Up from the grave he arose,
With a mighty triumph o’er his foes
And a corncob pipe and a button nose
And two eyes made out of coal.
Hm. I seem to have scrambled my religious holidays again. No wonder the Easter Bunny didn’t leave an iPad under my pillow in exchange for that tooth.
OK, ’fess up, now — how many of you crazy kids rushed out to score iPads yesterday? I won’t make fun of you, I promise. You can trust me; I’m in the media.
If you had one and were able to figure it out in time for the Tour of Flanders this morning, you’d know that Fabian Cancellara crushed Tom Boonen to win the cobbled classic. Dropped him like a used syringe on the Muur, he did. But you might not have been able to watch any of the live video feeds ’cause they’re probably Flash-based, which makes the iPad hork. Pray for the rapid expansion of HTML5.
Mad Blog Media 
It’s nice to see my boy Fab win another monument. He seems like a class act amongst the douche-bag dopers and other reformed whores out there these days. I picked him to win in Johan Bruyneel’s Web site contest. I hope he sends me one of those Cobbles t-shirts as promised. We’ll see..
I got to drive those roads whilst assigned as the battalion intel officer (yeah, i know, go figure, me and intel in the same sentence) in Germany. We did a “staff ride,” a review of a famous military campaign using the original orders and maps. And I can’t imagine driving those roads in a half-track or deuce-and-a-half, let alone a skinny tired, man-powered pile of plastic tubes.
A friend is over there now riding those roads. My friend is crazy.
No on the iPad. Another, less crazy, friend got one for work. She’s a childrens book editor, it was paid for by her company. T’is he shame of our times that hard working cycling news scribes go begging for new tech and publisher’s of kid’s books hand out iPads to non-traveling staff.
Anyway played with it for an extended time and yes it is very cute and sharp, but really there’s not anything you can do with it in terms of creating info that isn’t done OK on an iPhone (e-mail) or better on a laptop/netbook (everything else). The word processor and spreadsheet apps were not installed, but don’t see them changing my mind.
My son the sound designer (imagine that designing noises for an almost living) want’s one, but he’s crazy too.
It is at this time just a device for consumption of “content”. I like the form factor, but need to manipulate info, not stare at it. This is the device that best illustrates the paradox of the Jobian universe as seen from the traditional computer using world.
Bottom line? If you are crazy, Patrick, it may be perfect for you.
Steve O. Very cool. Which campaign?
We relaxed here in Viterbo on Sunday afternoon (after our Italian “Mamma” tried to kill us with food at an Easter lunch) and tuned in the race on RAI TV. They showed the last hour or so live with comments from past winner Michele Bartoli in the studio with the usual commentators Pancani and Cassani there in Flanders. They’ll show two hours next week of Paris-Roubaix…the next best thing to being there drinking the beer and eating the frites (Italian food is better anyway overall)so no complaints from here. I-pad? Who cares?
Hey Ben,
We did a Battle of the Bulge map-ex / staff ride that took us all over the Ardennes, and then a more focused trip that walked the route of Kampfgruppe Peiper as described in “The Damned Engineers,” the account of the 291st Engineer Battalion. A great book, out of print, but maybe in your library. The 291st was a construction unit, not a combat unit, but they found themselves in the way of a Germany special operations unit who were sneaking behind out lines in US uniforms, driving US tanks. Classic David and Goliath, as the 291st took them on accidentally, and did so by putting up make-shift obstacles that they whipped up with their chain saws, bulldozers, and other construction equipment.
I had to do the recon to make sure the tour bus could make it over all of the roads, and to find parking places near all of the key events, so I spent a week just cruising Belgium, drinking beer, and taking pictures. Of course, that was pre-digital cameras, and that photo box got lost by the lowest bidder who moved my household goods from Korea back to the US. I think they paid me $50 for losing priceless photos.
It’s too bad that Mother Nature and plate tectonics and the Coriolis Effect and summer vacations and Al Gore and everyone else has ganged up like this, but while the TdF gets all kinds of tourists spending their summers on sunny French roads, folks just aren’t as crazy about beating up their bodies on terrible roads in the middle of a typically miserable Belgian spring.. Sure, lots of local hardmen go out and ride the civilian versions of P-R and whatnot, but you just don’t see touring vacation ads in VeloNews for Joe Blow riding the RVV in the rain, sleet, and sometimes brimstone.
A friend of a friend has a dream job, of sorts. Lil Pfluke is a world champion masters cyclist (gold on the road, bronze on cross), West Point grad, author, and currently works in France for either Dept of State or Dept of Defense as the overseas cemetery manager. As the keeper of the maps, she has put on several VIP trips to key WWI and WWII monuments for all sorts of groups, and she has used that knowledge to occasionally host cycling trips over the same ground. I think that would be a blast — riding on the same roads and Liege – Bastogne – Liege, then taking a quite side trip to see the memorial at Malmedy, the battlefield at Trois Ponts, and the road to St Vith where the 291st took turned back Colonel Peiper.
(Patrick: good angle for a VeloNews story. Lil is an amazing women. Member of the first West Point class with women, she petitioned DoD to commission her as an Infantry Officer. As part of her case, she showed that at the last PT test she did more push ups and pull ups than half of the men. She was a nationally ranked cyclist in France, podiumed four times at the 2002 Worlds Masters, got a bronze in cross at the ’03 or ’04 worlds … all in the middle of her cancer treatment. Maybe Hoodie could hook up with her, tie her into a story on L-B-L or le Tour.)
No iPad for me. Got Dell PC and laptop. I can consume shit, make shit, and send shit out–kinda like a two-year-old. However, I would like an iPhone. I have a Palm 755P(?). Very pedestrian.
I watch all the bike races on Sporza.be. I don’t speak Flemish, but I can open up a 2nd window for an English play-by-play (sometimes at VeloNews) and get the details otherwise lost.
Steve O: Great story idea!
Patrick: If I hadn’t mentioned it before, you are looking damn trim for an Old Guy Who Gets Fat in Winter. You will out live us all.
damnit…I DVR’d the race yesterday, forgot to watch it last night and probably won’t get to watch it until tonight; and now I know who won.
I guess this means I’ll be getting an iPad in the mail from CO, in a few days.
iPad? I seem to be marching in the opposite direction and thinking about scoring a Long Haul Trucker frameset or another cross frame. Steel, of course.
Khal:
Steelman frame, please!
When I win the lottery (note the air of absolute certainty), I’m ordering at least a couple of Steelman frames, lugged beyond reason, painted beautifully, chromed in all the right places, and fitted out in absurdly expensive equipment. The Steelman 25th Anniversary Edition comes to mind.
I’ve actually been lusting after a Steelman since I first started following Patrick’s blog.
The other bike I am lusting after is one of Tom Kellogg’s titanium wonders. Tom and I were classmates in college (Univ. of Rochester, class of 1976). He and I used to ride motorcycles back in those days and fortunately, we both stayed mum on some of the stories that could be told. Every time I see one of his designs I swoon.
Khal, if you’re looking for an interesting new (and inexpensive) frameset consider the Soma Saga. Tange Prestige main triangle, rear load bias touring geometry, three sets of bottle bosses, eyelets for racks and fenders, spoke holders, pump peg, flat chainstay plate to fit a double kickstand … in short, the works. I’m going to tackle a lightly loaded tour on my Soma Double Cross sometime this spring, and if all goes well I may spring for this touring-specific model.
Jeff, thanks for the flattering comment about my unfatness. I’ve been working at it — or rather, I had been working at it — and now I have to get back after it, with most of my deadlines for this month over and done with.
Steve, I’ll kick that story idea over to Hoody. Looks like it would make a good mag feature. Charles Pelkey might like it, too, being the son of a military man and an admirer of tough women (Jeannie Longo gave his daughter an autographed jersey some years back).
I see your friends at BTI sell (wholesale) the Soma but are currently out of stock of the Saga.
Any idea where the frames are made? I’ve almost got enough parts sitting around to build another bike, esp. if we don’t keep the old Trek tandem, which suddenly isn’t such a fine ride any more compared to the Co-Motion.
Patrick, you can put away the credit card…Time Warner Cable absolved your sins last night. I sat down to watch the race only to find with 35k left that the damn DVR only recorded half of the event.
This is twice this damn thing has fucked me- the first being a rather obscure Kurosawa film shown 2 weeks ago on Turner Classic Movies. I only got half the show that time too. Anybody have a copy of “The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail”?
Heads may roll…but alas, no iPads will darken my door this week.
Khal,
SOMA is out of San Fran. but I’d be willing to bet that they are actually built over in East Asia. I hope I am wrong – but if memory serves their frames went offshore about five years ago. Any decent bike shop should be able to order direct or from Merry Sales. Not that Merry will have it – they had a tendency to actually have very little when I was buying – but it might be your best bet. I don’t think that SOMA sells online.
Best of luck in your search. They make some bee-you-tea-full frames!
James, I agree. Soma may be out of SF, but I suspect the guy with the welding torch speaks Chinese as a native. Not that the Chinese guy doesn’t need to eat, but I would prefer to see the point of origin of the frame.
Gents, if I recall correctly, the Somas are built in Taiwan. Designed in SF, but built in Taiwan. And you can buy directly from the Soma-Merry folks online if you like — http://store.somafab.com/index.html.