Rambling on a Monday morning

In defense of ….

Saturday was track day, Sunday was set aside for the Birthday march of the pink train. We joined The VeloGirl for her celebration of aging, a mostly gentle ride from Mountain View to Saratoga and return. At the base of Mt. Eden there was a minor regroup and the guys were told to give the ladies a 3 minutes head start. No problem, we were in no hurry. But as we waited  a guy on an old Centurion with downtube shifters passed and the group started dis’ing DT; or more correctly all the guys except me were dis’ing them. Hey, I like the DT shifters and have them on two of my three bikes! Brifters are fine for some things, and I keep them on one bike, but nothing wrong with good old simple, reliable downtube shifters.

Oh the ride was fun, the first time I got to test out the new compact crank. It worked fine, but my legs were screaming from Saturday’s track sessions (and a lot of commute miles) so I opted out of the optional Pierce to Mountain Winery climb and instead tested out the 50×11 combination for downhill sprints to Saratoga-Sunnyvale. Did not spin out at all, and I tried hard in a couple of sections as I chased down The Wife.

Lack of Discipline

The other thing I noted this weekend is that the lack of a training regimen this year has taken its toll on my aerobic and anaerobic thresholds.  Last year I rode most of the training rides with The Wife, but my changed commute and other factors have left me on my own this year.  Quite a few miles, but no regimen.  Will have to make amends, soon.

Speaking of defense …

The Kazakh boy has failed the ‘B’ test now and still claims innocence.  Marking blood antigens and counting with flow cytometry is not all that fraught with problems, so not sure what defense he will use beyond contamination after his crash.   Probably best to hang up the helmet and retire since he will likely be pushing 37 when he is allowed to ride professionally again … if ever.

… the media pounding continues …

Last night I walked in from the garage, where I was cleaning and lubing the pawls on my Phil Wood hub, in time to catch the 6:55′ish sports broadcast on KPIX-5.  The lead story was a gushing story about how steroid boy who hits a ball will have to set his ‘record’ at an out of town site.  The last story was a bash story about how the doping discredited Le Tour had been won by the Spanish kid, with some snarky remark that cycling had less credibility than the NBA.  How can some wanker sit and praise the ‘roid boys with the bats then get down on blood doping cyclists?  Same paintbrush, different strokes.  But no local news director has the cajones to call out ‘roid boy on his drug-filled quest.  Me thinks that real drug testing of the bat boys and suspensions up to lifetime should be put in place … but the  money folks all seem to like it the way it is.