Finally it feels like fall. We had a smidgen of rain late yesterday afternoon, and then the wind sprang up and the leaves began falling. This morning, the furnace clicked on.
I surrendered to the inevitable and skipped the shorts in favor of some cotton samue drawers. My sleeveless summertime wife-beater T bit the dust a couple days ago, but I’m not quite ready to go to the full-on sweatpants-and-socks combo. Not yet.
Steel-cut Irish oatmeal fortified with cinnamon, honey, nuts and fruit is back on the breakfast menu, as are eggs, especially when scrambled with green chile or hardboiled, sliced and served alongside a potato hash involving chopped chile and scallions, diced red bell pepper, minced garlic, Mexican oregano and some leftover protein from the previous night’s dinner (chicken, beef or pork).
Did I mention chile? I made a green chile stew using chicken thighs instead of pork last week and it was killer. Tonight I may whip up some buffalo enchiladas in a red sauce that has its red-hot roots in Chimayo, New Mexico. You can’t stop me.
Also back on the menu is running. I haven’t been doing much of that this summer, but since it’s no longer summer it’s time to suck it up and get back to the ground-pounding. It’s not as nifty as cycling, but it’s easier to do in the snow.
Snow? Did I say that or just think it? Where’d I leave those wool socks?
Mad Blog Media 
Speaking of fall, i.e., fall from grace, see the latest on AC? So where’s the beef now, Alberto?
2nd Failed Test Puts Heat on Contador
Today’s BSNYC is of particular interest, as he examines Cyclo-Cross 2.0….
“Il Pistolero” has to be sweating bullets right now. No matter what bribes anyone hands over to the corrupt UCI, it’s almost unthinkable he’ll get off with no penalty here. And penalty SHOULD mean adios to his 2010 TdF win even if they let him off with only a year vacation from racing due to the tiny level of clenbuterol and his claim it came from tainted beef. Seems he’s got the Spanish beef producers mad at him now too as they claim there’s no way the banned substance came from their critters. The only guy more worried about all this might be Mr. 60% whose team looks pretty grim without the Spaniard. While I think Contador should face sanction and the Spanish cycling federation face serious penalities if they do nothing about this — I’m not happy about seeing the phony choir-boy Schleck take the prize either. Who’s next, Menchov, another guy whose “cleanliness” is doubtful? It’s a mess for sure. Maybe they should just forget about 2010’s edition like they did with races that didn’t happen due to war — they could just list it as “no official results due to widespread doping” and start working on a cleaner 2011 edition.
Great idea Larry, but how far back in the record books do you go with the asterisk to denote the “widespread doping” so no official results? 1990 and later? ’85?, Hinault’s last year? Oh, how ’bout ’88 – oops, no, Delgado won that year didn’t he? Well, that ain’t gonna work. I vote for everything past Coppi in ’52 gets thrown out…
As one of my colleagues here just said, if we find an honest pro bike racer, he can marry the Miss America who has never posed nude…
Good question David! Maybe “Pro Cycling Entertainment” run by Pat McQuaid and Vince McMahon is a better idea? The sponsors could be Amgen, Bristol-Meyers-Squibb, Pfizer, Eli Lilly along with the company who makes the transfusion bags, syringe makers, and the like. They could even do it like a NASCAR fuel stop and let a rider get his blood topped up during the race! We could see huge steroid-built guys at Paris-Roubaix ripping the cranks off the bikes or even genetically engineered freaks with massive lungs, huge legs and tiny, deformed, thalidomide-like upper bodies flying up the climbs in stage races. We could let the bike industry run wild and have the racers compete on fly-weight machines that might shatter into pieces on a high speed descent! Think of the drama, think of the TV ratings, think of how it would no longer be a SPORT but just more entertainment like pro wrestling or the NFL!!!
It’s damn hard, but I’d rather have ’em try to keep it an actual sport, but cases where there’s enough question about all the top guys on the results sheet make me think “nobody won” might be better than trying to figure out who the hell might have been the best of the clean guys in any given race.
Recall that Tom Simpson collapsed and died after doping. And lets not forget the six-day races long ago. Nah. Our sport is to drugs as peanut butter is to jelly.
This really is becoming comical. As I’ve said before (and will say again), satire is running a very poor second to reality. Hell, satire may miss the podium altogether, even DNF.
Now CONI honcho Ettore Torri has announced (surprise, surprise) that everyone is doping and that the dope cops are always a step or two behind the crooks.
My favorite quote in this story comes near the end, where Riccardo Ricco’s latest fuckup is discussed. Some 50 suspicious pills were found in his home, and he could be shitcanned from cycling for life.
“But we’ll see what explanation he provides,” Torri said. “He could always show that they were for his grandmother. There’s always a grandmother, a filet or something else.”
Well, just so all the comments on every one of your blog entries are not focused on more doping talk Patrick, I like steel-cut Irish oatmeal too…
I read your bicycling blog and I’m instantly hungry! Why?
Running?! You’re going running? Man, there had better be lots of drug use in that sport too, or else we’ll be left with nothing to talk about.
David, Charley, steel-cut oatmeal is the real deal. It’ll make your hair fall out, but what won’t these days?
And John, I started running back when I took up cyclo-cross in the late Eighties. It is a despicable habit. But it’s cheap, eminently portable, and the airlines don’t charge you $300 to fly a pair of Sauconys from Bibleburg to Bellingham. Not yet, anyway.
They won’t as long as you Sauconys aren’t in a checked bag….
Running? From what? For me anyway, running may be wonderful exercise (and as a former sub-three hour marathoner I’ve done plenty of it) but it’s rarely, if ever FUN. I’ve tried a few winters to get back into it but rarely even get to the point were it’s just not painful before I give it up. If it’s too nasty outside to ride a bike or I’ve spent too much time on the indoor trainer already (which doesn’t take much) I’m simply going for a nice long walk these days. I doubt it improves one cardiovascularly but at I think it at least reduces the loss of whatever condition you might have, and its far easier on the old joints and cartilage.
Food? This weekend’s our semi-annual ravioli project — we invite some friends over, yours truly makes and rolls out the pasta with our trusty Imperia (a bit of a workout there!)while the others bring various fillings and we sit around, drink some vino, put the Italian CD’s on and make ravioli all afternoon. When they’re all done and most of the mess is cleaned up we move on to Italian inspired snacks (bruschetta al pomodoro, prosciutto e melone, formaggi, etc.) along with some better vino, along with a tasting of our work served up with butter and fresh sage. Great conversations and a good time for all, plus each guest goes home with bags of stuffed pasta to stick in their freezer for later feasts.
Running…hmmm…I don’t even run to the bathroom these days…
Larry, I wish it wasn’t such a long drive to your house…my mouth is watering and your post brings back childhood memories of my grandparents rolling out the pasta to make ravioli and when the season called for it, rolling out the dough for Christmas or Easter cookies.
Fall was always great at their place. Grampa would be out harvesting from his small farm/huge garden, and grandma would be in the basement canning peaches, apricots, tomatoes, peppers, drying beans, and otherwise preparing for winter. I took a page out of their book when I was in grad school and was never short for canned tomatoes to make marinara all through the year and ground venison to make the meatballs. At one point, I had forty huge tomato plants.
Steel cut oatmeal is great. My main problem is trudging downstairs and taking the time to make it up rather than cook the flat variety, which doesn’t take so long.
As far as drugs? Heck, everyone knows that dogs and cats need EPO, correct? Hell, that wasn’t my shit…honest…
Other than griddling up some 10-grain pancakes on Sundays, breakfast has never been much of a big deal, I’m satisfied with a bowl of store-brand shredded wheat cereal — after my morning cappuccino of course! Our pasta party tries to recreate exactly what Khal describes, family and friends sitting around the table making wholesome food that everyone will enjoy later — one of those bonding experiences that sounds corny but we, as well our friends enjoy it enough they’re usually the ones lobbying for us to do it as soon as the summer turns to fall or winter turns to spring. We do it as part of the holiday celebrations when we invade the in-laws house at year’s end too, my father-in-law used to blow off a day at the hospital and come home so we could do it all together. Now that he’s retired he’s ready to go first-thing in the morning on ravioli day! He’s not had much luck getting his grandkids into the tradition — but they have NO problem devouring the fruits of our labor and have come to expect the homemade pasta as part of the holiday celebrations. I swear every year to take photos and post ’em on the CycleItalia blog but once I get the flour and eggs on my hands and start rolling out the pasta, taking pictures never crosses my feeble mind…maybe I should drink less vino during the project?