La Vuelta a España starts this Saturday!

Get ready for the La Vuelta a España! The last grand tour of the season. The first stage will be this Saturday, August 30 in Granada. My pick for the overall is Spanish rider Alberto Contador riding for ASTANA. Damiano Cunego is my pick for the best climber. Also watch for Juan Antonio Flecha on the flat/rolling stages where there's likely a solo break. The solo breakaway specialist rarely win the overall but in my opinion have the most endurance and are amazingly strong. They do most of the "driving" and work for their team leader who is favored to be an overall contender.

Here's the official site. http://www.lavuelta.com/

Cool picture.

The site I copied this shot from said it was Cluj-Napoca, Romania. I thought it was a cool picture. Click on it to see a larger view.

Anthony Gatto juggling torches

This is Anthony Gatto. He's the best juggler in the world, hands down. I've met him twice, once after I watched his show in Las Vegas and another time when I was in Las Vegas for a convention. He's was really nice and approachable both times. This is a pretty cheesy add but he's juggling 7 torches. I've seen A LOT of jugglers, met a lot, and watch a lot of acts and I've never seen anyone put up 7 torches. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2O1piUA0JA

The men's Olympic cross country results!

Check out the article and pictures from Beijing. Julien Absalon from France won gold. My pick was Geoff Kabush from Canada but he finished 20th. http://velonews.com/article/82270/unbeatable-absalon-wins-his-second-gold

This is beautiful!

There aren’t too many things that I would call beautiful and only a handful of people I know deserve that description. A 60’s model VW Beetle is beautiful. A Porsche 914 and 911 GT1 are beautiful. A Ferrari is beautiful. A handmade Renegade juggling club is beautiful. Here is a bike that’s simple, clean, and almost beautiful. I say almost because I haven’t received the saddle I’m going to replace the existing crap Cannondale stock saddle with. I also have a set of OLD STOCK Shimano Super SLR road bike brake levers to replace the cheep existing ones. This frameset is so nice, I even think it’s a nicer looking setup than my 2009 Orbea Orca which by the way is the same bike Samuel Sanchez won the men’s Olympic road race gold medal on. This is a Cannondale Capo size 56cm track single speed road bike in Raw Silver (clear coated aluminum). The head badge is nice piece of machined aluminum, just a great finishing touch. You’d have to ask me about the handful of people though.

Lance Armstrong vs Dave Wiens in the Leadville 100

This is a race that I've wanted to do for a few years now. I plan on doing it if not next summer, then I'll ride it in 2010. This is one of the toughest off road endurance races out there. Its the Leadville 100 or sometimes called The Race Across The Sky. It is in Leadville, CO and the altitude tops out at 12,000 feet. The race is a 100 mile off road race. If you don't ride off road then its hard to appreciate how much more demanding 100 miles off road is compared to 100 miles on the road. Some people say (I don't fully or always agree though) that the rule of thumb is any distance you ride off road is the equivalent of twice the distance riding on road. I knew Lance was going to race this event and I knew he would be fast. However, I didn't expect him to almost beat the 5 time winner Dave Wiens. The climbs these guys make are really tough and if Lance has to get off his bike and push then you know its hard. Watch the short video, it's great. http://www.superhumanmag.com/content/view/763/92/

Lance Armstrong's Leadville 100, 23-pound full suspension Trek Top Fuel.

Lance did great in this race, coming in a few minutes behind Dave Wiens who has won this race for the sixth time. Here's an article about the Trek Top Fuel Lance rode and a picture of it. http://velonews.com/article/81301/lance-armstrong-is-riding-a-tricked-out-23-pound-full

W.C. Handy Century Ride

This is a little late but here's the results from the W.C. Handy Century ride. I planned on riding the 103 mile option and things were going ok at best. I just didn't have the legs I wanted and felt a bit sluggish. It was overcast and sprinkling rain throughout the ride but I didn't run into any really bad weather. I rode about 40 miles of this century solo off the front until a group of guys were able to pull up to me. Eventually the group got smaller until there were just 3 of us. Right before we crossed the Tennessee state line, one of the ride volunteers passed us, waved us down, and told us they were not allowing anyone to ride any further north due to sever weather. This made me a bit upset but I ended up riding 90 miles. Here are a few shots of my Garmin after the ride. You can see totals for distance, average speed, calories burned, climbing, and ride time.