Mason's Birthday Bike

Mason turns 5 on Friday, June 24th and here is a picture of his gift. It's a Redline Grom x, with 16 in wheels.

Horner rides himself onto the Tour team

After his dramatic solo win yesterday, Chris Horner was granted the honor of riding the upcoming Tour de France. Obviously he deserves to ride the Tour and perhaps his broken leg will be a blessing in disguise. Chris opted to ride the Giro d'Italia instead of le Tour at the start of the year, but missed the Giro while mending his broken leg. Cyclingnews.com confirms the good news:

Cyclingnews' Anthony Tan spoke to yesterday's stage winner Chris Horner last night. While Horner was of course very excited to have won at the Tour de Suisse, he placed less emphasis on it than on the fact that his manager had just confirmed to him that he had gotten the ticket for his team's Tour de France roster - something Horner has been wishing for a long time, since neither FDJ nor the Mercury team had taken him to France. So watch out for a full News story on this later on on Cyclingnews.

Finally, Horner wins big in Europe

American Chris Horner of Saunier Duval-Prodir, won the very tough and mountainous 6th stage of the Tour de Suisse today. Chris attacked on the final climb with 2 others and then dropped them gaining 1:12 by the finish. He just may have punched his ticket to a ride in this years Tour de France with his very impressive win.

Training for July 4th Criterium

Well, on a personal note, I'm trying to get ready for the 4th of July crit in Davis. I finished a very close 3rd there last year and I really like this course. However, last year I was a cat 5 and now I'm racing with as a cat. 3. But I think it may be more difficult to do as well this year as I don't have any team to help me out, which helps a lot. Also, I've started a new position at work and I'm putting in mostly 10 hour days resulting in less time for some solid training.

As usual I'm doing more specific sprinting work and short hill intervals rather than the long endurance miles. This is solely based on the time I have available for training and the main reason why I tend to stick to criteriums. Plus, they are such a blast to race.

Inside Cycling with John Wilcockson: Dauphiné with an English accent

Although no American took the overall win at this years Dauphine, the Yanks were in the thick of the action and just there to tune up for the upcoming Tour de France.

John Wilcockson of Velonews wrote a great historical article highlighting the english speakers of 20 years challenging for the overal. Next up is the Tour de Suisse where Jan Ullrich is front and center showing how his training has progressed in preparation for "le tour". Stay tuned.

USA and the Dauphine Libere

5th stage of the Dauphine Libere in France with Levi (in yellow), Floyd and Lance (in blue) all showing there strength. I hope this bodes well for the 2005 Tour de Frrance



Levi went down on a corner during the final descent of stage 5. No major damage was done and should be expected to continue. Levi is still my pick for the overall win.

Fitting winner as Father's day approaches.

This past weekend was a high point for American cycling, and yet Lance Armstrong was only a sideshow. The two biggest races of the week were taking place with the first stage of the Dauphine Libere stage race in France and the Wachovia USPRO Cycling Championship one-day race in Philadelphia, PA. The Wachovia USPRO race has been on the same course the last 21 years and boasts as being the richest one day race in the world. The winner's paycheck was $142,000.

The USA took the top 5 spots in Philly, the first time the podium has had an all USA showing in its history. Meanwhile, across the pond in France, the Americans were four of the top 5 in the Dauphine opening prologue. Lance Armstrong was 5th and his teammate George Hincapie took the win over Levi Leipheimer and Floyd Landis.

Philly (USPRO) was won by Chris Wherry of Health Net as he soloed away from his breakaway companions Danny Pate and Chris Horner. Having lived and raced in Boulder Colorado I knew both Chris Wherry and Danny Pate. Danny was a young quiet amateur but everyone knew if he kept at it he would be something. Of course they thought the same about Chris as he won US Amateur National Championships in 1996 and was always tangling with the big pros in any race he entered.

I met Chris while he worked at the local Buchanan’s coffee shop on the Hill in Boulder biding his time before turning pro. Our team attempted to pick up Chris when he decided to turn pro and his father was the one negotiating the deal. Chris’ dad was always at the local races and you could pick him out as he stood over 6 ft and wore an English style driving hat. Chris ended up signing with Saturn, but we had nothing but respect for the way his dad treated our team and the way Chris handled the situation. Chris’ dad died in 2002 of Leukemia and I’m sure that his memory has kept the cycling fire burning within.

Ironically the person that Chris took the USPRO title from was a former amateur teammate (Taya Chain) of Chris and friend while in Boulder, Fred Rodriguez. Chris is a well deserving winner and I’m sure a win that would have made his father proud. Congratulations Chris.

Paolo wins the 88th Giro d'Italia

I was basically correct about the penultimate stage of the Giro d'Italia. Simoni, Di Luca and Rajano all made life tough on Paolo and at one point had enough of a lead on the road that Simoni was the 'virtual' leader on the road. But with an amazing descent of the Finistre climb and then a more than adequate ascent of the Sestriere, Paolo kept Simoni in sight and won the overall by just 0.28.

This next week Lance Armstrong starts his pre-tour racing with the Dauphine Libere in France. This should prove to be interesting. Stay tuned.