Fast Food Nation Reviews

I really like Richard Linklater, the director of Fast Food Nation, because no matter what pop culture, market research, or his distributors tell him he continues to make movies where people talk. I don't mean talk as in "Hasta la vista, baby," or some other cliche-ridden "isn't that clever" marketing jargon, but TALK, as in conversations; the kind that were common place before TV, the Internet, and X-Boxes.

In Fast Food Nation, the film's message is mainly delivered through words. Sure, there's sex, and violence, and even a special effect, but for Linklater's film to be truly affecting it requires the audience to listen. And if they do, they will be rewarded. It's a gamble that I hope will pay off because it's a story that we need to hear. And within his story is an underlying hope--or perhaps just blind faith--that an audience will watch a film about real people dealing with real issues.

There are no true good guys or bad guys in the film. In an interview with my friend, Denis (link below) he says,

"It's like, hey, everyone's doing their best in this world, you know?"

His characters, like all of us, are all flawed. The good aren't all good, nor the bad all bad, which is something mainstream movie goers, particularly in the USA, seem to have a problem with. Maybe it's because we don't watch movies to watch people in conflict because we get enough of that in our own life.

But to me, at least, this is a great statement of optimism and belief in our society; that we will, when given the choice, choose to listen, think, and make our own decisions. Even in a film that shows life to be pretty bleak, it's a very optimistic view of the world.

Here is Denis' interview with Richard Linklater and writer Eric Schlosser.

Here is his review.

Anyone Can Now Comment On...

Anything.

It was brought to my attention that you needed to have your own blog to comment. Oops. Sorry - I don't know a lot about blogging. I didn't mean to not be accessible, though most people reading this probably know how to contact me anyway. Well, I've fixed it. The public forum is now public, and you can tell me if there's something you've got issues with.

Now, I'm out for an easy 10,
Steve

Birthday Challenge Blog Is Up

My 2006 Birthday Challenge blog is up. It's both instrutions for other challengers on doing their blogs but also some history, which I'll past below as well.

I Thought It Up In A Dream, Actually

Birthday Challenges have been going on for a long time. The first I heard of them were through Jack LaLanne. I started doing my own in the mid 80s, which you can read about here (add link by clicking on the hyperlink icon above and adding your link.)

Since I set this site up they've become a lot more creative. Here are some good examples:

Reed 2000

Todd 2001

Hans 2004

Josh 2005

They've also gotten a lot harder.

Todd 2006

And how could they not, with training programs like this:

Bob's training schedule, 2000

But the point, really, is to challenge yourself. "Hard" is relative and truly only means hard for you. Running a marathon may be a warm up for Catra, but is an epic undertaking for most people. A birthday challenge is worthy as long as it's hard for you. It really doesn't matter what it's like for anyone else.

But by hard I mean HARD for you. If you know you can do it, it isn't a challenge. Like the Big Daddy likes to say, "if you can afford to lose it, it ain't gambling." Ditto for a challenge. They key to this is the unknown. You should go in with no idea about whether you can make it or not. Truly, some of the best challneges fail. But success, or failure, isn't point point, which is to get out there and chase the hairy edge as defined by you. Ultimately, what you're after is the feeling of why haven't I done a birthday challenge before?

Hamburger Facts To Chew On

Next week our Beachbody newsletter will have a review of Fast Food Nationas well as an interview with Richard Linkletter and Eric Schlosser. While you're waiting, here
are some facts to chew on.

Bon Appetit!

Fast Food Facts
Courtesy of Fast Food Nation

Americans eat about 13 billion hamburgers a year. If you put all those burgers
in a straight line, they would circle the earth more than 32 times.

Americans currently spend about $134 billion dollars per year on fast food –
more than they spend on college education, computers, software or new cars.

The typical American child sees 20,000 junk food ads a year

One out of every five American toddlers eats French fries every day.

Four major meatpacking firms slaughter nearly 85% of the nation’s cattle, and
the majority of the nation’s beef comes from thirteen large slaughterhouses.

Meatpacking is one of the most dangerous jobs in the United States. In 2001, the
rate of serious injury was three times higher than that in a typical American
factory.

Every year, about 76 million Americans are sickened by something they ate.

At a modern processing plant, a single cow or steer infected with E:coli:O157:H7
can contaminate 32,000 pounds of meat.

A typical fast food hamburger can contain pieces of hundreds, if not thousands
of cattle.

You Want Lies With That?

There's some great teaser footage on My Space. Check it out:

Fast Food Nation clips

See Fast Food Nation For Free

If you're reading this, you probably care about your health. If this is the case, you've got to get out and see Fast Food Nation. Hey, you should read it, too, but it's easier to squeeze a couple of hours into a busy schedule. And if you head to their site:

Fast Food Nation


They'll give you some free tickets. Now you can't even use money as an excuse. Seeing this movie could, literally, save your life.

Check out our Beachbody newsletter too. Denis just interviewed filmmaker Richard Linkletter and writer Eric Schlosser so we'll have an exclusive next week. You can sign up, for free, on the bottom right of Beachbody.com.

Dealing with Injury

In the scheme of things, my back is only a minor annoyance. However, I'm not that good a typist on my back, plus, not exercising makes me irritable. Anyway, I'm probably mainly still injured because I'm stupid as each day that I've felt okay I've done more than I should have and wound up on my back.

I am getting great treatment: a combination of acupunture, chiroprtactic, and massage. This, along with yoga, ice, stretching has me, as usual, thinking that I should make these practices a more regular part of my life. In fact, the last time I did yoga regularly was recovering from a back injury. This is probably why I usually come back from injury stronger than I was before. Will I learn this time and be more proactive about my recovery? Probably not, but maybe writing this will help you to do it.

Anyway, as part of my recovery I went bouldering the other day at a place I hadn't been in years. It was sublime. I haven't been pysched to boulder in a long time but was having such a great time I was talking to Tuco about the great session we were having to the point that had anyone else been there they'd truly have thought me insane. Me, bouldering and him, chasing rocks at his favorite place on earth. Here's a pic of the Rat, twelve years later, still looking pretty damn fit.

Woof.

Best Bouldering Day of the Year

I'm back in Ca, getting my back worked on in hopes of actually being able to support my girlfriend in her upcoming 100 mile race. Since race support of this kind means more than just the usual (I'm supposed to run 40 miles), I'm in need of some quick healing.

All was well going very well so the other did I hit up Red Rock, one of my old bouldering haunts. It was a bit sad at first, since the area has been getting virtually no traffic and the routes were dirty

Eastern vs Western Medicine

I should begin by apologizing for my camera phone. It was stunning here yesterday and, during this pic, the sun was setting and the "haze" on the right of the screen was red. Oh, well. This was taken from a trail above my house; about 10 minutes on my CX bike.

My back has recovered enough to get on my bike for a couple of hours yesterday. Saw an accupuncturist and it greatly helped. I tell ya, western medicine is great if you're very sick or have a traumatic injury. But for most of the maladies that affect daily life, eastern medicine is the way to go.

For example, going to my western doctor feels like I'm in a fallout shelter during a war. No matter what time I make an appointment I have to wait for hours in a room filled with sick patients complaining about our medical system. When I get inside, my doc wants to prescribe some medication and get me out of there asap. I can't blame him, as there's generally a lot of moaning and yelling coming from the other side of the wall.

Eastern medical clinics couldn't be more different. They're quiet and serene. Everyone on the staff is utterly calm and the entire experience is soothing. You feel better just sitting in the waiting room because it's filling with positive energy and decorated in a way the exudes calm. Treatments involve you as an individual. Questions are asked and answers taken into consideration.

By contrast, my western doctor usually acts as if I have no idea what I'm talking about, even when I know far more than him about something. For example, I have dupuytrens in my hands from climbing and wanted a specialist to look at it. My doctor didn't believe me (he barely knew what it was), even though I obviously knew a lot about it, and sent me to the wrong specialist twice. After this time I just found a hand doctor through my network and saw him (it took him about 3 seconds to diagnose me). But since my doctor wouldn't recommend it, my insurance won't cover it. They did, however, pay for three appoinments with the wrong people.

Don't get me wrong, if I tear my ACL or get cancer, I want the most technologically advanced people I can find addressing my problem. But for everyday living, eastern medicine is where it's at because it's all about wellness and living in harmony with the natural world. But western doctors, who are not required to take nutrition or exercise classes, seem to ignore this part of the process. Western medicine is based on fixing problems that often arise from living a life out of balance. Eastern attempt to help keep you life in balance and, hence, avoid those problems in the first place.

They are really two completely different things and we'd save a lot of money if our system could change to acknowledge this fact. Insurance should support fitness, nutrition, and eastern medicine which, in turn, would keep my doctor's office from looking like a fallout shelter and give him time to do the job he was trained for. Even without insurance, I suggest eastern medicine for everyone. I spent nearly two hours at my accupunturist's office. The cost: $85.

Some Days You Eat The Bear...

And some days, well, he eats you.

A man much wiser than myself once said that and I'll be damned if it isn't the truth. So, I've spent a few days down and out because I threw out my back. And I did it doing basically nothing. Just one of those things, I guess. Anyway, it's been one of those years where I can't seem to string any sort of fitness routine along. I mean, I'm out there doin' stuff constantly. But every time I've set my mind up to doing something challenging, something else in life has seemed to get in the way. So, the birthday challenge is, at least, on hold. I will do something but, realistically, there is just no way I can plan it at this point. At this rate, I'll just be happy to be rollin' at all when the day arrives.

Strikes and gutters. But, hey, I can't complain.

The Dude abides.

Birthday Challenge Thoughts

Since I'm going to be in California for my birthday it's a perfect chance to clean up some unfinished business. Here's what I'm thinking:

Because rushing into climbing shape tends to lead to injuries, I've been in no hurry here in Utah. With thousands of new routes within an hour radius of my house, I have no need to. This is completely different than California, where I've climbed pretty much every route I've wanted to that isn't in the Sierras, which would translate to an accelerated training program after cycling season and then getting injured. However, I've very little on my climbing agenda in Ca anyway. Nothing from this time of year.

A couple of years ago I concocted an idea to run and ride the Backbone Trail. It's been run before, at least once (probably a lot more), but never run and biked. The main problem here--besides fitness--is that some of it's closed to bikes. I'm not going to poach it, so I've come up with an alternate route. Well, maybe I'll poach a little of it...

I've always wanted to run the 9 Trail in Santa Barbara but because it's around Thanksgiving (and my birthday) there's always been other stuff on the agenda. Of course, just because I finally decide to do it the sucker sold out. I think I'll try it anyway.

I've also wondered about a big day on the bike near SB, climbing all the major climbs: Gibraltar, Painted Cave, Figueroa from both the north and south. This day is on par with the hardest single days I've had on a bike, or at least close.

I should add some climbing as well.

Okay, this ain't all happening in one day. The Backbone is 100k plus with heaps (probably 20,000' at least) of elevation change. The 9 Trails has 10,500' in just 35 miles and not even one section of simple running. In fact, the 9 Trails course is the toughest running course, step by step, I've seen, which is why it's so cool. The biking is, well, just biking. But a lot of biking. The climbing is going to be hard no matter what because I didn't climb all summer and, currently, don't even have the upper body strength to do a half hour set of pull-ups, something I used to do on my rest days.

Here's what I'm thinking with a month to go:

I've done loads of one day challenges, a 40 day challenge, and a 43 hour challenge. This year will be four days, with an optional .6 a day off (maybe for Thanksgiving).

The main portion of the challenge with be the Backbone link-up. By far the hardest thing. I have no idea if I'm even in the realm of being able to do it.

Next will be some riding: the 4 climbs around Santa Barbara.

Next will be some climbing. I guess 46 routes sounds good. Most I've done in a day this year is, hmmm, maybe a bunch when I was fit last winter. Anyway, it's 10 since I've been climbing again. This will not be a rest day. I'll probably have to climb at Echo, meaning that less than 10 will be under 5.10. And probably more than 10 will be 5.11. I may throw some 12s in there but I'd have to change this to laps because there's no way I can do six laps of 5.12 right now, even without 40 other routes. But, hey, I've still got a month....

I'll try and finish with the 9 Trails. Could be ugly at this stage. Fresh I'm sure I could do a decent time but, hmmm, I'm thinking that just finishing will be enough by this point.

Anyway, more thoughts later. I'be better get training.

The Next President?

In my work I don't take my politics beyond the business at hand: health and fitness. These issues, however, are crucially tied to our political system where more and more politicians find their hands tied by those who put them in office in the first place. This, unfortunately, is not the individual voter but ultra partisan interest groups. We've become a nation ruled by lobbyists.

During a discussion with one of my most politically polarized friends we easily came to the conclusion that we, as a team, would do a much better job in running our country than those in charge. This was due to a very simple fact; that our goal would be to do what's best for the country instead of placating a long list of special interests.

This is a disturbing idea. I mean, I'm pretty smart. So is my friend. It's not that I don't have confidence in my abilities. But I think it could be said for many people as well. As long as the ultimate interest would be creating a better country--or world--as opposed to personal gain (which includes "payback" to those who've personally helped you), I don't think it would be hard to do a better job than we're doing now.

I was almost disgusted when Arnold Schwarzenegger became the governor of California using a campaign of forced rhetoric and movie quotes. Now, however, I'm very glad he did. While I disagree with much of his agenda, the pure fact that's he's bipartisan is forcing both parties to find some sort of common ground. For example, he's pro business and pro environment. If we could rectify even this one problem--businesses polluting in order to boost their quarterly earnings--the world would make its most significant change in a long time.

Anyway, the point of this morning's diatribe is not to preach. I merely wanted to point something out. In a political conversation a few years back someone said to me, "You're like a combination of Gandhi and Barack Obama." I didn't know much about the latter name at the time but have been watching him since. And, for certain, he's worth watching. Because, like him or not, his agenda is for a more thoughtful and bipartisan world. And if we can't find some common ground to stand on, we've got a lot bigger problems facing our future than being overweight.

Btw, this is a bipartisan article. Not necessarily pro Obama at all.

The Fresh Face

Here's an excerpt of his book.


The Audacity of Hope

Floyd's New Career

Booyakasha,

Yo, peeps. Check this out. My main man, Floyd Landis, calls bull shit on the French and starts a new career.

Respekt,



Bikin' Dirty

Training in Utah

Just a couple of average things you see while training here. One's my cyclocross rig in front of "This is the place" state park, the site where Brigham uttered those famous words on their pilgramage west. The other is, ya know, a moose. He was just kickin' it at the top of "Little Mountain", which is what everyone calls the pass at the summit of Emigration Canyon. I noticed a few cyclists and some tourists all standing around but, this being sorta normal, didn't give it a thought until I stopped my bike about 10' from a moose. This started both of us, a bit, and he sauntered off. I wasn't quick enough with my camera phone or you would have seen antlers n' stuff. Anyway, there's more where he came from. This is my second moose siting in less than a month. They're cool, just so long as you don't piss 'em off. Then you find out why they have no natural predators. For this reason I decided that just because I was the only person around on a bike with knobby tires wasn't reason enough to warrent following him in hopes of getting a better shot.

A World Bigger Than Yourself

My dad had an article published today in his local paper. He's discussing issues concerning Lake Tahoe, but his point it relevant to all of us. I've never understood the 'it's all about me' cliche. What kind of world would that be to live in?

Ask not what the lake can do for you, but what you can do for the lake.

Diet Coke Is Very Very Bad

So I talk about this all the time, but have you seen the video(s) of what happens when you drop a Mentos into a Diet Coke? Funny, indeed, but the idea that some people drink this stuff in an attempt to get healthier is absurd.

Diet Coke/Mentos Fountain Show

Time For A New Challenge

It's that time of year again; birthday challenge time. Since the last two years have, basically, gone down due to injury it's time to attempt something rather difficult. The rub, as the saying goes, is that I've not had ample time this year for serious training and I'll I've been doing is a lot of random exercise. Good exercise, mind you, but random as the same. So what to do...

Well, I'm not about to announce it yet. It's still too soon. But 460 clicks on the bike has a nice ring to it. I also planned to do the Santa Barbara 9 Trails race but it's sold out. This sucker is grueling all it's own, with 10,500' feet of elevation change over 35 miles of rocky singletrack. But, ya know, they can't really close the course so maybe I'll do it anyway. So let's see, that's 460k's on the bike, along with 35 miles of trail running with 10,500' of elevation change. How about rounding it up to 46,000' of elevation change? That's a cool 35,500 on the bike. I've done that much in a day; twice even. Course, both those days and I could hardly move when I was finished but what the hell? Isn't endurance suppose to increase as you age? Anyway, I rode three of our six canyons last weekend with Dustin (in prep for his challenge) and faired pretty well. That's a good 10,000' or so of climbing. Speaking of which, don't I need some in my challenge? Hmmm, starting to exceed what's possible in 24hrs for anyone. Maybe 46 hours. Then I could probably throw in 46 routes. Course, I haven't climbed much this year and the most pitches I've probably done in a day is 10. But, anyway, that's why I announce it in advance; so I can train. That's the FUN part!

So I've got something brewin', and it ain't gonna be easy. I'd better find some time for some long days and find out what kind of fitness all this randomness has given me.

Guess I'll go and ice now...

Drugs or Food?

Found this on the wires today:

Food Affects Some Like Drugs

Interesting in the wake up my feature article last week:

Food, Drugs, and Supplements: What's the Difference?

Part of my piece discusses which aided/hindered the person more, Bonds' nefarious drug use or The Babe's imfamous "diet".

While I'd like to file this under the "duh files", I can't. Our society seems to become more and more disconnected to their own bodies. We really need to change our education system. This should be basic knowledge for everyone, not some elective class that most people skip. It's just about the most fundamental thing we should learn--how our body works and how to take care of it. But I'll refrain from ranting today. Just read this stuff and see if you agree.

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.

"Surprising Day at the Tour"

Not exactly. But to listen to the OLN commentary or read any American news source it seems like it was a shocking day, and mainly because George Hincapie didn't win. But, really, was there anything in his past other than his relationship with a certain Texan that showed his might? Um, no.

One shocking thing was the poor performance of Levi Leipheimer. I don't think anyone expected this and, in fact, I don't think he's ever ridden anything close the this bad a time trial. After two top 10 Tour finished and in a year he's supposed to be peaking, it seems to point to something being quite wrong. We'll see in the days ahead.

Another is the crash of Bobby Julich, who now holds the unprecidented distinction of crashing out of the Tour twice as a team leader (if de facto this time), in time trials, something normally thought of as safe. The only explaination that I can find for this is that perhaps thinking he'd be there to support Basso in the mountains, he didn't recon the time trial courses because he didn't think he'd be allowed to ride hard, and was therefore unaware hidden curb that seemed to cause his accident. But, man, even with the crash, it was still pretty much bad luck to be forced out of the race.

Other than that, today was filled with proven time trialists having good performances. The "completely unexpected" winner, Sergie Gonchar, wouldn't have been so unexpected had he not come to the race to ride for Jan Ullrich (who must be beside himself seeing how his team performed today on a course that perfectly suits his talents). After all, he's won a stack of time trials over the years and held the lead in the Giro de Italia. Rogers, Lang, Landis, etc, etc. were all expected to do well here.

Landis was the big winner for the day, moving into the clear race favorite. Kloden proved to be fit as well and is now, "suddenly", a contender. Other proven guys had solid rides, mainly GC threats Evans, Menchov, Sastre. Some of the best climbers, like Rujano, Mayo, and Simoni lost a ton of time which will, undoutable, lead to many attacks, fireworks, and a fun time in the mountains. Who of the favorites will be able to follow?

As for Discovery, they now have a clear leader, 2-time Giro winner Paulo Salvodelli, and a great team to support him. But what does this do to the American coverage? The way OLN's been reporting, it's not far fetched to think they might just throw in the towel and get back to bass tournaments and shooting things. How can we sell a race to the American public without a a movie star mug with a podium girl wife? Landis is more like that kind of working-class hero the French would rally behind. We certainly can't broadcast something like that!

Allez, Floyd!

Doping

I'll post my own thoughts on this at some point but this is very interetsting and explains, rather well, some of the misconceptions with doping.

I do ask you, if these riders are the only ones doping than wouldn't they have had some quantifiable shift in performance that could easily be graphed? Doping, by definition, is performance enhancing (makes you go faster). Yet, there is no evidence of this sort. This either means that no one dopes, which seems unlikely in the face of these allegations, or that everyone does. There is truly no other explaination when you look at the numbers. The problem, perhaps, is that what is actually doping is misunderstood.

Reported on cyclingnews.com

Fuentes: "Tour at that speed impossible without doping"
In an extensive interview broadcast by Spanish radio Cadena Ser, gynaecologist and doping expert Eufemiano Fuentes has talked about his behind-the-scenes activities in the sport. First of all, he insisted on his belief that he was not a criminal and only attended to his medical duty of preserving the athlete's health.

"I'm don't feel like a criminal; I haven't killed anyone and I haven't destroyed anyone's health," he said. "I'm a health professional; my priority is to cure my patients because I think that the sport at high level is not healthy. I'm accused of crime against public health, but they should sanction those who play at being doctors." So instead of boosting the rider's performances, Fuentes considered that he only "supplemented and adjusted" those bodily functions of the riders which showed a deficit.

"[Cyclists] are very special sportsmen because they reduce their heart rate by half when resting," he continued. "Their hearts are big, and when they stop cycling their hearts reduce their size to normal within six months, which results in what we call 'sudden death'."

Fuentes, who added that his treatments also concerned other sports than cycling (football, tennis, athletics), said that it was possible to ride the Tour de France without "medical" help, but not at that speed. "You just can't ride four of these mountain stages successively at that speed, it's very harmful," he said, adding that in his opinion it was more dangerous for a cyclist to start the Tour de France with a hematocrit level of 31 percent, than one of 51 percent - even though this meant that the rider would be excluded from competition.

The Madrid-based doctor named two cyclists, Alberto Contador and Vicente Ballester, but only to say that he did not know them and that he did not know why their names were on the list established by the Spanish criminal investigators. He also said that there were riders still participating in the Tour de France that he had treated and that he "had enough of the hypocrisy. The Tour direction sent home riders that I never treated, and there are now clients of mine in the peloton. I'm furious. People were named that I don't even know but other names were concealed."

Moreover, he stated that the bags of blood that were found were destined "for use in the next ten years", and that the quantities of EPO seized "for a family member who might need it." he also added that he had been threatened not to reveal any persons involved with him. Fuentes felt "lynched by the media" and "killed professionally".

This second story concerns Lance Armstrong's former personal coach:

Leipheimer in Ferrari hotel
German press agency dpa has reported that Gerolsteiner team manager Hans-Michael Holczer had confirmed information according to which his Tour de France leader, American Levi Leipheimer, had possible contacts with controversial preparatore Michele Ferrari. At the start of stage five in Beauvais, Holczer admitted that Leipheimer had stayed in the same hotel during a training camp on Spanish island Tenerife last year. "But he assured me once again that he isn't working with the Italian," said Holczer.

Landis

Since I'm writing this at the rather crazy hour of 5am, it seemed like a good subject would be the craziest rider in the peloton, Floyd Landis. I think going from a normal amount of exercise to heaps of exercise is wreaking havoc with my sleep. The last couple of nights I've woken up early, even though I'm quite tired. It's either that or the World Cup reverie in combination with the exercise. Still, I'm already over two hours behind my Tour challengers; nothing a couple of long days in the mountains can't fix.

I bring this up because as I'm laying in bed I'm wondering what Floyd might do, which is probably just get up and start training. With the top riders riders from last year's Tour all out due to retirement (Armstrong) or doping (Ullrich, Basso, Mancebo), or lack of a team due to doping (Vinokorov) along with the pre-race favorite (Valverde, crash), American Floyd Landis is now the odds on favorite to win the race. After years of calculated and professional behavior from the Texan, this may be just the shot in the arm (pun intended) that the sport needs. Landis couldn't be more different than Armstrong.

Raised in a Mennonite community he wasn't even allowed to wear shorts when he first began to race his bike. His parents, horrified at the thought of someone trying to race bikes for a living, gave him so many chores that he wouldn't be able to ride during the day. So he trained at night, every night, even during the Pennsylvania winter. He'd read that Tour riders training 100 miles a day, so that's what he did. He'd train during the snowy winters with plastic bags over his shoes wearing layers of sweat pants on a lousy bike until he left home at 17 and promptly became a professional mountain biker.

Thrust into the limelight, Landis has nothing to do with Armstrong's entourage or the Discovery team's clinical political correctness. He makes his winter home the Riverside country suburb of Murrieta, a place not exactly associated with the rich and famous. During the season, he lives in a dingy $700 a month apt. He's brash and says whatever's on his mind.

When Armstrong's association with Dr. Michele Ferrari came up in the book, Lance Armstrong's War, most of the Armstrong circle gave measured responses about the association, pointing to Chris Carmichael, OLN golden boy touted as the man behind Armstrong by the US press as an important component's. Ferrari, unquestionably one of sports most brilliant minds, was not the type of character American's wanted their hero associated with because he was open and critical about the UCI's doping policy and, essentially, pro dope, calling EPO under supervision "safer than orange juice." Landis, however, laughed outright when asked who Armstrong's real trainer was. "You've met both of them," he said to the author Daniel Coyne. "Who would you listen to?" a reference obviously pointing to Ferrari.

He's also tough as nails, once refusing to go to the hospital with a broken hip until it was apparent it would never heal on its own. Then, after having a bunch of bolts placed in his hip to hold it together, he was on his trainer the next week, and starting the Tour de France not long after.

One of my favorite Landisisms was his response to the cliche of giving 110%.

"Well, why not 112 percent?" Landis inquires, eyes widening with burning incredulity. "Why not 500 percent or 1,300 percent or 38 billion percent? I mean, if he can crank it up beyond 100 percent, why not? What's stopping him, exactly?"

Or on overtraining:

There's only one rule: The guy who trains the hardest, the most, wins. Period. Because you won't die. Even though you feel like you'll die, you don't actually die. Like when you're training, you can always do one more. Always. As tired as you might think you are, you can always, always do one more."

So there's no such thing as overtraining?

"If you overtrained, it means that you didn't train hard enough to handle that level of training," Landis says, his fingertip rapping the table for emphasis. "So you weren't overtrained; you were actually undertrained to begin with. So there's the rule again: The guy who trains the hardest, the most, wins."

And ther's plenty more where that came from. Check out this article, for starters. Go Floyd!

Oh, and btw, congratulations to France and Italy for reaching the World Cup finals.

Bravo!

One Game Changes Everything

My challenge is a rather large undertaking and today it was exacerbated by more than the Tour. Add celebrations for the 4th and the World Cup semi-finals and you've got a difficult scenario for fitness. Thankfully, I live in a huge city as my commute to the various activities I was to participate in got me a few hours on the bike. I'm a bit in the red on my challenge, meaning I owe about an hour and a half. I'm tellin' ya, this will be a lot easier when the World Cup ends.

At the Tour today there was justice. Mattias Kessler, who deserved to win yesterday, found the strength to attack the peloton once again and this time stayed away. His victory will hopefully take a touch of the sting out of Germany's woes over their valient loss to Italy. The Italians were superior in a brilliant match, one for the ages. Anyone who thinks "soccer is boring" needs to find a reply of today's overtime. Sitting next to a German fan down at my local, he could only shake his head at the winning goal. "That was absolutely beautiful," was all he said.

It may not feel like it here in the USA, but you should believe those slogans that state "one game changes everything."

Viva Italia!
Hoppe Germany!
Happy Birthday, America!

The Longest Day

Hmmm, I think this little training program I've concocted might be kind of hard. 5-plus hours in the saddle today for the boys, meaning that if I ride for 3 hours, which is reasonable, I need to do 2 hours of additional exercise. I think my social life's about to disappear for the month of July. Oh, well, it'll be fun and, by the end, I should be pretty fit. I'll perform a fit test later today and see how much I improve over the next three weeks.

The last two days (and the couple prior) have all been 2-3 hours on the mtn bike. Yesterday, I was definitely feeling tired and I'm thinking "this is day 2!" Maybe I'll recover today... ha!

On the tour: some fun strategy has been played out over the last couple of days. It was nice to see Big George (Hincapie) use a cheeky move yesterday to gain the yellow. Thor got it back today with some more straight forward sprinting. The race for the green jersey looks a lot more wide open than I had thought. Boonen was unbeatable during the early season but he's definitely beatable now. He went 1-1 with two straight up sprints with Husvold today before being nowhere in the finale. McEwen is on form, for sure, but it's always interesting to see whether or not he can get over the mountains. If the bigs guns falter, crafty riders who can climb, Eric Zabel and Stuart O'Grady are still in the mix and may have something to say about it yet.

You can tell absolutely nothing about the yellow jersey race at this point but it's always fun to look anyway. Landis has had two glitches already. He missed the start of the prolong and lost a hand full of seconds. Today he was in a minor crash. Evans has stayed near the front and out of trouble. Kloden (notice not in my top 10 because I didn't want to gamble on his unknown form) is right in the mix. If he's at his level of two years ago he might be the favorite. You can't tell anything about Valverde right now. He's so fast he could probably win a stage like todays if he was in the mood, so maybe he's just riding smart. His only real unknown is long time trialing, so we'll know where he stands after stage nine. If he's among the leaders, look out.

Tomorrow's stage is pretty bumpy. It would suit a breakaway, which I'm sure will be attempted. But the sprinter's teams are very strong so, I imagine, Husvold will try and hang onto yellow so look for another select sprint finish.

Tour Preview

The Tour hasn't even started and we've already had the craziest day in sports this year, and maybe the biggest day in the history of cycling because 58 major players, as well as the top two Tour contenders, have been implicated in a doping scandal and kicked out of the race. I'll discuss this more over the coming weeks but, for now, let's sort out what to think about who's left in the race.

The course:

Each year, the Tour takes a different course around France, usually including a few days in another country. This year's Tour uses an old school profile that features more time trialing, less climbing, and no team time trial. If Armstrong were still in the race, this would suit him against Ivan Basso but not against Jan Ullrich. The lack of a team time trial lessens the advantage of the power teams: Discovery and CSC, meaning a guys like Alejandro Valverde or Iban Mayo don't start the race already having given up a couple of minutes.

This year, the long time trials had made Jan Ullirch a favortie over a pure climber like Basso. I still would have picked Basso based on how he destroyed everyone in the Giro d'Italia. Now they're both gone, along with Francisco Manecebo and a very unlucky Alexander Vinokerov, who was not in a doping scandal but lost his entire team and, hence, cannot participate himself. With last year's top 5 riders not competing, it means the race is completey wide open. There isn't even a minor favortite, much less a clear favorite. Here are the players:

Alejandro Valverde (Spain, Caisse d'Epargne) - This wonderkid is one of the best one-day racers in the world and hasn't even began to flirt with his potential. Vegas has him the odds-on favorite but he's never won a grand tour nor has he finished the Tour de France. He can sprint and climb, a rare combination, but the oddsmakers are setting him up almost purely on potential.

Levi Leipheimer (USA, Gerolsteiner) - The highest finisher from last year left in the race, Leipheimer is a solid rider supported by an excellent team who just won the Dauphane Libre. His form is there but the buzz is that he doesn't quite have the talent or team to stand on the top of the podium. Could be true but there is little doubt he'll be in the mix and has a great chance to move on to the podium.

Floyd Landis (USA, Phonak) - Armstrong's former teammate has already won three stage races this year. With heaps of talent, a great team, and plenty of brashness to handle the pressure, many are touting him as Armstrong's heir apparant.

Cadel Evans (Aussi, Davitamon-Lotto) - A strong finish last year and a solid build up this spring, this former mountain biker (like Landis) can climb and time trial equally well and seems well suited to this year's course. His team, however, might have trouble if forced to control the race.

Paulo Salvodell, George Hincapie, Jose Azevedo, Yaroslav Popovych - Discovery doesn't have Lance but they've got a lot of cards to play. Big George showed he can win in the moutains last year but can he climb in a leader's position? Savoldelli is realistically their best shot, having won the Giro twice. Azevedo and Popovych both have finished high in major tours. It should be interesting and fun to watch them play all these cards.

Wild Cards - The are many many peope that could shake up this race. Denis Mechov finished second in the Vuelta de Espana last year and seems to be improving. Both Damiano Cunego and Giberto Simoni have won the Giro. They seem to lack enough time trialing ability to win here but could make thing very intersting in the mountains. Ditto for Michael Rasmussen, who will probably go for another spotted jersey (the best climber). Iban Mayo hasn't been heard from in two years but a recent win shows he might be on form, something to consider since he's one of the few people who dropped Armstrong in the mountains.

T-Mobile and CSC - With the loss of their leaders, it's hard to imane these powerhouse teams going quietly. T-Mobile has world time trial champion Mick Rogers and Tour podium finisher Andreas Kloden to pick up the slack. If Kloden, who's lacked form the last couple of years, is strong, he should be a favorite.

CSC will look to American Dave Zabriske to grab the yellow during the first time trial. History seems to show he'll lose it in the mountains but if anyone's strong enough to hold the jersey, it's CSC. Bobby Julich may be too old but the race profile suits him. Frank Schleck could also be ready for a breakthrough year as well and Carlos Sastre has proven tough in stage races. Like Discovery, they have a lot of cards to play. Look for some creative strategy from them once the race hits the mountains.

Green Jersey (sprinter) - This is Tom Boonen's to lose but look for Thor Husvold, Robbie McEwen, Eric Zabel and Stuart O'Grady to try and knock the world champion out.

Polka Dot Jersey (mountain) - Depending on who tries for this it could be fantastic. Certainly Rasmussen will try again but if Gibo or Cunego don't fancy their chances for the overall, this could be epic.

Prediction.

Anything can happen, but I've got to choose someone, so:

1. Landis
2. Valverde
3. Salvodelli
4. Leipheimer
5. Evans
6. Sastre
7. Rogers
8. Menchov
9. Hincapie
10. Cunego

Le Tour, Dope, and a New Training Program

My new training program began yesterday. While it's not very scientific it will be hard, fun, and lead to something when it's over. I'll explain the "rules" over the coming days. For now, all I know is that it will mirror the Tour de France, which may lead to some discussion about doping in sports, something this is almost entirely misunderstood by the general public.

In my chat last week, one of our members was complaining about lack of motivation. I mentioned that with the Tour beginning this week, it was the perfect time to begin a training program. This race is a great vicarious training partner because, no matter how much you may be suffering or sacrificing, you can be sure there are others out there suffering and sacrificing more.

I've done a Tour training program once before. Back in '98 i mirrored the race. Because I hadn't done much bike riding and was completely off the couch, I road each day of the race but began riding only 10% of the racer's distance, which increased over time until I was riding 100% of their distance over teh final few days.

This year it's going to be tougher. Because I'm training for a few different sports, I won't just be on my bike. But I will train, and train a lot. Here are the rules.

1. Train as many hours per day as the riders race.
2. Bike each day the riders ride.
3. Blog each day.

So I'll be back, everday for the next 21 days. Along with my training program, you'll also get my views on this year's race, the doping scandal, and why American's are so ambivilant towards the World Cup.