Playing Possum

This is an audience participation entry. With the build-up to the Tour and all the coverage available to us in this electronic era how will the media frenzy effect you dear reader? Do you find yourself missing sleep watching the days stage or reading about it online in your "Cave of Tour Isolation" computer room? Or do you risk termination from that most important of duties - earning the coin to fund you wheel life or is it real life or is there a difference, because you are caught on cyclingnews.com when you're supposed to be drafting a document at said work? Are your family, spouse or significant other at peace with your upcoming Tour of Duty? How have you prepped them or are you just suddenly going to be missing in action as the lawn goes unmowed, garbage piles up, car goes unwashed? How about that important pass time, your training, will it suffer? We have been besieged with the center of the "Mobile Universe" He's been on the cover of "Mens Health" or some other such grocery store checkout decorations. Print ads such as Bontrager's remind us that "It is Good to be" Him, while Oakley has "Perfection Gets Personal. How about the tender "real men don't use emoticons" from The Shack? But what do you think, what has he done this year? crashes, illness, field finishes, a DNF. But then there is The Tour de Suisse, a second place GC thanks to a TT final stage. But then his TT was bested (11th) by - yeah I know - Cancellara, but also Maxime Monfort, Jacob Fugelsang, Wouter Pouls and Gustav Larrson. Not to disparage these fine athletes but were talkin' Lance here. Or is he just playing possum. He does the psych game better than anybody. Did he go just hard enough to get a podium place and not draw too much attention. He did a faster second half split. What do you think, and more importantly, how will your life fare during the month of July? Use the comment box below the post. Keep rollin' HH

new adventures

I think I've mentioned the parks (yes plural) across the street from our apartment. There is a city park with tennis courts, great playground, baseball, a good size lake and walking paths/trails. This links to a county park with a bigger lake, more nature stuff, then into a huge state park of 5000 acres w/30+ miles of hike/bike/equestrian trails. We had to get mountain bikes. I finally got mine a week ago. I have been into the park several time on my cyclocross bike, but a lot of the terrain is steep and rocky, not really CX territory. Annadel Park has a history in mountain biking as the site of the first(?) national championship mtb race, it was won by John Tomac, I believe. Today I ventured into some new areas. It's been 14 years since I had a mountainbike, so I have some skills to reacquaint myself with, but it was fun. The lake in the photo is Lake Ilsanjo 750', home is 165' and only 4 miles away. Lots of wildlife, deer and turkey are seen regularly but also bobcats and mountain lion, so far not seen! The area is volcanic in origin, all this area is - and makes good soil for grapes! It has been mined for Obsidian by ancient native americans and into the 1900's for cobblestone. So you guessed it, it is rocky but heavily wooded as well. Lots of exploring to do. panoramic shot of typical norcal hillside Mt. Hood in the distance, see previous blog 9/23/09 the lake is clear and good for fishing and swimming.

Still here!

Been a while, sorry to leave you without my occasional entertainments, but nothing has really jumped up in my mind to rant, brag or ruminate about. The Giro had me occupied for three weeks, especially since Universal Sports covered it more than once daily beginning at 6:30 AM that made it possible to see nearly everyday before work. If you didn't get to see it, it was the best stage racing I've seen. Lots of genuine drama as the lead changed numerous times and the usual quaint Italian back country scenery and gravel! roads. I venture to say that we are seeing a leveling of the playing field in some sense with regards to PEDs (performance enhancing drugs)Either few/none are doing them or all/most are doing just a little so as to stay undetected. There were no super dominating performances, it just looked like real racing. Same in CA. The ToC just didn't seem to catch my attention though, Versus TV didn't help with only one show a day at 2PM Pacific time. I don't see how they can continue with cycling if they don't think there is enough interest to rerun their expensive programing. But the HD was nice. Oh well we'll see what THE Tour brings. Weather here has been weird, still rain some, a sprinkle this AM. June rain just isn't right here. Thunder and lightning last week, also a rareity in Sonoma County. But spring is still here. Lots of wildflowers remain. Below are a few recent photos for your enjoyment. I hope your riding is going well. HH