What goes up...

Not nearly as exciting as stalking cyclists, last weekend Trip Leader* and I did a practice climb up Mt. Humphery's (highest peak in AZ at 12,637 ft) to get ready for our upcoming Grand Canyon exhibition. Its a little over 4 miles to the top, with the last mile at over 11,500 in the tundra. Yes, tundra in Arizona.

Made it unscathed, despite a brief time of hunger-induced delirium when I was confused by a bird acting like a chipmunk (at least I thought - it was confusing).

Resting/Freezing on the saddle before the last mile - Star & Boo, behind me in the pic are those old volcanos we walked around NE of Flag, and yes I wear a goofy hiking hat because me & the sun are frenemies, without the "fr" part. But we summited - and according to Trip Leader* the weather was great, meaning that the wind wasn't blowing 40 mph.

Taking Trip Leader's* official summit portrait. The best part of the whole thing? easy, the bag of Doritos that I inhaled once we made it back to the car.

* Yen insists on being referred to as Trip Leader for all activities to do with the GC hike. He gets one letter addressed to him and then the power trip begins.

Tour of Missouri - !JENS!

For those new to cycling and this blog might not know how awesome Jens Voigt, hereby known as !Jens!, is. Here are a few !Jens! related stories from the Tour of Missouri.


-We saw 2 people sporting "WWJD? What would Jens Do?" shirts. Come on, that shirt is so 3 years ago.

-About a block from where the finish was, we were waiting to storm the podium and !Jens! came soft pedaling by 2 minutes after the pelaton finished. Boo and I yell "Good Job Jens" he turns and smiles. I think that is what caused the next story.

-Picture this, you're standing just to the right of the awards stage and Team Saxo Bank is being honored as the winner of the team category. All the riders get flowers and have just finished spraying and drinking their champagne. A few riders throw out their flowers into the crowd, then a few more. So you make eye contact with !Jens! and put of you hands as to say "!Jens! you're a rock star, throw me your flowers" and so he tosses them under-handed.....to the lady in front of you. Come on !Jens! she's wearing Garmin gear, I know you only use your arms to steer, but just one more person back. Maybe I looked like I didn't have any ups? Anyway, I think he did look sorry that he didn't get them to me.
And he must have remembered he stiffed me later when he rushed from hotel lobby to avoid me.

Tour of Missouri - Garmin's busdriver

***Note: The bus driver has a name....it's Kevin!!
We don't know his name, but he does have a point to the story. We talked to him at the Sedalia ITT stage and he did remember meeting us at the the ToC back in February. I guess we're memorable. We asked if Dave Z was going to win the ITT and he said that Dave was joking around a lot and that means he's feeling good. He (the bus driver) also mentioned that Dave is a curious study in human nature, no kidding.
We saw our friendly bus driver before the final stage in KC. We were standing outside the bus and he asked if we were here to see anyone in particular. Of course, Danny Pate is the correct answer. But we got distracted and started wandering though the other team buses. Saw Thor & Henrick again. Anyway, back to the Garmin bus... we standing around when I hear boo say "Hey Christian, how's the hand?" Holy Crap, boo and her cyclist eyes were on their A game. Christian Vande Velde tried to sneak up behind us on his little bitty cycling feet and boo still caught him.
Seriously back to the bus driver, we're waiting for Danny to come out and our driver asks if we wanted a picture or an autograph. Well, we don't have anything to sign, so we plan on just a picture. So our driver pulls out a Garmin cycling hat and asks if we want 1 or 2? Of course we want 2. Bonus points for the driver. Danny comes out fashionably late looking all cute, signs our hats and takes a picture with me. (Jock we forgot to ask him to Thanksgiving) And since Christian is still there we have him sign that hat too, now it might be worth something.
-Star
How elfin does Danny look?!?! I mean seriously, I was expecting his cycling shoes to have pointy toes with little bells. Ok, they are pointy, but there were no bells. - boo

Tour of Missouri - in the beginning

Tour of Missouri: we came, we stalked & then we left. I thought I'd give ourselves a day to make sure we don't get any restraining orders, but where do I start. I have to say that next time boo will not let me drive her car as we get close to the stage, I was so excited to see Team Saxo Bank out warming up that I kept starting out in 3rd (but I only killed it once!).

The first stage we went to was the individual time trial in Sedalia, MO. We got there early, which is important. We saw the whole Team Cervelo show up, so they were our first victims. Thor was there having coffee (surprise) and I got my pic with Heinrich Hausler. He's the cutie that leads out Thor on all the sprints. It looked like he just woke up, which I think he did.



There was slight confusion when I was going for a pic with Steve Cozza. He arrived in a car with Dave Z, & there was a miscommunication between boo & I. She followed Dave and I talked Steve into a pic, so when we turned around and smiled boo was gone. We were a little out of practice. But that is why Steve doesn't look very thrilled.




There was fire sale on Astana merchandise that we were going to buy them out and send it all to Lilly. hehehe

Tour of Missouri - we are back

Just you wait - Star has ALL kinds of stories about this year's Tour. She hit the stalking jackpot, pictures to follow. Fun race, good to see Planet Energy take a stage win. Two Canadians on the last stage podium, with a third as "Most Aggressive". Who knew?

Any way - more from Star later... - boo

Tennis, I guess...(half heartedly)

John Isner, I don't think I forgive you. sorry, you royally pissed my eyes off and they get stabby & carry a grudge. Sorry John, my eyes just get like that. Oh Andy, we'll miss you.

At least Murray got beat, and Shreeck-ova too. Oudin was a giant, blond russian killer, but couldn't take out the giant, blond dane tonight. And in further bad tennis news, the Bryan Bro's lost too. Too much time spent practicing jumping chest bumps I guess.

However, the first two sets of the Nadal/Monfils match last night were great - until wheels fell off the french bicycle and the spanish lion ate delicious flaky french croissants for a midnight snack.

Oh and who else is ridiculously excited for the Spike Jonze movie Where the Wild Things Are? Ohhh ME! Pick me! Pick me!!! (trailer)

Oh happy day...

Where do I start? Ok we'll start in Spain. Tyler Farrer won a stage at the Vuelta a Espana! He has ridden in every Grand Tour this year and it took him until the 12th stage to win one....he has had numerous 2nds & 3rds, but finally pulled though. Well done Tyler!!!
Now the real big news: THOR beat Cavendish in a sprint at the Tour of Missouri. Yippeee God of Thunder!! And he also took the leaders jersey from Cav, hehehe.
On some cycling sidenotes:
-Christian Vande Velde broke his hand during the 1st stage of the Tour of Missouri. That's sad.
-!Jens! Voigt made the team for the Tour of Missouri. That's awesome.
-Both of the Schlecks have dropped out of the Vuelta because of illness. I stopped watching them for the same reason.
-George Hincapie is wearing the Stars and Stripes at the Tour of Missouri. He does look like a super hero.
-Big Mig was at the Vuelta today. Check the comment on the pic.
-Dave Z should not be a model.

Happy Weekend! (early)

sad tennis eyes

because of Murray vs. Gulbis, then my ears got ticked off when Brad Gilbert started talking. He is close to leapfrogging Al Trautwig on announcers my ears would most like to push off a cliff. My ears know it's bad when they are glad that Johnny Mac starts talking.

One good thing about living on the left coast (besides being able to hold a weenie roast on the smoldering ruins of your neighbors house) is watching the last US Open match and still getting to bed at ten. Roddick's first round match, featured Andre Agassi in the comment box. Andre, you are the best. Really. A rare case of a great athlete and an even better person.

Unrelated to anything having to do with sports - but this guy twitters things his dad says. You're welcome.

Crashtastic....

that's about the best way to describe Stage 4 of the Vuelta. Take a look at the last crash, and probably one of the largest I've seen, there was many more before that. One rider ran into the back of a tanker that was parked on the side of the road....it had to hurt.
Chris Horner is out with a broken wrist :( I say he calls it a season, I think he needs a hug.
David Millar is really funny. And so is Ryder.

Hot of the wire: Big George has signed with BMC...wtf? Team BMC signed a couple big international names. I guess they're hoping for some invites to the Grand Tours. What I find interesting is Marcus Burghardt flew from Columbia to BMC, as well...Big George and Marcus were Mark Cavendish's final 2 leadout men all season. Last year it was Gerald Ciolek and he didn't stick around. I'm pretty sure that's a trend, but is it because of Cav or Columbia management?