I was justed tweeted this by another cyclist on twitter. Lance Armstrong will be coming back to ride 5 races for Team Astana, including the Tour de France. Should be very interesting to see how good of shape he is in since retiring 3 years ago. He finished 2nd in the Leadville 100 last month. Here is a link to the full story. http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/cycling/news/story?id=3576014
The 2008 Tour de France is over. It has been over for a couple of days, but I haven’t had time to write about it. My prediction of Cadel Evans winning was wrong. He lead the race for awhile, but couldn’t hold onto the yellow jersey. He lost it to Frank Schleck of CSC, but he was not the final GC winner. The winner was Carlos Sastre of Team CSC. Photo by Graham Watson.
One of Cadel’s problems was that his team Silence-Lotto was too weak to help defend the jersey. Cadel was isolated from his team on every important mountain stage. Team CSC was way too strong! CSC had at least 3-4 guys together on every mountain stage. This included Frank Schleck, who held the yellow jersey for a few stages before his team mate Carlos Sastre won it from him on L’Alpe-d’Huez. What can you say about Jens Voight? The guy is amazing. Jens sets a tempo up the mountain that blows the peloton to pieces, sacrificing himself for his team leader. Team CSC’s relentless attacks up the mountains was too much for Cadel. He couldn’t follow every attack those guys threw at him. His final time deficit going into the final time trail was too much to overcome. I am happy to see Carlos Sastre win the Tour. He has always been a top contender.
Overall, the race was very exciting all the way to the end. The 7 different yellow jersey holders almost breaks a record in one of the closest tours in history. Hopefully, the race is as exciting next year, but with Cadel Evans winning.
It’s July and you know what that means. It is time for the Tour de France. The 95th edition has started. I have mixed feelings about this year’s tour. I always look forward to watching it, but I am disappointed that team Astana was not allowed to race in this year’s tour. Team Astana has Alberto Contador (last years winner) and Levi Leipheimer (3rd place last year). It sucks that they can’t come back and defend the yellow jersey.
I’m going to watch anyways, because it is the Tour de France and for the first time there are 2 American teams - Team Columbia (formerly High Road) and Team Garmin/Chipotle (formerly Slipstream/Chipotle). Above photo by Graham Watson.
A list of other American teams in the Tour de France throughout history:
My prediction: Cadel Evans will win the yellow jersey. I hope he does, because I have a picture with him from when I met him at the Sea Otter Classic. Back then he was a World Champion mountain biker.
Tysen and I went out to McDowell Mountain Regional Park last night for the monthly Mountain Bike in the Moonlight ride. Organized by Maricopa County Parks and Recreation, the ride took place on the 15.4 mile Pemberton Trail. The turnout was amazing! 88 mountain bikers showed up on a day when the temperature reached 110. It proves that there are still hardcore mountain bikers out there.
The ride starts at 7:30 and everyone needs to be off the trail by 9:30. It is not a guided ride. You can start whenever you want, between 7:30 and 8:30 pm. It was a whole different experience riding Pemberton at night. I can’t wait until next month!
I started riding my bike to work this week. Even though it is about 100 degrees out, I really enjoy it. I learned 2 things on my first day. Don’t ride your bike to work in the shirt you are going to wear for the day, and don’t forget your hard drive at home. I got to work with my shirt wet from sweat and no hard drive for my computer. I use a slide out tray for my hard drive, so I can take it back and forth to work and home. So, I had to turn around and go get it. I had to hurry, because I had a meeting in an hour. Luckily, it is only 4 miles back to home and takes 15 minutes on my mountain bike.
What is really amazing, is that it only takes 6 minutes longer to ride my bike than drive in my car. I really want to keep this up, considering the price of gas, doing a little part in saving the environment and the feeling of getting some excercise. Not sure how easy it will be when it gets to be over 110. I would encourage every one to ride your bike to work for a week. You might really enjoy it and keep doing it.
