Planning on doing a real ride in the foothills this evening, then up to Cades Cove in the mountains for a social moonlit ride with some non-cyclist friends.

I hope I don't get dropped!

Don't go there. Trust me on this.

Another brand. Specialized. Cervelo. Scott. Giant. Avoid the Madone.

Actually I'm not sure it's even possible for a large company to be more successful than Apple has been since 1996.

You can find out Monday.

I'll never quite understand the inability of a country the size of the US to field a more competitive soccer team on the world class level. Friggin Ghana? That's who eliminates us? I mean, aren't we about 15x larger than that nation? And spare me the 'it's their national sport' bullshirt. Every kid in this country grows up playing soccer and it's in every HS and college. There's tens of millions of kids playing soccer in the US. There should be an adequate talent pool here.

Not for nothing, but it strikes me as odd that the USA seems more competitive at world class cycling than world class soccer over the past decade.

interesting. thanks for the link. i'd be happy if they just give us all a free bumper.

This -
doesn't explain this -

I went to an American school in the Middle East from kindergarten to eighth grade. Every year, we played the Arab kids to see if our team was improving. Every year, they would show up, years younger, some with no shoes, and we'd get our ass kicked. From the day these kids could walk, they were kicking around a soccer ball.

That will never happen in the US. We'll be competitive on the international stage, but I have a hard time believing we'll ever dominate. We can't even dominate our own sports.

I can think of one American who dominated the TdF for a couple of years.

National pastime?

Taylor in the UCI.

Watch out you Euro weenies. Here comes that Phinney kid.

He's a monster. Like is dad and his mom.

He's in the paper here all the time and a local favorite.

I really think that kid has a massive future in the UCI. Either classics monster or possibly a great GC Tour rider. Let's see if that kid can climb. If he can, God help them all.

laps on the ACat until my arms wouldn't work the mainsheet today. Perfect breeze and just a bit hot.

ACat - 18x7.5 ft., 165# of mostly carbon ready to sail

ACat Addiction

I drank 6 bottles of G2 today. 108 degrees on the blacktop.

I also just took my first piss since this morning. That's bad.

But our talent is diluted amongst playing other sports. Soccer is all the F these other countries got in most cases.

I'm old school. That's a foreign sport anyway. Who needs it?!

I agree. Soccer on tv could be more boring to watch than Law and Order reruns.

Lots of sports are boring to watch on TV. Baseball and Golf come to mind.

Golf is excruciating.

Ill put my boring up against your boring any day, and raise you two. Therein probably lies the problem, unless one has a bob or two on the game few really care.

In any event these games are billed as the World Champoinships and except to knowledgable soccer fans are snoozers of high order. Golf except when Tiger is on his game has mostly been boring to the masses when on TV. Me, I cannot watch even a World Series game at home yet will go down to the local pub, have a few beers and enjoy a baseball game on tv.

Im to the point where I have to put at least $100 on the Super Bowl to stay up to watch the game.

Rainy day. So, I did a stem swap. Because my bike is so old, that always includes rewrapping the bars. That's right, threaded forks with a 1" steerer.

I essentially "flipped it". Went back to my original road stem (72d) after using a dirt drop (125d) style. That takes me down from saddle-level by about 5cm.

Trying Serfas synthetic cork tape, we'll see. I've only used Cinelli cork until now.

That is all.

Fred out.

You can say the same thing about bicycle racing. And spare me the 'bike racing was invented in the USA in 1890' crap.

I made a decision this evening. I want Campy SR 11 on my Giant. That's right.

Maybe I'll be able to afford Athena or Chorus at some point.

gah. *cringes*

I just changed my mind. I'll stick Shimano.