TGIF...and Happy Easter.

Another April Fool's day has come and gone, another Easter is now upon us. Since we as humans tend to look at holidays with a sense of amazement and we regard them as a milestone in the passing of time. How often do we hear "wow, it's Easter already?" or "Wow, how can it be 4th of July already? Where has the time gone?" So as the march of time wears on, we pass holiday after holiday and occasionally consider what we've accomplished to this point in the year.

As a cyclist, we find that holidays are less important to gauging what has been accomplished in life than the general populace. Our accomplishments are measured as races and calendar events, training miles and hill climb times. Every race day becomes a holiday, another chance to cut loose and measure our progress. Many people life their lives by the professional racing calendar, wringing their hands in anticipation of races like Paris-Roubaix, Ronde Von Vlaanderen and Liege-Bastonge-Liege (I apologize in advance for my horrendous spelling, but I am French language retarded.)

Holidays are tough times of the year for cyclists. We love spending time with our family, but there's an interesting dichotomy in that our bikes are often considered family, or very nearly so. All too often, a holiday affords us a day off from work, which would be considered a gift of family time. There always is a tough decision to make: human family or bike family? The tyranny of the work week can often drive us to crave the freedom of the open road (or trail) as an outlet for our stresses, frustrations and emotions, and the gift of a day without paperwork, phone calls or meetings is a godsend. However, when we consider the two families at odds with one another, it becomes a balancing act of epic proportions.

So what can you do? You've got all day, a gift from "the man", and you need to get your fix. Ride early, ride late, ride with your other family, or just plain ride. Your other family will understand. They'll see the grin, feel the aura of happiness and joy, and all will be right in the world.

Just don't overcook the ham by going on a ride and forgetting it's in the oven.

Happy Easter, Happy Passover, Happy Whatever. Ride tough, keep the rubber side down.

Happy post Valentine's Day

Well folks, after nearly 2 weeks of blanking you all, I'm back to say happy V-Day.

Riding has been non-existent in the past few weeks. There's just too much to do with moving into a new home and starting workk. I take solace in the fact that I get VS on DirecTV and can follow Velonews. In the world of cycling, there's loads of news: Valverde being questioned by CONI, the Tour of California starting, and, as of this morning, Lance Armstrong's Livestrong time trial bike being stolen out of the team trailer.

Now, allow me to editorialize a little bit here. Whoever you are who is now in possession of an ten thousand dollar bike, you are a scumbag. You're the worst of the worst, a thief of the absolute lowest class and an affront to humanity. Who the hell is so unconscionable that they steal a bike covered in numbers representing cancer deaths? I mean, really. So much for cycling being the sport of the wealthy and high class.

I hope the Twitterati find you sir. I hope they catch up to you while you're trying to unload this beautiful and psychologically inspiring piece of carbon fibre in a dark alley to some shady hot merchandise fencer. I hope they teach you a medieval lesson in all the best Pulp Fiction-esque manners they can possibly begin to think of.

Or, you could bring it back, leave a note of apology and beg for forgiveness from the human race for existing.

*Sigh* It makes me wonder why we as general humanity haven't gone to hell in a hand basket yet.

After moving and all that funk...

...it's time to get back on the bike. I'll be starting work soon, I'll be getting a good schedule down soon, so I'll be able to actually ride my trainer on occasion. Actually, I'll have lots of time until I get TV and intarweb access in the new place, although those are coming soon.

That being said, check out the Road Bike Rider E-bookstore and pick up some training info for the coming season. Sure, there's lots of ways to train, including the "just get out and ride for a bit" but I think this year I'll actually have to structure things a little more than I have in the past. I'd like to enter a few races this season (you know, since I have a nice light bike that I can use for racing) and do some longer rides and events. Hell, I might even give a 6 hour or 12 hour event a try. It might be fun, who knows?

Anyway, no outside riding to be had any time soon. Only trainer time. Damn the snow and ice. I'm just dying to get out on the local mountain bike trails, and I'm dying to try my new Garmin 705 on an actual trail. Imagine that.

I guess I'll have to "suffer" with the Tour of California for the next couple weeks. That's going to be a great race, with an incredible field. Here's hoping to some epic early season duelling on the climbs and time trials. And let's go Garmin, let's flex those argyle muscles.

Just a quick note?

Moving sucks. That's a foregone conclusion in most circles, but it's always magnified when you're the sucker that's sucking up a move. Coordinating help, dealing with surly family members who don't want to be bothered to help you move the mess that they partially helped create, and ever-present issues with landlords (both new and old) and utility companies all combine into a vicious stew of suck that is necessarily consumed only to cause an epic case of "life diarrhea." That's right, you become "ol' gravy legs" in an instant when you sign about 4 months of your life away and commit to this atrocity of human existence. I'd prefer to slam my face in a garage door given the chance, but I suppose it is all part of the ebb and flow of life.

That being said...I'm going to sit down, immerse myself in articles about the Tour Down Under and try to forget this truckload of life-poop that's been shoveled into my lap.

Oh, and for the record...

FUCK THE EAGLES. McNabb, you inaccurate son of a whore, get out. Now. And take fatso Andy Reid with you.

Oh god, I need to ride the trainer and get some anger out...

And now for these commercial messages...

Five days. No, not five days until the Scripture written, Weekly World News reported end of the world as we know it and predicted by Nostradumbass (although there may be some kind of cosmic implosion of sorts.) No, it's five days to the Tour Down Under and the professional return of The Mighty Uniballer, Lance Armstrong. How will it go? How will he do? Will he have his old form back so quickly? Will he conceive yet another child after making sweet, sweet mattress music with his black (or yellow, I think yellow is currently leading) brake hoods? The world is waiting with baited breath to see the final results, both of the genetics test for his girlfriend and his placing in the TdU.

Really though. Love him or hate him, he's back and he's racing for a message. Now don't take this post the wrong way; I love Lance. He was (still is?) the greatest cyclist of his time, possibly of all time. But the cries ring out "He's a doper! Throw him out!" He still beat everyone in the field, and everyone was, at that time, on even terms, and he did it SEVEN times. Oh, and he did beat cancer before that. If there's any blemishes on his reputation, I'd venture to guess that it would be his weakness for ditzy blondes and Matthew XcConaughey. Personally, I prefer the blondes myself, but hey, that's his business.

What I'm really sick of is the utter media circus surrounding this race and this guy. I mean, leave the guy alone for a day, let him visit with family, whatever. But Lance wanted some publicity and he got it. He didn't (or maybe he did and I'm the dope here) bank on the media turning his life upside down with this news of a return. Really, leave the guy alone. There are other people in this race, let's hear something about them as well. We love all of cycling. Lance is just a part of the whole package.

C'est la vie say the old folks, it goes to show you never can tell. (Bonus points to who can tell me the artist and song. No google. I'm watching you like ceiling cat.)

Oh, and as I said earlier, yellow seems to be the winner. From Twitter:
"560 VOTES: 262 BLACK (47%) / 298 YELLOW (53%) Many B votes want Y tape. Twitterati hath spoken: GO YELLOW."

I love William's Sonoma

What a great place. I'd love to have one of these for the wine snob in me, or perhaps one of these for the post ride entertainment.

In cycling news, it looks like the ice storm here in the north east will as yet prevent any outdoor riding. So that means I'm surfing Velonews and found this gem:

In a year of the comeback, perhaps it’s inevitable that Michael Rasmussen will join the band of riders pedaling back into the fray.

So "pulled from le Tour because he lied to his own team" is expecting that someone will come back and sponsor him? I can't believe that he's expecting to have an easy time coming back. I mean, it's one thing if you're someone like Ivan Basso, who served his two years and was a main rival of the top tier riders when he left the scene, but Chicken wasn't a huge winner of anything except the unlucky lottery.

In fact, he know this:
“It all depends on who wants to have me and where I want to be employed. It doesn’t make sense for me to sign with an Italian team if I want to race the Vuelta. My main goal is still to race the grand tours and we’ll see if I can find a suitable employer. I am confident.”

You keep being confident, Chicken. I'm sure you'll end up with some continental team, and have all kinds of chances to win Grand Tours.

On that note, time to go find some non-William's Sonoma produced coffee.