Tuesday, April 25, 2006

5 Favorite Climbs

This site, Favorite Climbs popped up in one of my Google searches, it allows people to list their five favorite climbs and comment on them. Pretty interesting...I'm not worldly enough as a traveler or cyclist to offer an informed opinion, however, a page search of "Brasstown Bald" seems to rank it amongst or even beyond some of the true epic climbs out there...

Serious Odor Issues...REAL SERIOUS!


Didn't get an exact count on the number of Blue Christmas Tree Air Fresheners hanging from this rear-view mirror...But I'm thinking this has to be a record.

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Check out Char!!!


As part of the "help pass the time movement" on the drive up to Alpharetta I surfed over to SuperDave's blog via Char's blackberry and decided to take his "What kind of Car are you?" Survey.

Me, just like David, came out as a good old Chevy Corvette, NOT BAD...Or so I thought, until my wife scored out as a Lotus Elise...Personally, had never heard of it before, but it looks good to me!

Saturday, April 22, 2006

What a Stage!...So, So, Close...


Just got back to the hotel from our day at Brasstown Bald and the stage didn't disappoint. Well that's not totally true, it disappointed me by four seconds...Really didn't think Floyd would be able to hang, that being said it was an awesome battle. The stage recap on cyclingnews.com paints a pretty good picture. This picture (albeit a lousy one) shows me and Char's vantage point. This is just as TD and Floyd (left) were catching Popo (right), TD put it one last big effort but as they came by us, it was obvious Floyd wasn't going to be dropped.
Pizza just arrived...Good Night!

TdG Update...

Well, Char and I made it to our hotel room around 2100 hrs last night, went grab something to eat and probably got to bed around 2230 (10:30 for you 12-hr people). We actually left g-town right before noon and made pretty good time, I had forgotten about the switch to EST, so losing the hour sucked but it'll be nice to get back on the drive home. Passed some time on the driving reading the updates of yesterdays stage on Char's blackberry, sounds like Jason M. had a hell of a ride but as the odds usually have it, got caught at the end. Walking out the door to head to Brasstown....I'll try and post a recap tonight.....

Friday, April 21, 2006

Cheaha Challenge Warm-Up...Any takers?

While scurrying about the world wide WEB (Little known fact...Named in honor of the Great Fantasy Cycling Guru, Ward Webb) I stumbled across this little puppy. It's the day before Cheaha and looks, how shall I say...INTERESTING! The Brasstown Bald Buster Century bolds over 12,000 ft of elevation gain, I think Cheaha is just under 8,000 ft of elevation gain...OUCH!

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Brasstown Bald or BUST!


Last second plans...

About four hours ago I got the crazy urge to catch the penultament stage of the Tour De Georgia at Brasstown Bald. I ran the idea by Char and as always she's game, so hopefully we'll get out of town between noon and three tomorrow. We'll crash in Alpharetta Friday night and wake up early Saturday to make the hour and a half drive to Brasstown Bald. Stay Saturday night back in Alpharetta and probably hang around long enough to catch the finish of the final stage and then head back late Sunday.

Tommy D. better not disappoint me...I know Floyd is riding strong but I have to believe TD is good for FOUR seconds either Friday or Saturday, (Sunday is pretty much a formality)...I'm thinking (hoping) it's going to be settled again this year on Brasstown Bald...we'll see!

Americans...1,2,3 @ TdG ITT


Pretty Impressive...Check out the results of the Tour de Georgia Individual Time Trial here. Actually not only had I predicted this exact order of finish for the top three but I had also predicted margin of victory down to the 10th of a second...
Unfortunately, SuperDave's failure to run a fantasy TdG deprived me of a forum to showcase this ability. :)
Therefore, I'm afraid everyone is going to have to continue to believe that BBWW is "ALL THAT" when it comes to Fantasy Cycling picks...



Bonus Question...
Why was Popovych in his Discovery Kit instead of the leaders Jersey?

Saturday, April 08, 2006

Sunglasses Optional...

Since the arrival of my Moots, the Felt hasn't seen the road. The initial plan was for the felt to be a rain-beater. However, since I never leave for a training ride if it's already raining...and the mere chance of getting caught in the rain isn't reason enough to park the Moots, that plan hasn't really worked out. Instead, the Felt has evolved into my full-time trainer/rollers bike. For that reason, I decided to throw some HomeTrainer Tires on the Felt. The Conti Ultra Sport Hometrainer is specifically designed to run on rollers and trainers and only comes in ContiYellow (a.k.a. ORANGE). Just in case the Green paint job on the Felt wasn't enough of a statement, the Orange tires finish it off nicely :) Let's just say it's a good thing that it won't be making it out the door into the public.

I do need to send a shout-out to my friends at the Fox News Channel and thank both Alisyn Camerota and Kiran Chetry for supporting this little update in my biking world this morning on Fox and Friends.

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Lance on George...Classic Quote!

"George is a nice guy, no doubt," Armstrong says. "He's learned that he can be a gentleman and still have a killer instinct. Me, I'm the opposite. I'm a jerk who has to work at being a gentleman. I've always loved to put the hurt on people."

Entire story: Hincapie pedals toward cycling fame

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

From the "That's Different" Department...


One of the crew boat Captain's on the River received this as a gift and passed it on to one of our Captains over Patrol. It's labeled "Vietnam Snake Wine" and contains a Cobra with a scorpion in it's mouth...and from best I can tell it looks like people actually drink this stuff. Read all about it on Superdave's source for all information....Wikipedia!
Wow! and I thought the worm in the Tequila bottle was nasty!

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

2nd Annual Training Camp...PRICELESS!

Just returned last night from our second annual "pre-Cheaha" training camp in Toledo-bend. Same crew as last year (Me, Doc, Don and Ward) with the addition of SuperDave. Slight change in accommodations this year, we stayed at the Cypress Bend Golf Resort instead of Doc's camp (it's a long story...let's just say, "property settlement"!)
Anyway, the accommodations, training, and company were all OUTSTANDING! We managed two good hours of killer hill repeats Sunday and followed it up with 81 miles over challenging rollers on Monday. In between the suffering we managed to keep ourselves well entertained. Of coarse, this was at the expense of one another...as always everyone was warned on the front end to "bring their thick skin" and it was a "non-stop, no holds bared" verbal slugfest for the entire trip. While there were some classics thrown back and forth, I'm afraid they all would fall into the "You had to be there" category.

For those of you not up on your Toledo-Bend history...we had some debate as to when the lake was actually created...If interested check out the historical section at the SRA site.

From the "little known and less cared for facts" category of the trip...just in case you are wondering...Arby's does not stand for "Anytime Roast Beef, Yes Sir" but is actually derived from the initials "R.B."...Full details given at the Arby's website. Actually thought Don and Ward might exchange blows over this one... :)

A good time was had by all...