Respect

One legged mountain biker. Rispetto. 

W Il Giro

My thoughts on the Giro. First of all, Danilo DiLuca is a twatwaffle (thanks Velominati.com for that one). He is either the most arrogant or most insecure rider on the planet. He attacked every day and was brought back with relative ease (and I noted this on my Twitter account @ilcappellinoca). So hows that EPO working for you Danilo? Not very well it seems. Now enjoy your lifetime ban and wish you were as loved as Pantani. On to more positive topics, Vincenzo Nibali has some stunning form and it will be interesting to see if he can hold it through the Tour. His mountain TT was an absolute beat down to everyone. If he can hold that he will at least be on the podium at the Tour with its heavy dose of climbing this year, can you say twice up Alpe D'Huez! Uran would have been more of a challenge had he not had to wait for Wiggo a few times. He is an interesting rider and could be much better if he were not handcuffed by the Sky glut of leaders and no helpers. And what can you say about Cadel? I'm not sure what's going to happen with him at the Tour. Tejay looked awful strong in California. As far as the sprinters go, nobody can even hold Cav's jockstrap. The Tour should be a good matchup between Sagan and Cav to see who the supreme sprinter in Green will be.

The Tour of Belgium was interesting, too. Tony Martin sealed the deal with an impressive TT and stayed with the attacks today to take the overall. If he could translate that TT power into some climbing form he would be unstoppable. He doesn't look like a real big guy so he could probably transform himself into a tolerable climber like Wiggins. 

Hope everyone is enjoying the Memorial Day holiday in the states. Don't forget to thank your favorite vet for his service and making it possible for you to ride your bike when you want to. My personal goal to honor the holiday is to complete 100 miles Sat thru Mon. Looks like it should be attainable without a herculean effort. So get out there and ride your bike.

 

Shut Up Legs!

Golden Guns of Jens Voigt

http://bcove.me/nfxpxyon

On being a weenie

I must admit, I am a weenie. A weight weenie, that is. There is nothing more satisfying than losing weight ( on your bike ). At one time my Cervelo S3 weighed a scant 13.9 lbs, about a pound and a half below the UCI limit. As it sits now, with extremely heavy wheels and beefy bars it's still right at the UCI limit of 15.5 lbs. The  thing about being a weenie is that if you are good and vigilant you can do it without spending a ton of money ,but (ahhhh the proverbial BUT) you will get to the point where your price per gram of weight saved will be astronomical and you may not get your bike to the lowest possible denominator without a large bank account or annuity. If you want to be a weenie and don't know where to start, try weightweenies.starbike.com. There are bikes , components, you name it but plan to spend a few hours there if you've never been and you love bikes. Some of the bikes here are absolutely stunning, not to mention light.

New topic. Group riding. Went on the normal Saturday ride with my riding buddies (henceforth referred to as the Brain, the Anvil, and the Hammer) and we were caught by a large group and latched on. The pace was relatively easy and everybody but the Anvil (for obvious reasons) caught on to the group. So we mixed in for a few miles at a good steady pace before waiting for the Anvil to catch up. We rolled up to a stoplight and after all the unclicking and plastic scraping sounds there arose a cacophony of voices that, if you closed your eyes, sounded like a cocktail party. What ran through my mind was this, how many of these people were riding for the cocktail party and how many we're here to hammer their friends into submission? Next time I'll take a survey but I bet more were there for the cocktail party. Ahh the attitude of the road cyclist. That's why I love this sport. That's all for now. Go ride your bike.

What! Wait, what! No racing on TV today.

No Giro, no Tour of Cali. Wearing my Castelli cap, waiting for 630 am tomorrow so I can return to my Giro fix. That being said, here are a few things I like, with appropriate links. Before I post these I must say that I am in no way reimbursed by these companies, but in 22 years of riding bikes have found these products and services to be above board and high in quality. Chamois cream, one of the most important peices of cycling gear....www.dz-nuts.com. If your bored, like I am today, try Paved magazine (pavedmag.com) $8 gets you a quarterly subscription on your iPad. As previously mentioned, castelli-cycling.com , makes the best cycling apparel by far and they also have the coolest logo. Love me some scorpions. And if you're into cycling you know anything Italian is cool.( As evidenced by the title of this blog.) Lastly, for your nutrition needs skratchlabs.com, nutrition done right. So, enough shameless plugs, shave your legs and

If your bike costs more than your car, you are living right.

go out and ride your bike!

Introduction

This is a cycling blog, more about lifestyle and vibe and racing your friends in the Saturday group ride. I'm a self professed weight weenie but stuck in a rouleur's body. More on these topics in later posts. Stay tuned for more.