That was the final tally of miles I rode yesterday. I meet up with Robbie Robinette for our annual pilgrimage out west to the Texas Hill Country. For some reason, every time I’ve ridden with Robbie, it has been long and this was the case yesterday. It usually isn’t for another month, but I’m looking for miles and Robbie is on a quest for a 27 hour week for some reason, so it worked out for both of us. It was nearly 70 degrees, but the wind was not still.

Robbie has a super nice bike. A Madonne with Shimano Di2 parts and carbon Bontrager wheels. I’m riding my ti Eriksen cross bike with a 44T front ring. Not that it wasn’t enough for today.

Robbie is a pretty smart guy. He trades stock, sort of. Not the way we’d be trading stock. He buys and sells a lot of it. Millions of shares a day. Probably much more. But, he didn’t mind taking the whole afternoon off and letting his stock program do its’ thing without him. I’m glad. I got to ride some new roads I wouldn’t of found without him and had some nice conversation to boot.

We kept a pretty casual pace. I think it was around 18mph when I got home. I took a little detour through the neighborhoods to get to triple digits. Austin has some pretty awesome neighborhood riding, so it wasn’t such a effort. It was pretty much dark and I was kind of cold by the time I got back to Ann’s house though.

I have a little bit of a sore throat today. I’m not sure what that is all about. I took a decongestant this morning and am drinking tons of water, just in case. I might not ride as much today. I’m not sure I have two more long mile days in me at this point. It is supposed to be pretty warm through Friday, so maybe I’ll just do a couple hours today and then long again tomorrow. Kind of makes sense right now.

It never ceases to amaze me how many people are out and about exercising in Austin.

Sometimes these Texas roads are hardly roads.

Robbie being all color coordinated and all. He knows all the great rides around the city of Austin.

We came upon this truck flipped over out in the middle of nowhere. The kid that was driving it was fine. We rode another 1/2 hour before a firetruck came from who knows where.

There are tons of great things about Austin. This is the number one downer.

I got some new TRP brakes yesterday, but haven't put them on yet. I'll let you know how they work out.

This article is from Cyclingnews.com from yesterday. It is about Phil Zajicek’s, now ongoing, problem with an alleged purchase of EPO and HGH from Joe Papp. I have been following this process and getting small bits of information, true and/or make believe, from lots of different people.

What I didn’t understand and what I still don’t understand is why Velonews hasn’t addressed the news. It is important cycling news. One of the best riders in the US, the last few years, turns up in this investigation and Velonews originally refuses to release his name and now, after the story has already been printed, hasn’t addressed it once again. I gave them a day get-out-of-jail card here, but this is just wrong. This should of been addressed. As America’s predominate cycling publication, I believe they have an obligation to address this.

I’m wondering what the reason is here. I’m wondering if it is the “Friends of Velonews Club”. Or maybe the “Boulder Cyclists Coalition”. I don’t know. I called Neal Rogers out on this, maybe somewhat early, on the Chuck Coyle issue. There are tons of unanswered questions we all have from that still. But, not reporting the Phil Zajicek situation is in a timely (instant) manner is very unprofessional.

I’m pretty sure that there isn’t an explanation that they could come up with that could appease my outrage.

This is the important news that Velonews thought was important for Jan. 6th.