any port in a storm

So it looks like the UCI finally realized that it has a big bundle of documents from the Spanish authorities in that Operation Puerto mess from LAST YEAR.

Today they announced that Alejandro Valverde is barred from competing at the World Championships next month in Germany. They issued a statement today that read in part:

"During the meticulous studying of the 6000-page Puerto dossier, the UCI has concluded that several documents may show the involvement of Alejandro Valverde in the affair."

Now the big question has got to be whether anyone will get barred from the Vuelta a tte last minute.

Developing I am sure

Last week on the bike

Well for my last week before school starts up again I got in quite a bit of riding this past week.

Since I had stuff going on Thu And Fri, I went out Mon, Tue, and Wed. Ending with an almost 30 mile ride on wed that took in Victory memorial and Theo Wirth parkways before looping around the cedar lake/greenway and heading home. I felt pretty stiff for the first 45 minutes or so but was still able to keep over a 17 mph avg for the ride. Since my personal goal lately has been to keep over 17mph on all my solo rides, I felt pretty good about that.

Sat was rough as I went out on my own in the am for a 20 mile ride down the river rd to the falls and back, ran some errands on the bike, and then went out with Liane for a 10 mile ride in the evening. add onto that going out in the PM via bike to meet the crew at Jag and it was about a 50+ mile day all in all, including 5 climbs up the hill to our house. If I was keeping track of the miles on my single speed I am sure my total would be well over 100 miles this week.

Needless to say I was pretty sore on Sun and decided to take it easy for the day. Mon is a day off as well due to class, but Tuesday I will try and get 15-20 miles in and then we are off the the cabin in Ely this weekend and hopefully I can get in some good rides up there as well

Week Total - 80
Season Total - 1152

People suck

the star tribune is reporting that a woman was raped in the hallway of an apartment building in St. Paul and despite several people witnessing it only one person attempted to intervene while no one else even called the cops.

investigators talked to one resident in the apartment building who said that a woman had knocked on his door in the middle of the night yelling "call the police!" The man said he didn't open the door or look out. He said he called police, but police said there is no record of that call.

The affidavit also said the building manager gave officers videotape from a surveillance camera in the hall that shows Ibrahim standing over the victim, removing his pants and getting on top of her. Several people are seen in the hall but no one intervenes

seriously people what the fuck.

I think that anyone who witnessed this and didn't do anything should be charged in this crime as well. How could you not get involved in something like this.

About 6 years ago I was walking in downtown and heard a couple arguing. Soon enough the man started to viciously beat the woman. I immediately yelled at him to stop, started calling 911 on my phone, and started going over to them to stop it. Not that hard to do.

a perfect storm - last week on the bike

After last week I thought that I was well on my way to my goal. Not necessarily the 100 mile a week but at least being at 1200 miles by month end, however I was not counting on the perfect combination of family being in town and rain all weekend long. Now it looks like it might be raining the better part of the week, which might put me a full week behind.

I was able to get out both monday and tuesday which were a little miserable due to wind but not too bad.

Saturday I woke up early, looked at the weather, and figured that if I didn't ride early I wouldn't ride at all so I had a quick bite to eat and just rode the quick little Cemetary Hill in TT mode and was about a block from home when it started to rain. From that point on it rained pretty much all weekend so that was it for me.

It sounds like I wasn't the only one affected by the rain however as the National Criterium Championships and the warm-up races for them in Downer's Grove were also beset by rain. Congrats to Kirk O'Bee(Health Net-Maxxis) on taking the stars and stripes jersey in the Pro Crit Championship Sunday despite coming in second. Lucky for him the overall winner was Kelly Benefit Strategies-Medifast Martin Gilbert a Canadian and thus not eligible for the jersey. I hope the stars and stripes jersey will make an appearance in this neck of the woods in the next year in the Nature Valley GP.

I did discover the showroom for World Cycling Production on Saturday though so that was a plus. I was able to get a nice Castelli thermal long sleeve jersey for half price so I am set for the fall now with 2 jerseys. I would definitely reccomend checking them out as all last season merch is up to 50% off and current merch is 10% off. With that in mind I also picked up "A Sunday in Hell" the awesome documentary of the 1976 Paris-Roubaix classic.

Week Total - 41
Season Total - 1072

surviving the city

I just finished reading The Art of Cycling by Robert Hurst a couple nights ago and it was a pretty interesting read.

It is basically an overview of his view of how to ride a bike in an urban setting in the safest manner possible so it includes info on navigating in traffic, common obstacles in the street, and a few other topics.

Though it borrows very heavily from John Forester's principle's of vehicular cycling, it differs in an important way that I tend to agree with.

The vehicular cycling crowd will tell you that bicyclists fare best when they act and are treated as vehicles with the same rights and responsibilities that motorists have. Hurst however argues that the problem with this view is that you are putting responsibility on motorized vehicle drivers for your safety, and that a small mistake on their part can have massive consequences for cyclists up to and including death. His solution is one of taking all responsibility for your safety when on the road. How do you do this? Through a combination of vehicular cycling, altering your route to include roads with less traffic when possible, utilizing bike paths when convenient, and even being ready to bail onto the sidewalk if necessary.

In addition, he goes over common hazards in the roadway (form potholes to railroad tracks) and how best to avoid rapid introductions to pavement of any kind. He also discusses topics as wide ranging as the effects of air pollution on cyclist and how best to mitigate.

The ultimate message however is to take control of your fate when riding and PAY ATTENTION (he argues that getting distracted from the task at hand is a large factor in bike accidents).

I don't know if I would reccomend buying this but definitely worth getting form a friend or the library.

Next up is The Book of Dave.

On the nightstand currently:
Book of Dave (in progress)
Essays – George Orwell
Ulysses