Limping South-ish

This entry was posted in Just Life on by .

Been pretty busy the last couple days waiting out the weather. But, I couldn’t wait long enough. Last night it got to close to -30. The high today is supposed to be -13. I’m thinking/hoping it is a good day to head back to Kansas.

I am pretty positive that I’ve figured out the problem with my van. It is a EGR cooler problem. I wasn’t really familiar with an EGR cooler, but am pretty familiar now. It’s a small radiator type devise that that cools the exhaust gas. It has a small hole in it so when it leaks pressure into the cooling system, it pressurizes it and blows the coolant out the radiator cap, since it only holds 16psi. Anyway, it isn’t a great problem. If it completely fails, then all my coolant is going to go into the cylinders and spit out the exhaust. Needless to say, the van won’t drive very far that way. The is a small chance it could actually be a head gasket, but I’ve pretty much ruled that out. Either way, I’m crossing my fingers it has 700 miles left in it.

I skied 30 km two days ago. It was cold, but slow. We shovelled Dennis’ back porch, which was nearly 4 feet deep with roof snow. Then we installed new lights in the wax/bike room and then some more upstairs in the loft. Bromont is loving it here in the cold. It seems to be no problem for him to do his hour or hour and a half stints in the deep snow, hardly ever sticking to the beaten path. He is a total muscle man now. Plus he’s eating twice his normal amount of food. He has been in heavy training. I’m a little jealous.

Trudi flew out of Duluth on Saturday morning, heading to California for a BMC training camp in Solvang. She flew into San Fransisco to get a team car to drive down. But here luggage never showed. She had to wait until late last night for her bag, so had to drive until the wee hours this morning. What a bad way to start out a hard week of work.

Okay, sorry this is a short one, but I got to get moving. I’m not sure if driving slower is better. Or if driving on pretty much the coldest day of the year is smart. I had thought about driving last night, but when it is this cold, I had no desire to be in a broken down car. I know that big turbo boost is not a good thing. I have a couple gallons of antifreeze, plus a couple more of water. If I go through that much, it is going to be a pretty ugly drive. Wish me luck.

The Namekagon river is still flowing with a week or temperatures way below zero.

The Namekagon river is still flowing with a week or temperatures way below zero.

Dennis' porch before.....

Dennis’ porch before…..

And after.

And after.

New lights in the waxing room.

New lights in the waxing room.

Dennis cleaning up the loft after installing new cannister lights.

Dennis cleaning up the loft after installing new cannister lights.

Trudi getting a little exercise, trail blazing, before she left.

Trudi getting a little exercise, trail blazing, before she left.

Went over to my friend George's property to take a sauna at -15. This is a little out building he built to retreat to when he needs a little space.

Went over to my friend George’s property to take a sauna at -15. This is a little out building he built to retreat to when he needs a little space.

The sauna is a few hundred meters away. It is wood heated. It was super hot, like over 200 degree +++ hot. It was great going out into the snow after roasting. It was pretty strange, standing nude in the woods at close to -20 degrees and feeling pretty warm.

The sauna is a few hundred meters away. It is wood heated. It was super hot, like over 200 degree +++ hot. It was great going out into the snow after roasting. It was pretty strange, standing nude in the woods at close to -20 degrees and feeling pretty warm.

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Update-One hour in. -24. Full of coolant still.

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He’s not stressed the least.

Scarponi Needs to Watch – The Reason they Tell You NEVER to talk to a Cop

This entry was posted in Comments about Cycling on by .

I watched a video the other day from a law professor and also a police officer, saying that under no circumstances, should you open your mouth when being questioned by the police. I wouldn’t have thought that it would be any harm if I had nothing to hide, but now I think I am wrong on that.

Michele Scarponi probably should have watched the video and applied it to the press. I just saw this article over at Cyclingnews.com where the in the interview, Michele can’t really get his story right and contradicts himself. That isn’t a very good thing if he would like the readers to believe what he’s saying.

When repling to questions about using Dr. Michele Ferrair, Lance’s guy, he says“…I only saw him once for a test. To say that I ‘frequented’ him is a bit much. I was given a suspension, I accepted it and basta. It ended there.”

Then just a little later on he says, “You’re still asking these questions and it’s something from the past. I repeat: my story was blown out of proportion and I suffered the consequences. For this reason, I don’t even like talking about it. I saw him once, if that, and I paid for it with a three-month suspension.”

If that? Either it was once or more or not at all. It can’t be once, if that. If that, would mean, he didn’t see him at all. Or just saw him when he was riding by and didn’t have any relationship with him. But he has already admitted to meeting up with Dr. Michele Ferrair, a doctor that had been banned by the Italian Federation since 2002, for a two-day test on the Monzuno climb, near Bologna.

Cyclingnews did go and ask the guy why, after already serving a suspension for blood doping, relating to Dr. Fuentes, would he use Michele Ferrai for anything. His response was, “I understand the question. Do I have to answer this? I’m thinking about how to respond. I never thought that going to see him one time would have brought all of this on top of me. I didn’t think I’d done such a serious thing. Clearly if I could go back, I wouldn’t do it.”

He probably should have asked the first three lines in that paragraph to himself, early on in the interview, and then walked. Or better yet, never do interviews.

Vinokourov, Nibali and Astana threw Scarponi a bone. It’s such a joke. I don’t understand why these guys get their 2nd, 3rd, whatever chances. They aren’t smart enough to quit doping. Or maybe they are and just know that they were super unlucky getting caught in the first place. If you use him as an example, the only way he ever served a timeout was when got nabbed with his doctors. It’s not from testing.

Anyway, I doubt these guys are going to get much smarter and are going to keep doing these interviews, thus piss me off. I don’t think he should be racing at all, let alone finishing 4th in the Giro or riding the Worlds last year. I guess that pisses me off more. The whole thing stinks.

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