Can't handle live shows, especially dance music, where you are packed so tight in the venue you can't move your limbs and you are perpetually being bumped.
My complex, aerial maneuvers require ample space to execute.
28 February 2009
27 February 2009
The VS comedienne
Closed due to recent rainfall
26 February 2009
Fixed gear, not dead now 10% more hardcore
I have been told a yellow bandana configured in this manner is code for 'owner likes to have his face pissed on, preferably asparagus pee.'
Giant Hybrid
The rig works very well, particularly helpful for city riding with frequent red light/stop sign pauses. The electric front wheel drive means you're very quickly back up to speed from a standing start, great news for folk out there who would like to ride to work/run errands on a bike.
My parents would love this rig, and so would I for grocery-getting, unfortunately a bit on the spendy side for someone with a quiver of capable human-powered bikes, but if the price falls into the 500 dollar range (unlikely) and if it had serious cargo/towing capacity i'd be into owning one. At nearly two grand, not sure who the target market is here, but i'm guessing loaded lefties.
why? Because those restarts aregenerally the most intense efforts in a commute, the ones that leave you drenched in sweat--and that push many people away from commuting/errands and back into the car.
Well done!
*this message typed by thumb, transmitted by esp
22 February 2009
Printing words across the crotch on team shorts, on the other hand. . .
Human Roadblocks
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Cape Positive
Smiles up 1000%
The smile is the hottest new accessory for pro cyclists doing on cam interviews. Where did they larn it from? Certainly not from their cardboard cutout predecessors (see: anything written or said by Ivan Basso for an instant nap--and he's one of the sport's most controversial figures).
Keep smiling.
Keep shining.
That's what friends are for, Christian VanDeVelde.
Great Idea. Really!
Cycling would be much easier to follow live andon TV for Joe Blow (and Phil and Paul) if teams all did this.
Shows you how progressive cycling is that this hasn't occured to anyone before.
21 February 2009
No recession in cycling spectatorship
Whatever you think of Lance, people clearly want to see hikm race and turn out in droves to glean a glimpse. These are the facts. They are indisputable.
Stair running in bike shoes: consequences
Silver Lake: a Lot Less Safe Than You Think (Still)
Was coming into my place last night when I looked behind me and saw a dude in a hooded sweatshirt running towards me.
This was after I'd executed my now standard full visual sweep of my environment and thinking about an escape route.
Good thing I did, because when I saw the dude and screamed at him, freezing him in his tracks for a split second, the momentary confusion gave me time to run--he hadn't cloed enough distance to be close enough to assault me before I turned around and notice him.
So there I am, in bike shoes, dude who came out of the shadows momentarily frozen.
Ever run in bike shoes?
I hauled ass down 50 stairs in road bike shoes, doing my best Sven Nys impersonation with my bike slung over shoulder, remounted and got the fuck out of there.
Problem being 'there' was uh, my house, aka 'a safe place.' so I had to get back in, which I did.
One amazing but predictable thing is that this all happened within earshot of a dozen neighbors, not a single one of whom did so much as open a door or window to see if we were okay. That's hospitality, Los Angeles style.
Best part: police didn't respond. Why should they? They had their show pony arrest of the four alleged teen masterminds behind the rash of Silver Lake muggings, so they can cool their heels.
Ironically, directly antecedent to this happening, saw four cops at 7-Eleven less than a mile from my house drinking coffee in the coffee machine area.
Protect ya' neck!
*this message typed by thumb, transmitted by esp
20 February 2009
Single Speeding on the Road
Note the Hollywood sign in the background—that’s the view from the closed road in
This is an old ass road that requires numerous transitions from mellow to steep and back again loaded with switch backs over varying road surfaces ranging from packed dirt to crumbled asphalt to normal paved stuff, always with debris and deadly cracks all over the place.
The single speed road bike forces you to combat many of the same stochastic environmental forces you’d encounter on a mountain bike. If you can master staying in your target training zones in these variable conditions, then you’ve got a good start on mastering the concepts of pacing in races and on hard group rides.
Both uphill, downhill, and on the flats line selection, carrying momentum, and applying appropriate levels of force at exactly the right moment become critical if you don’t want to end up zig-zagging back and forth while trying to stay on top of a 46-16 (gear on this build) on a 14% grade.
Shocking Revelation
If you have a wallaby fetish or mainline pro cycling news perhaps you'd know but versus hasn't explored this story line too much instead electing to focus on Mark Cavendish. That's cool, it gives Paul an opportunity to recite fun facts about the topography and local flavor in Isle of Mann.
Please Bench #10
Guess what #10: the image stabilization on the camera ain't that great and you may regret spending your time looking at a 2" LCD of the leaders when you could have actually watched the race.
Take it back to Havasu, bro.
18 February 2009
Who is this idiot?
McCartney Unplugged
Jason McCartney has certainly been giving it. Would be great to hear or read something about his role at Saxobank now that Cancellara (their predesignated leader, allegedly) is somewhere else working on his renowned Swiss glow.
Is he sitting on breaks? Trying to scrote up like Jens Voigt? Or just trying to grab some tv time?
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Did Lance Crash Levi? And Hummer the Bummer
Top two threads on the Versus message board:
Hummer is a Bummer!
Please make Craig Hummer go away!
I’ve actually listened to an in-depth interview with Hummer on Competitor radio. Until then I had no idea he was an Olympian swimmer and has contested some severe open water swimming events. He appears to be quite a waterman.
It’s difficult to tell if he’s actually terrible and totally lacking insight or if he has been told to act this way and report in such a manner. I would suspect it’s the latter. Listening to his Competitor interview, I gleaned that he is acutely tuned in to what the athletes are experiencing as he has experienced most of what they’re experiencing albeit in a different sport.
Having covered cycling for Versus for several years and hanging out with cycling legends all the time, it would stand to reason that he has a mastery of how bike racing works, tactics, the personalities, etc.
Yet if he does, none of it comes across. The myriad production problems have probably left Hummer with a lot of dead air to cover while he’s receiving sketchy information about what might pop up on the monitor next in his ear bud. Doing live sports broadcasting is not a simple business.
But can you imagine any other major sport having such shoddy commentary and footage with no B-roll to flip to when there’s an hour-long block without any live race footage?
It seems that the cycling world is pretty evenly split between those who believe pro cycling has an endemic drug problem that’s still probably out of control and a past it needs to openly confront if it will ever get over it. .. .and those who want to stay in Wonderland, believe in the Tooth Fairy, and play the role of the sophist in elevating the least scientific argument and placing it on the same level as, say, a binary doping test. The sycophant fan-boys playing scientist at Trust But Verify for the past several years would fall into the latter category.
So what do people expect? When you’re limited to asking Lance Armstrong questions like, ‘how did you feel today, Lance?’ rather than asking him a question like, hey, when you stood up to follow Horner’s wheel, did it send your wheel backwards when Levi wasn’t anticipating it?
Because watching the replay of the Levi crash, it sure seemed like that’s exactly what happened. Anyone who has climbed in a pack knows that at any moment the person in front of you could stand up and that the shift in their body weight will cause the bike to move backwards. Smooth, experienced riders can somewhat mitigate this effect and make the standing to seated transition without that momentary aporia of momentum that causes the deceleration/rear wheel movement in a less smooth rider.
When you’re dead tired and the pace cranks to hellish or when you’re going really slowly, those movements can be very exaggerated. It appeared that the pack was moving quite slowly when Levi ate it and that Lance had stood up and given a few hard stomps directly antecedent to Levi eating it. It was hard to tell, but it also looked like Levi may have gotten bumped by someone on his left, perhaps moving off of a rough shoulder or debris at the edge of the pack.
Who knows?
I don’t after watching the coverage, but I am dead certain that the Tour of California is the first major bike race in
That’s nice.
Final Thoughts Stage 2
Okay, so the race couldn't get their comm. Plane in the air thus the lack of pictures. But I feel sorry for anyone trying to follow the race on VS who is a noncyclist or hasn't watched racing before.
I just don't get it. One second bam! The coverage just started and there's a group of 10 already 5 minutes up the road. Could we see an attack happen/form just once, please, instead of hearing Craig Hummer tell us this is the first time a bike race has gone across the Golden Gate bridge?
My other fave of the coverage on stage 2 was not getting to see what happened to the front group of 10. One segment they're going strong. Next one, Levi is solo--no wait he has two people to catch. Next commercial Levi and Tom from Garmin are crossing the finish line.
Had I not read about the race on nine different cycling sites i'd be scratching my head wondering what the hell happened.
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-Dr. Steve Elliot, Amgen Scientific Executive Director
Phwew! For a second I thought he was going to say the riders were the face of EPO, Amgen's blockbuster product.
Hummer Califactoid of the Day
'The California Coastline--we've talked about how well known it is. People have written about it. They have written not only prose but songs as well.'
-Craig Hummer, VS live TOC coverage
-Craig Hummer, VS live TOC coverage
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It Warmed My Heart
Day Three Tour of Cali
See, he's wearing a visor. The Lance visor effect is already spreading like wild fire in the NorCal sleet brah.
17 February 2009
Bullshit, A-Rod
While I have no doubt A-Rod is immature and stupid--come on, Madonna's already reached her radioactive half life, dude--I seriously doubt that's why he used steroids as he claims.
A better and honest answer would be 'i am an egomaniac who had to cheat to perform because I wasn't good enough to reach team owners' expectations.'
Please some baseball reporter grow a pair and ask a real question.
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VILLAGE VOICE: Normally Sucks, This Time on the Ball
Who knew the Village Voice would prove to be at the forefront of real reporting on cycling in ’09? Well, they are. Read this for a piece that starts looping the shoelaces around the fingers and prepares to tie a pretty damning knot. . .
amazing
How bad popovich sucked while riding for Cadel Evans yet back on Lance's team he's a total animal again. How about that.
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16 February 2009
And Saxobank is Already Jumping on the Bandwagon
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It would be great if instead of telling us about the history of the Golden Gate bridge (I noticed they left out the suicide stats ;)), respect to Lance for doing the innovative thing and wearing a visor in lieu of a brimmed cap underneath his helmet on stage one (he was back to a cap under his helmet on stage 2 begging the question of whether Giro put him up to this. Giro, did you, or is this an Armstrong hangover from his recent foray into ultra mountain bike racing?
I guarantee this formerly frowned upon accessory will be omnipresent on the next rainy group ride I hit because Lance romance chose to rock one for a single day. They work quite well, but they do give you that 'non fast,' wind-catcher kind of feel if not for real then psychologically. And god, that makes all the difference when you're out trying to win the Tour de France on a Saturday morning in South Pasadena.
13 February 2009
PS
It’s called a metaphor, Lance. They’re really popular in language!
Was there some prohibition on using cancer as an analogy after Lance had cancer?
Kimmage must have missed the edict!
Phoenix a ruse
In the why is this news dept., no way in hell Joaquin Phoenix is for real. Casey Affleck isn't filming a death march, I wager this will be a giant prank but not until after Phx releases a rap album that will be critically acclaimed. Then he'll tug the table cloth from under the wine bottle.
Letterman is the finest journalist working today. Love his who gives a fuck old man attitude. First Blago now this. All tv journalists should grow a pair as big as Dave.
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03 February 2009
Barf
Today’s ride had two near vomit moments. One came while busting out eight LT intervals with some supra-LT vo2 max sprinkles thrown on top for a few minutes at the end of each charge, came out to more than 50 minutes at or above threshold while climbing. So got a few moments of that my stomach feels like it’s smelting my internal organs right now or something.
The other moment came when I was finished climbing and spinning around the hood. For the second time in two rides I came across one of the archetypical tableaus in my neighborhood—the in medias res hipster photo shoot. This entails 2-14 people standing around dressed like third graders in 1983 (short gym shorts, high striped tube socks, nuthuggers, etc) sitting around while one marginally attractive member of the group, usually a girl who looks underage for that ‘American Apparel’ effect, poses in front of lights while a photog douchebag snaps away. The other day it was some kind of hipster golf photo shoot happening in Elysian Park.
Today it was a much larger throng more towards the n=15 end of the spectrum lounging in front of a big city-commissioned graffiti piece that has bikes, Zapatistas and a few other ‘subversive’ elements in the mix. I passed them on my way up Sunset, thought about stopping and taking my cameraphone out and snapping a pic, then I thought, fuck that, why would I stop my ride to photograph a visual stereotype that is as common in my neighborhood as gangbangers, tagging, bike theft and bird shit? They were there on the way back as well and I noticed that as props they’d painted a set of speakers to match the mural.
This aesthetic completely eludes my grasp. I don’t get it. It makes less sense to me than Goths, who were the first subculture that really left me scratching my head and feeling like an old man. While that look is totally homogenous and codified as well, there’s something really irritating about an entire generation fetishizing a look and spirit of an era that never existed the way they imagine it did. It’s like Regan’s view of the ‘50s. Never was, never will be.
I’ll know some kind of real wholesale cultural change has occurred when the fashion world turns the fucking page and at least jumps forward 5-7 years (bringing us into the grunge era—or will we have to suffer a hair metal fashion fetish first?).
$.02
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