Ivan Basso - Half way to the Tour double

Ivan Basso put on a display in winning his first Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy) by 9:18 over Jose Gutierrez and 11:59 over two time winner Gilberto Simoni. Basso is now the favorite for the upcoming Tour de France with Lance Armstrong retired and Jan Ullrich dropping out of the Giro (and way back).

The past 2 years has seen only Basso being able to hold Lance's wheel in the Tour and he showed all those in the Giro that they can't hold his wheel. But putting the smack down on those in May, just might come back to haunt Ivan come July. Remember Iban Mayo in the Dauphine a few years ago as he ripped Lance and everyone else apart in the ITT up Mont Ventoux, only to whither in the mountains during Le Tour de France.

It was a bit disappointing seeing Tommy D get sick while in the top 5 and not really ride to his capability and even more disappointing to see Paulo ride so poorly. He was never in contention.

Back from golf

My brother-in-law, myself and two other guys did a golf trip up to Sunriver, Oregon (Bend Oregon area) and we played around 110 holes from Thursday thru Sunday. We hit Running Y Ranch in Klamath Falls both up and back. In Sunriver we played the Woodlands and Meadows courses and also Crosswater, which ripped me good. We all played well and I was in the 80's with a 79 and an 82. The first day at Crosswater I got an 85 or 86, so I was happy with that. The downfall is that I was off my bike for over a week and now I'm so entranced with golf I don't feel like riding. But the saviour in that line of thinking is that I just blew a bunch of money so I won't be golfing much right now. Onto the bike it its! Hmmm, I would really like to buy a new bike or a bunch of new stuff. Probably not.

Back on the bike

Two weeks ago I did a monster ride up through the foothills and the lower climbs of the Sierra's with 3 other guys. It was about 6.5 hrs and unfortunately I only had a 39x23 gear for the climbs. We went up some long steep climbs that I really needed at least a 39x25 for, at minimum. One such climb was called "prospector road" off of Hwy 49, before we got to Georgetown. This climb I did about 4mph the entire way up and my knees about popped whenever I tried to climb sitting down. The good news is that I didn't stop on the climb or on any of the numerous climbs and for the entire ride I didn't bonk either.

I followed up that ride with some good workouts that week and then a nice hard ride last Sunday as well. My intervals are going fine and I'm seeing some big improvements on my stamina, weight loss and power. I still need more time during the day to ride and really get my fitness to a better place. I would ultimately like to do some Masters racing and look to do Masters Nationals. But I still have to golf, so that's a tough one.