An hour ride today. Shake the cobwebs out from my trip and it was perfect. Rode with my lady after she dropped off the kinders at school. Very rare that we get to do this. We flowed down Left Hand and I needed what T says are 'openers'. Back side of Lee Hill, repeats 90 seconds, 60 seconds 60 seconds 30 seconds 30 seconds...repeat! You get the drill. He says that these will 'open' me for my next few days of death and suffering. I love it.

I stole this from Timmy F. I wet myself watching it. This guy truly is Tow Mater from Cars. There is some serious trailer park, bike jumping dialog goin' on here.

So I got the Dugast's, fill them up that day with some air to test 'em when I got them and 1 of the 4 is bunk! So pissed. It came defective which I am shocked at. I figured they would have checked them before shipping! Air gushes out through the cotton past the valve stem. It made me weepy.

They are cherry though. I am stretching them on their hoops now before I glue them in a couple of months (yes they're on backwards, geeks).
Tread pattern is sickly aggressive which is good and the 32's are super beefy. They're demonstrably beefier than the Challenge Griffo 32's.

So got to get this one runt of my litter repaired. Talked to Ron at Tire Alert and he can do it no probs. Just peeved that I need to spend more money on a brand new $100 tire.

Zabel. The hardest working man in show business. I wept when I read this on Velonews/mobile on my crackberry yesterday on the plane. I love that guy. Funny enough, the two on the cover of Hell on Wheels were joined at the hip again on stage confessing.

Who's next. Clearly Bjarne and all his smugness should taste a little. After that, the dominoes will quickly fall I feel. I guarantee Il Gato will be seen on stage crying like all good little Italian cycling boys do it seems. What about in the US? Who was the 'other' anonymous Postal Tour rider who backed up Frankie A? Will he 'slip' by or fess up and move forward like I am sure he desires and is spending considerable time creating a dope free empire (kudos). We''ll see.

Ashes. Ashes, they all fall down.

Cheaters suck. Go find something else to do in life if you have to cheat.

I have never been deeply philanthropic. I mean, I do really enjoy helping people, teaching...it does emanate from me, but I want to push things a bit deeper. Maybe I am getting older...

So, working with some homies here in the Reepoobleek, I decided to look at doing some fun and interesting things to do what I can to help with kids who wouldn't normally get the chance to mix it up Euro-style...or even go to some of the great 'cross or cycling camps we have around the country hosted by the hard working folks in each region.

So as I formulate this idea, I have a question for you my 'cross brethren and sisteren, would you buy a friggin shirt for 20 bucks? I seriously do not want to make dime numero uno on this but woudl be an UNBELIEVABLE rush to forward cash to a kid or a group (e.g. the Mud skippers) to enable more opportunities for this beautiful sport of ours to grow. The clinics I run to old guys like me are so fun...imagine more time like that spent with like 12 year olds who normally would NEVER get the chance to experience it.

Anyways, I am running with some non-profit ideas like this and am having some fun. I LOVE the NBA logo and had the idea twisted a bit by my boy Ted and his brilliant crew at Anthem. I had them odify this American style sports logo to suit our 'cross needs like you see below for the fund raising t-shirt:

Any uber-geek who can tell me who's silhouette is being used here gets a free shirt...and an award that officially puts you in a higher level of geekdom than me.

So, would ya buy one to support this little idea? Let me know! Vote!

More details later but I dream of putting a little Page on the top step some day. We'll see where this goes....

Mmmm. The box of Dugast's arrived. Their 32's are like the 34's of other brands. Super big knobs and sidewalls...way bigger their their Typhoon treads or Tufo's for that matter.

Mounting in the coming week.s Maybe I'll do a gluing YouTube tutorial or something but I'm no pro. Got the Jedi training from Dwayne at BCS last year when I mounted those p.o.s. Challenge Griffos.

Epically gorgeous weekend here in The Repoobleek. No North Boulder Park crit for me which is fine. Stopped by the crit though after my training to say hi. Saw Hailey from the women's team win while Davis Phinney and Andy Hampsten and I cheered her over the line before Davis' group charity ride. Indeed it was a Boulder moment at that second. Ha!

According to 'za plan', took my medicine by doing my NCAR's...

and my Flagstaff efforts...

Faster and faster this carcass is going up those things. Measurement and rubber goodies getting dialed this week. As is some running I need to do.

So the fellas (The WB, Longman, Bobby Mounts, Matson, JFry and I) got our early AM MTB on today. I have the day off and could pull this off which was rad. 6AM start, home by 9:20 or so. My Polar jobby job recorded 35 or so miles, 4820 feet of climbing 6920 Feet of altitude average with a max out at 8700 feet. Ha! I felt it, boy.

The ride looked more or less like this but I did a crappy job on this new Map My Ride thing. (The ride can be linked to here. ):

The route essentially was...

• down town (coffee...)
• Boulder Creek Trail
• Four Mile Canyon
• Logan Mill Climb
  
• Traverse to Mountain Pines
• Sugarloaf climb
• Switzerland to Switz North
  
• to Gold Hill
• to Sunshine
• home in NoBo....

Drum roll please: I went for a run today. For those that know me, they are laughing. I hate running. I spent from 5 to 20 years old playing soccer and told myself I'd never run again. Last time I 'went for a (real) run' was January 2006 I think. Freezing cold. My wife dragged me out and I basically almost ruptured my Achilles. So I got gun shy for like a year and decided not to risk it. It felt OK in cross last year with slight twinges of discomfort. So today, all's well it seemed...and drum roll again...I slightly enjoyed it. Maybe it is due to the sweet new iPod Shuffle I scored for myself on Mothers day. Ha! I got one for my lady and decided that the stuff she is gonna put on hers would not be copasetic to my fairly musically snobbish ears.

Today: Shiner was duly jammed. Haven't listened to this album in time ad infinitum. I can not tell you how this band rips...or ripped as they have split up and become The Life and Times. I saw them ages ago opening for Hum...another now defunct band I am in love with...and never looked back. If you ride or do anything that requires you to grit your teeth and you are serious about music that will motivate you (and are serious about music and the depth of composition), I recommend this album. If you are OK with be bopping to like Creed, please do not buy Shiner. These are some significantly talented artists. End snobbery rant.

.....about Floyd's case can be found here.