First, I’d like to give a big congratulations to Cameron Chambers, Kansas local MTB honch, who thoroughly spanked the field at the US Mountain Bike 24 hour Nationals last weekend in Colorado Springs. He is also National Champion in single speed MTB cross country. Cameron lapped the field. so he won in 21:30 minutes, a full hour and a half ahead of 2nd place. I wouldn’t really know, but it must be pretty great not having to ride the last 2:30 hours of a race like that. Here’s an article.

How about the article at Cyclingnews.com about Alberto Contador looking forward to a 2 month vacation after his “season”. The guy only started racing in August, after serving a “2 year” suspension. I don’t have any idea how he could be so mentally and physically exhausted that he is going to take a month and a half off.

Yesterday I hiked about 11 miles. All at altitude. I am pleasantly surprised that I am not completely crippled from the endeavor. Normally I would be. I think the reason is that I used hiking poles yesterday and they “saved” my legs on the down hill. Hiking with poles almost seems like cheating. But, it’s a good way to ease your way into it without destroying your leg muscles.

Speaking of altitude, I’m not sure, but it doesn’t seem like it affects me as harshly it used to. I’d have to say, racing here in the US, that altitude played a huge, maybe the most important role, in how I finished in many important races. When I started racing, the biggest race of the season, by far, was the Red Zinger/Coor’s Classic. The race got up to a couple weeks long and nearly all the stages were at altitude. Just when the biggest road races left altitude, the Dupont Race, etc., I had switched to MTB racing primarily, and nearly every NORBA National was at altitude once again. And usually at very high altitude.

But, for some reason, it doesn’t seem to kill me like it used to. I haven’t raced at altitude at a big event, but just training, hiking and doing manual labor stuff seems way easier than before.

I think I’m going to have to do a blood test to see what’s up. It’s not like I have any ability to chance anything, it’s just nice to know every so often.

I’m flying home this afternoon. I plan to ride tomorrow. That was 8 out of 9 days off. I have no idea if it was enough time off. Definitely not the 1 1/2 months Alberto is taking. I think I feel a little better. My chest does for sure, so maybe this “rest” helped there. I’ll guess I’ll see when I start riding again.

About half way up, with poles.

The hiking poles are pretty light and adjustable in height. I wonder if this would work for x-country ski poles?

The fire tower at the very top of the ridge.

You can sign up and stay at the fire tower observation. I think you have to take a short course and then obviously hike up to it. How cool would that be spending the night here?

There is an article here at Cyclingnews.com that says that the UCI won a judgement against Floyd in their defamation case against him. Floyd was ordered to pay Monsieurs McQuaid and Verbruggen, 10000 CHF each and take out ads in a bunch of publications, Wall Street Journal, L’Équipe, Le Temps, NYVelocity, Cyclingnews, Velonation, Velonews and De Volksrant, publishing the verdict, saying he was a liar, liar pants on fire. I wonder if there is anyway I can get my website on that list?

The key thing here is that Floyd didn’t show up. I wonder if anyone has any authority to make Floyd do anything at this point. Internationally, I’d bet it is pretty hard to enforce a judgement like this. (And the beat goes on – Here is an article that states that Floyd was never served.)

The court said that Floyd definitely can’t say any of the following – That the UCI or the above mentioned Monsieurs “have concealed cases of doping, received money for doing so, have accepted money from Lance Armstrong to conceal a doping case, have protected certain racing cyclists, concealed cases of doping, have engaged in manipulation, particularly of tests and races, have hesitated and delayed publishing the results of a positive test on Alberto Contador, have accepted bribes, are corrupt, are terrorists, have no regard for the rules, load the dice, are fools, do not have a genuine desire to restore discipline to cycling, are full of shit, are clowns, their words are worthless, are liars, are no different to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, or to make any similar other allegations of that kind.”

Wow, they got pretty specific there. Luckily Floyd has put all the “silliness” behind him and has moved on to a more serious endeavor, NASCAR.