It is exactly two weeks since I broke my hip. I can’t say I’m very productive yet. I pretty much watched every race the last couple days at Tulsa Tough, I didn’t only watch the Pro 1 and women’s races. I was watching the Cat 4 men, Cat 3 women, juniors, all of them. And today, I can’t really say it was a waste of time. I know those courses so well and really enjoyed watching dynamic races, not just the predictable, controlled Pro races.
I was a little surprised how south the races went Sunday for the United Healthcare men’s and women’s teams. Maybe you wouldn’t call the women’s race all that bad for them, since they did win the race, but they went from stacking the overall and daily podium to just having the top step on both. And maybe you wouldn’t consider the men’s race that bad either. Brad White, UHC, won the race. But all the GC contenders of their team, 4 of them, fell with just over 2 laps to go and didn’t finish. It is strange seeing a crash that close to the finish and only riders on one team fall. That final corner must have been super slick. The Pro men got super unlucky with the rain starting just so close to the finish of the race.
My leg isn’t working too well yet. If anything, it is worse. Today I’m feeling a little better and am going to take a hand cycle out and try it out. I think that I’m going to have really sore arms and shoulders tomorrow.
Trudi, Vincent, and Stacie have been scanning all the newspaper articles, and slides, to digital format, the last couple days. I haven’t looked at any of the stuff. I’ve been sleeping so badly that I sort of walk around all day in a haze. Hopefully I turned the corner on that and I can be a little more, or a lot more, productive from now on.
Being on Colorado time, the Dauphine is already over by the time I get up from my 2nd attempt at sleep. I’m usually up from 2-6, and get another 1 or 2 in from 6 am on. Seems like Froome is on his normal rage. 2 for 2 there.
Okay, thinking about going over to Golden and just sit there somewhere, maybe at a coffeeshop. I’ve had two cups of coffee the last two weeks. Can’t say I miss it much. But, I like the routine of getting it. Maybe I’ll have them just plop me down by the stream that runs through Golden. There is always something interesting when you’re next to fast, flowing water. There are worse things I could be doing today.
One of the slide scans, the Levis/ Isuzu team from the before the Coor’s Classic. This is Greg Demgen, Roy Knickman, Thurlow Rogers, Phil Anderson, Andy Hampsten and me. I still have one of those Isuzu Troopers behind us.
The hand cycle I’m going to try out later this afternoon after it warms up a little.
Stacie scanning media stuff this morning.
Vincent and Trudi sorting slides.
Bromont and Jack love each other.
I love this sign, being from Topeka. This is a spin on the horrible signs that the Rev. Fred Phelps gang use. They are from Topeka.
I thought He only hated fig leaves?
Check out the Windy Saddle for coffee on main street in Golden.
You have GOOD friends ‘cuz scanning images sucks! It’s worth it in the end but the process…
Steve, we were lined up waiting to get on the Cry Baby course and a guy was talking about Quad Cities. He was talking about “some old guy who won a mtn bike world championship” had gone down and broke his hip. I had to chime in and tell him who you were. Kids need to bone up a bit on the old guard of the sport.
ON ON ! chill.
Hey Steve, so how did that work for the Coors Classic? Phil Anderson is riding his own Panasonic bike and has a Panasonic decal over the title sponsor of the jersey. Was this considered a composite team? Is that how most of the euro pros raced the Coors Classic as a combine on an American team? I’m sure cost was a huge factor in that. Would be interested to hear how that was sanctioned and how those deals were negotiated.
Jed-Is is a little weird comparing it to nowadays. Panasonic wasn’t doing the Coors Race and Phil wanted to come to altitude before the Worlds in Colorado Springs, so his team manager, Peter Post, contacted our team director, Michael Fatka and they arranged it. Michael had a lot of contacts in Europe, he took Lemond over there to meet the different team directors later.
It seems strange now because in 1986, that year, when our team raced out of the country, we rode for La Vie Claire, so in reality, Phil was sort of racing for La Vie Claire, which was the biggest competitor to Panasonic.
It was great having Phil ride with us. He was coming back from a knee injury and was hungry to prove himself. He finished 3rd overall behind Hinault and Lemond.
Hey Steve… give me a call… I’d love to meet you for coffee sometime.
Thomas