Walk at lunch
Went for a walk at lunch.
Workout:
- Type: Walk
- Date: 07/31/2007
- Time: 12:30:00
- Total Time: 00:30:00.00
- Distance: 2 miles
- Average Pace: 15:00/mile
Filed under: 2007 Resolutions, Cycling, Goals, Uncategorized, Walking, Workout, fitness, fitness over forty, health, male over forty, over forty
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Spin Bike
Hour on the Spin Bike. Spent about half standing and half sitting.
Workout:
- Type: Cycle
- Date: 07/25/2007
- Time: 16:00:00
- Total Time: 1:00:00.00
- Distance: 20 miles
- Average Speed: 20 mph
Filed under: 2007 Resolutions, Cycling, Goals, Spin Bike, Uncategorized, Workout, fitness, fitness over forty, male over forty, over forty
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Here we go again!!! Rasmussen kicked out of the tour
Michael Rasmussen, who all but locked up the Tour de France this morning on the last mountain stage of the tour - has been kicked out of the Tour de France. He didn’t get kicked out of the tour by the tour organizers, he got kicked out of the tour by his own team for lying to them.
Rasmussen, earlier in the week, was kicked off the Danish National team for missing out of competition drug tests. Cyclists are required to notify the governing bodies as to their location at all time so that they can be randomly tested. Rassmussen has missed four of those tests, two by the UCI and two by the Danish cycling body. The rule says three missed tests count as a non-negative, but it has to come from the same agency, so technically he isn’t in violation.
A story published on VeloNews.com about allegations from a former mountain biker that Rasmussen tried to trick him into transporting banned doping products to Europe didn’t help, either. The Tour Organizers have taken the stance that if they would have known about this controversy, they would not have let him start the tour. But now, there was nothing they could do.
This morning was the last mountain stage of the Tour. It was regarded as the last chance for someone to take the yellow jersey from Rasmussen. Hopes sat with the number 2 rider, Alberto Contador of Discovery. The previous stage on Monday, Contador has put Rasmussen in trouble, but didn’t make up any time. Stage 16 was the last chance.
On the final climb Team Discovery isolated Rasmussen. It was Contador, Rasmussen, and Levi Leipheimer (also of Discovery). The two Discovery riders repeatedly attacked Rasmussen, but to no avail. Finally, in the last 2k of the race, Rasmussen pulled away for the stage win, and all but sealed his Tour de France victory.
But after the stage Robobank has chosen to kick Rasmussen off their team and out of the Tour de France. It seems that Robobank has uncovered new information that shows Rasmussen lied to them. He has been saying that he missed the out of competition drug test in June because he was training in Mexico (where his wife is from) and that he didn’t have access to the internet or a fax machine (an assertion that most found suspicious). But now it has been revealed that he was actually in Italy at the time, not Mexico. That was enough for his team to say enough and fire him.
So now, Alberto Contador of Team Discovery leads the Tour de France going into Saturday’s final time trial. Barring a major breakdown, he should win the tour. Levi Liepheimer of Discovery now sits third in the competition and will also make the final podium in Paris.
But in this tour, who knows if that’s what actually will happen!
Filed under: Cycling, Uncategorized
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Walk Greenlake with Mark
Sunny evening, great walk.
Workout:
- Type: Walk
- Date: 07/24/2007
- Time: 18:00:00
- Total Time: 00:40:00.00
- Distance: 2.8 miles
- Average Pace: 14:17.14/mile
Filed under: 2007 Resolutions, Goals, Uncategorized, Walking, Workout, fitness, fitness over forty, health, high blood pressure, male over forty, over forty
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Not Again! Vino tests positive
It was just announced that Alexandre Vinokourov tested positive for homologous blood doping following his victory in Saturday’s individual time trial. This test, developed in 2004, is the same test that Tyler Hamilton tested positive for following his Olympics and again in the Tour of Spain (He ultimately kept his medal from the Olympics when the B sample was inadvertently spoiled).
In addition, Astana, the leading team in the tour with two riders (other than Vino) in the top 10, look like they are going to drop out as a team.
This is a nightmare scenario for the Tour de France. After Floyd Landis and last year’s disaster, they wanted so much to have a clean tour. Now that hope is gone. The leader of the Tour, Michael Rasmussen, is under the microscope for missing out of competition testing on multiple occasions. He and Vino were on a list of “men in black” who appeared to the UCI to be hiding out to train. Then, Rasmussen was accused of trying to get another rider to sneak blood doping products into Italy for him. The rider didn’t turn him in at the time, but couldn’t hold his tongue when Rasmussen told the public they could “trust him”.
Vino was the hero of cycling. He was well liked by cyclists and fans alike. He was a courageous fighter who never gave up. He fought through pain. He heroically won two stages in the tour, both times after it looked like his tour was finished. More importantly, Vino was an inspiring rider who never quit. His time trial and breakaway victories were classics. Now, just like Floyd Landis’ heroic breakaway, they appear to be just an illusion.
It’s so hard for me to root for any of these guys. I want to be inspired. I want to see people turn themselves inside out showing what’s possible from the human spirit. Yet every time I allow myself to get inspired, the rug gets pulled out from under me. Part of me doesn’t want to know. Let them do whatever they want, just don’t tell me about it. Let me enjoy the event, without having to worry about who’s clean and who’s not.
It ultimately makes you wonder if anyone in sports is clean. An as a closing FYI - Vino’s personal trainer this year was Michele Ferrari. For those of you that don’t remember, he was Lance Armstrong’s personal trainer while he was winning seven straight tours.
Bummer!
Filed under: Cycling, Uncategorized
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Walked with Bo
Took Bo on another walk today. He is showing improvement every day. Definitely starting to get a lot more of his puppiness back. His tongue was hanging out at the end, but he still had energy and could have gone further.
Workout:
- Type: Walk
- Date: 07/23/2007
- Time: 18:30:00
- Total Time: 00:30:00.00
- Distance: 2 miles
- Average Pace: 15:00/mile
Filed under: 2007 Resolutions, Goals, Uncategorized, Walking, Workout, fitness, fitness over forty, health, high blood pressure, male over forty, over forty
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Walked at lunch
Walked at lunch
Workout:
- Type: Walk
- Date: 07/23/2007
- Time: 12:30:00
- Total Time: 00:30:00.00
- Distance: 2 miles
- Average Pace: 15:00/mile
Filed under: 2007 Resolutions, Goals, Uncategorized, Walking, Workout, fitness, fitness over forty, health, high blood pressure, male over forty, over forty
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Walked with Bo and Lisa
Took Bo on his first walk since being diagnosed with Addison’s disease. We went 2 miles and Bo was fine. He was off leash and ran around smelling everything. His tongue was dragging a bit at the end, but you could tell that he was really enjoying himself.
Workout:
- Type: Walk
- Date: 07/22/2007
- Time: 15:00:00
- Total Time: 00:30:00.00
- Distance: 2 miles
- Average Pace: 15:00/mile
Filed under: 2007 Resolutions, Goals, Uncategorized, Walking, Workout, fitness, fitness over forty, male over forty, over forty
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Spin BIke
It was really dumping rain so I did a 2 hour ride on my spin bike. Now that I’m done, the rain has stopped. Go figure…
Workout:
- Type: Cycle
- Date: 07/22/2007
- Time: 10:00:00
- Total Time: 2:00:00.00
- Distance: 40 miles
- Average Speed: 20 mph
Filed under: 2007 Resolutions, Cycling, Goals, Spin Bike, Uncategorized, Workout, fitness, fitness over forty, male over forty, over forty
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Spin Bike - and wasn’t stage 11 of the TdF outstanding!!!
My ride was an easy ride just to put in some time with high cadence low heart rate. I did it while watching the Tour de France. My ride was fairly uneventful.
But stage 11 - that was special. It was one of the flat stages. I really was watching expecting to enjoy some shots of Southern France. A flat stage - after one mountain range, and 2 days before a time trial - is usually not that exciting.
If I had to rank the excitement of stages, mountain top finishes would be at the top of my list, followed by the time trials (both team and individuals). My 3rd favorite is a sprint finish that comes from a train (ala Mario Cipollini and his lead out riders). Mass sprints don’t do much for me. Stage 11 was looking like it would be a mass sprint.
But then a rarity happened that you don’t see much of in the grand tours (although you do see it more in the classics). There was a stiff cross wind coming off of the sea and hitting the riders on their left side. Cross winds are tricky, because you don’t get protection from sitting on the wheel in front of you - you need to overlap the rider in front a little to block the side wind.
After the feedzone, with around 70k to go in a ho hum stage - Asanta put the hammer down. They put all their riders on the front and starting riding as if it were a team time trial. They also moved their riders over to the right side of the road, which meant that the riders behind had no place to hide from the wind. The best they could do is stay directly behind the wheel in front of them.
The result of this strategy is the peleton (usually riding in a bunch) gets strung out in a long line. The strong teams will create mini echelons to protect their GC riders (ie riders with a chance to win the tour). The rest of the riders have to hope that the person in front of them doesn’t lose contact with the train of riders.
If a gap opens up in the train, the peleton can split apart. Since the best riders are mostly at the front, anyone not in the first group can get dropped with no hope of catching back up. That is exactly what happened on Stage 11.
Moreau, the best placed French rider, was sitting in sixth place in the race. In a previous stage during the Alps he had attacked when an Astana rider (Vinokourov - the pre race favorite to win) wasn’t doing well. Other riders followed Moreau’s move, but Vinokourov didn’t have the legs that day and lost time. Many think he no longer can win the tour.
Payback is sweet revenge. Moreau, who had fallen earlier in the day, was hanging out in the back half of the peleton. Vinokourov noticed, and had his team attack. The peleton broke into three pieces, with Moreau in the second group. No matter how hard Moreau and his team worked, they couldn’t overcome the cross wind and get back into the leading group. He ended up losing over 3 minutes to the leaders. Now Moreau’s chances of winning the tour are probably over.
Not only did it make an otherwise not so interesting stage VERY interesting - it also shows that this is a wide open tour, and you can’t afford to miss any of the stages from this point on. It’s going to be an exiciting last 12 days.
Workout:
- Type: Cycle
- Date: 07/19/2007
- Time: 16:00:00
- Total Time: 1:00:00.00
- Distance: 20 miles
- Average Speed: 20 mph
Filed under: 2007 Resolutions, Cycling, Goals, Spin Bike, Uncategorized, Workout, fitness, fitness over forty, male over forty, over forty
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