Looks like the lads at La Vuelta de Bisbee enjoyed some of the same gentle spring weather that afflicted me and my fellow cyclo-tourists during the Tombstone-to-Bisbee leg of the Adventure Cycling Association’s Southern Arizona Road Adventure last month (read all about it in the July issue of Adventure Cycling, assuming management does not regain its collective mental health).
We’ve been dealing with similar weather here in Bibleburg. It’s playing hell with my sinuses, and it doesn’t take an attractive photo, so you’ll just have to settle for an old-fashioned, text-based, filth-laden, standard-issue O’Grady description, which is to say that it mostly blows, and not in a good way, either.
Happily, Saturday is one of my days in the VeloNews.com barrel, so I didn’t feel obligated to force myself out for a few hours of sandblasted cycling. Tomorrow is another — Liège-Bastogne-Liège is on deck, and so am I — but it’s only a half day of work, the weather is supposed to improve and I’m going to get out for some exercise if it harelips ever’body on Bear Creek.
Mad Blog Media 
A gorgeous Sunday over here in Viterbo, Italy. Slept in a bit, took the bikes out for short but action-packed morning ride, finishing with an aperitivo at a local bar. Sunday lunch (bruschetta al pomodoro, zuppa di pasta e fagioli and salsiccia with cicoria, washed down with a Tuscan Sangiovese) set us up for the TV coverage of L-B-L. This afternoon/evening might be a stroll around the medieval streets looking for the best gelato. It’s pretty sweet living over here — it’s gonna be damn hard to return to the US of A at summer’s end.
Weather here is like a gay nomad, if you know what I mean. I thought there was something wrong with my front end (the car’s, not mine) when cruising down the highway. Major pulling. Plus, its kicked up the early pollen. I feel like crap..
Again, Larry, unbelievable. And now you’re just rubbing it in. (I would, too, if I were you.)
Houston actually had really great weather this weekend, and it was my daughter’s 8th birthday. The party started when my wife’s mom and step-dad flew in from ABQ on Friday, and it ended about 30 minutes ago. Everyone’s finally gone home. We’re exhausted. But what a great weekend.
I still can’t quite get my head around Vino winning L-B-L. Ricco’s back and doing well, also. This is all going to make bike racing harder for me to enjoy this year.
Nowadays it’s more like “who ISN’T doped?”. My friends at the local bike shop, where one of the sons of the owner is an ex-pro who raced with Garzelli say it this way, “the guys in front are ALL doped, the clean ones are at the back.” I’m old enough to remember when at TdF the official water was Perrier, the car was Peugeot. At the Giro it was San Pellegrino and Fiat. While most of the “in-the-know” folks knew all about doping, the general public was mostly ignorant and probably liked it just fine that way. THEN the multinationals came into the sport — NIKE, COKE, etc. THOSE folks didn’t want their image tarnished with any doping scandal but they didn’t want to lose the publicity either — so from that point on we’ve had endless scandals starting with Festina as the sport gets “cleaned up”. In some ways I wish those folks would go away and let the sport go on as it was back-in-the-day since blood-doping remains undetectable (as it was back in Gastone Nencini’s day) and there always seems to be a way to beat whatever test the lab rats come up with. As to rubbing it in about living in Italy — the end of summer’s getting ever closer and I’m starting to milk whatever pleasures are left, including a bit of gloating — and trying to drum up some biz for next years tours! (Take that FTC!)