We Have Good Shit And Then We Have That Other Shit

That's right folks. There has been tons of that other shit going down in le Tour. Half (or more?) of the GC contenders are out with broken bones. But more importantly Vino crashed out of the race and may never race another pro race, and this is not a way to end a career. Yesterday he put in a good effort and made GC contender's teams to do some chasing (please do note that no GC contender was involved in pace making activities), but even Vino can't do a 3 meter drop on his road bike. If this wasn't enough, a French TV car took out Hoogerland and Flecha today in an effort that comes close to regular Winnipeg traffic. I wouldn't be surprised, if that car "driver" was some media studentinterntrainee from Winnipeg who couldn't keep his/her road rage under control any longer, because those fookin cyclists were riding side by side. But the car didn't manage to stop the two buggers from finishing the stage. Hoogerland was frickin cut into threads and they just stuffed the pieces in a new jersey and shorts and he hopped back on his bike to finish the stage. That my friends and foes was a brutal sign. I will not link the most X-rated photos here, but since a picture tells more than some words, I must link something here. Nuff said!


And that good shit. It's been really nice summer weather here. Nice summer weather doesn't always mean good training because +32 with high humidity kind of almost kills you out there on the prairies where there's no shadow. Even if I'm not feeling too good off the bike, on the bike stuff seems to go pretty well and this morning the +29 weather didn't even feel too bad so maybe I'm climatizing a bit. Maybe I will actually pull myself together and do a MTB race or two and get into some sort of 'cross shape.

But there was also some really good shit that went down over past couple of weeks or so. Manitoba riders did really well at nationals. Young Chris took gold in junior's criterium and got himself a spot in worlds selection pool c/w camp and Tour d'Abitibi. Don Sawatzky took two silver in masters 50+ road and ITT. Apparently the road performance was really really strong with Don bridging 1:30 gap to ITT winner, but unfortunately had to pay for his junior mistake in the sprint. Don doesn't always drop his chain, but when he does, he prefers to do it in nationals ;) Marian got silver in masters +50 crit and of course Leah Kirchmann won elite women's crit and took silver in U23 women road race. Nettie Neudorf took yet another gold in master women 40+ ITT. Other riders also got really good results.

Young Chris did a solid run at America's Dairy Land leading to nationals with podium and top-10 finishes in Cat 2/3. Apparently he did this on restricted 53x15 gear because he didn't have junior gear (52x14 I think) on his bike.

And now Karlee's winning stuff at BC Superweek Elite women races. Karlee has made huge progress this year and I'm sure she will keep improving as she's just 19 years young and doing her first year in Elite.

I do not know how talent feels like, but I can recognize talent when I see some. Though these young kids have so much talent that even a blind monkey would notice.

And I updated the price of my 2009 Giant TCR Advanced. I'm willing to part ways with the bike for $2,200.00 now. Other option would be $1,900.00 with new SRAM Rival groupo and option of either Reynolds wheels or Fulcrum Racing 7's. 3T aluminum bar and no pedals would drop the price to $1,800.00.