Ventoux cometh

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Tomorrow is Mont Ventoux. Pretenders need not apply. I’ll be on my sofa in my underwear hollering something fierce come morning. After I do much the same all night. Because it’s Friday and I’m struggling with my midlife crisis. And by “midlife crisis” I mean “thought I’d try law school”. I’m a lot of things. Smart ain’t one of ’em.

But, on the upside, I’ve been working creating the cycling fans of tomorrow today this week.

0722090911

That photo isn’t staged. That’s really what it looks like in my living room in the morning. They don’t much understand what they’re cheering for, thought. My three year old said “That looks like you, daddy!” No, honey. That doesn’t look anything like daddy. Daddy is twice the size of those sticks and covered with a protective layer of fur. You’re daddy is more like a caveman.

Whatever. Tomorrow. It is going to be very, very good indeed. Just ask Pou Pou.

“We will have three or four potential winners that day – one at the foot of the climb, another one halfway up, yet another one with three kilometres to go and the final winner in the finish! That would be absolutely extraordinary!

“Everything is possible that day. If there are three or four overall favourites within one minute of each other – or even more – nothing will be decided until the very last metres of the climb.”
cyclingnews.com

Ask Julich too. Is it too early to start drinking?

Here are a few offering re: doping, VAM, Vo2 and a bunch of other shit I’ve just started digging in to from the fine folks over at sportsscientists.com.

Alberto Contador soars into yellow in Verbier: Report and analysis
The anatomy of a climb: Contador on the Verbier – its place in Tour climbing “history”
Alberto Contador – can he have a VO2max of 99.5 ml/kg/min?

I like what they’re doing on that site. When I’ve got about four hours to kill, I’ll really wade in deep. As it stands, I’ve only scraped the surface with a half hour of commitment. Am I afraid of commitment? Maybe. Maybe not. Ask pineapple. He knows about me folding like a lawn chair when the going gets tough.

And so it goes…

Link dump:
Glad we’re making progress: tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com
I hate me some Dobbs: tpmtv.talkingpointsmemo.com
I can’t wait for this one: iwatchstuff.com/…where the wild things are
Yeah, well, um, yeah: youtube.com
Bikes and trains study tour: youtube.com

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About big jonny

The man, the legend. The guy who started it all back in the Year of Our Lord Beer, 2000, with a couple of pages worth of idiotic ranting hardcoded on some random porn site that would host anything you uploaded, a book called HTML for Dummies (which was completely appropriate), a bad attitude (which hasn’t much changed), and a Dell desktop running Win95 with 64 mgs of ram and a six gig hard drive. Those were the days. Then he went to law school. Go figure. Flagstaff, Arizona, USA

20 Replies to “Ventoux cometh”

  1. “Is it too early to start drinking?” you ask.
    I say you can’t drink all day if you don’t start in the morning!

  2. How early you start drinking depends on how many miles of dusty trail it takes to make your throat dusty.

  3. …the new american household…

    …daddy’s girls diggin’ daddy’s sport…cool…

  4. KG , he trained his ass off . He is one of the most powerful cyclists of all time for starters . Secondly , he is one of the most intelegent in the bunch . He loves his bike , pick on Di Luca ……….

  5. The real question is how did Contador become the best climber and time trialer in the world–simultaneously. Taking time out of Cancellara and able to look effortless while climbing? That seems awfully suspicious to me.

  6. The real question is how did Contador become the best climber and time trialer in the world–simultaneously.

    “Otra pregunta.”

  7. From today’s press conference with Contador…

    Q: Can you tell us you’ve won clean and can you make a strong stand against doping?

    AC: Like I’ve said, I am available 365 days to doping control. I am never with an excuse. I am always in favor of the anti-doping controls. It’s good for the sport, for cycling, which I love so much. I always pass the controls with a happy face and I will keep undergoing them.

    (full article: http://tour-de-france.velonews.com/article/95937/contador-looks-to-paris)

    Ok, I feel much better now…

  8. “20 odd pounds”? Hmmm, might have to try that meself. There ain’t one single pound on me that ain’t alittle bit odd, or so I been told…

  9. KG , Wiggins will post his blood values on line just for you ! You have to reward honesty ……… Fuck Di Luca

  10. Awesome picture Big Daddy!
    Amazing little critters aren’t they?… They look like they’re seriously in to it… What do they think of Al Trautwig?

  11. nothing like the law to induce a life-crisis. early, mid, late. good luck working it out.

  12. Thanks for the photo of your family, DC. I watched the Ventoux with my 12 year old daughter, who is a sucker for any “reality” TV. Can you get more real than the climb up Ventoux this year? Ambition, familial folly, pain, rebirth, and some really great racing. Best moment of the morning for me and my kid? Our matching guffaws when Pellizotti made the face as he crossed the line. That, my weird cycling brethren, cannot be duplicated anywhere on a road or a trail.

  13. My kid (19 and an uber-smart college student) has not ridden a bike since her allergic reaction. Enjoy it while you can and take each day as a gift.

    God bless,
    Dave