spare cycles

While browsing Podium in Sight I read this Cascades Stage 5 story that's so good I have to pass it on:

Chris Horner Gives Fallen Rider (and bike) a 2k Ride to the Finish

Follow the links to read Everday Athlete's account and see some photos. Jonathan Devich of CyclingNews also got a photo and there's footage from from KTVZ. Horner's feat is about 3:09 in.

I'm sure all of us would do the same as Chris Horner, if we were Chris Horner. Maybe that's just how they ride in Bend.

From the stage 2 women's race:

Back in the pack, Janel and Amy were on the front around the 5 km to the KOM mark, doing some work to bring down that time gap. Random attacks were going off and only one riders attack really stuck...She got off and then really, really got off because her lead moto took her off course and she ended up waaay in front of us finishing way before the break that she never caught. That sure confused everybody at the finish line. So I don't know what happened with that. Too bad for her though.

This little nugget from the Webcor report -- CyclingNews' report sadly contains no details.

Update: podium in sight has the details

From cyclingnews

The final names of the United States' cycling team for the Beijing Olympic Games were announced Thursday by USA Cycling. Joining Kristin Armstrong on the women's road team will be Amber Neben, in her first Olympic Games, and Christine Thorburn, who represented her country in Athens in 2004. Mary McConnelough was named to join the women's mountain bike team alongside Georgia Gould.

Armstrong and Thorburn are busy duking it out at Cascades, where Armstrong took first and Thorburn third on stage 1.

USA Cycling announced most of the Olympic roster today. Several womens' selections won't be announced until July 15.

Men's Road Race

• Levi Leipheimer
• George Hincapie
• Jason McCartney
• Christian Vande Velde
• Dave Zabriskie

Men's TT

• Levi Leipheimer
• Dave Zabriskie

Women's TT and Road

• Kristin Armstrong
• Two more TBA

Men's MTB

• Todd Wells
• Adam Craig

Women's MTB

• Georgia Gould
• One more TBA

Men's Track

• Michael Blatchford
• Bobby Lea
• Taylor Phinney
• Adam Duvendeck
• Michael Friedman
• Giddeon Massie

Women's Track

• Sarah Hammer
• Jennie Reed

See the USA Cycling press release for more.

As seen outside my hotel room in Statesboro, Georgia.

DZ's site went into a bit of a permafrost state, but he's brought it back under control and the diary entries show that he's back in form:

Thanks for all the positive feed back on the mustache -- I think I should keep it too. I pulled up to the CSC car on the first stage to say hi to Bjarne and he asked how it was going. I said, "pretty good, I grew a mustache." He told me I looked like shit to which I replied, "I grew it for you man -- I wanted you to be really happy I wasn't on your team anymore." We both laughed and the race rolled on. Part of the reason I want to keep the mustache is that I'm going to have a baby pretty soon and part of me thinks it'll be cool to have all the first pictures of me with him in the hospital looking like this – yes, that's how I see the photo album taking shape.

For those of you, like me, who miss the one-question interviews, I found a partial archive here.

davezabriskie.com

From the Friday Foaming Rant:

Still, man, I love this f--king Michael Ball guy. It's refreshing for a change to suspect that management may be on drugs.

It's January 3rd and USA Cycling has posted the 2008 calendar. I most excited to see a date for the Tour of Missouri as I am contemplating Tour of California/Georgia/Missouri triple coverage this year. California is certain, Georgia has top priority, and the national championships may bump Missouri depending on how much travel I can schedule this year.

• February 17-24: Amgen Tour of California
• April 13: U.S. Cycling Open - Richmond, Va. (Date Tentative, Subject to Change)
• April 21-27: Tour de Georgia
• May 4: U.S. Air Force Cycling Classic - Virginia
• May 24: Tour de Leelanau - Traverse City, Michigan
• June 3: Commerce Bank Allentown Classic - Pennsylvania
• June 5: Commerce Bank Reading Classic - Pennsylvania
• June 8: Commerce Bank International Championship - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• June 24-29: American Eagle Outfitters Tour of Pennsylvania
• August 8-10: Rochester Omnium - New York
• August 17: USA Cycling Professional Criterium Championships - Downers Grove, Ill.
• August 22-24: The Colorado Stage Race
• August 30: USA Cycling Professional Time Trial National Championships - Greenville, South Carolina
• August 31: USA Cycling Professional Road National Championships - Greenville, South Carolina
• September 6: Univest Grand Prix - Souderton, Pennsylvania
• September 8-14: Tour of Missouri

27 stages becomes 21 and 4000+ miles becomes 2200+, but Aqu Sports is still a bit off the deep end in hope to pull of a "Tour of America" as soon as September of 2008. The shortened route includes some ambitious transfers: multiple 100mi+ hops plus Columbia, MO to Denver, CO on a rest day. Part of the attraction of the Tour of California/Georgia/Missouri for international teams is that they are well organized; Aqu Sports' first and second volleys leave plenty of doubt -- and their Web site still needs a professional writer. Of course, Aqu seems to want to close the gap with a $10M purse.

I'm excited that they chose Palo Alto, CA as the finishing city, but it seems a bit silly to me that a Tour of America would spend five days in California and two days in Missouri, visiting many of the same cities. Perhaps they are hoping that these cities would be easier to signup?

The Tour of America

A company called Aqu Inc has announced a three-week, 22-state Tour of America. I thought this was a hoax when I first caught wind of this. The current Web site is hosted on 'waninggibbous.com' and the text on the Web site is poor and full of errors:

The most famous cyclist in the world is still Lance Armstrong an American. Unfortunately there is not a large enough cycling event in this country worthy of assembling the worlds best talents most of whom are Americans. Isn't it time to bring such an event to this vast country so Americans in this country can experience and admire close up the amazing talents and achievements of our own.

The organizers are planning a route twice the distance of the any current Grand Tour and they want to run it in September, when riders not competing in the Vuelta are spinning down their legs. They also want to run up against the Tour of Missouri, which gets them into trouble with Medalist Sports. Although the Tour of Missouri is a new event without much traction yet, Medalist also organizes the Tour de Georgia, the Tour of California, and USA Cycling Pro championships.Update: 'InTheKnow' says that the ToM will not be taking place in September next year (see comments)

A million dollar prize for the overall winner and an eleven-million-dollar prize budget could sway things in their favor, but I'll believe it when I start seeing some teams sign up.

VeloNews is reporting this, though they too seem a bit skeptical.

It was a bit surprising to hear that Navigators are pulling the plug as well, making the Tour of Missouri the last ride for two great USA teams.

Hincapie seemed to just be waiting for news of the official demise: Hincapie Officially Joins T-Mobile. Neil@ROAD got the scoop from Greenville.

It will be weird seeing him wear the T-Mobile pink instead of the Discovery black and blue, though he'll be riding alongside Michael Barry once more. Maybe he'll get another national champion jersey and it will be the same.

The Wall Street Journal has an article on cyclists, runners, and tri-athletes using the Web to cherry-pick easy races in order to pick up some easy wins.

As competitive amateur athletics explode, a new form of gamesmanship is emerging. Millions of people can now say they've run a marathon or a triathlon, but how many people can say they've won one? In the past, that hasn't been easy for weekend warriors who work long hours at the office and lack six-pack abs. Now, some are trying to gain an edge by finding where the fast racers aren't. Instead of training harder, they're spending hours online to scout out the field, and they're driving hundreds of miles to race against thin competition in out-of-the-way places.

Article

I noticed Josh Gray's photos zooming through my Flickr photostream so I thought I'd throw out some links:

• Josh Gray Photos
• VeloNews Race Summaries
• Casey Gibson Photo Gallery

I missed the US Open due to being very busy, but thankfully Steve of steephill.tv has posted this exciting note:

April 8 update: I've just secured the right to webcast a 10 minute highlight reel to be assembled by the producer of yesterday's epic U.S. Open, Kent Gordis Productions. We plan to post a short highlight reel at 320x240 frame size on Tuesday tonight. Hopefully, by Wednesday or Thursday night the 10 minute, high-quality (640x480) version and the iPod version will be posted here as well. There will be no cost to view either of the highlight reels thanks to NBC Sports, Red Five Sports Group, Kent Gordis Productions and Michelob. Stay tuned...