This morning when I woke up to go for the morning’s ride, I looked at the thermometer, which said 22 degrees, and decided that it was just too damn cold to get up at 6 in the morning and ride for an hour or so.  So my revelation is this.  I either need to get my bike and trainer up and running (I really don’t want to have to do that, but at some point it will need to happen), or I need to get me some lights to enjoy some night road riding.  So that is exactly what I will be doing.  I have a headlamp, the Cygolite Triden X, and I do have a little tail light, Planet Bike Blinky 1, but I will need some other stuff.  I am going to be picking up some Planet Bike Blinky Superflashes and some handlebar end plugs.  I figure with all of those lights, I should be pretty safe.  Unfortunately, I won’t be able to test them all out tonight as I am already signed up for a mountain ride.  Either way, pedeling any bike is still a better time than sitting at home.

First rode today in under freezing temps.  30 degrees to be exact.  There is no need for the weather to be that cold, but then again, I live in New England and it is the middle of November, so what do I expect.

Pretty uneventful ride this morning.  Same as all the others, but a little faster this morning.  I don’t know if it is the cold making me push a little harder, or the “wet noodles” are now “al dente”, but I took about 6 minutes off of the previous days time.  I think it had to do with the lack of wind….

Still getting used to the new tires, which I like, and also getting used to the new 10spd Ultegra shifters I have, which I don’t like.  I just can’t get used to the positioning on them and where I need to have my hands comfortably.  I am going to keep using them for a while, but if I don’t like em, they gotta go to put back on the Record stuff…

Mount Washington at 6:45 in the morning:

Me Freezing:

Well, with all this snow, it has changed over to a whole lot of rain.  Today it is expected to rain all day with temps in the mid to high 40s.  That equates to a lot of heavy, wet snow, and hopefully, some of it will melt away with the temps and rain.  Maybe I will be able to get outside on the road bike a little.  With all of this snow, I won’t be touching the mountain bike for a while as the mud season will be here till August.

On the racing side of things, the Tour of California has started up.   I got to watch the 2 mile prologue on Versus yesterday as Fabian Cancellara destroyed the field.  I am glad that Versus is showing  the race, but if you look at the schedule of events, they are showing the coverage at 11pm.  Really?  They want people to watch, but they show it at a dumb time.  If you want people to watch it, trying showing it at 7pm.  Sure, there are all these new fangled recording devices, but there why should I have to fire up the Beta Max and record it?  I would like to watch it during a normal time of the day.

You can go ahead and file this one under the “WAAAAHHHH!!! I didn’t get my way so I am taking my ball and going home..”

From Velonews:

“I am stopping competition … It’s a definitive decision,” he told a news conference. “I don’t want this sport anymore … I’m slamming the door and I’m leaving.”

“It’s sad that my career is ending like this but I want to restore my honor … I will prove that I’m not guilty and get the results of this test rescinded,” he said.

Feel free to read the entire Velonews article.

Thank goodness I have the non-traditional biker’s shape. When I rode around the streets of Bar Harbor on my road bike, I always laughed that in the shadows it always looked like a number 10 rolling down the street. I, of course, played the roll of the 0. I am fine with that. Sure, I struggle up some of the longer hills, but I will catch you on the way down. If I woke up and looked like our pal Mike Rasmusen (seen below), I certainly would have a sandwich or 4, and I would certainly put 3 lbs of bacon on it…

Seems as if there is a little more info coming out about the drugs and lies from the pros from the past few year.

First off I give you Mr. Ulrich.

Second is Chicken and his lying.

It seems as if Levi Leipheimer will be joining former Discovery teammate and 2007 tour winner, Alberto Contador and ex-team manager Johan Bruyneel over on the Astana team.

Velonews Link

I read this a couple days ago but forgot to post it.  So what if I am a few days behind.

It seems as if American George Hincapie is headed over to ride the magenta colors..

Seems as if the boys form Disco are taking their talent and heading over to the Croatian Astana Team.  Johan Bruyneel is taking young gun Alberto Contador (2007 Tour Champ) and it also seems that Levi Leipheimer will be joining as well.

More on it at Velonews.

It seems as if the USADA has proved that Floyd Landis did indeed cheat during the 2006 Tour de France posting an 11 to 1 testosterone-to-epitestosterone (normal range is 4 to 1). Landis is the first tour champ in over 100 years to be stripped of the title. Quite a shame.  He was given a 2 year ban from all cycling and an extra 2 year ban from any racing.

Feel free to read all about it on Velonews.  It is quite a lengthy read.  Also, if interested, they posted an 84 page .PDF file of the full text of the case.