Tour de France 2009

Stage 4 > Day 4 > 39KM Team Time Trial (TTT) in the town of Montpellier

For the TTT all 9 riders of each team ride together, at least 5 from the team have to finish. The clock stops after the 5th rider for the team crosses the line.

The TTT just looks plain cool. So if you haven’t seen one, check out the Versus reply tonight.

Today’s time trial will give Lance a very realistic chance of getting back into Yellow for the first time in 3 years. Team Astana is a very strong Time Trial team and Lance is only 40 seconds off the lead in 3rd place.

Well that turned out to be s truly exciting race. Yes really, it’s true. I know that it might not seem thrilling to watch 9 men in skin tight spandex ride bikes for 46 minutes (unless of course you are Madonna or Richard Simmons) but trust me it sure can be.

So as I said, Lance was down by 40 seconds overall and his team beat Fabian’s team (Team Saxo Bank) by 40 seconds. But alas the Tour can’t have 2 riders wearing yellow at the same time. Ties are like Kissing Your Sister. The Tour doesn’t normally record time in 100th of seconds but they did this time. So Lance is in second place by a few one-hundreds of a second. In addition to Lance, Team Astana also has riders in 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 11th and 18th place. An astounding 7 of their 9 riders are in the top 20. Their other two rides are in 165th and 177th place. I wonder if those two slackers have to eat at a different table.

Complete Stage 4 Results

1. ASTANA 00:46:29
2. GARMIN - SLIPSTREAM 00:46:47 00:00:18
3. TEAM SAXO BANK 00:47:09 00:00:40
4. LIQUIGAS 00:47:27 00:00:58
5. TEAM COLUMBIA - HTC 00:47:28 00:00:59
6. TEAM KATUSHA 00:47:52 00:01:23
7. CAISSE D’EPARGNE 00:47:58 00:01:29
8. CERVELO TEST TEAM 00:48:07 00:01:37
9. AG2R-LA MONDIALE 00:48:18 00:01:48
10. EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI 00:48:39 00:02:09
11. RABOBANK 00:48:50 00:02:20
12. QUICK STEP 00:48:55 00:02:26
13. SILENCE - LOTTO 00:49:05 00:02:35
14. FRANCAISE DES JEUX 00:49:15 00:02:46
15. TEAM MILRAM 00:49:18 00:02:48
16. COFIDIS LE CREDIT EN LIGNE 00:49:28 00:02:58
17. LAMPRE - N.G.C 00:49:54 00:03:24
18. AGRITUBEL 00:50:47 00:04:17
19. BBOX BOUYGUES TELECOM 00:51:11 00:04:41
20. SKIL-SHIMANO 00:51:52 00:05:23


The overall Top 5

1. Fabian Cancellara Team Saxo Bank
2. Tony Martin Team Columbia - Htc, at 0:33
3. Lance Armstrong Astana at 00:40
4. Alberto Contador Astana at 00:59
5. Bradley Wiggins Garmin - Slipstream at 01:00

The Jersey’s are as follows

Yellow (overall leader) – Fabian Cancellara – Team Saxo Bank
Green (Sprinting points leader – Mark Cavendish – Team Columbia
Polka Dot (King of the Mountain) – Jussi Veikkanen – Francaise Des Jeux
White (best young rider) – Tony Martin - Team Columbia

Tour Fun Fact

Helmets: Mandatory, dude!

To reduce or eliminate deaths from crashes, every rider in the Tour must now wear a helmet during every stage of the race, including time trials. At their own risk, cyclists may remove their helmets during the final climb to the summit if the climb is at least 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) long. A Tour course marker designates the point on the course where cyclists can remove their helmets. Removal of helmets on mountain stages is never allowed before the start of a climb.

Today's Workouts

15.5 mile run early this morning wearing my Saucony Tangent running shoes. Weather is still awesome in Maryland. The run was originally supposed to be 12 miles but my legs were feeling extra perky this morning.

Our Future Healthcare System Under Obamacare

1-8OBama-care

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Tour de France 2009

Day 3 - Stage 3 - 196.5km. Marseilles (It is the Tour's 33rd visit to this harbour on the Mediterranean, first appearing in the very first Tour in 1903) to La Grande-Motte.

Marseilles

La Grande-Motte

This should be another 'sprinters stage'. Watch for an early break away by some riders with the pelton chasing them down so each teams sprinter can have a crack at a stage win. For the teams without a strong contender for the overall race win, winning a stage is huge. It keeps their team in the spot light and keeps the sponsors happy. The other option is that the peloton just chills today and lets the breakaway have their day in the sun. If the breakaway contains none of the 'A' riders then they might just let them go and save their legs for the mountains.

Sure enough, 4 riders broke away and stayed away for a decent amount of time but they were eventually caught. The interesting thing today was that the peloton/pack broke in two in some heavy winds. A group of about 25 (including Lance Armstrong and current leader Fabian Cancellara) reeled in the 4 and finsihed about 40 seconds ahead of the main peloton. "Co-Captain" of Team Astana (Lance's team) was not in the main group. This should make for interesting dinner conversation tonight on the team bus.

At the very end Mark Cavendish once again showed why he is one of the best sprinters in the world and took his second stage win in as many days.

Tomorrow is the Team Time Trial (TTT) and with Astana being a very strong team, Lance could actually find himself in Yellow tomorrow night.

The overall Top 5

1. Fabian Cancellara Team Saxo Bank
2. Tony Martin Team Columbia - Htc, at 0:33
3. Lance Armstrong Astana at 00:40
4. Alberto Contador Astana at 00:59
5. Bradley Wiggins Garmin - Slipstream at 01:00

The Jersey’s are as follows

Yellow (overall leader) – Fabian Cancellara – Team Saxo Bank
Green (Sprinting points leader – Mark Cavendish – Team Columbia
Polka Dot (King of he Mountain) – Jussi Veikkanen – Francaise Des Jeux
White (best young rider) – Tony Martin - Team Columbia

Tour Fun Fact

What is the gruppetto?
This is the group of riders that forms at the back of the race, usually on mountain stages. They ride at a pace just fast enough to finish within the day’s time limit (a varying percentage of the stage winner’s time). The gruppetto (Italian for “a small group”) is sometimes called the autobus, the bus or the laughing group — but this is no laughing matter. Riders at the back are often sick or injured and struggling just to finish the stage

Today's Workouts

Afternoon updates:

Workout update - 8 miles on the trails. the weather continues to be awesome for July. 85, breezy, sun not much mugginess. Critter count: 1 wood chuck, 4 deer and 1 jogger. Wore my Asics Attack Trail running shoes.

Lunch update - cheese steak and crab fries

Ego update - on the way out to run at lunch time, some of the people that work here introduced me to the new receptionist. Since I’m a contractor at this location she will have to buzz me in when I need to get into the building. I was introduced as "this is Rob, he runs at lunch every day and he has the nicest legs of anyone in the company".

Najor Announcenent

The 'M' key has fallen off ny laptop. Using it is now a royal pain in the butt. In order to nake ny life easier I shall be using the 'N' key as a replacenent.

Please adjust your reading of ny posts accordingly. I an sorry for any trouble this ny cause you.

A special apology to San, Non to Five Ninnies, The Non, Narissa, Nary and any others whose nean parents put a letter fornally known as 'M' in your nane.

Nadia, Nancy, Nathan, Nick and Nero, you guys are all ok.

Now I just have to figure out what to with all ny upconing posts naking fun of Obana. It could get old typing Obana over and over again.

Tour de France 2009

Day 2 – Stage 2 > Monaco to Brignoles – 187km.

This is non-mountain stage. Rugged terrain but not super hilly. It will be a sprinters bunch finish today. The overall leaders will just stay reasonably close to the sprinters and try and stay out of trouble – ie no crashes. The big boys will let the sprinters have their day in the sun and pick up some points and a stage win. The sprinters will all fade away when the tour hits the mountain stage anyway.

And yes it did turn into a sprint for the finish with Mark Cavendish, the Brit who rides for Team Columbia, pulling out the victory today.

There was no change in the top 10 overall standing.

The Jersey’s are as follows

Yellow – Fabian Cancellara – Team Saxo Bank
Green – Mark Cavendish – Team Columbia
Polka Dot – Jussi Veikkanen – Francaise Des Jeux
White – Roman Kreuziger - Liquigas

Tour Fun Fact

Why do riders race in a pack?

By riding behind other cyclists — called drafting — on a flat road, a rider uses roughly 30 percent less energy than he would riding alone. When the speed is extremely high (in chasing a breakaway or in the final hour of a flat stage), the pack stretches into a single line as each rider fights to stay in the draft created by the fast-moving group.

Today's Workouts

4.54 easy miles to try and loosen the legs up. Wore my Newton running shoes.

The Cowboy

A cowboy appeared before St. Peter at the Pearly Gates.

'Have you ever done anything of particular merit?' St. Peter asked.

'Well, I can think of one thing,' the cowboy offered.

'On a trip to the Black Hills out in South Dakota , I came upon a gang of bikers who were threatening a young woman.

I directed them to leave her alone, but they wouldn't listen.

So, I approached the largest and most heavily tattooed biker and smacked him in his face ...

Kicked his bike over, ripped out his nose ring, and threw it on the ground.

I yelled, 'Now, back off!! Or I'll kick the snot out of all of you!'

St. Peter was impressed, 'When did this happen?'

'Just a couple of minutes ago...'

Tour de France 2009

Day 1 - Stage 1 – The Prologue

Le Tour starts today in Monaco with a 15.5km individual time trial. Each rider is on his own and basically goes pretty much all out for about 10 miles with the fastest times being just under 20 minutes. Roughly 30mph. The riders wear more streamlined aerodynamic clothes and use a special time-trial bike that is also more aerodynamic. These bikes aren’t allowed to be used in the regular stages. They handle much too flakey to be riding in a large pack of other riders. See Pictures below.

Since Lance seems to be the rider that most people care about, he did very well for an old guy who has been off for 3 years. Plus ‘his’ team (team Astana) had 3 other riders in the top 10 and leads the team competition. Astana may have the old problem of two many chiefs and not enough Indians. Look for the who’s the leader question to be answered later this coming week when the riders hit some of the harder mountain stages. If Lance can hang with the leaders when they get to the big hills then it will be his team, otherwise it will be up for grabs with Contador and Leipheimer the mostly likely to come out on top.

Results
1 Fabian Cancellara
2 Alberto Contador
3 Bradley Wiggins
4 Andreas Kloden
5 Cadel Evans
10 Lance Armstrong (40 seconds off the lead)

The Jerseys:

Yellow – Fabian Cancellara in first place by 18 seconds
Green – Bradley Wiggins
Polka Dot – Alberto Contador
White – Roman Kreuziger

Fun Tour Fact –
What is a peloton?
It’s a French word meaning “platoon” that’s used to describe the largest group of riders. The peloton is also referred to as the pack or the bunch.


Time Trial Bike - Used only for time trials and triathlons

Road Bike

Today's Workouts

4.5 mile easy run this morning wearing my new END OTG running shoes. END is some tree hugger shoe company that tries to make sures that are Environmentally Neutral. Personally I think the soles of the shoes looked quite a bit like baby seals and I'm pretty sure the shoelaces were made of polar bear gut. But I could be wrong...

Insurance Compaines Suck

In particular Progressive Car Insurance - Details to follow next week - Sorry Flo I used to think you were cool

Tour de France 2009

The Tour is back! The Tour is back!


The world's most prestigious cycling event starts today. This, the 96th Tour, is made up of 21 stages and covers 3,500 kilometers (2,170 miles).

These 21 stages have the following profiles:

10 flat stages,
7 mountain stages,
1 medium mountain stage,
2 individual time-trial stages,
1 team time-trial stage

20 teams, each with 9 riders, are entered in this year's race.

Besides competing for the overall win (the Yellow jersey) there are other jerseys up for grabs to:

Yellow - The maillot jaune is worn by the general classification leader.

Green - The maillot vert is awarded for sprint points. At the end of each stage, points are earned by the riders who finish first, second, etc. Points are higher for flat stages, as sprints are more likely, and less for mountain stages, where climbers usually win.

Polka Dot - The King of the Mountains wears a white jersey with red dots (maillot à pois rouges), inspired by a jersey that Félix Lévitan saw at the Vélodrome d'Hiver in Paris in his youth. The competition gives points to the first to top designated hills and mountains.

White - The maillot blanc (white jersey) is for the best rider under 25 on January 1 that year.

Most Combative - The prix de la combativité goes to the rider who most animates the day, usually by trying to break clear of the field. The most combative rider wears a number printed white-on-red instead of black-on-white next day.

The main story of this years tour will be Lance's return. Love him or hate him, he brings much needed attention to the Tour. How will Lance do? Can he compete for the Yellow Jersey after 3 years off and at the age of 38? Is he even the leader of his team (team Astana)? Albeto Contador of Spain (the 2007 winner), would seem to have a legitimate claim on being the leader. And Levi Leipheimer of the US is no slouch either.

I will be posting daily updates on the race and a Fun Fact each day - I'm sure y'all will be waiting with baited-breath.

Here are few useful links:

Versus TV schedule

General TV and Internet Streaming Info

Official Tour Site

Tour de France for Dummies

Tour de France 101

Tour de France Predictions

Today's Workouts

13.12 mile run this morning wearing my Asics Speed Star shoes. Very sore legs the first few miles.

Pet Peeve Phriday

Today’s pet peeve is - People who name their kids “Pretentious” or “Character Building” names. You know the kinds of names that are going to ensure that the kid is a stuck-up jerk or at the least get them beat-up on the playground at recess daily.

Let me start off by apologizing in advance if your name, your kid’s name, your dog’s name, your pet llama’s name or your car’s name falls in this list of names I hate. If your cat has one of these names then I don’t care :P get a real pet already.

‘Trinity’, “Freedom”, “Destiny”, “Precious”, “Kingsley”, “Princeton”, any gemstone and most flowers, “Chastity”, “Preston”, “Thurston”, “Archibald”, “Panache”, “Mercedes”, “Chardonnay”, “Ambrosia” , “Meadow”, “Truth”, “Dynasty”, “Sage”, and last but not least “Apple”

What are some names you dislike? And don’t worry about hurting anyone’s feelings, no one reads this blog anyways.

Next week; people who use an atlas to name their kid

Wimbledon

Serena to meet Venus in the Ladies Finals - Yawn

Today's Workouts

26.33 mile run this morning while wearing my Asics DS Trainers running shoes. I ran this on a combination of roads, trails and the local high school's track. And yes I purposely went a bit over the marathon distance (26.2). Why? Well to rub it my other running friend's faces of course.

Extraordinarily Evil?

Am I the only one that finds Bernie Madoff’s sentence of 150 years just a tad excessive? Everyone seems to be rejoicing that he’s going to rot in jail until he’s dead, and then some. Dude is something like 70+ years old. How long do we think he’s going to last in prison? Let the punishment fit the crime doesn’t seem to matter when the media gets its panties in a bunch and has it out for you.

150 years?! Rapists, murders and child molesters rarely get that much. Old Bernie would have been better off killing an ex-wife and her lover ala OJ Simpson or maybe he should have just started a dog fighting ring. Bernie just had the unfortunate circumstance not to have been born in the projects and been beaten as a child, that kind of upbringing would have gotten him off with a small fine, some community service and enrolled in a personal enrichment program.

Sure he fleeced some people out of their money and sure it was said to be about $65 Billion dollars. A large number to be sure by anyone’s standards – well except for that Messiah Wannabe over at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. That dude spends money faster than a sailor in a Singapore Bar & Brothel. But what Bernie did seems to be very common in the investment community (no offense Wall Street). Not to mention the political community (none of those guys have ever over-promised and fleeced voters-right). This is like locking up a serial jaywalker for 10 years.

And just what were the people thinking who invested with him? Haven’t they ever heard the expression “if it seems too good to be true it probably is”? Bernie was promising and ‘showing’ such high returns on investment money that people just turned green with greed. They had to have some suspicions that what Bernie was telling them they were making wasn’t kosher. And no I’m not saying they got what they had coming but really they should have known better. These were rich people that had to have had some brains in their heads. I mean they didn’t get that rich by being morons. And yes I think Mr. Madoff should be punished. Just not so excessively. How about a huge fine and a billion hours of community service helping the poor and old get a handle on their finances. There are millions of people out there who are unemployed, being foreclosed on and have more credit card debt than I have running shoes. Or since he’s good at raising investment money maybe he could help me raise some money for my latest business venture; renting out children to undecided prospective parents.

But to have the judge call you “Extraordinarily Evil” is a bit of reach, more like you basic everyday evil it seems to me. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Jerry Springer, Nancy Pelosi…now that’s Extraordinarily Evil incarnate. But old Bernie, I don’t think so. And what about the hypocrisy of his prosecutors? After all they all work for the Federal government who runs the largest Ponzi scheme ever created. You might know it better as the Social Security System. Not to mention the billions and trillions that the Feds owe to US citizens, foreigners and their respective governments; and have no way possible to ever pay it back – short of just printing up a pile of $100 bills and shipping them over to the Chinese in one of the many empty cargo ships sitting around our docks. Hey they would love that. Maybe they would keep the flow of lead painted toys and gizmos coming.

Today's Workouts

6 mile trail run wearing my Asics Trail Attack running shoes. Went out at lunch time warm and muggy back in the woods but much better than running on the roads. Wildlife count: 1 deer, 2 wood chucks and countless squirrels, birds and horseflies.

Spending Less? Saving More?

Money, get away.
Get a good job with good pay and you’re okay.
Money, its a gas.
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash.
New car, caviar, four star daydream,
Think Ill buy me a football team.

Everyone – The Washington Post, The NY Times, CNN, MSN etc – are reporting that Americans are spending less and saving more. Middle of the road food chains for us porky Americans, like Applebee’s, Chili’s and Ruby Tuesday’s are all duking it out to get that middle class night out on the town dollar. Applebee's offers dinner for two for only $20. Chili's advertises entrees for just $7. Ruby Tuesday's is going for a 2-for-1 deal. Buy one meal, get one free. All of them are making heavy use of discount coupons. We had pretty much stopped going to those places years ago (unless of course we got a gift card to them) in order to support locally owned joints.

So what if anything are you doing differently during this recession/depression? Are you talking advantage of the deals or hunkering down?

Even if you are still gainfully employed and doing ok financially have you changed your lifestyle? Are you paying down debt?

Are you cutting your own grass now (or hair)? Eating out less and cooking at home more? Stopped the hair plug treatments or the Botox? Staying in and renting movies or playing games? Clipping 50¢ off coupons for Rice a Roni and Tidy Bowl? Making your own underwear out of old burlap sacks? Tell me what you are doing to save money and budget better.

Us? We haven’t changed our lifestyle too much. With the size family we have we never have had a ton of excess money each month anyway. We’ve always had enough to survive on – sometimes barely – and we’ve never had to go into debt to meet our monthly obligations. So from a debt point things are the same. Zero credit card debt (we use them but they are paid off every month and have been for the 20 years we have been married). Zero car loans, we have also bought used cars for cash. And we have been in the same house for 9 years. It was a foreclosure that we bought before the house bubble so the mortgage is very manageable. And we still save at least something each month for a rainy day.

It is a good thing we have been living that way because every once in awhile a lot of things go to hell all at once. After our nice anniversary trip to Florida last month, everything decided to break all at once at our house – well almost everything. First our 15 passenger van became possessed on the way home from the airport. Possessed to the tune of $890. Then the stovetop had to be repaired ($225), next it was the computer that fried itself (more or less – I’m still trying to fix it), I bought a refurbished replacement for $290. After that the washing machine decided it was sick of doing 30-35 loads of laundry a week and pulled the plug on itself. New large capacity washer, $830. I tried to delay that purchase a bit but the Misses drew the line at everyone wearing the same pair of underwear for more than 3 days. 1 day later the very old hot water was leaking more than a bunch of drunks in the bathroom of their favorite bar. Price to have hot water so my teens can take 20 minute showers? $850. And that is the main reason I sock money into a savings account each month.

And that is all on top of the everyday expenses that are incurred in keeping a family of 14 going. Darn if those kids don’t want to eat at least 3 times a day. And clothes can only be passed down so many time, especially when you are passing down Strawberry Shortcake jumpers to a younger brother.

We have changed a few things. Our monthly date night has downscaled to less expensive restaurants and I have been putting a bit more into savings…just in case. And when I needed a haircut a few weeks ago I had Sam buzz me with the clippers (and 3 of the boys while she was at it).

It could be worse. I could be living in California which looks to be completely bankrupt by about lunchtime

One final suggestion - Lease/rent, don’t own your fun!