Morgul-Bismark RIP

Way back in the day (the "Olden" days as my kids will soon refer to it) I had a dream of racing my bike. That dream came true and I spent several years racing at a high level. The perks to racing for a Professional team is the goodies and free shwag that you get in exchange for representing the sponsors and killing yourself on the bike. Clothing, helmets, shoes, more socks than you care to wear through in 10 years (I'm still working on some), bikes wheels and nutrition supplies are all part of the package.

My last team bike was an Aluminum custom Morgul Bismark, as pictured here. The bikes had a custom paint scheme that had a chameleon effect when viewed in the sunlight - it changed colors. Morgul Bismark is a famous loop just south of Boulder that incorporates the painful ascent of the "wall" which is about a mile long at it's steepest. This climb was featured in the Coors Classic and also in the movie American Flyer's (with David carrying his bike across the finish line). The legend goes that Morgul-Bismark were names of a cat and dog that were often seen along this route. The decal on my bike had a small drawing of these two animals. This name became legendary in cycling and soon a bike shop was opened on the Hill in Boulder bearing the name. The shop was owned by none other than Davis Phinney and Ron Kiefel. When the shop closed down in the late 90's, the name was purchased by Rainbow Cyclecraft and they began making a few bikes hoping the name would lead to some economic payoffs. I have no clue if they made money on the bikes, but nevertheless the Oilme Professional Cycling team received the benefit of riding their machines for a year or two.

I have moved on from racing and receiving free bikes, but I kept my Morgul in good shape and continued to ride it for fun and to work. Sadly, the bike was stolen from a locked cage wherein my bike was secured with a cable lock. The surveillance tape is fun to watch as the D-bag villain scopes out the scene, breaks into the cage and unravels the bike lock in an astonishingly quick time. He escapes the parking garage riding the bike like he owns it. A police report has been filed.

My stolen team bike wasn't the top of the line anymore and the geometry bestowed a time of engineering past as now most race bikes have a sloping top tube and are made of carbon. The value of the bike isn't going to hurt me as the bike was given for services rendered. However, that bike represented a time in my life of adventure, hard work and the culmination of years of dreaming of racing the big time. Memories are still present in my mind so I am OK with all that...but watching that loser ride off on my bike gave me the feeling that he was snatching my girlfriend and didn't realize what a catch he had.

Post Tour

The 2010 Tour de France is over, summer is on and I am heading back to my last year of law school in just over a week. Alberto's third Tour de France win was perhaps his least impressive and to me it left a little something "wanting." I'm sure this is how the rest of the world felt during the 7 tour victories of Lance Armstrong when they didn't want him to win either. However, last year I enjoyed the race more with the constant attacking of the Schleck brothers and actually seeing gaps emerge from the top riders....gaps not caused by a dropped chain.

While Contador and Andy were very evenly matched, I like a race that has a good chase on the climbs where one rider gets away and the other desperately makes the effort to cut their time losses or catch the guy off the front. But this didn't happen. Also, Contador didn't win a single stage and his showing on the final TT was, shall we say, pathetic. yeah, I know Cancellara is the big stud and wins all flat TT's by a huge margin. But you never saw Lance, Ulrich, Indurain, LeMond or Roche win without being near the top for the final TT.

Next year should be interesting (as always) with both Schleck brothers on a new team (Forming in their home country of Luxemburg) and Contador now riding for their former team SaxoBank/Sunguard.

Other takeaways from this Tour - The french won 5 or 6 stages and took the mtn jersey. This is a rare occurrence in the last 25 years and perhaps it's a sign that truly the peloton is now clean. Also, Team Sky put Brad Wiggins in the hot seat by piling all their tour expectations on his shoulders, to which he crumbled. But I still admire Brad and if he keeps his sights set high, we'll see him once again near the top.

Garmin again posted another gem with their Canadian star Ryder Hesjedal getting a top 10 result. This didn't come as a surprise to me as Ryder has shown good climbing in last years Giro and two years ago pacing Christian VV in the tour up the climbs. The big revelation and excitement for me this year was Chris Horner's top 10 finish. Chris was the highest placing Radioshack rider and his tour consisted of working for others. Chris is a true legend in USA cycling and he is a great interview as well. His strategic mind during a race is well known and it's just too bad that his great result has come so late in his career.

Next up - Vuelta a Espana, Tour of Utah and the US National Champs.

Tough Man Competition

The tour isn't always seen by Americans as a tough man sport. I was just told the other night that in fact cycling was not much of a boy sport even. Well, I prefer to not even engage people like that in conversation about my beloved cycling as they surely won't get the romantic flavor of seeing the brutal climbs of the grand tours or the rugged cobbles of the classics. More stories can be told of near death experiences on the bike through cold and heat or simply overcoming the will to stop when the mind of a mere mortal would have got off the bike many miles or days previous. Wrecks at speeds of 40mph are not unheard of and yet cyclists put themselves into these situations day after day.

This years tour is not short on the already expanding details of a few riders fight to keep riding. Frank Schleck broke his clavicle in three places on stage 3, Cadel rode stage 9 with the yellow jersey and a broken arm and many more are suffering without much fanfare. Garmin cyclist David Millar rode today's stage by himself battling to make the time cut while nursing injuries and some illness. Read about it here.

I remember racing in Colorado Springs-Garden of the Gods, after a night of major intestinal problems. The days near 100 mile race I completed with a bottle of Pepto in my back pocket as my only means of fuel. Needless to say, most "men's sports" contestants would have taken a time out or got an IV at half time. A luxury not afforded the sport of cycling. A real mans game.

Carnage in the Alps

After 9 stages of the 2010 Tour de France, the field has been ripped apart by crashes and the Alps. The 8th stage brought down Lance Armstrong after 3 crashes and a loss of over 10 minutes. One day of horrible luck in the Tour did what other cyclists couldn't do for seven straight years. The 9th stage started with Cadel Evans of Australia in the yellow jersey but by the end of the day Cadel lost over 8 minutes to Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador. It was also revealed that Evans had suffered a fractured arm on stage 8. Cadel battled to the finish and showed a lot of emotion with teammate Stever Morabito after they crossed the line.

Schleck and Contador did battle on the Col de la Madeleine and the fireworks started near the bottom of the climb. While Andy was attacking Contador, the rest of the field went to peices with Lance losing 2:40 and Levi 2:00 by the end of the day. All is lost for Lance, unless we see a repeat of Floyd's dramitic 17th stage performance from 2006, which is unlikely to happen. Stage 10 through 13 are transition stages from the Alpes to the Pyrenees, but nothing is ever easy in the Tour.

Tour de France on the go

So I got the new Iphone 4 and just in time for the Tour de France. Since I don't get to work until just before the stage usually ends, I need my Tour fix from waking up till I get to work. So, luckily the Tour is streaming live on my phone! Versus has a cool application where you can stream the Tour with Phil and Paul - direct from Versus TV. Also, the stages are available to replay at any point.

The great thing is that I am able to hook the sound to my car (playing over my stereo system) and then plop the phone on the dash and watch the tour while I drive into work. Dangerous? Not really. My Land Rover has a nice spot by the in-dash GPS where the phone sits nicely and I mostly just listen as I drive.

Chris Horner's Power

Chris Horner is a vital key to team Radioshack's success this year in the Tour de France. Here you can view his SRM Power data on a stage by stage basis. The upcoming mtn stages will be interesting to dissect.

Chris also provides a daily recap or diary after the stage as well. His writings call for a fascinating insight to the tactics of the greats of cycling.

Fighting for the Tour

Stage 6 of the Tour ended and this fight broke out. No idea what it was about.

Tour de France 2010

Tomorrow the 2010 Tour starts in Amsterdam with a prologue time trial. My prediction is for Fabian Cancellara to take the win and Bradley Wiggins 2nd and Tony Martin 3rd. I hope the Americans can give a good showing with Tyler, Christian VDV, Levi, Lance, Dave Z and Brookwalter.

I hope this tour gives me some joy, I could use some about now.

The Badger / Paris-Nice

The cycling season is under way. Here is a retro picture of Bernard Hinault (The Badger) taking it to some protestors. A young Phil Anderson looks on. Looks like Hinault would be a good guy to help break up a SEIU rally/protest.

3rd Year

I'm over half way through the third year of law school (out of four - night school). I can't wait until it's done and I'm simply stressed about taking the BAR.

This years classes are:
Constitutional Law
Evidence
Business Organizations