to me riding with,say, a fractured collarbone is heroic (ie tyler hamilton's 4th place tour finish), but riding with a fractured vertebrae is just dumb. hello paralysis!

More tour talk: What was with all the punctures yesterday? Pretty crazy. Punctures and crashes.

Traffic Jammer: Did you get to watch it all last night?

hey, if anyone is spring cleaning and has a camping/hiking/travel back pack that's about 40-50 litres that they want rid of or would be willing to loan me, send me a PM. i need some baggage for my trip and i don't think my messenger bag will be big enough.

Nope, dishes and such ruled the evening. Yea Kessler though I was so happy for him. The crash that took your guy out was a typical twitch and fall in a pack. I'm not sure why he put his arm out though, though it did happen pretty quickly. Poor bugger. RE: Keesler ...if this keeps up it's gonna start to look like T-mobile is on a mission, being a masterless team now.

I don't even understand how you could ride with a fractured collarbone though.. I mean simply because of your position on the bike. You'd be doing all the things that are incredibly wrong for that particular injury! Generally you want to have your shoulders apart/back/broad (and imobilzing the arm of course), not hunched forward. Hence the figure-8 sling (memories of my medical training when I was involved in the ski patrol). I guess it depends on how bad the fracture is though too... I keep picturing a full break with the ends of the bone sliding past each other.. *shudder*

These guys are so tough though. Pain means virtually nothing.

I love how they keep referring to the breakaway group as "escapees":
http://www.letour.fr/2006/TDF/LIVE/us/400/depeches.html

jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaail breeeak! </acdc>

stock gearing? what saddle are you running? looks like an slr, but it isnt, is it? :D

and why does ur flickr page stay rip elvish?! u junked ur green bike? :eek:

whatever you don't peel off the elvish

no comment

Robbie does it again

"Thor Hushovd’s lead-out man, Julian Dean crashed just before the final turn. He did not bring anyone else down but he did hinder Bennati’s sprint a little. He appeared to pull his foot out of the pedal."

I think Credit Agricole need new cleats! That's happened twice now.

sort of sounds eyefloaterish eh

Nice ride mitch. now throw some fenders on there and wrap it up in electrical tape and we can have a rainy commuter race! There is something about the lower end mass production track bikes that I like... nice versatile yet slightly agressive geometry and they are super solid yet not bad weight... Looking at your frame though I'm pretty happy that I went with the KHS flite 100; I like the traditional fork crown of the KHS and even though I'm not so hot on the threadless design, it is stiffer and easier than what I'd be dealing with with threaded. I also like the crazy fender mounts on the KHS despite what everone else says, and it came in a larger size than the fuji track. Its also the colour of heinz ketchup which has kind of been growing on me. I think its time to throw a rack on the back and maybe even put on a brake but I keep worrying I'll kill myself somehow as soon as I use it.

Even if I WAS rockin fixed I'd have brakes. You ride traffic, you will need brakes at some point. You may never ever need but just having it there could save you one day. I know it's not as burly and cool as brakeless fixed but hey, you only need to crash hard once. Maybe it's my old man-ness and being a parent talkin now I don't know. It's one thing to drive like me in traffic, but I also sport full safety systems. Once you start reaching a good speed in traffic...curb side=death, and we can't depend on the cars to give us that slice of filthy curb that they want us to ride in.

I am familiar with this injury as I broke 2 lumbar's in my back. There is no serious worry from paralysis but it certainly is extremely painful. I was laid up for 6 weeks, barely being able to move from bed let alone walk or ride. If this guy lasts another day in the saddle he should get the Iron Man award for continuing with the pain.

Yeah, I can understand continuing if he only had a couple stages to go maybe... but to do it this early in the race seems somewhat silly.

I wonder what kind of pharmas he's rockin' on now. Nerve block?

probably nothing heavy in light of the recent doping crackdown. who was it a few years back that got a bee sting then had to abandon after taking his allergy meds because they were banned? can these guys even take asprin?

*gives him a band-aid* Now git out there tough guy and RIDE!!!!! He can't last it's insane.

that's what they said about tyler when he broke his collarbone on an early stage and he rode to fourth that year. of course, as keith pointed out, it different from breaking a bone in your back! anything you do hurts, like breaking a rib i guess.

They can definitely take some sort of painkiller.. They showed one of the race doctors handing a rider some pills from one of the support vehicles (the race doctors are all getting carted around in convertibles.. nice gig) during stage 1 and one of the commentators mentioned something about painkillers. I can't remember who it was that took the meds though.

Got my GT in the mail today, it appears to be just a regular ol' GTB, ah well, still excited :)

Where would you guys suggest I get a decent/cheap BB for this thing? Also, silly question, can I use the cranks from my conversion on a track BB? I like 'em and don't want this thing to get too expensive. Thanks.

page 400!

Probably smoking pot.

I'm going to do it!