Last Day of Tour - no racing?

I know it is traditional that the final stage into Paris is not competed. It seems to be a gentlemens agreement that whoever has the yellow at that point is allowed to keep it without challenge, making the run into Paris mostly a party, with a little bit of final sprinting by the specialists.

I find myself wishing that the 23-seconds could have been challenged this year. I know it would have been tough, but with some cooperation from some other teams, maybe Cadel or Levi could have made up the difference. I would love to have seen one of those heroic individual performances to vault one of them up to a challenging position. I don't have a great understanding yet of all the nuances of the strategy involved, but 23 seconds just doesn't seem like that much.

I am also a NASCAR fan. I just can't imagine 42 drivers allowing Kevin Harvick to win the race because he went in to the last lap with the lead. In fact, Harvick entered the last lap of this years Daytona 500 in seventh place, but made a tremendous charge out of turn 3 and ended up beating Mark Martin for the victory by a margin measured in thousandths of a second. Obviously, there is a lot of difference between a 200 mph stock car and a 40 mph bicycle, but I would have loved to see that kind of intensity in this years final stage.

Spinning

Besides riding my road bike, I love to Spin. If you don't know what that is, it is a stationary bike ride done on special Spin bikes in organized Spinning classes by certified instructors. It was invented by Johnny G and is an incredible cardio burn. I generally burn between 450 and 600 calories in a 45-minute class.

At the gym where I go, they are cutting some of the Spin classes because of lack of participation. Classes that can handle 20 participants are only getting 5-10 per class. Some of us regulars have gone out and talked to gym members about coming to Spin class. The perception seems to be that it is too hard. They are intimidated by the intensity. We try to explain that when you are new, in no way are you expected to keep up with the instructor or the regulars. Everybody is allowed to work at their own pace and gradually get stronger. That intimidation factor still keeps them away. I wish I could think of a way to get more people into Spinning.

My experience: I took my first Spin class in October of 2002. Foolishly, I tried to keep up with everything the instructor asked and I ended up working way too hard for my current fitness level. I was 56 at the time, and just beginning an effort to get into shape. I left that class swearing I would never go back, it was just too difficult. I didn't go back for 3 months, but I finally decided that I wasn't going to let it beat me. I went back, but this time I worked at a level that I could do, the next time I did a little bit more.... Now, I have been doing 2 or 3 classes a week ever since and I can out-ride all the young-uns in the class. So I know it works, I just wish I could get people inspired to give it a try - the proper way!

SLO Criterium Classic returns!

August 12th marks the return of the Downtown Criterium Classic Cycling Festival to San Luis Obispo, CA. This was an extremely popular event in the 70's and 80's and is sure to be a huge success again in this host city for the AMGEN Tour of California Racing will start at 7 a.m. with the junior category competitors, with the mens professional and Category 1 riders going of at 3:50 p.m. “I think a lot of people are going to show up and a lot of great athletes will race,” said former Olympic bike racer Dirk Copeland of San Luis Obispo in a phone interview Monday night. “It's going to be the best race in California and one of the best races to prepare for the nationals slated for the following weekend in the Chicago area in Illinois.” (Taken from a Santa Maria Times article) This is a great opportunity for the public to see what a great sport cycling is in this era of bad publicity. There will be ample opportunity to observe the progress of the race as the riders will go by any given spot on the course every couple of minutes. Good for you San Luis Obispo for hosting this great event.

What Others Are Saying

Martin Dugard says "I never like to post anything about the final stage.

Sara Best says " I think that a healing has begun".

Brendan Sheehan writes a letter to Bud Selig of baseball about the relative success of doping testing in pro cycling

Cathy Mehl of Versus says "Have you noticed that when the news is negative and things go awry at the Tour, or cycling in general, that it is the cyclists themselves that take matters into their own hands and bring the focus back where it belongs, to the racing itself?

Weight Watchers again

I still need to lose 15 - 20 lbs to get to what I consider my ideal weight. I don't have a lot of willpower on my own, so I think I am going to go back to Weight Watchers. It worked for me before. I should be able to watch my calories and do lots of exercise and get to where I need to be. Just not working that way though. I will count calories for a couple of days and then get lazy. One week I will ride my bike and do some Spinning, the next week I may be lucky to get in one workout. So I think the discipline I get by attending Weight Watchers and weighing in weekly may be what I need to do. Last time I went from 180 down to 165 - I just didn't keep it off. Right now I am 183 and I want to get back down to 165 and stay there.

Pro Cycling Will Survive

We lost some great riders during this years Tour de France. Rasmussen, Bayo, the entire Astana team and on and on. A lot of people are saying that it just shows how 'dirty' pro cycling is. Yeah, a lot of riders are doping. No excuses, it's just dumb. The idea of sport is to excel because you work harder, train harder - not because you learn how to inject chemicals and foreign blood into your system. I still hurt about Floyd Landis. I was so impressed by his comeback to win the tour last year, an absolutely incredible display of talent and heart. But, if he in fact was pumping testosterone, then he deserves to be stripped of his title.

I am really impressed at what Team Slipstream is doing. Their partnership with the Agency for Sporting Ethics represents the kind of action that is needed. Their commitment to drug testing and clean training is to be commended. Already David Millar and Christian Vandevelde have committed to moving to Slipstream/Chipotle next year, even though they are not even a Pro Tour member as yet. I think that says a lot about cyclists who want to excel as athletes, not as 'dopes'.