Life :: Constant Work in Progress

I don’t know the man personally. Solely based on articles, reviews, and interviews, I believe Floyd to be a good guy and honest. Even more so than Tyler Hamilton. Many of us can related to Floyd better than we can with Lance. While every ounce of my body would like to believe that Floyd did not cheat to win TdF, it is hard to ignore the findings and his hit-and-miss excuses.

One interesting question is whether Floyd is paying for Lance’s success. French quite could not nail Lance and now they got the next American winner. Could this be all a huge setup?

I worship Lance. Yes Lance is my demi god.
Floyd on the other hand, seems like a dude I can just down coldies together after a ride. Floyd, I hope you come out of this clean unscathed.

As he was destroying the peloton and running away like a mad man, this is what he was thinking.  ”Come and get me motherfuckers!”  Great ride Floyd!!!  Tour de France has yet another American hero.

For lack of better description, professional cycling is a fascinating sport.  It’s not a stretch to say that everyone is basically in for himself in most of sports.  This is especially true for individual sports such as tennis.  Even in sports like Basketball, each player is very conscious of his own stats.

Most cycling fans would know, but each cycling team basically has one captain and several supporting riders.  For instance, a team that rides in Tour de France is made up of 9 riders in total, 1 captain and 8 supporting riders.  The job of the 8 guys are to protect and make sure that the leader/captain has as easy of a ride as possible and to get closer to winning.  It is just fascinating to see guys totally sacrifice themselves for the sake of someone else while riding up a mountain 16000 ft. high.  You will often see suppor riders carry like 5 or 6 water bottles and move up to deliver them to the captain and so forth.  On a steep hill at Alps, a support rider will ride directly in front of a team leader to shield him from any wind resistence and other road hazards like spectators.  The guy would tireless pedal until he can no longer pedal, then just drop off, sling-shotting the team leader up the mountain.

All the in-game strategies are nothing short of fascinating.  We are now closing in on the finale of the tour.  It is still uncertain who will win this thing.  Can Floyd recover 8 minute deficit today?  I can’t wait to get home and watch the stage race.

Due to the recent injury on my right leg, I haven’t been able to go cycling. Yesterday for the first time in 2.5 weeks, I managed to drag my body out for a ride. Boy what a difference it makes when I hadn’t ridden for only 2 weeks. At mile number 7, an old man passed me by with ease while I couldn’t pedal fast enough to save my life. He was only going at around 18 miles per hour and I couldn’t even catch up as lactic acid built up in my legs VERY QUICKLY.

At mile number 11, I strongly considered calling my wife to come get me feeling like a wounded dog. Well I dug deep in my suitcase of courage (what is left of it) and managed to come home riding a 22 mile route. This was just a sad display of riding.

On a brigher note, my leg injury is getting much better. I hope to get out for another training ride on Sunday. Hopefully it will go better than yesterday…