ToC - Stage 7

well, I'm a little late here, but I guess better late than never.

Once again a break gave us a new virtual yellow in Slipstream-Chipotle's Danny Pate who helped lead a break to a 3 minute lead, but in the end they were swallowed up as teams looked to set up their sprinters for a possible stage win. In the end however, it was Toyota-United's Ivan Dominguez who snuck past all the heavy hitters to get the only win by a non-Pro Tour rider. in the end it was Levi who lead from the prologue all the way through to the end in an amazing display of the power of Discovery.

The bad news of the day was that George Hincapie broke a bone in his arm the previous day and will be out 6-8 weeks.

Here's the final top ten and the jersey winners:
Final overall
1. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Discovery Channel, 24:57:24
2. Jens Voigt (G), CSC, at 0:21
3. Jason McCartney (USA), Discovery Channel, at0:54
4. Bobby Julich (USA), CSC, at 1:06
5. Stuart O'Grady (Aus), at CSC, 1:16
6. Christian Vande Velde (USA), at CSC, 1:24
7. Michael Rogers (Aus), T-Mobile, at 1:32
8. Ben Day (Aus), Navigators Insurance, at 1:38
9. Franco Pellizotti (I), Liquigas-Bianchi, at 1:41
10. Ryder Hesjedal (Can), Health Net-Maxxis, at 1:57

Jerseys
Mountains: Christophe Laurent (F), Crédit Agricole
Points: Juan José Haedo (Arg), Team CSC
Young rider: Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank
Team: CSC

ToC - Stage 6

Wow what a great day of racing. I knew that it was possible this stage could have an effect on the overall GC, but I really wasn't expecting the level of intensity that was today's stage.

I'm a Quickstep fan persoanlly, but CSC really won me over today and I will definitely be watching them throughout the season. Considering that this race doesn't mean anything inthe grand scheme of the year, they raced as if it was one of the Grand Tours. Attack after attack and then Stuart O'Grady, what else can you say. Being the virtual yellow over the majority of the stage just killing it the entire time. Props to the rest of that break as well.

I kind of wish they could have stayed out there, but Disco did what Disco does and just put the pedal to the meddle and got some late help from Health Net that was just enough to catch the break only 3km from the finish. Setting up the awesome sprint finish and I thought Bettini might pull off his second win of the tour, but mad props to JJ Haedo for grabbing the win.

Overall
1. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Discovery Channel
2. Jens Voigt (G), CSC, at 0:21
3. Jason McCartney (USA), Discovery Channel, at 0:54
4. Bobby Julich (USA), CSC, at 1:06
5. Stuart O'Grady (Aus), CSC, at 1:16
6. Christian Vande Velde (USA), CSC, at 1:24
7. Michael Rogers (Aus), T-Mobile, at 1:32
8. Ben Day (Aus), Navigators Insurance, at 1:38
9. Franco Pellizotti (I), Liquigas-Bianchi, at 1:41
10. Ryder Hesjedal (Can), Health Net-Maxxis, at 1:57

ToC - Time Trial

dang Jason Mccartney has put in an amazing ride and is currently the virtual yellow with only a few riders left on the course.

Jens Voigt is also putting in a great ride as well as Levi who had the fastest split so far, but can he keep it up.

We should know soon.

Update:
Unofficially Levi has grabbed the fastest time by several seconds over Jens Voigt with Jason McCartney in third. That is also the unofficial GC top three. It looks like CSC and Disco are hogging the top ten and I will post the final standings as they are available

Update 2 (8:45pm):
Well here is the GC top ten

Overall
1. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Discovery Channel, 18:21:52
2. Jens Voigt (G), CSC, at 0:21
3. Jason McCartney (USA), Discovery Channel, at 0:54
4. Bobby Julich (USA), CSC, at 1:06
5. Stuart O'Grady (Aus), CSC, at 1:20
6. Christian Vande Velde (USA), CSC, at 1:24
7. Michael Rogers (Aus), T-Mobile, at 1:34
8. Ben Day (Aus), Navigators, at 1:38
9. Franco Pellizotti (I), Liquigas, at 1:41
10. Ryder Hesjedal (Can), Health Net -Maxxis, at 1:57

Since the systems were down at work I got to watch teh flash video feed via the tourtracker on the official TOur sight which was awesome. For someone without cable it was nice to finally get to watch some cycling other than 1 leg of an ironman. I have to say that Leviu looked amamzing out there. He seemed very relaxed and just powerful and it showed in his time by winning the stage by 18 seconds. Incredible

The best we could do was this?

I really hope that the 6th district is happy with itself. Of course the DFL is also to blame for nominating such a lackluster candidate as Patty Wetterling, but seriously people Michelle Bachman has gone over the edge.

“Iran is the trouble maker, trying to tip over apple carts all over Baghdad right now because they want America to pull out. And do you know why? It’s because they’ve already decided that they’re going to partition Iraq.

And half of Iraq, the western, northern portion of Iraq, is going to be called…. the Iraq State of Islam, something like that. And I’m sorry, I don’t have the official name, but it’s meant to be the training ground for the terrorists. There’s already an agreement made.

They are going to get half of Iraq and that is going to be a terrorist safe haven zone where they can go ahead and bring about more terrorist attacks in the Middle East region and then to come against the United States because we are their avowed enemy.” (emphasis mine)

Now I will be the first to say that if she can back this up with some hard intelligence then I will gladly eat boiled crow, but I just don't see it. This kind of fantastic imagination is fine from those on the outskirts of the discussion, but from those who are elected to help run this country it is unacceptable.

And just a quick note before I get flamed by anyone. Remember when Mark Dayton closed his office in DC because of terrorist threat intelligence but NO ONE ELSE DID? How much was he mocked by the right (and some on the left)? He should have been mocked it was ridiculous and so is this.

ToC Stage 4

Looks like today's Time Trial will definitely decide the winner as Levi held onto the yellow jersey again. Interestingly it seemed that Discovery tried to force the hands of the other teams by sitting on the front of the peleton, but not pushing too hard and allowing a break to sit out there for most of the day. Now granted yesterdays break was much less dangerous than the previous days with Jens Voigt, but they seemed content to wait until someone else wanted to join them to really start pushing it, which Rabobank and Liquigas finally did in the last 30 miles.

And talk about a close finish...wow, Bettini by a nose.

Wonder if Rory Sutherland will be able to stay on the podium? It would be nice to see a domestic team up there but I don't have high hopes.

Overall
1. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Discovery Channel, 17:52:12
2. Jens Voigt (G), CSC, at 0:03
3. Rory Sutherland (Aus), Health Net-Maxxis, at 0:15
4. Christopher Horner (USA), Predictor-Lotto, at 0:16
5. Ardila Cano Mauricio Alberto (Col), Rabobank, at 0:17
6. Ben Day (Aus), Navigators Insurance, at 0:18
7. Ryder Hesjedal (Can), Health Net-Maxxis, at 0:19
8. Michael Rogers (Aus), T-Mobile, s.t.
9. Sergey Lagutin (Uzb), Navigators Insurance, at 0:20
10. Stuart O'Grady (Aus), CSC, s.t.

The Air Is Thin

I'm a little late on this one, but I picked up the new Jesse Sykes album "Like, Love, Lust, & The Open Halls of the soul" a couple weeks ago. I got it on the strength of an MP3 of LLL I got a couple months ago and given my track record recently (lily allen, bloc party) I was a little nervous about it.

No worries though, as I thoroughly enjoy the whole thing.

The cepia-toned cover and insert gives a pretty good representation of the sound inside as the entire album has a lazy, melancholy vibe for an album of solid folkish-rock in a seventies vein.

"The Air Is Thin," with its hint of melancholy about it, makes good use of trumpet and choir to build to a finish that is triumphant and yet still retains an air of sadness. Similarly "Station Grey" starts mellow and builds into more of a rocker (kind of) that is one of my favorites

"How Will We Know" has a kind of loping Neil young feel about it that makes good use of her backing band The Sweet Hereafter's guitarist.

Interestingly though the songs are relatively compact, most being in the 4-5 minutes range, they have a stretched out feel to them and they seem to develop organically as the song goes along its course.

It's a great album for these end of winter blues, but I feel like it might be a great album into the summer as well.

ToC stage 3

Another exciting day in the ToC, with most of the filed forcing Discovery to do majority of the work trying to reel in a potentially dangerous break with Jens Voigt amongst others involved. Looks like Disco did a good job of stringing out the filed and Levi was powerful on the days final climb to go on a break himself with Voigt. In the end Voigt won the stage, and though Levi is still in yellow, with all his time bonuses brought him close enough to be a real threat for the overall.

Looks like the time trial Friday may decide it in the end, but todays stage sounds like it might have some challenging conditions so it's possible we could see some surprises.

General classification (top 10)
1. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Discovery Channel, 12:46:25
2. Jens Voigt (G), CSC, 0:03
3. Rory Sutherland (Aus), Health Net-Maxxis, 0:15
4. Christopher Horner (USA), Predictor-Lotto, 0:16
5. Ardila Cano Mauricio Alberto (Col), Rabobank, 0:17
6. Ben Day (Aus), Navigators Insurance, 0:18
7. Ryder Hesjedal (CAN), Health Net-Maxxis, 0:19
8. Michael Rogers (Aus), T-Mobile, s.t.
9. Sergey Lagutin (UZB), Navigators Insurance, 0:20
10. Stuart O'Grady (Aus), CSC, s.t.

Tour of California

Day three of the ToC has come and gone with little change in the GC riders. Even with the circuit at the end again, no excitement like yesterday.

I don't think the decision to neutralize the circuit was a good one. Either make the decision immediately or follow the rules and only neutralize a crash in the final 3km. Hopefully next year they won't do so many circuits (especially ones with traffic blocks) and hopefully the organziers will run the race as professionaly as they want it to be treated.

Top ten riders from Velonews
General classification
1. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Discovery Channel, 9:02:47
2. Jason Donald (USA), Slipstream-Chipotle, 0:01
3. Benjamin (USA), Priority Health-Bissell, 0:05
4. Rory Sutherland (Aus), Health Net-Maxxis
5. Hilton Clarke (Aus), Navigators Insurance
6. Fabian Cancellara (Swi), CSC, 0:06
7. George Hincapie (USA), Discovery Channel
8. Adam Hansen (Aus), T-Mobile
9. Ardila Cano Mauricio Alberto (Col), Rabobank, 0:07
10. Ben Day (Aus), Navigators Insurance, 0:08

been a long time

been a little while since I have written, but having flu for the better part of a week will do that to you.

Here's a couple things I've been reading to pass the time once I could concentrate on the computer screen for more than a couple minutes (also check out parts 1 and 2 of the Harper's piece). the whole Iran thing is a little scary, but I do feel that we probably aren't on a direct path to wars, but with our 2 leaders anything could accidentally happen.

on a more on topic mode, I got the What It Is box set for Valentine's Day. Will try to write more on that later.

Fair and Balanced right?

Apparently Fox News is going to be starting a business news channel that will be challenging CNBC and Rupert Murdoch has vowed “that the new channel would be friendlier to corporations.”

In case you don't want to log in to read it hear are a couple of the more choice quotes from the article (emphasis mine):

At a media conference in New York yesterday, Mr.
Murdoch said the Fox Business Channel would be “more business friendly than
CNBC,” which he said was quick to “leap on every scandal,” according to a report
on his remarks by BusinessWeek.com, whose parent, McGraw-Hill, sponsored the
conference.

****

In a separate interview, Mr. Ailes elaborated. “Many times
I’ve seen things on CNBC where they are not as friendly to corporations and
profits as they should be.”

He added: “We don’t get up every morning thinking business is
bad.”

The quick strikes by Mr. Murdoch and Mr. Ailes at their
largest competitor suggest that the News Corporation will use the same
take-no-prisoners tactics in the business area that Fox News Channel used in
going after its biggest rival, CNN.

Great so now we get another channel that manipulates the news gathering and reporting to fit their own agenda? Fabulous.

Can't we all just get along

so I have to wonder if critics are just overgrown children.

apparently it looks like there is a spat between the long standing Pazz & Jop poll in the Village Voice and the upstart Idolator Jackin' Pop poll.

In his essay "Living With War" Robert Harvilla takes a couple of swipes at the Idolator guys and Michaelangelo Matos notes that critics were told they could not participate in both polls in his essay for the Idolator poll.

Now I will be the first to note that the Jackin' Pop poll is almost a note for note copy of the Pazz & Jop, but seriously......does the Village Voice really need to worry?

All in all though not a surprising list, Bob Dylan, TVOTR, "Crazy".......a lot of similarities between the two lists really, but come on Paris Hilton making the Pazz & Jop?