John’s Ramblings

I’ve been recording each stage of the Tour of California, and replaying when I get done with riding or spinning or whatever. Even though Versus (formerly OLN) has only given over an hour each night to race coverage, they have done a splendid job of recapping each stage in the allotted time. Credit goes to their producers, editors, and most of all to cycling commentators Paul Sherwin and Phil Liggett (who could narrate footage of me cleaning my garage and make it sound interesting). Bob Roll is also on staff for this race, but he’s not contributed much in terms of color commentary or laughs. I think Bobke’s got something else on his mind these days, as he couldn’t even find a few minutes to update his blog once a month, so he pulled it down and re-directed everyone to his secretary’s site for a while. C’mon, Bobke, feed the beast that is your public.

Nice win by Paolo Bettini “Il Grillo” on yesterday’s rain-soaked stage from Seaside to San Luis Obispo. He may have actually left his pass until too late, but succeeded by “throwing” his bike over the line a tire’s width ahead of Gerald Ciolek of T-Mobile. There is going to be some very fine racing to be had this year, if cycling can rise above it’s recent black eyes.

For example, Stage 1 of this very same race from Sausalito to Santa Rosa. 6 miles from the finish, a crash stopped a good portion of the peloton whist they untangled themselves. The rules state that if a crash occurs in the last 3 kilometers, then everyone gets the same finishing time. The officials of the Tour of California, however, decided to use this rule on Stage 1. Not that I want to see Levi Leipheimer (or anyone) lose a stage due to a crash, but as Dale Earnhart used to always say “that’s racin’” (no, I’m not a Nascar kind of guy. “That’s Racin’”, and pronouncing “tires” as “tahrs”, is all the stock-car I speak). It gave every appearance that the race officials were allowing Levi to keep the Leader’s Jersey in a stage that happened to end in the man’s own home town.

True, he’s tried to legitimize himself with his ride over the mountains in Stage 3 from Stockton to San José, but it still looks contrived, at a time when cycling in the U.S. of A. is trying to recover from the scandals surrounding Tyler Hamilton and Floyd Landis.

I’ve been riding pretty consistently, and I’ve had to take a day off here and there because of leg fatigue. Frog mating season is here, and the soundtrack of our night rides is the chorus of frogs looking for a date.

I think I need to put some harder miles in along with some structured rest periods to follow, in order to raise my fitness out of it’s current quagmire. Chilly Hilly is Sunday, a ride of 33 miles of ups and downs. If it’s not totally pissin’ down rain, I may ride to-and-from the event in order to boost my mileage.

Lastly, I passed my goal of 300 miles in February last night. w00t.

503.31 miles ytd.

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