Please

The cycling gods continued their full-scale war against me yesterday. I WILL NOT delve into the details (along the lines of "stranded" and "intersection of highway 39 and the 2"), but remember this...Please!...don't buy shite tires. For training, for your dirty town bike....get something above $20. I'm a huge fan of Michelin Carbons...usually $60/pair. I got 10,000 miles out of one on the front once, and have ridden the rears to the threads without a single flat.

Que pasa, readers? I'm almost at 5000 hits! A nice milestone.... though 4,500 of which are probably me. I should update the blog photo in the top right. It's a bit menacing, no? I need to find a decent photo of me in a kit. I'm listening to Ben Kweller's new album. Oddly self-titled: "Ben Kweller", but it's his third album (usually a group's 1st outing is self titled...). Terrific so far! I saw him at a show last week. Met him after the show, and the first thing he asked: "Hey, do you have scissors? I need to cut the filter off my cigarette". Can someone explain that one to me? Moving on....

My other amoeba purchase from today...
$8! Great deal huh? Just watched the first 5 stages (TTT, flat flat flat, ITT). Though I don't really care for Heras (maybe that's why it was so cheap??), but Petacchi cleans house in this one, I think, and Boonen and Valverde and Zabel ride their bikes pretty good, too...and honestly, Isidro Nozal. Watch that Time Trial (stage 5)....what's really troubling is that he hasn't had form ANYwhere near what he had during those opening weeks in Spain in '03. Ah well...side story/thought time:

Prior to the chaos that killed yesterday's ride, I was having a swell time. Up the Crest highway, farther than i'd gone in months. I reached the 6,000 ft mark, and just thought up this little hypothetical ditty...which was partly inspired by that cyclingnews bulletin about the "all vegan cycling team"...anyhow, I envisioned some sort of "all-vegetarian bike race" of sorts. You know, skinny malnourished bike racers vying for the prestigious [for the sake of this story] "top veggie bike racer" title. Comes down to a sprint, and some guy wins it handily. Nice. However, during the post-race "drug" test, the rider tests positive! For Meat! The entire cycling community is in turmoil, he vehemently (an adjective we've sadly become too familiar with) denies meat-usage/abuse. The second place guy issues a press conference announcing himself as the victor, all that. I'm telling you, it was funny at 6,000....doesn't transpose well at other elevations, maybe.

Yeah, thanks for allowing that. Tonight? Nothing going. I'll probably just read a bit, clean the bike, maybe ride tomorrow. October! From October 15th-31st....no bike, zero, none. I dream of getting a power meter...hopefully a good deal will come around sometime before base begins.