Solo attempt

In my first attempt at going it alone with the three rascals - I've managed to get them all out for a long walk, fed, cleaned up, and to night-night before midnight (I'm just thankful they all came back after their long walk on time); that's pretty good. I'm hoping the streak of sleeping mostly through the whole night continues, but at only 12 weeks-old they're not yet on a very predictable schedule.

Though tomorrow's another day mostly solo parenting until late afternoon - depending on whether the wife gets home in time will determine if I'm racing PR tomorrow night or not. Let's see - 1 in the copilot seat and 2 in the trailer; I could still race like that right? Rory??

Silverdale souvenir

One third of a lap into the start of today's CAT 1/2 Crit somebody in the middle of the pack of 40 bites it. A domino theory ensues but I manage to avoid the mayhem - sort of. I'm off to the side of the bunch who're stopped or about to stop when I get bumped into a hedge at the side of the road. No biggie except after the race I notice that I have a small tear on the left shoulder of my jersey. Sure enough a big scrape of bloody skin.

Well about 15-20 of us pull into the pits for our free lap and are off to rejoin the back of the pack - fine I guess this is about where I started anyway. Except now I've got this funny rubbing sound coming from somewhere. So I stop in the pit again to see if I have a stick stuck somewhere or something loose - nothing obvious. Though the USA Cycling Official says "you've already had your free lap you're going to have to chase on." Great! Same noise again as I roll through lap three, and discover my right front brake pad is about to come off - pull in the pit for a third time in three laps, get it tightened and off I go again. Wait for the race to catch me as I chat with the wife. I get yelled at by Mr Race Director himself for taking a bad line thru a corner that his own teammate forced me into and survive the rest of the race to finish 17th or so in the field sprint, just edging Brian Hall.

But with 1 or 2 laps down I think I am officially listed as last place - oh well at least I didn't crash. So AxleyUSA bookends the field as Chad rocks up front to take top honors.

Best 87-minute Movie Ever!

The Simpsons hit the big screen after 20 years (starting as a short on the Tracey Ullman Show) and over 400 episodes. Why pay for a movie when you can get your fix every Sunday evening at 8 O'clock on FOX (or every evening in syndication)?

Because, well ah, you know, now there's... Why do we go out for dinner at a fancy restaurant every now and again (anniversary, birthday, just won the lottery, etc.) when we can cook at home? Why do we go out and watch a game at the ballpark and pay $5 for a cup of warm Duf beer when it's live on TV and the fridge with a cold one is right there (or at Moe's)?

Hey - it's the SIMPSONS (da da di da da daa da da dadada dum) and somebody has to pony up for the $65 million in production costs! Doh!!

Now I still have a special place for my all time favorite - Airplane (1980, with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Lloyd Bridges, Leslie Nielsen, Robert Stack, Peter Graves, Ethel Merman, Otto, et al), but that was an 88-minute movie.

Now where's my Squishee?

TdF predictions - part 2

Didn't see that one coming!

But I did correctly point out -

• that Sastre would be on the attack early
• that Disco would dance the 1-2 punch
• that ultimately Rasmussen would be thoroughly licked (I didn't figure it'd be by his own team though)
• and finally that Contador would be in yellow by days end

I should be flying off to LAS tomorrow instead of DFW (I did however fail to predict PruDogs untimely sniffles).

EZ days until the ITT Saturday for our top three podium contenders - who all have too much time on the remainder of the field to worry about anything but the final shuffle. So with the final 3 riders determined what about their podium order?

Unless the doping days of controversy continue unabated - Alberto will hold off a charge from Evans, but Evans will falter to a hungry Levi. Disco rides into Paris 1st & 2nd. Evans still makes all of Australia proud in 3rd.

TdF Stage 16 - Orthez to Gourette

A little after 3AM & the boy and I are up feeding (me blueberries, him milk) - so we'd like to share our predictions for the stage outcome for today.

Rather simply - it'll be chaos for the yellow jersey. One after another (some together even) all the major podium contenders - be it Evans, Sastre, Zubeldia, Levi, or Contador - will attack.

Disco has a major 1-2 punch sitting in 2nd and 4th and will use them effectively, with Levi going mid-stage to claw within time he can still take away during the ITT on Saturday. Contador will wait until the lower slopes of the mythic Col d’Aubisque (16km at 7 percent) when Rasmussen will be exposed without any further teammates to cover every move thrown his way. Contador's repeated accelerations will prove too much for a tired Rasmussen to follow.

The results will have Sastre or Evans as the stage winner, with Contador in yellow. Rasmussen will cross the line thoroughly whipped. Levi will move into 3rd on GC (behind Evans) as a result of the ITT. Then on with the sprinter parade into Paris Sunday.

Favorite bottle of vino for Vino?

Red of course.

The irony being that at last year's TdF Vinokourov was not a suspected participant in the doping affair of Operacion Puerto (which took out favorites Basso & Ullrich), but he was not allowed to start because 4 or 5 of his teammates (including now Disco wonder-kid Alberto Contador), were on the list (though all were subsequently cleared). Thus because the team was below the minimum of 6 no '06 TdF.

I wonder if the pressure of being deemed the pre-race favorite (a favorite Bruyneel tactic used successfully in the past against Ullrich) proved to be much to race clean? Or (assuming the B sample comes back positive as well) has he been a cheat all along? Which if that's the case - why did it take the UCI & the WADA so long to catch him?

Oh - good news bike-wise is that I found my Pocket Rocket.

Menzie's Sucks

The ramp crew in SEA which loads our jets lost my bike last night on my one leg to DCA. I personally saw the Menzies employee (kudos to whoever thought it'd be good to outsource these jobs) take it down off the Jetway to load on my plane, which has been about the extent of my supervision (ensure the bag with my bike makes it off the Jetway and down to the ramp). With cargo doors still open I assumed (I know, I know) that the bag (w/bike) would be loaded; as it has been countless times previously in the 15+ years that I've been doing this. I'll have to modify my routine from this day forward...(fool me once shame on you, fool me twice...).

SO much to my chagrin when I arrive at DCA expecting my bike bag to be brought up to the Jetway nothing shows. I go down to the ramp, they haven't seen it. I go to baggage claim (as the rest of the crew goes to the hotel) and wait, and wait...AND WAIT. Conveyor stops pumping bags out, carousel comes to a stop, passengers have disappeared, still no frigging bike bag.

I talk with the Alaska Baggage Claim guy and lay out my story & we start our search. Ultimately it's determined it wasn't on my flight (whatthe???). SO hopefully some Menzies guy who is looking to score a bag full of goodies from which to poach some wares is very perplexed when he opens my bike bag (not that they actually EVER do this) and returns it to where he found it (I'm sure it's just an innocent mistake), so that when I return to SEA later this evening all's well (it's going to be a logistical nightmare chasing this down).

Then the S__T will hit the fan.

For now, on a great day back east I will bide my time getting a workout indoors at he workout center (I shudder) and get out for a good look at what our Nations Capital has to offer for the next 6 hours (before I must catch the bus back to the airport).

If - and that's a big IF - my bike has been lost to baggage claim heaven then perhaps it'll be my chance to upgrade from my old Pocket Rocket to a Ritchey Break- Away or some other cool new collapsible bike with S&S couplers like the Co-Motion Co-Pilot Expresso (ummm tasty!) or Rodriguez Six Pack (ummm thirsty for that one too!).

But I'll have to await the outcome of my predicament when I return to SEA this evening before I even begin to entertain another future travel bike.