Tour of Cali: Fixed trackstand attempt on the sidelines.

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Downtown LA L'il Pups Woof Pack

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Live from L'il Pups Leg Melter at the corner of Parkman and Sunset in Silverlake.

L'il Pups Woof Pack rolls on time.

You snooze you lose.

www.andrewvontz.com

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BOBBY KNIGHT TO ROCK RACING? BACK AND FORTH. . .FOREVER?

Imagine if instead of having to be polite and contrite and stoic and kiss the ASO's ass, pro cycling team managers and riders got to pop off about the situation. It might look something like this:



Michael Ball brought Cippo out of retirement. Are his pockets deep enough to lure Bobby Knight into the cycling game? That would be the best thing ever. Even better than going back and forth. . .forever.



If that happened, I think cycling fans would be so happy that they'd shake it tecktonic style. . .

Throwdown with Bobby Flay

He disrespected the cutting board.

www.andrewvontz.com

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Thank you God for not letting the hippy driving the griesel bus with the tortoise painted on the back smear me when he floored it to pull a u-turn (from a standstill) while i was in the middle of a lactate threshold climbing interval in Griffith Park.

Find your happy place.

www.andrewvontz.com

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A GNOME'S TALE. . .of the Tour of Cali Finale

These are white reflective half-dome shaped lane markers used on a lot of California roads. Great for cars, a nightmare to run over on a bike going 30 miles per hour, even worse when wet.

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Crashes happen frequently in bike races. It's a when not if kind of thing. While i haven't heard a sensible explanation of what happened in the Cavendish crash on Saturday, could bot dots be to blame?

Was Cippo wildly gesticulating to Cavendish post sprint because he was pissed at Cavendish or pissed at the bot dots?

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At toc. Freezing! Was dumping for a minute, clearing up for finale!

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Was cruising around on the internet today trying to find a Tron skinsuit. If you don’t ride bikes, a skinsuit is a one-piece jersey/shorts combo, kind of like a unitard, often worn for racing time trials and criteriums because of the aerodynamic advantage it offers over a jersey with shorts (baggier, catches more wind). Don’t remember Tron? Born after 1984? That’s Tron y’all.

 

 

So I didn’t find a Tron skinsuit—bummer. But googling Tron and cycling did yield this heads-up GPS display system mounted on the chin guard of a Giro switchblade. Go check out homeboy’s full rig here.

 

 

Mr. B catching some rays before he sails off into estivation for the winter.

www.andrewvontz.com

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My mom told me about yoga toes half a year ago, finally bought a pair. 20 years of cycling has left me with some seriously jacked up feet. Maybe some day I'll write about the time I shaved half an inch of calluses off the bottoms of both feet--and how excruciatingly painful it was to ride after that. But really, when your calluses have gotten so big your feet no longer fit in the cycling shoes you've been wearing every day for a year, you gotta do something. . . But these yoga toes look promising. They stretch the area between your toes and word is they do a good job of correcting foot problems. We'll see. Until then, keeping it hot in my yoga toes. . .

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2008 Tour of California Prologue

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A street-level look at the scene at the 2008 Amgen Tour of California Prologue.      

Yo, can you get me another bowl of Fruity Pebbles?

 

Neutral support of two sorts. Mavic for the bike bits, the paramedics for the homeless dude just out of frame who fell and split open his head on the sidewalk just opposite the start house. He was the only homeless person I saw in Palo Alto today, and his head was split open.

 

If Slipstream is gonna have the Chipotle burrito on the side of the bus, then it should be edible.

 

My brother noted that someone yelled ‘Big watts, Levi’ as the Corsair of Santa Rosa rolled to the start house. He thought this was pretty funny.

Fabs moments before his winning ride.

Cancellera, so fast he’s blurry at 3 mph rolling up to the start house.

 

A lucky kid.

 

Steve Blick and George Hincapie shaking hands and smiling.

George and, Andy, king of the skins and retailer of bicycles.

 

Bradley Wiggins channeling Noel Gallagher.

 

You wanna step to this?

Mark Cavendish, cannonball. Wearer of exotic, pro-only, super secret Blick flow supply Frogskins. Soon to be green jersey winner.

And the dual Part-of-the-day/High-pro-glow winner is Linus Gerdemann. Does Pantene know about this guy? Look at the sheen on those locks.

Craig Lewis getting ready to live the Pro Tour dream. He aimed, he swung, he’s in the big show, now let’s see how he rolls.

 

Again, crikey.

Off my braids, bitch.

Ginsu has nothing on me—I can cut through thick lead pipes with this thing.

Bob: George, I said it was casual jeans Friday.

 

George: Sorry, Bob, I was just squeezing in a little extra training before the presentation.

 

Phil: Crikey!

 

George: Phil, are you ready to lay down that trademark beat box? I’ve got the cardboard folded up and tucked away in my center jersey pocket next to a nutella-smeared pastry.

 

Bob: Rock the beat with your hands.

Marcel Marceau should have done presentations to prep riders for team presentations. Has to be weird standing there pageant-like on a platform. Pro cyclists look very strange in person. When they walk, it looks odd and awkward, like it’s something they haven’t done much since leaving middle school.

 

 

Lots to drool over here, but check out how those racks clamp on the bikes. Where can I get a setup like that for Goldrush?

 

And up close and personal with the TCR SL2. A radical departure from the previous iteration, distinctive looking. Those are gigantic rectangular-section tubes.