how bike racing should be: a test of man, machine, and good fortune.



What else could inspire Phil Liggett to such lofty poetics like this from the 1986 Paris-Roubaix:
"And now a train.... Is it the train of good fortune or an emissary of the devil? Only time will tell..." It's enough to make a man weep.



Here are the odds (courtesy of Unibet.com):
Boonen, T 3.50
Bettini, P 6.00
Cancellara, F 10.00
Pozzato, F 15.00 dangerous
Ballan, A 20.00
Van Petegem, P 22.00
Freire, O 25.00
O'Grady, Stuart 25.00 yeah, right
Hoste, L 25.00
Boogerd, M 25.00
Burghardt, M 25.00
Paolini, L 30.00
Gilbert, P 35.00
Steegmans, G 35.00
Nuyens, N 35.00
Devolder, S 45.00
Gusev, V 45.00
Bennati, D 45.00
Ivanov, S 50.00
Hincapie, G 50.00 amazing given that he isn't starting
Flecha Giannoni, J-A 60.00
Hushovd, T 60.00
Sentjens, R 60.00
Zabel, E 60.00
Klier, A 60.00
Wesemann, S 60.00
Petito, R 60.00
Eisel, B 75.00
Kroon, K 75.00
Ventoso Alberdi, F J 100.00
Eeckhout, N 100.00 Rambo. 'nuff said
Kirchen, K 100.00
Kopp, D 100.00
Van Bon, L 100.00
Van Heeswijk, M 100.00
Hammond, R 100.00
Guesdon, F 100.00
Ignatiev, M 100.00 could do something really bold (or stupid) and pull it out

This one is tough to predict, especially with Quick Step holding so many cards (Boonen, Bettini, Van Petegem). If you're that DS, you've gotta use Bettini as the rabbit. He's powerful over the types of climbs that feature prominently in the race and he's dangerous enough to make other teams wet themselves if he gets too much time. Van Petegem is like having John Wayne for backup in a gunfight; he knows what your going to do before you do. But then again, having won the last two years, Boonen has a target on his back so big he won't be able to fart without every team car picking up on it. My pick is someone who's going strong, but not showing all their cards yet this season. Someone like Leif Hoste, maybe. Or someone with something to prove, like Stefan Wesseman. We'll just have to wait and see...

Fade to black

equals Scheisse

Spring cleaning

I've been doing a SERIOUS basement cleaning for the past few days. For those of you that haven't seen my basement lately, it is a true haunted house of severest clutter. I've got to come clean with you guys. Hi, my name is Shawn and I'm a packrat... Man, that feels good to get off my chest.

It really started to dawn on me when I uncovered a pile of small, irregularly cut blocks of wood. You know, the sort of odds and ends that you get when you cut big boards to size. Whelp, I guess I've been saving those suckers for a rainy day, or something to that effect. It's like the 2 or 3 inches of carbon fiber steerer tube that is left over when you install a new road fork on a bike. I save those bits, too. I swear I'm gonna glue 'em all together one day and have the most awesome carbon fiber town bike ever.

So, I'm going through everything, getting stuff organized, throwing things away. And then, I decide in a sort of fevered madness of organization, that I'll tackle my "bike" room. Now, before we opened the shop, I did all my wrenching down in the basement. Working on our stuff, doing stuff for friends, that sort of thing. But mind you, I've been a bike mechanic for most of my life. I started wrenching twenty-two years ago, at the age of 14. Through those years, I have managed to squirrel away parts and pieces of bikes too numerous to mention and too weird to share. Until now.

So, I start sorting, doing a kinda catalog run-through sorta thing. Suntour Sprint braze-on ft. d'ler? Check. Suntour Accu=shift downtube shift levers? Check (I swear those things shift great!). 6 pairs of cheap, rat-trap mtn. bike pedals? Yep, you bet. I go on and on, trying to come to grips with the fact that, I don't need to hold on to all of this stuff. Things get tense and I start to compromise: cheap rat-traps get pitched, but beloved XT rat-trap mtn. bike pedals are definite keepers. So, i whittle it down to 1) trash, 2) keep, 3) ebay. I know that some of the things I have are useless to everybody, some precious to me and other just need a good home...

I gazed longingly at my Bontrager Race Lite that Joe Murray brazed extra braces onto to make it into a Bontrager Race Heavy touring frame. I've got Golden's first mtn. bike frameset, a Ritchey Outback. Her last pro race frame, a custom Klein painted in her last team colors. I've got 3 bent frames that I've had for a couple of years, swearing up and down I was going to turn them into shop stools. Now, I've got to do it, just to justify their continued presence. It's like I've gone spelunking inside my own head...

So here's to spring cleaning and the mental realignment that inevitably comes with it!

Woodsy

IMBA

It was a good day of trail maintenance out at the Aquatic Center. I owe everybody an apology. Seems I laid the guilt trip on a bit heavy, since several people apologized in advance to me for not being able to make it. Well, the good news is that the plan is to have a trail day once a month, so this gives everyone multiple opportunities to volunteer your time. The cool thing about it is that you get to learn a lot about how a trail should be layed out and how to repair damage caused by poor design. We even cut about 1000 ft of new trail, built a bridge and repaired several drainage issues to boot! I'll keep you informed on future days. Maybe one day we'll rate a visit from Woodsy the Owl...

Kevin made it back from Oz in one, jetlagged piece. He's plotting his return to the land down under as we speak and has put himself on a strict timeline for making it happen. Seems going out of the country made him realize just how rude and self-involved Americans tend to be. I realized that the other day when a parent tried to beat me through a T-intersection by running a stop sign and almost hitting me on my first day back to bike commuting. I caught up with her at the school and expressed my displeasure. She said,"I thought I had stopped." I replied,"What part of accelerating through the stop sign led you to that conclusion?" I actually have seen people in my neighborhood drive their kids 2 blocks to the neighborhood elementary school! I think Owen is going to have a low opinion of his heartless parents making him walk or ride a bike to school.

I don't know about you, but these little Belgian training races are no satisfaction in lieu of the major classics headed our way in the next two weeks. Boonen won his fourth E3-Prijs Vlandaaren today. See, just doesn't have the ring of "the Hell of the North" now does it? Oh well. I'll leave you with this thought that I saw on another blog:

Kids like to piss their names into the snow. Tom Boonen can piss his name into concrete.

rumpshaker

OK everybody, it's put up or shut up time. Saturday. 10 am. Aquatic Center parking lot. Trail maintenance day. Now before you start pulling the cord to crank up the excuse machine, you can spare an hour or two to come show your support for cycling in Lenoir. It will be embarassing as hell if people from Boone, Hickory and Morganton show up, but Lenoirians (or -ites?) are a big fat no-show! Our burgeoning little cycling community will lose all manner of credibility with the powers that be and our dream of having mtn. bike trails in town will be covered over by soccer fields and baseball/softball diamonds. At the very least, think of the children.... How easy will it be to spark lifelong, healthy, aerobic activity in a kid if you can go to the park and do some actual mtn. biking? Postpone your ride saturday and put in a little time as an investment in our collective, two wheeled future! Please!

Reality check

I went and had myself a stupid, slow speed crash on the group ride tonight. Crossed wheels and I'm slowly falling over; aiming for a nice soft patch of grass. I got a bee in my helmet, shook my head and then you know the rest. Nothing damaged to speak of except I feel like a total fred and I bent the d'ler hanger and scratched up my right Record lever. Oh well...

At school today, we had an amazing guest speaker who came to talk about tobacco. Gruen von Behrens is a nationally known speaker about the evils of tobacco. It was really powerful to see a man ravaged by maxilo-facial cancer and I think it had a profound impact on the students. There were definitely some tears flowing in the audience. He was HIGHLY effective!



If you aren't getting excited for the spring classics, you need to get your head examined. I've just got to figure out where I'm gonna what the damn things. Might have to get cable... or, I could check out the new entertainment center my folks got! That's the ticket. (By the way, if anyone is looking for a Dolby Surround sound system or a DVR, I've got a deal for you! Drop me a line and I'll put you in touch with the necessary parties.) But back to the excitement. Here is the schedule:
April 8th Ronde van Vlaanderen
April 11th Gent - Wevelgem
April 15th Paris - Roubaix
April 21st Liège - Bastogne - Liège
April 22nd Amstel Gold Race
April 25th La Flèche Wallonne
Imagine staring down the barrel of that on your race schedule! I don't know about you, but that would be a pretty intense two weeks for me. Don't forget to check out the sponsor of the red headed step child of the pro peloton to get the odds for winners. I want to see Van Petegem get one more win before he hangs up the cleats...

Please, please, please plan to come help out for Trail Day this saturday at the Aquatic Center, 10 am. And if you are looking for Cycle to Serve info, I linked it over on the sidebar under "Riding in NC".

No word from Kevin or Chuck, but Dangerous Dave Brown will be returning stateside shortly!

This how you look after a 14 hr day and five different airfields. I didn't even make it back to my room before I fell asleep in the chair at our OPS (operations) tent. One of our pilots took this before we went to the chowhall. The only thing missing is the drool pool on the uniform!!
Five days and a wakeup before coming home!!

Take care everybody,
David

I know what Dave thinks about his military service, but that is for him to share. I think that Afghanistan is our forgotten war. Iraq was something that we had no business doing. It was ill conceived, poorly planned, and wrong. Afghanistan is a different story though. The Taliban really were in control of that country. We dealt with them on diplomatic terms for years and viewed them as the legitimate government of the country. Now, we hear next to nothing about what is happening there and we have done little to help the country find its feet and join the rest of the world. Okay, okay enough soapbox... Let's all wish Dave, and all of his fellow soldiers, a speedy and safe return!

Staying alive

Photo source: Pezcyclingnews.com

Oscar Freire took Milan-San Remo in a sprint. The guy is either in the mix or touches the floor and puts himself out for the season. I think this is like his 4th comeback from a season ending injury in his career. Check out the race report at one of your favorite cycling news sites. The gist that I got was that there was a whole lot of carnage and mayhem in this one!

Yep, that's a sheared carbon fork. Photo Source: Pezcyclingnews.com

A big shout out to our favorite cycling restauranteur, Chuck Luddeke, as today was his first day in Spain for a week of road riding and training. Hopefully, he is at a nice bar right now recovering from a beautiful ride!

Got this from Kevin at the World Police and Firemen's Games in Adelaide, Australia:

well, there are not any unfit cops or firemen here is about all i can say. so far i've done a time trial the fastest i've ever done and finished ouside the top five. yesterday's hillclimb was 4.3km up an 8.2% grade, pretty f''in steep. i did it at nearly 17mph, and again, just outside the top five. but i have only been beaten by one guy who isn't an actual professional racer, so i don't feel too bad. in tomorrow's mtb race there's a pro who races for trek whose been in europe and won the shenandoah mountain 100 (a 100 mile mtb race) oh, and he's chris eatough's training partner. i train with my imaginary friend and won a spelling bee in sixth grade. but it's cold and pouring rain so i hope i can do something, spanish dudes absolutely cannot ride in the rain i found out today. wish me luck. on an interesting note: a three time mr. universe is a london cop, how cool is that? not the size of cop most people are used to. i tried to send a picture of this monstrosity, but it did not work. his forearm muscles are bigger than my thighs.

No word from our Luna Cycles war correspondent, Double Down Dave Brown, but I'm sure he is up in the air prepared to drop some love on army soldiers out in Afghanistan. And on that note: Iran taking 15 British soldiers hostage today sure doesn't bode well for peace in the middle east any time soon...

Well, the shop has been crazy all week. Really crazy. Good crazy. I hope this warm weather has brought a rise in our fortune and that this week bodes well for our season. I gotta be straight with you on one thing, the bike business ain't easy! A couple of big reminders: Cycle to Serve metric century on May 12th (you don't want to miss this one!) and the Aquatic Center MTB trail maintenance day next saturday, the 31st at 10am. The more people we can get out there, the more support we can get from the city and the parks and rec dept. to expand the existing trail network in town. Imagine having a full blown mtn. bike trail network in town!

Sometimes you're the squirrel...

I think I have been the nut lately. There is a palpable apprehension that teachers begin to feel at the onset of spring. 8th graders are a more accurate predictor of spring than groundhogs could ever hope to be. When the weather begins to turn warm, students just lose it. With this bit of knowledge, it is my dubious honor to confirm that Spring has indeed sprung...with a vengeance. I have been yelled at by students several times in the past two days and I gotta say I'm ready for a break. Thankfully, it's a work day tomorrow! I find more and more I teach less and less, instead I deal with some seriously stupid crap and deal with ever increasing disrespectful attitudes. What happened to the naturally curious nature of childhood?

Alright, lots on tap this week. Milan-San Remo is this weekend. It is gonna be a crap shoot for sure. All the sprinters are looking to flex their might and power in for the win, but you can never rule out the possibility of someone sticking that traditional attack on the Poggio. Claudio "il diablo" Chiapucci was the last to make it work in '95, I think. Think of it this way: you know how on your local group ride, there is a place that looks like it should be the perfect launch pad to take that final city limit sprint, but it is just a little too far or the run-in is just a little too much of a descent? Then you can imagine the Poggio. You've gotta watch Boonen and Petacchi. Don't forget Pelizotti, Di Luca or "the cricket". And then their is a whole host of guys who have been taking races this season that you've probably never heard of. Then again, MSR is gonna be the first "real" race of the season. Find some coverage and stay tuned.

Next Saturday, the 31st, there will be a trail work day for the Aquatic Center trails. This is the beginning of a major effort to provide a viable mtn. bike trail network in town! Work starts at 9 am at the Aquatic Center. Come dressed for working outside (duh), bring food (water will be provided). The more support we can show at this event, the more open that the parks and rec dept. and the city will be for future endeavors in the cycling vein (like a BMX track for kids...). Please, please, please come out and support this effort!

In other entertainment news: see Blood Diamond. Powerful and depressing, but truly well written and acted! No word from any of our foreign correspondents, but I'll keep you posted.

What happened?

I don't know about you guys, but I had a spectacularly bad day today. Really bad. Fortunately, I got to make the tuesday group ride and let the lactic acid wash away all of my troubles. It always amazes me how you can let all of your anger and frustration flow out of you and into the pedals. It never fails that all of that raw, ugly emotion gives way to a placid calm.

Yesterday, I got to go check out a new job prospect. It is a different teaching gig; one that I am really excited about. I can't say much right now for fear of jinxing it, but I do know that it will be a real challenge and that I will have to really up my game.

The ride tonight was really fun. Jeff was picking on me for showing a little bit of off the couch form and I told him that I had been able to lay in a good winter of base resting. I'm thinking that this training method could really take off...

Don't forget: Cycle to Serve Metric Century will be on Saturday, May 12th. This is going to be a really well put together ride with lots of stuff to do besides actually riding! Check out all of the info and register online at Caldwell Rotary Club.

Safety break

Last night was the first quarter Luna Cycles corporate meeting held at our palatial club known as Sledgehammer Charlie's. In keeping with the serious nature of this meeting, we managed to move from the bar to a booth before the first beer had been finished. Many important decisions were made and many stringent policies were written for the coming year. And then, Jeff and I stumbled home...



This morning, Jeff and I headed to the fairgrounds for the 1st Annual Lenoir Safety Fair. We went to help SafeKids fit the helmets they were giving away. We managed to give away all 50 helmets in less than 1 hour! The best part was being able to have my picture taken with various people dressed like animals.
Here's me with Konrad Krawdad:

When I asked Konrad if I could have my picture taken with him, he just shrugged. Lack of enthusiasm is going to kill the whole people in animal suits industry, if you ask me.

Here's me with Buckle Bear:

Buckle Bear was a bit of a sad case. At one point we heard this muffled,"I can't see anything. Where'd the lady go?" Seems the eye holes had fogged up on ol' Buckle Bear and he couldn't see anything. Later, I saw him walking around being led by a handler.

I didn't get my picture taken with the State Farm Bear. That guy has just gotten out of hand since he became a corporate shill. I just gotta keep it real like that...

Our man, Kevin Wilson, has arrived safely in Australia and sends in this report:

holy crap! there's former Kelme pros here and some current belgian pros. todays crit averaged in the mid 30's. the airline lost my bike so i just watched; glad i wasn't getting shelled. i've got it now so it's all good. i couldn't fit both of them in the box and the airline wouldn't allow the weight anyway so i'm rentin a carbon felt from a local shop. i had to bribe him with a luna shirt so there's one of those on his wall now. anyway, wish me luck. or, better yet, wish all the pro guys get sick and i can just race that old guy with the downtube shifters.

kevin

Luna Cycles World Domination has begun!

Here's a fresh pic from Afghanistan:



In case your wonderin', that is a forklift load of cyanide being loaded onto a C-130. We have been racking our brains (granted, not a long process) and we can't really come up with any non-nefarious uses for cyanide that the army might have. Jeff remarked that if we had found Hussein with that much cyanide, it could have justified the Iraq invasion for most people. But, we didn't...

News Flash: "If the piss don't fit, you must acquit!"

I don't really like to pat myself on the back, but I TOLD YOU SO! Check out this latest revelation in the Floyd Landis doping case. More and more, it looks like Landis will get vindication and will clear his name and deal a serious blow to the WADA witch hunt to boot.

I can't say that I feel sorry for Floyd as much as I feel sorry for the pro peloton. It is conceivable that he could be exonerated in time to toe the line at the Tour this year! If he does, I can only imagine the Old Testament-Mennonite fury that he will unleash on the roads of France in the ultimate "F*** You" to the ASO, WADA and UCI. This screw up has cost riders their sponsorships, sunk a startlingly good team (Phonak), and created a great sucking maelstrom of innuendo and finger-pointing. I've said it before and I'll say it again, make a transparent testing protocol that follows it's own rules and procedures and sets itself above reproach through action and deed, not arrogance, and then we'll start to fix the doping problem!