After the TdF

Some folks may not realise, but Le Tour does not change its starting times just to make it convenient for anyone except the French to watch the coverage. In the US this means that it is on starting at around 6am, finishing before lunch - however in Australia it means coverage starts around 11pm and finishes before breakfast. Not the best if you actually want to sleep at night, have a day job, or want to be remotely coherent for morning meetings. We actually did stay up to watch quite a few of the stages, mainly the mountains but also the finishing time trial. We hated ourselves in the morning, but it was worth it to watch the Schlecks, Contador, Wiggins and Lance battle it out. Our plans include a trip to France at some point to watch it in person, who knows maybe we'll make it before too long.

I will say though, that the tour coverage in Australia is really quite good and the local commentary team does a great job. Full marks to SBS for their work and production style - particularly the Taste of the Tour, worth watching just for the suggestions of food and wine pairings. I'll be checking in to SBS for my coverage fix next year though for sure!

Bad Monkee!

Again I come to you with praise for my brother's talents, this time with a twist. Tim has entered a couple videos in a Bicycling Magazine competition and has one in the top-10 that I'm sending around asking people to vote for. You do have to create a login (which requires an e-mail address) in order to vote but it is worth it to put Tim's work on top! Watch the clip here, just beware of the monkees, they are cruel!

Dollah Pants

Alright. So, it's been out for a little while, and I've had some people asking about it, so here goes. I created this video in honor of a sweet pair of Easter Yellow Sans-A-Belt polyester slacks that I found at the thrift store for a buck. I've always been a big proponent of funky pants, so these fit right in. My feeling was that owning the pants meant that their glory needed to be shared, so a short music video was produced. I was a one man show on this one, wrote and performed the music (if you can call it that) and did all of the stunts. So, this is what you get with a wild pair of elastic waist pants, a video camera, a free Sunday afternoon and a completely un-planned dance routine. Enjoy.

Bravestarr

It's time to head back into childhood for a taste of "the good ole days". Just recently I was alerted to the fact that Hulu.com has posted the entire first season of the cartoon "Bravestarr". Needless to say, I was thrilled. Until I actually started watching. Then I began to realize that everything I thought was awesome about the show was seen through the eyes of a 7-year old. It's actually a terrible cartoon. From the chunky animation, to the horribly cheesy effects and music, to the "moral teachings" at the end. But I love it. In all of it's joyful day-glo cowboy spaceship awkwardness. They don't make 'em like they used to.

Footy is back

In the spirit of education for the world (and to highlight a great concept) I present to you the newest Footy commercial playing on Australian television. Just watching this one-minute clip makes me excited for the start of the season on Thursday. The action, the athleticism, the drama - WOOO, there goes my heart rate again! Whenever anyone asks you what Aussie Rules Football is like, THIS is the best definition I've ever seen.

Riding the Line

Many times in life I think you can make a choice about how far to go, whether to hold back or push ahead, take risks or slow things down. The real challenge isn't making the decision, it is dealing with what comes next. If you take the current stock market as an illustration - at some point, the traders and mortgage lenders made a choice to be more risky and see how far they could take it. Now we find out that they went too far and we're now paying the price. I found the same thing in a triathlon this weekend, there is a point at which you can push farther, but the price you pay later is much much higher. If you don't push as hard you'll actually end up with a better overall time. (Pace on the bike is generally the factor - go out too hard and your run will SUCK!) For me, being slightly out of breath is the indicator in triathlon - once that hits I know I have to back down. I don't yet have a financial indicator though, so at this point I just keep putting more money away and hoping that I haven't pushed too far and am too risky. I guess I won't really find out for another 40yrs so that gives me a little buffer to cover any small screw ups. Do you think that the bankers, lenders, traders that are now being blamed for the "economic downturn" know when they've pushed too far? Do they get slightly out of breath and know that last trade was too much and they need to slow down? Maybe what we need on the stock market floor are a few treadmills so that people could discover their redline, and know how to ride it without going over.

I love Lance

Though this post does confirm which side of the 'Lance' fence I sit on personally, I'm not a fanboy-to-the-end that is going to study his every move and discuss ad-nauseum his personal choices and decisions. With Lance in Australia for the Tour Down Under, the increase in cycling news stories across the board has been very interesting. We've now gotten so far past anything actually newsworthy that the papers are discussing 'what-ifs' and ancient history. To set the record straight, I will not be flying to Adelaide just to catch a 2-second glimpse of the great LA. I may try to catch some of the race on TV and will at least read the daily summaries online. I wish all the cyclists in the tour the best, especially considering the recent string of blazing hot weather in South Australia.

The reason I'm posting today though, is due to one of those 'what-if' stories found recently in The Age discussing Lance and Ironman triathlon. Turns out that at some point we're going to see Mr. Armstrong hitting the long course and going "as fast as I can." Personally I can't wait for that - it would actually be a chance to see Lance for more than 2 seconds and should make for some really good competition considering the age group he is in. There are some other wicked-fast guys in his group and battling it out with them will be fantastic. I'm just glad that I'm not in the same group!