July 7, 20094 Comments on A critical mass of police bikes
Look at all of them Los Angeles bike patrol officers. Police officers prepare to patrol on bicycles outside the Michael Jackson public memorial service held at Staples Center on July 7, 2009 in Los Angeles, California.
July 7, 20092 Comments on Lunch with Paul Andrews
Semi-retired journalist Paul Andrews is visiting the Bay Area from his Seattle home. He used to write for the San Jose Mercury News back in the stone ages before he packed his bags to become the technology columnist for the Seattle Times.
We had lunch at Cafe Borrones in Menlo Park where he told me about his bike rides with Jobst Brandt (mountain dirt trails on skinny road tires), Dave Scott (super nice guy who pulled the entire ride, kind of like Fabian Cancellara pulled Saxo Bank during the Team Time Trail), Greg LeMond (ran into him once), and other Bay Area cycling legends.
In 2000, Paul met blogging pioneer Dave Winer and tried out Winer’s early blogging software. “I tried it out and was blown away,” writes Paul in his old tech column. “For a career journalist, blogging was like dropping a newsroom, printing press and fleet of trucks in my lap,” so he began blogging about bikes and other topics at the turn of this century, which is five years before I began blogging about bicycle issues in Boulder County, Colorado. As far as I can tell, the other “oldest” bike blog is The Cycling Dude who began publishing, I believe, in 2003 or 2002 (Kiril, please feel free to correct me).
These days, Paul Andrews blogs as The Bike Intelligencer. He knows road biking and the people involved and there’s good stuff to read over there — I’ve added it to my RSS feed.
July 7, 20092 Comments on Tour de France Stage 4 Photos
The BBOX Bouygues Telecom Team in action on stage four of the 2009 Tour de France, a 39km Team Time Trial through Montpellier, on July 7, 2009 in Montpellier, France. (Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)
The Cofidis Team in action on stage four of the 2009 Tour de France, a 39km Team Time Trial through Montpellier, on July 7, 2009 in Montpellier, France. (Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)
Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland and Team Saxo Bank catches his breath just after the team time trial of the 2009 Tour de France on July 7, 2009 in Montpellier, France. (Photo by Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)
The Astana Team in action during stage four of the 2009 Tour de France, a 39km Team Time Trial through Montpellier, on July 7, 2009 in Montpellier, France. Spaniard ALberto Contador is in his red and yellow skinsuit. (Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)
July 7, 20094 Comments on Practice makes perfect
“Missed it by that much!”: Team Astana’s Lance Armstrong on missing the yellow jersey today by a fraction of a second.
Astana previewed the course in Montpellier in the days leading up to the Tour start, and this practice paid off for them as they expertly navigated the technical course with its tight twists and turns. Other teams lost time and riders when they overshot some of the tighter turns and had to regroup afterwards.
Is the 2009 Tour de France turning out to be a great show, or what?
Commentary elsewhere:
* KWC: Now that’s excitement.
* VN: Astana steamrolls team time trial.
* CN: Team Astana asserts dominance.
* Pez: Astana Dominant, Fab Still Yellow.
* Intelligencer: Fab’s monster pull.
* Guardian: Lance Armstrong.
Apologies for making Cyclelicious “All Lance” — I hoped to avoid it this time around, but it’s difficult to do so far in the 2009 TdF. Because of this apparent comeback so far, it appears Sony Pictures is now producing a documentary about Lance Armstrong.
July 7, 2009Leave a Comment
“So are you hosting alone or with the whole team?”
“George, we’ve been through this, man.”
“So alone then?”
The widget below might say “No Preview Available,” but if you click the “Buy and Watch Now” you can watch a short preview without paying.
July 6, 20092 Comments on Mark Cavendish in the green
Columbia HTC during the Tour de France 2009 Stage 3. Mouse over the images for photo credits.
