Diet, Exercise, and your Kid's Grades

This was slated to be a tip in our newsletter, got a little long, then was buried in a very long newsletter. Since I've gotten some good feedback, think it's important, and don't think many of you saw it I'll add a link to it here.

Diet, Exercise, and Your Kid's Grades

And here are a few more related articles:

Further reading in the Beachbody Newsletter Archive:

Appleton Central Alternative High School featured in the article "We Are What We Eat"

Interview with Ken Reed, PE4life's Director of Marketing and Director of the Center for the Advancement of Physical Education, in "Just Say No to Dodgeball (Curing Childhood Obesity), Part I"

Interview with Ken Reed continued in "Just Say No to Dodgeball, Part II"

Mindless Banter On Training And Cycling

I haven't been blogging and I've had stuff to blog about--mybad. I've got some articles to critique but, first, I've had some very good--if not a bit crazy--training days to comment on. This week, for some reason, I'm racing all the time. Anyway, rather than talk about me I'll just post an email response from me to some of my friends, along with a translation at the end so you won't need the earlier emails. I'll be back to more serious blogging as soon as my next article is off to the editor. For now, hope you enjoy some silliness.

Reed, you need some money?

Reed has a copy in stock. I've read it. Great stuff. Am partial to The Day The Big Men Cried myself. "Hey, baby. You look just like an angel."

A reference to Bob Roll's book on bike racing titled Bobke, written years ago, that's now become a bit of a cult classic and is selling for 150 clams on ebay.

I'd also like to try Bobke's training program sometime. Currently, I've too much work but perhaps I could figure a way to do it next spring when I'm racing again. Actually, I raced twice on Sat (crit and a trail running race), and tonight (crit), will race Thursday (time trial), Friday (cyclocross), and Sat (the "Widowmaker" hill climb mtn bike race in Snowbird). But I digress. His program, as I recall, consists of eating very little but burgers, drinking beer and whiskey and coffee, riding 100 miles per day and sleeping a lot. Apparently if you try it you're guaranteed to "rip everybody's legs off."

Great thing about Utah is that there seems to be after-work races almost every day of the week. Since I haven't raced all year, it seemed like a good idea to race every day of the week, most of them in different diciplines. And, yes, I will try the Bobke program at some point.

Ahh, the LA Tri meetings. Lots of very tan girls with beautiful legs and heaps of free stuff. I won more at those meetings than all my primes combined. A new wet suit, even. Maybe I should just come back for the meetings.

Nahhh, Utah's great. Okay, so there are less women. But there are WAY less people, and this is good. Plus, there are mountains, everywhere. And so much stuff to do it's insane. I can't imagine how being bored is even possible, unless I get injured. Y'all should visit.

Thanks for the vids. And, oh, you can watch the World's finish on eurosport. Samuel Sanchez put in a monster attack to isolate his guy who couldn't pull it off. Amazing ride by Sanchez. Can't feel bad for Valverde, sheesh. He's just getting started. Either of the other two would have made me happy. Though I felt bad for Zabel, it's good to see the Cricket get Valverde's number anyway as his days as the best single day rider in the world are numbered. Shit, with Valverde's talent everyone's days to win races may be numbered. Now he might not dope. He doesn't even train properly (just races his friends to telephone poles). And this is nothing but good for the sport. He gets himself a scientist and the sport will become boring.

True, this years world championships was extremely exciting. Weird, but in the wake of all this doping stuff we've had some of the best bike racing in memory. Go watch the highlights at www.eurosport.com. And, oh, Alejandro Valverde really doesn't train scientifically and he's still winning the Pro Tour. Yikes.

Cyril

Cyril Guimard is a former director sportif who knows more about cycling than, I dunno, probably anyone.

Greatest Stage Ever?

What a year for bike racing. Okay, most of the press is bad but, as if the sport knows it's in trouble and needs to make a statement, we're getting some of the best bike racing I've ever seen, or even read about.

Today's stage in the Vuelta was absolutely unbelievable (I realized I've used this word a lot this year). In the battle for the GC, two of the best--and most interesting--riders in the peloton have been waging a cat and mouse war for the last few weeks--maybe a shark attack war is a better metaphor, actually, as it's been attack, attack, attack to see who will crack. Alexandre Vinokourav is probably the most aggressive rider in the sport. Alejandro Valverde is probably the most talented. After failing to crack Valverde on any climb or even in the time trial, which up until this year was Valverde's only weakness, it's looked as though Vino would have to settle for second. But after failing to gap him on yesterday's final climb, and then watching helplessly as Valverde outsprinted him for more bonus seconds (Valverde is by far the best sprinter of any racer who can climb at all), Vino issued this statement:

Nothing is Over

So what happens when you can't out climb, out sprint, or out time trial someone? You either lose or, what the hell, attack on a descent. Today, Vino attacked on the final climb--again--only to, once again, have Valverde bring him back by the summit prior to a 20k plunge to the finish line. So he attacked on the descent and, somehow, gained over a minute and a half of time to take the race lead. It's truly the craziest thing I've ever seen happen in a major bike race. Cyclingnews.com sounded like they agreed, using language in their live report such as "descending like a demon," and, then, "descending like a looney."

Unfortunately, because I live in the USA I can't watch this, which I could if I lived almost anywhere else. I guess our hundreds of channels don't have room for one of the most difficult sporting events on the planet so we can bring you more shopping, dysfunctional family talk shows, bass fishing, and NASCAR.

Anyway, if you like bike racing, attempt to track this down. And if you find it, make sure and let me know.

Interesting Stuff on Doping in Cycling

I may not be writing much but I'm still reading. Two interesting pieces that may be positive for the sport in the long run. First off, David Millar has won a stage and claims to be clean coming off a two-year suspension for using EPO. Millar is a supremely talented cyclist, former world champion, and I would think may be clean (although his bread and water statement must be hyperbole so...). Since a single win, sans dope, isn't really that big a deal from someone this talented the true test of this story will be over time, where doping has a more obvious effect over the body's ability to recuperate.

"It's Possible To Win Clean"

The next is the recent confession by two of Lance Armstrong's teammates that they used EPO to help him win. There's a lot of condemming circumstantial evidence in this story but what's most interesting is that Andreau seems to have confessed to clear his own conscious and "help the sport," which revelations like the ones that seem to be happening daily must do, because it's either that or kill it. Certainly, track and field, as well as cycling, and probably even more sports, are at a crossroads over performance enhancing drugs and medical intervention.

Postal Teammates Confessions

Funny Utah Story

I recently bought a house in Utah and have been busy in transition, which is affecting my blogging. I'll be settled soon enough but, for now, I'll have to be content with pasting in little tidbits once my other work is finished.

Things happening in the world include the Vuelta a Espana, or the Tour of Spain. So far, only one person has been ejected for doping and, otherwise, the race is spectacular. I've got a big doping post in the works as well as an article for the end of the month.

Yesterday, I saw two "shocking" headlines. The first, that greenhouse gasses were at the highest levels in at least 800,000 years and the other, that "American's don't eat enough fruits and vegetables" should both be in the section of the paper titled "Duh".

Today, I found this on goji berries, which you'll be hearing a lot about in the coming months, for sure. As is often the case with readers of my own articles, people tend to skip reading ALL of a piece and, instead, tend to focus on the bullets, headlines, or numbers. So for this piece I'll tell you now to focus on the part where they tell you that no matter how great goji berries may be, they are still only a part of your diet and won't make up for excesses in calories and junk foods in other areas. Of course, this warning is pretty much ubiquitous for all foods and, frankly, just isn't what the public wants to hear. Just don't say I haven't warned you about it.

Anyway, Utah seems sublime, so far. Not sure if it was the skiing, biking, or climbing that caused Brigham Young to utter his "this is the place" statement but, as far as the USA is concerned, I think he nailed it. My goal is to train every single day in Utah and, so far, I'm on it 100%. Of course, I've only spent a couple of weeks there and am currenlty in CA, so maybe today I'll just work. But I'm not about to run out of recreational options near my new home, at least for the next dozen years or so, and am psyched to check em out.

First funny Utah story:

Everyone seems to love Salt Lake--at least the people I run across, who are usually outside doin' stuff. So far, I've only run into one exception. I went to get a haircut and the woman hears I'm from California and asks what I think of SLC. When she hears I love it, she erupts into a tirade that lasts until I leave. Some highlights include:

"You sure do look like them, riding in on that bike and all healthy and shit."

"I hate it here. Everyone does stuff all the time. All I want to do is go back to California and sit on the beach and not move."

"I tried to ski once. Oh, my, God! I thought I was going to have a heart attack."

"I'm an inside girl. The only reason I ever want to leave my house is to shop."

She was, incidentally, originally from Anaheim.

Yep, I think Utah is the place.

Tea: Better Than Water?

This hit the wires today, Tea "Healthier" Drink Than Water.

I haven't tracked down the sources yet but, for sure, that article seems to have left out a lot of information. But the study is interesting nonetheless. Man, if you tried to believe every story you saw in the headlines you sure would be confused, eh? This latest heart attack debacle is one of the best arguments I've seen for getting proactive about your own health education.

Here's a link to my coffee article, along with the entire 911 series, so far.

Coffee

Coffee, Heart Attacks, and Dumb Writers

Remember that game you played as a kid, where one person whispered a secret to another, who passed whispered it to another, and so on, and then at the end you compared the original secret to see how much it had changed? This always baffled me at the time because I couldn't see how people could mess up a message the usually began very straightforward and simple. Well, I'm an adult now and it's baffling me just the same. Case in point, this article:

Coffee Might Trigger A Heart Attack

I'm a little ahead of myself with this post because I have an article addressing coffee and the numerous studies that have been done on it coming out this week. If you're not on the Beachbody mailing list, I suggest you give 'em your email and get on it because you won't get to read this if you don't. At any rate, the above study is referenced and analyzed.

However, this study was done a while back and, over time, the articles that have following have increased more and more in their alarmist tone. The study hasn't changed, mind you, nor the results or possible consequences. Just the articles.

In the above piece, there's a bit of rather need to know information that's left out--that the study found a gene variation that is quite rare accountable for these mild heart attacks. In the study's abstract, it clearly states that those without this gene variation are at no risk. But, I guess, since "gene variation" doesn't sound very alarming/sexy it's been replaced by those with "risk factors" which is left undefined. That switcharoo was done further back, in articles I'm citing in my upcoming piece. In this one, authored by Leslie Sabbagh, a "Daily Health Reporter", it's trickled down to "an occasional cup of coffee might trigger first heart attacks in some people, a new study suggests." No gene variation, no nonfatal, no addressing the fact that the researchers themselves were puzzled at the fact that those drinking more coffee with the same gene variation didn't seem at risk and, therefore, stated their own findings far from conclusive or that none of the major medical organizations are sold on the study--just a nice catchy red alert title to get some attention.

Anyway, when you see a headline that states "Coffee Kills", please do a bit of your own research first.

* Two facts from my upcoming piece. More than 19,000 studies have been done on coffee over the last few decades. A recent study spanning two decades and more than 120,000 subjects has recently concluded that there is no risk of heart disease that can be linked to coffee. This study was conducted by The Departments of Nutrition and Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health and the Channing Laboratory and Division of Preventive Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

A Few Words About Doping

If you're a cycling fanatic, like me, your world has been turned upside down by the recent allegations. Doping is always around the sport and an almost everpresent topic of conversation in the cycling world but, still, you don't see years like this too often. Ever, really. So I've been waiting to post something in depth on doping but I want to see Landis' B sample first. Then I'll comment.

But it's funny (ironic funny) that the word on the street about Robert Heras' positive test after winning the Vuelta de Espana last year was that he didn't go deep enough on one stage to meet his doctors projections prior to the race and, hence, was given too much EPO after a stage. Landis only generated around 260 watts on his final bonked state climb in stage 16, as opposed to the 400 he would generally generate and, therefore, without 400 watt breakdown projected his daily testes patch may have given him a little too much juice.

I just heard 100 meter runner Justin Gatlin was busted as well. Another word on the street is that track athletes are releived that cycling has been taking away much of the heat they've been under as world's dirtiest athletes. But, really, this is an obvious battle because these athletes--unlike skill sports--rely on their pure physical prowess more than any other. The finer they tune the engine the better chance they have to win and no technique is going to make up for it. So it's easier to catch them doping than, say, basketball or baseball players where most accusation is often based on conjecture about improved performance or via scuttlebutt from bitter ex-players like Jose Canseco.

A Tour For The Ages

Take it from someone who's been following the Tour for 30 years, this one was special. If you haven't seen it, or even if you have, make sure and catch (Tivo, tape...) OLN's recap show next week or buy the World Cylcing Videos dvd when it comes out. It may not have been quite as exciting as the '89 LeMond comeback victory over Laurent Fignon, but it's right up there. Definitely one of the great sporting events of my lifetime.

The circumstances surrounding the American Tour winners, Greg LeMond, Armstrong, and Landis are uncannily similar and beg the question "what's next for Floyd?" We know that he's having his hip replaced, so we begin with a 100% chance that it won't be a run-of-the-mill story already.

Le Mond, like Armstrong, was an ultra special athete at a very young age and could have won more tours if not for politics and adversity. He probably had to give one up in order to help his teammate, Bernard Hinault, win his fifth. Then he had to race against his teammate to win his first. Instead of this leading to a string of victories, it was the set-up for an amazing comeback.

LeMond was accidentally shot while hunting during the offseason, nearly died, and defied his doctor's predictions to come back to bike racing at all. When he did make it back, he was terrible; often not even able to finish races. In the '89 Giro d'Italia--two years after his accident--he fought just to finish within the time cut. But his hard work paid off and by the end of this tour he was keeping up with the leaders. That year, he won probably the most amazing Tour de France in history by 8 seconds. The next year he won again.

Next is the Armstrong story which is now a household tale in the US. The youngest world champion in history; Armstrong was never a complete rider until after his bout with cancer. During his first tour victory, he didn't have to compete against the best riders of his era, leading to a lot of "what if?" talk that created a massive amount of press for his second tour.

Enter Landis. Mennonite upbringing who used biking to escape. He had enormous talent but needed to learn how to live in the real world, something that probably slowed his rise into the top ranks, which he enters in order to work for Armstrong. He leaves the Postal (Lance's team) in order to have his own chances to win and when he finally reaches his peak, the race is filled with controversy and his hip gives out on him. It's bizarrely coincidental.

As for his future, we have no idea. In theory, his hip should be fine. However, it will still require everything to go well, a long rehab process, and probably just a bit of luck because even though a hip replacement is a simple procedure these days I don't think it's been tested when the patient has needed to return to world class athletic form.

Beyond this, we've still got the "what if?" question. Jan Ullrich, Francisco Manecebo, Ivan Basso, Alexander Vinokurov, and Alejandro Valverde all didn't race because of either doping scandal or crashing out. When they come back--of if, in some cases--the race is going to be different. Which is exactly what everyone said after Lance's first victory.

This means, basically, that next year promises to be fantastic and that you should become a cycling fan. So order OLN, bookmark Cyclingnews and Eurosport and, most of all, buy yourself a bike and get out there. Maybe someday, you'll even ride the Tour de France.

Ride The Tour article

OLN versus T-Mobile

OLN is changing their name to Versus next month (probably since it's hard to tout Survivor and weight lifting as outdoor sports) but they seem to started this combative attitude against T-Mobile during their tour coverage. Is this a corporate thing, or do they dislike Germany? It must be the former, since they don't slam Gerolsteiner.

Anyway, it's pretty irritating to watch this since T-Mobile lost their best rider and still fought their way to a podium finish and won the teams classification. Normally, this would be reason for some praise. Instead, we get Al Trautwig saying "I've just gotta say that I, for one, am really sick of seeing T-Mobile do well." WTF?

The other guys weren't quite as blatant but their subtle stabs at every opportunity and OLN's glaring omission of the team classification podium at the end of the race (they showed all the others, even "most combative rider") showed us that maybe versus is going to stand "our version of the world versus anyone we don't like".

Okay, whatever. But I, for one, am really sick of seeing biased race coverage. Hey Al, how'd your beloved Disco Boyz do? Did they quit the race, because the only time I saw their jerseys were when you were hyping them?

Does this guy sound to you like part of an evil empire of cheaters?

Kloden Interview

addition: my friend Reed just clicked his mouse a few times and discovered that OLN is owned by Comcast, who own AT&T, one of T-Mobile's direct rivals.

Unbelievable!

Unnn-beeee-lievable!

This might have been the best bit of bike racing I've ever seen. Certainly, since 1989 when LeMond and Fignon battled it out in a Tour that was decided by 8 seconds. Fignon, incidentally, criticized Landis the other day for lacking panache. Well, I reckon this is what he had in mind. We haven't seen this type of stage in the Tour since the days of Merckx. Not from Armstrong, not from Indurain, not from the Badger or Fignon himself.

Crazy. Crazy. Crazy.

I'm tellin' ya, if you haven't seen this race go find a TV today and watch it.

I won't even talk about it except to say that at the finish, there were tears running down my face. If you don't like this, you don't like sport.

Viva le Tour!

Viva, viva, viva!

Why We Race

Oh my God! That was an amazing stage.

Who could have guessed: the man you looked invincible cracked, two riders allowed to escape earlier in the race would still be riding with the leaders, the two teams that lost their leaders on the eve of the race are still dominant? Amazing. This is why, after all the media, marketing, science, posturing, etc, we still get out there and race.

So Landis cracked, big time. And make no mistake about it, his team had nothing to do with it. The only way they could have helped him was if they were allowed to push. I don't know what happened but it looked like a bonk . Once you bonk there's not much you can do. Perhaps he didn't take in the food or drink he needed, which is one of those things you never know until it hits you. Then it's too late. Whatever the reason, a guy who could beat me pedaling with one leg was riding up the final climb slower than I would. Something went seriously wrong.

Hats off to Pereiro and Dessell. They may still crack but they've taken the gifts given to them earlier in the race and given them a serious run around the block. Pereiro, a decent time trialist, is now a threat to win the race. And AG2R, always a also ran team in the Tour, has now become a major player. It's been so long for the French, they must be beside themselves.

And great team is, well, a great team. Caisse d'Epargne, CSC, and T-Mobile all lost their leaders and are still filling up the podium. You could have won some money betting on this last week, that's for certain.

The favorite now has to be Kloden but, after today, who could possible predict anything? It's a race on its head, wide open, and I can't wait until tomorrow.

Viva le Tour!

On Mountains And Teammates

Unless you've raced bikes, it's difficult to know just why having a team of riders around a chosen leader is an advantage, especially in the mountains.

On the flats, the pack moves so quickly that there is an obvious advantage due to the wind created by the speed of the riders. Add wind, especially when blowing in your face or side and knowing that teammates can shelter you makes it pretty obvious.

In the mountains, it's less clear and, frankly, far less important. Going up hill you don't create enough wind to have someone else matter much. Someone in front can still help, for sure, but it doesn't need to be a teammate since you generally ride about as hard as you can so you can take anybody's wheel and there isn't much they can do about it. On mountains, you usually see riders from various teams working together in a survival mode.Where teammates can be an advantage is by attacking one rider. This, however, requires that they are strong enough to try. If the pace is low, a team with a numbers advantage will launch guys and force rivals to chase. However, this advantage is easily minimized if one rider is the strongest because he can ride harder which won't allow this strategy.

On descents, it's different. A pack can move quicker, especially if the descent isn't too technical. But on narrow and twisting descents, it's often an advantage to be alone.

Today's stage--still in progress--is a great lesson in pack dynamic. Levi Leipheimer looks to have made an outstanding move. He attacked far from the finish, which is usually suicidal. However, because all the terrain is up and down and the descents are very windy, the pack won't get much of an advantage and if he's got the juice, he could be able to gain a lot of time.

Again, the OLN guys have made a big deal about Phonak lacking guys while T-Mobile has a bunch. Given the terrain, this is exaggerated. If those T-Mobile guys are strong, they should attack and make Landis follow. If they fail to do so, they have no real advantage because Landis can follow any wheel he likes. They are making a big deal about a possible mechanical problem but it's a rouse because the race leader's team car gets to ride at the front of the caravan (it goes by place) behind the leading rider on their squad. This means that the Phonak car is directly behind Floyd. If he had a mechanical he'd have a new bike in seconds--just as quickly as if he had a teammate, plus he'd have the right bike since his car has one, and maybe two, exact spares.

Oh, and Michael Rasmusen is again winning the mountain jersey. Yesterday, he stayed back to work for his teammate. Today, because his teammate doesn't really need him, they've let him ride ahead for points (as he's so far back on GC he'll be let go). It is possible--and likely--that if Menchov feels good on the final climb they will instruct him to slow down and help. If not, Rabobank lets him go for the stage, which is highly prestigeous.

Now I'm back to root for Levi. This is his big chance to get back into the GC picture. If it works, his move showed the type of panache the Tour is all about.

If We Only Had Basso

Then maybe then we could see Landis at least breathe hard. Today was ridiculous. Landis just follows every move, easily, with his "you'd better go faster now because I'm going to smoke you in the time trial" candor. So, it appears, the race is over. The next two days will be interesting but I'd say that Floyd's in total control. You can attack and attack but you've still got to have the riders that can hold it. CSC had a nice race. Expect more of the same from them, and probably Cunego, but they still can't win. Of course, there is plenty more to watch than the race for the yellow jersey.

The OLN guys were insane again today. Someone was talking about Floyd being isolated for the last 40k of the stage. Umm, you mean except for Merckx who paced the leaders for about a third of the climb? Then Floyd says the only guy he had trouble following was his own teammate at the base of Alp d'Huez. Insane.

A what's with Robbie Ventura? He's like a stamped out version of Armstrong's "coach" Chris Charmichael. TV loves their yes men. Like Carmichael, Ventura is ultra postive to the point of being absurd. The other day he said Floyd, for sure, wanted to keep the jersey only to watch him give it away in forcable fashion the next day. I'm sure, a la Lance, at some point we'll all know his real trainer is some nefarious Italian scientist.

Epic Week Ahead

And, hopefully, not just for the Tour as I plan to finally get a heap of exercise in. I'm grading my challenge D, since I've been resorting to swimming and hiking with kids to get all of my exercise in. I've been friggin' busy and it's been friggin' hot. At least I've been on my bike a lot. Hopefully, I'll reverse this during the final week.

Anyway, I'm pretty psyched about tomorrow's stage to L'Alpe d'Huez. It's going to be epic, well, hopefully. I think by tomorrow we'll have a very good idea about who our winner will be. Or not. I mean, if someone like Leipheimer or Menchov gains time, the race is wide open. But if Landis again easy covers each attack then I think he'll be able to do this throughout the alps and, if he gets to the final time trial close to the lead, he'll win.

I won't go into who I think will fill up the podium. I don't think it's a secret. Both cyclingnews and velonews have features on this. But if you saw the last mountain stage, you know who the players are. It's pretty wide open at this point. I don't care who wins. I'm hoping for some fun racing.

Straight Dope on Le Tour

Okay, I'm pretty sure that I don't know nearly as much about cycling as Paul Sherwin and Bob Roll, who were ex-pros, or Phil Liggett, who's the only Tour de France announcer I've heard in my lifetime (and I've been following the race since I was a kid.) However, listening to these guys talk it's apparent that there are marketing influences behind what they're saying. I'm guessing it's OLN, harping on them to say things to liven up the race (even though this edition is plenty full of life), but the stuff that's coming out of their mouths is often just nonesense.

For example, the "inability of Phonak to control the race" is something they talk about daily, especially since they purposefully gave up the jersey the other day. We hear Lance would have done this or that and "no way the Discovery Team would have allowed that to happen" yada yada yada and it's almost as though they never watched Lance race. I mean, when Thomas Voekeler bravely defending the yellow jersey for days on end in 2004 his biggest cheerleader was Armstrong. It's better to not have the yellow jersey if the person wearing it isn't an overall threat. No one disputes this except just about everyone in the American mainstream media. Cyclingnews.com was even more honest about Pereiro, saying "Grabbing the jersey is somewhat of an overstatement as Phonak almost forced him to take it." Yet OLN won't shut up about how "Phonak is vulnerable." Yet, watching Pereiro's Caisse d'Epargne boys working all day in the heat while Floyd's boys sat in the autobus resting for the alps, I'm thinking Phonak is employing some very sensible strategy.

This is just one example. I really used to like Phil, Bob, and Paul--and still do, even if it's now mainly sentimental--but I'm getting more and more sick of their lunacy every day. I've always blamed all this on Al Trautwig, but this excuse is beginning to wear itself thin.

Anyway, Phonak is fine. Landis is in perfect control of the race. He might not win if some individual is stronger in the mountains. But he's not going to lose to Pereiro. And he's not going to lose because of his team.

Breakaways

I was caught without an internet connection for the last couple of days so I'll catch up after that fact. In case--like my friend Sandee who rides her bike all over, races triathlons, and still has no clue about why the race goes the way it does--you've been confused about the last few days events:

Bastille Day - France's independence day almost always happens on the "transitional stage" in the Tour. This is a stage where there are no big mountains, which gives breakaways a good chance of success. During the race, the peloton (the mass of riders) starts and goes about as slow as it can get away with. Some days it's SLOW, some days not, but it's always calculated and usually controlled by the team that has the yellow jersey. Whether it's slow or fast, someone always tried to attack and go off alone. On Bastille Day, the French riders usually attack constantly.

However, the Bastille Day break the succeeded didn't contain a French rider who could hold the pace and was so strong the French teams couldn't bring it back. In the end, the guy who won had to attack early because his two companions were both sprinters. Discovery's Yaraslov Popovich attacked the break 5 times before he got away. Impressive.

The next day, Landis lost the race lead. This was calculated by his Phonak squad who wanted to "give away" the yellow jersey.

Essentially, various breaks try and the peloton, which can always move faster because of the mass dynamic and more riders available to take pulls on the front, finally allows one to go up the road and gain an amount of time. With races radios, the riders communicate with their director about who is in each break. Finally, a break with "the right elements" is allowed to go. In this case, they went far far ahead, gaining over half and hour on the peloton before Phonak started riding harder and "pegged" the break at around 30 minutes. This was enough time to give away the jersey but not enough to allow a lot of time for the new race leader to have in hand when the race reaches the alps.

The break came down to a race between two of the most aggressive riders in bike racing, Jens Voight, who won the stage, and Oscar Pereiro who got the race lead. He's a great rider, but nothing in has past shows that he can hold onto the jersey in the mountains. Asked about "losing" the jersey Landis commented, "If I don't get it back then I wasn't going to win it anyway."

So that's how that works.

Gerolsteiner Caught With Team Discovery's Dope

I think this was the afternoon headline in L'Equipe.

If it wasn't, it must have been something like that. I mean, granted, I was one of first people on the "Hincapie is not going to win the Tour" bandwagon but, still, the Disco boys rode better times when they were on front the entire race working for the Texan. Bizarre.

Leipheimer has been left for dead and making odd sounding excuses along the way. All of a sudden, he's attacking everyone in sight and three Gerolsteiner's are beating the best Discos.

Other than that, not much enexpected happened. Landis looks the strongest but, as a follower in the mountains with bigger hills to come, it's doubtful he'll be able to put things away before the time trial. A big climbing day by any number of of guys could still turn the race on its head.

Expect every Frenchman in the race to attack tomorrow.

Congrats to Landis, Menchov and especially for Dressel for choosing to defy the odds and defend the yellow. He put up a spirited fight and almost made it and, I'm sure, I'm not the only one who wished he had. Landis didn't want the jersey just yet and I think they'll be happy to let breaks go up the road tomorrow.

Explaining the Tour

Today's the first big day in the mountains. However, with the finish over 40k from the top of the last climb, not too many hands will be revealed. It's a day where you can't win the tour, but you can lose it. There are a couple of guys off the front that are going to take the yellow jersey, which doesn't much matter to the real contenders. That usually sounds strange to the people I talk to, so today I'll break down the race and how it works.

GC - is the race for the general classification based on overall time. This is what Armstrong won, the yellow jersey, and is the main prize. A GC rider is protected by his team during the race and should only need to shine at two points when he can no longer be protected: in the high mountains and on individual time trials.

Points - is the green jersey, the sprinters prize. This goes to the most consistant rider, place wise, as opposed to time. Because most of the stages are flat-ish, the people who can sprint out of a group win this prize. Teams matter during this prize, a lot, as a strong leadout from your team can greatly aid a sprinter. Since the sprinters generally can't climb, you'll see them gather together to try and support each other over the mountains (called the autobus, or just bus) where they need to survive to the finish in under the time cut. This isn't always easy. The green jersey wearer often fails to get over the mountains in time to finish the race.

Mountains - is the polka dot jersey for the best climber. It's usually not for the best climber in the race, but the most aggressive climber. The very best climbers are usually in a tactical match for the GC, so any climber who either doesn't fancy their GC chance or plain can't time trial, will try and win this. To win the mountain jersey you have to be aggressive and ride away from the field early on long mountain stages to get all of the points on the early climbs. Each rated climb has a point value which increases as you go deeper into the race. In order to win this jersey, you need to gain most of the points on the early climbs, meaning the wearer of the spotted jersey has to spend many kilometers alone in front of the race, expending massive amounts of energy, and then hold on and stay in time contention the rest of the race. ouch.

Young rider - the white jersey is for the best placed young rider on GC. Most teams have a dedicated GC leader and don't really work for this prize. Therefore, there's rarely too much drama surrounding this but it's always an indication of who to watch out for in the future. Often times this winner comes from the lesser squads as the power teams have all of their riders committed to working for their leader.

So, today, all of the GC contenders are happy to sit and watch each other and let a breakaway go up the road. This calculated gamble has often led to surprises in the race. In 1990, Claudio Ciappucci and a small group gained 10 minutes and wasn't caught until the second to last day of the race. In '04, Thomas Voekeler did the same thing and held the jersey for nearly half of the race. This is what's playing out today. A two-man break is gaining nearly 1o minutes. Cryil Dressel is going to win the moutains and the yellow jersey but Juan Migel Mercado is more dangerous as a GC threat. Tomorrow, Dressel will probably attack again an try to get more mountain points but Mercado, a good stage racer, could sit with the leaders and try to gain the yellow. He may be able to get it and hold it for a while.

As the GC riders go, T-Mobile with a reduced squad, probably doesn't want the jersey because working for it is hard work on the team. So what we saw was posturing. Tomorrow, there will be no hiding so today all the riders are trying to look cool and gain some type of psychological advantage going into the first monsterous mountain stage. If you were watching, notice Landis riding with his jersey zipped all the way up while his teammates--and most of the field--were fully un-zipped and gasping. This is posturing. "You think this is hard? I'm barely breathing," kind of stuff.

When I said you can't win but can lose, I think Levi has lost it. He hasn't said what, but something is wrong. If you lose the leaders over today's climb, your GC chances are over. Same with Iban Mayo and yesterday's leader, Gonchar (btw, his name is G, not H as is being reported by most people because "they made a mistake on my passport").

Another interesting note, Eric Zabel made it to the front group. He's trying to win his seventh green jersey but, at 36, no longer has the legs to win the big sprints. But crafty riding can gain points where most sprinters dare not go. He and Daniel Bennati made the front group and got a few points. If they can continue this they could sneak up on the leaders. Chances are, this won't be enough to win the competition unless McEwen and Boonen don't get over the mountains but that's happened before. And it's always interesting to watch big sprinters try and hang with the waif-like climbers in the moutains.

So today we didn't learn much but the race got more interesting. Tomorrow, we'll know who's got a chance to win. To me, the best looking three are Landis, Kloden, Evans. All the Discovery four look decent too, so look for them to attack, along with Giberto Simoni, for sure. Now I'd better get on my bike.

Flomax

Well, damn, I had a great post on the World Cup written here but then my internet connection began to go on the fritz and I lost it. Hopefully, that inspiration will come back to me but now I'm just irritated so, today (from my local coffee house), I'll post on the most irritating aspect of the Tour de France.

But first, my challenge. My grade on the first rest day is a C-. It's been good as an overall life commitment but my "training" has often consisted of bike commuting between various bars and restaurants for the World Cup matches. But, given the cup has finished, as well as all of my social commitments (like a mad 30-hour Video Shop renunion in Vegas), I reckon it'll get better. And, despite all the reverie, my fitness level went up, not down, over the course of the World Cup; something I'll guess is a rare event world-wide. Maybe only me, Ronaldo, Luis Figo, and Zidane.

New Tour prediction: slot Kloden into top 10, or top 5, or top 1....

So, for sure, the worst (of many many many) commercials during the Tour is the Flomax ad. You've heard me rant on this subject before; drugs that advertise side effects far worse than the problem they're claiming they "may" be able to help with. In this case, it's "frequent trips to the restroom(sic)" or some such nonesense. I mean, sure, that could be a problem. It could even be quite irritating. However, I'd far prefer it to the list of side effects promised, one being frequent fainting. The funny thing is that the ad shows guys fishing, golfing, handling heavy machinery and being generally active which, seems to me, is the exact kind of place you wouldn't want to be fainting. But, hell, what do I know? Perhaps a quick nod off in the middle of fighting a marlin is preferable to needing to take a whizz.