Thread Drift

[dachshund]

Sarah,

One thing I don't get with the Tour is that Floyd seems to be doing a lot by himself. Is this because he's just so strong sometimes that his own team can't keep up with him?

thanks, Amy

[maillotpois]

Well, he's had some problems with his team. Perdiguero would have been expected to stay with him in the mountains, but crashed. I find it absolutely amazing and wonderful how Axel Merckx has pulled himself together to stay with Floyd on some of these stages. Axel has never been a super great stage rider, more of a rouleur on the flats. But he dug deep and I was just so impressed. He's also got Nicolas Jalabert, who is a very solid rider.

Interesting, both Merckx and Jalabert both have family who are much more accomplished cyclists that they ever turned out to be. I wonder if they ever talk about that?

Anyway, I think the team has performed well in the flatter stages, and they really worked great yesterday, setting him up for the launch. I think they've done the best they could. Other teams, like T Mobile, have much more depth in terms of having a lot of very strong riders. But T Mobile's tactics consistently SUCK. They just can't get it right. CSC has both a strong team and a decent tactician - yesterday was the only time I have EVER hoped that Jens Voight wouldn't close a gap!

[dachshund]

Thanks!

It's cool to watch Floyd do so well while "staying seated". I know he can't stand much because of his hip. I can't either because of my back, so it's satisfying to watch him bomb along with all the other guys cringing and flailing away.

His coach is awful cute. I'm surprised that the "boy watchers" here haven't mentioned that. (Maybe they did and I didn't catch it.)

[kelownagirl]

Well, he's had some problems with his team. Perdiguero would have been expected to stay with him in the mountains, but crashed. I find it absolutely amazing and wonderful how Axel Merckx has pulled himself together to stay with Floyd on some of these stages. Axel has never been a super great stage rider, more of a rouleur on the flats. But he dug deep and I was just so impressed. He's also got Nicolas Jalabert, who is a very solid rider.

Interesting, both Merckx and Jalabert both have family who are much more accomplished cyclists that they ever turned out to be. I wonder if they ever talk about that.

I'd like to add that Axel's wife is from Kelowna so I always keep a pretty close eye him during the tdf. Kind of nice that he has a bigger profile this year. Today I rode the route that he usually does when he's here. Of course he probably does it twice as fast as me...

[chickwhorips]

His coach is awful cute. I'm surprised that the "boy watchers" here haven't mentioned that. (Maybe they did and I didn't catch it.)

i dont think they mentioned it, but i noticed that too. i like when he's interviewed, though have a hard time paying attention to what hes saying.

[winddance]

I'm working at home, at the dining room table. I started hearing a really creepy wheezy whistling noise and couldn't figure out WHAT it was. Scared the bejeezus out of me.

It is my cat. Snoring.

My skinny cat snores. He actually woke me up one night with his little kitty snorts. It took me forever to figure out where it was coming from.

On a completely separate topic, what's up with this heat? I live in the Bay Area precisely because it doesn't get hot. I'm all for public transit being free every so often, but BART has really got to stop breaking down on free transit days...

[snapdragen]

It is too hot! 6:30 and it's 92 degrees on my porch. This is wrong. This is the N. Cali Bay Area - land of mild climates. The air conditioner may be on all night.....

[winddance]

I don't have air conditioning. I usually have a breeze off the bay.

It's 80 in my apartment.

(whine...)

[kelownagirl]

Hot, hot, hot way up north too. It was 102 when I was downtown this afternoon.... Thank goodness for A/C is all I can say. Supposed to get up to 110 tomorrow. Won't be biking that's for sure...

barb

[Lise]

It's finally cooled off here. Low 70s. I came home this afternoon, turned off the AC, and opened the windows. This morning it was 100% humidity. How can that be when it's not raining? Anyhoo, then it rained. Kind of a chilly rain, too! If you don't like the weather here, wait 5 minutes...

I just came from a wonderful reunion of the midwives I worked with for 9 years. It felt like going home. We've been apart now for 3 years, and the ending of our practice was pretty traumatic. Fortunately, none of the midwives were at fault. Everybody's doing really well. I miss them.

[kelownagirl]

Can I vent / whine here? I am getting really frustrated with the whole road bike thing. I love the bike, I love how much faster I can go, I love how it is becoming a part of me, like my MTBike was. But.... I started cycling about 4 months ago. I put about 1200 km over 3 months on my MTbike and made huge strides in ability and stamina. For the most part, I could keep up with Erik, although he'd always beat me on the hills. He was seldom more than a few hundred feet ahead of me and we'd usually be able to ride together on the flats and downhills. I couldn't wait to get a road bike so I could go faster etc... But now that I have one, it's a completely different story. Although I am so much faster than I was on the mtb, so is Erik, and he's way ahead of me all the time. He's very patient and he stops and waits for me frequently and sometimes I lead or he rides alongside me but I know it gets boring for him. On the hills, he's waaay faster and is usually out of my sight entirely. I find I need the encouragement of having someone close enough to talk with once in awhile rather than having to watch him slowly edge away from me on every hill until he's out of sight. Honestly I don't want him to have to ride slowly just for me - it's supposed to be a workout for both of us. I actually think we'd do better if he rode his MTBike but he's been dying for me to get a road bike so he could ride his.

Biking is a big part of our lives now. We both love it and it's something we love to do together. But for the past 2 weeks, I have been increasingly disillusioned at how it is turning out. I know I will get better and stronger if I keep riding, but so will he. So he's likely to always be way faster than me. I just don't know what to do short of riding on my own and encouraging him to go on hammerfests alone or with other guys and do his recovery rides with me. I think it just sucks - we were looking forward to riding 4-5 times a week with each other and I'm just getting more and more upset each time we go out. I guess there's no advice to give here - I just needed to unload...

[Lise]

TD is where we come to vent, to celebrate, to goof around, et al. You've come to the right place. Dunno what your solution will be, but no doubt you'll find one that works for you both. Glad you're enjoying going fast on your new bike. Isn't it cool?

[salsabike]

Hey, kelownagirl, rent a tandem for a day with him and see how you like it. Chris is 2-3 mph faster than I am, so our single bike rides are like yours. We tried a tandem two years ago and loved it. Now we each ride our singles alone during the week, and do big tandem rides on the weekends. We just did our second Seattle to Portland ride on the tandem. It is a ton of fun--wait till you see how fast you can go together--and it smooths out those speed differences that happen on the single bikes.

[DirtDiva]

I'm having one of those weeks where it really sucks to be a grownup...

[crazycanuck]

Hey kids,

Just a myriad of thoughts-i may just post twice to keep your eyes from straining!

I caught up with Kiwi in oz tonight at the pub to watch the Ab's vs Springbok game...At least the springbok showed up this week and scored two tries!!!
(gee percy montgomery's kinda cute) She;s a lovely lady!

KG-I understand where you're coming from. Even on a road bike i'm still slower than ian & our bike friends. (I have to lead when we're riding as i still suck at drafting.) I have figured out that no matter how fast i go, i'll still be slower so I go as fast as I can & work from there. If i keep working at it, who knows i might actually be able to keep up with them! (Ian says i'm improving speed wise& i can see the difference off road too. Now if left hand turns would just be a bit easier at night!!!)

I was babbling there sorry-What i'm trying to say is, don't panic if you're not as fast as Erik. Perhaps you need to ride on your own & join him on one bike ride a week. On the days you ride alone, work on the hills, speed & distance & who knows one day you'll pass dear Erik!!!

About the weather-i need to find the conversion chart on my computer for F to Celcius...I keep on thinking abuot the days i used to watch Willard Scott on NBC today & got used to the conversion...


c