I do NOT know why I just entitled this positing with than, now like a sickness that song is infecting my brain. I'm just stoked Friday;s here. So to assault your senses visually and ensure I am not the only one suffering with this song spinning in my head, behold: Loverboy. Canada's finest export:

Get Some.

So on this opener today I saw the "mystery Liquigas guy". For non Boulderites (most cycling dudes here in town know exactly who I am talking about), there's this dude who rides the town in full 05 Liquigas kit. Full-up carbon team issue Bianchi, the Liquigas kit, Liquigas arm armers, Liquigas leg warmers and of course no helmet but Liquigas headband. Priceless. In fact, the year before he had the full on Seaco Cannondale, kit, etc (so I guess his contract moved from Seaco to Liquigas too). Now, as a cycling racer...I am even more a cycling enthusiast...so my point here is that I could give a crap what you wear, why you wear it. If it's comfy, wear it! Moreover, it's all of us that make the cycling industry go round and get bigger and more popular so if its buying Lance's Trek or Stu O'Grady's CSC kit, go big! It's rad stuff. It's just that this is seemingly such an arrogant guy that I truly think he wants to ensure folks in town think he's a pro or something. For years I see him riding, lift my hand off the bar to wave...even shout across the road "Hey man!". Nothing. No look, no wave....just the "I'm in the zone doin' an interval so I'm way too busy to even look at you in your crappy non pro club team kit" kind of 1000 yard stare. Maybe he's deaf. Dunno. So there he is again today! And this time I am coming up on him. So I just had to kind of do some Magnum PI investigation on him today (in my team kit of course and sans Magnum's mustache and ball hugger shorts...) and ride up under the 'guise' of doing these intervals up to him to see if I could get him to say a peep. So I ride up and past him slowly (waving of course), finish the interval, drift back. Repeat. I wave again...nothing! I JUST truly wanted to see if I could get a conversation going with mystery guy! On one of the passes by him...6 inches away mind you...I say "Howdy!" Nothing. Not a peep. I don't even know why I am writing this but it was hilarious to get nothing out of this guy as an affirmation of the years I've spent waving at him. No soup for you! That's what I say, punk.

So for my homies here in Boulder, especially the dudes on our team who are all geekdified on your team deal Specialized Tricross carbons, listen up! Andy Jacques-Maynes (who's brother Ben is tearing it up in the NA scene) was in a fairly hideous wreck at a crit this weekend in CA (Thus why I avoid crits when I can....even in vet pro which supposedly has us being skilled and conservative at our core.....). Why the point about the Tricross above? Because it is he who spearheaded the development of the project and leveraged his obvious talent and experience to develop that bike and bring it to market (can't say I 'love' the "Free Road" thing though...).

A GREAT posting about these brothers from a really great blog (any blogger should aspire to this level of thought "Vanderhoot" puts into his postings...) is a must read about AJM. Vanderhoot is a Bay Area racer and basically is like the information hub on all things road, mountain and 'cross in my old homestead.

Anyway, read this post...and get exposed to some other bike related banter. And when you throw your leg over your shiny new Tricross, put good thoughts out there to get this guy rolling again.

Mol, BE Saturday January 19th, 2008. Le Championnats Masters Mondiaux. The day before my birthday. The beach awaits. I am smiling ear to ear.

Belgium 2008. I can't believe I am doing this.

So "Za Plan" (please say this with a Hogan's Hero-esque German accent) requires a little watt meterage. So I get the SL 2.4, and have it built by my sinsei Dwayne BCS (of COURSE with ceramic Open Pro's and black spoke...c'mon!) and mount the whole thing up. Nothing. The display lights up all pretty and such, but NOTHING is being read from the 500lb hub (NOTE: there's no doubt Landis won his 'testosterone stage' hauling up all that PowerTap weight). So, I get in the family truckster and go and get some new batteries for this thing at 9PM. Safeway...no go. Walgreens: Golden! The ever rare EXP76 batteries are found on their expansive selection.

I get home, install said batteries. Nothing. I lose it. Kicking stuff, ranting, swearing like a truck driver. I pull off the display piece, clean the heads and re slide back into the mount. Spin the wheel. The shit works. I ride a bit. Flickers on and off. Semi lose it again. Clean it again. Works...and this time (fingers crossed) it is staying on. Going to try it out tomorrow. This thing better work!

....of a blog today and it scared the living poop out of me. And I liked it. Belgian Knee Warmers is a phenomenal blog written by an unbelievably passionate cyclist who has the gift of articulation and shares the same sort of zeal I have for our sport (even if the blog is road focused and mine is happily focused more or less on the mud of 'cross). In particular is his insistence to call out the nuances of anything PRO or being PRO (and as you'll see any reference to a professional rider or PRO equipment is called out as "PRO". Hilarious). One entry popped up on my Google Crawler that got my attention. It is Radio Freddy's (the blog's author) observation of the little things...the little details...that only a true geek or PRO can see and follows as he calls the Code of the Road. Read this entry.

So I figured I'd add my own small little details and add to his awesome list and in doing so totally open my kimono and expose my true geekiness. Consider this therapy. You have been warned.

White is the New Black...on clothing.
White sex. You think this started in cycling? Hell no. Joe Namath, baby. For a century, big dudes trudged around football fields with giant black shoes with spikes of death affixed to their soles. Then....along came Broadway Joe. Style, class...white shoes. They made him LOOK faster. Within a season nearly all players copied the Man. And with it an industry dedicated to white shoe dye to help repair the scuffs was born. I remember my brother polishing his white football shoes before his games. Memories...

So fast forward to 2007...and cycling. C'mon. Black shoes? They just look slow. I dunno who the first guy in the peleton was to wear white cycling shoes but the guy was a trend setter. I have gone back as far as the late 80's (note Lemond here in the 89 Tour) and seen the first white shoes in old pics so I'd say that was the tipping point era. You just look more supple with your white hoppers spinning elegant circles. I mean, even the hallowed and utterly traditional ground of Soccer (the other Football) has had its feet penetrated with white. Faster man. It just looks faster.

With the shoes....you gotta have the white appointments. Behold my man Todd Wells on his way to winning the 05 Nats. You've got to note the white sex Sidis, white Oakley Pro M's White gloves (ALWAYS got to match the gloves and shoes...c'mon!!!) and white Lazer helmet (I think this is in poor and fairly pedestrian taste personally). I'd give Todd's application of the white appointments as a 7 out of 10 (3 point penalty for the bunk Lazer helmet). Big props for the attention to the white gloves and shoe combo. Kudos. Nice work, kid.

Black is the new Black....on wheels.
Motocross. BRAAAAAAAAAAAP! You know what I'm sayin. Every frickin one of you reading this do that when you throw your leg over your mountain bike and pull a manual. Now let's get specific: FMX! Now those boys have bike style. The black wheel thing started in this camp years ago with huge and beefier rims designed to take the punishment of the huge air. Black anodized rims, wider flanged hubs and thicker spokes. It is stealth looking and gives the bike a WAY cooler profile with the wheels looking beefier. So cross over to bikes. Well before road bikes got the buzz for black wheels, dual slalom and downhill bikes where following suit due to the cross over between riders moving to dual slalom and downhill. Remember Shaun Palmer??? This time, the DS and DH bikes came equipped with black spokes and black hubs. Yum. So as far back as '96, all my wheels have been ceramic Mavics, black DT spokes and black Chris King or Hugi's. Can't get away from it. Translating this to the road, there is a specific purpose for this which I LOVE: The black wheels and black appointments (especially carbon Campy Record or the new SRAM Force bits) do nothing but DRAW OUT the beauty of the frame..when painted obviously instead of benign carbon fiber frames. Behold Gibo's Scott Addict. There is NOTHING to see but the insanely beautiful frame (minus the totally cheesy Euro 'cool' Spiderman graphics. WTF is that? ("Look out Di Luca. I will intimidate you with my scary pink Spidy head.") In white of course. Very PRO though. Note the white bar tape and saddle. GOT to match and Simoni's at least got that right.

Belgian Tans
C'MON!!! In your darkest deepest untold secrets, you ALL love your tan lines. You look at yourself in the mirror after your well deserved shower after your long group ride or local race, suck in your gut and envision you are leaving the hallowed showers of the Roubaix velodrome or maybe on teh physicians table the day before Le Tour with your severe arm, leg and neck tans and if you are REALLY PRO, you certainly have yerself some of them helmet strap and/or glove tans. But face it, you just look like this French guy. Still, it is extremely PRO and is like a tattoo worn with honor...earned from hard miles in the sun. Don't forget to lather up with some SPF though.

So maybe if I can think of more of my obsessive and weird bike geek 'habits', I'll jot them down. Mostly though I want to pay tribute to this guy Radio Freddy as a kindred spirit dedicated to the details and nuances of the shit in cycling you know you love but won't admit it.

The Mayor of Louisville (KY, not CO) is getting behind the CX objectives in addition to a myriad of other sporting updates called their "recreation corridor". Read more here. Ah, if only the Republic could get past itself.

Sven's obviously a huge Dugast fan, and has used them for cross like essentially every top pro does in Europe (even when they color the sidewalls green and label them Challenge...). He's using them them for his MTB excursions and his ultimate goal of getting to the 2008 Olympics for MTB for Belgie. But having MTB'd for almost 2 decades, and seen all kinds of courses, I just don't know how these tires and carbon hoops can take it. He and Frischi use these religiously for MTB, so the suppleness and lightness (way lighter than a tubeless casing/wheel set up) must be worth the risk. I personally don't think the cotton casings are as robust as I'd personally want them for carving on an MTB. I get it on the CX bike to the extent I am never looking back, but MTB's are another story. Even with this Dugie flattening, he still podiumed at this race....although 3rd to Fil-epo's 1st on the day.

The fam and I hooked up with some of our best friends...who happen to be our cousins...and did a little campin'! We are City folk...and they are a couple who've bush whacked the Himalayas...twice! Needless to say, this was car camping in Estes but super fun. Just a quick over nighter but so beautiful. The pic I snapped this AM is the 'backside' of Long's Peak, a 14'er. People climb that face!

...or Pink. You choose what you think the color is but you can sport these to remind you of Bjarne's team colors in the 90's:

Buy 'em at DopersSuck or at BCS if you are in town. Brandon's got a nice new shipment of 'em. Cheaters suck.