USADA announced a couple days ago that Thorfinn-Sassquatch, aka. Nick Brandt-Sorenson, has accepted a lifetime ban for his 2nd and 3rd doping infractions in the sport of cycling.   It is too bad it takes so much time and money to deal with such a douche.  Think about how many better ways there are to spend that money.  Cyclingtips did a pretty good article on Nick.  I’ve even been threatened with litigation from posting on him.   I’ve had my fun with this whole thing, so I’ll just leave it at that, except, Adios dickhead.

2nd, do you think that the speed that are being reported at the Tour de France are accurate? They are always showing the sprints at 75 kph.  Then a couple days ago, when Steve Cummings won, the descending speeds recorded were off the charts.  Multiple riders were over 120 kph. Marcus Burghardt’s, BMC,  Strava file said that his max speed was 130.7 kph.  For those who use mile per hour, that is 81.213.  That doesn’t seem possible?    There is a huge difference between 50 mph and 65 mph.  I’ve never come close to 80, especially at a place like the Tour where there are so many other riders, plus spectators, obstacles, etc.

Lastly, it rained 10 inches up near Cable a couple nights ago.  I was just there on Saturday and now it is completely underwater.  I talked to Dennis last night and he said that he is nearly land locked by flooded rivers and streams.  Can you imagine how much water that would be.

One inch of water over a square mile is just about 17.4 million gallons of water.  So 10 inches would be 174,000,000 gallons of water per square mile.  Multiple that by 100’s of square miles the storm covered and it is unbelievable.  Man, the weather sure has been changing recently.

Big wind day at the Tour.  Looks sketchy.  Should make for an exciting racing the next couple hours.

Marcus descending fast.  I have to assume he isn’t going over 80 in this position.

Strava summary.

This is a road less than 2 miles from Dennis’.

This road is pretty much toast.

Topeka is about ready to see some weather this morning too.

Tucker keeping an eye on me through a Starbucks window.

If you get past Chris Froome’s unattractive riding style, then add-on to it his cheeky moves during this year’s Tour, then he might just be winning over a lot more fans.

First, when he won that stage and took over yellow on a descent.  How unexpected was that?  I was never very much impressed with his descending abilities and then that.  Obviously, he had pre-ridden that descent a bunch of times.  But the way he did it in the race was very impressive.

When he was doing the Peter Sagan, top-tube pedalling deal, it didn’t look nearly as bad as you’d think for a lanky guy like Froome.  I would love to see his power file from that race.  I’d bet anything he was putting in way more than the 200 watts that Sagan once said he adds in that position.  He looked like he was really pedalling hard.

Then yesterday when he took off with Sagan with 12 km to go in a sidewind.  After the fact, I’m not sure it was the best move for a rider trying to win the overall in the Tour, especially since today is finishing on the Ventoux.  But you have to respect the effort.

This Tour, he has broken the status quo mold of Grand Tour racing and actually attacking  off the front.  The sit in, boring ass, bike racing has become just that.  Both of those stages would have been more of the same old shit if he didn’t shake it up and take those risks. And he is taking risks.  But I believe his risks are good for him personally and good for the sport. People are tired of seeing robots day after day.

I’m beginning to like Chris Froome.  For sure his aggressiveness.  Bike racing is way more exciting and tactical than the way it has been done the past 15 years or so.  He has, at least, cracked the mold a little, maybe not broken it, but hopefully other guys will notice and it has the chance to return to the more unpredictable sport it really is.  That is part of what makes it so interesting.