Tag: Charles Pelkey

Foggy Friday

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 9 Comments
The cruelest month
Things are all fogged up around here today.

“April is the cruellest month,” wrote T.S. Eliot. The quote arises unbidden as I watch the weather change from sunny to snowy to sunny again, and finally to a chilly shvitz of fog — all in less than a week.

Appropriately, April also brings the cruelest race, Paris-Roubaix. And while I no longer help cover such sport for vampire capitalists, I plan to get up way too early on Sunday and lend a paw to my friend and colleague Charles Pelkey over at Live Update Guy.

Charles will be on deck at dark-thirty, as usual, but I won’t plug in until the race is well under way. In the meantime, give us your picks for the V in comments. Tom Boonen is obviously a fave, but with filthy weather in the forecast and no Fabian Cancellara it could be anyone’s race. T.S. Eliot was right.

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 12 Comments
Buck at Bear Creek
The buck stops here, nyuk nyuk nyuk.

My friend and colleague Charles Pelkey cranked up the old Live Update Machine today for the Ronde Van Vlaanderen, and a couple other refugees from the other outfit joined in toward the end to provide wit and wisdom, kinda, sorta, as Fabian Cancellara crashed out with a broken collarbone and Tom Boonen took the win ahead of Filippo Pozzato and Alessandro Ballan. You shoulda been there.

But if you weren’t, well, you can catch the act next week during Paris-Roubaix.

No cobbles in these parts, but the riding is pretty damn’ fine regardless. The weather is officially insane for early spring — as in 76 degrees yesterday — and I rode south on the Trail of Many Names to its southern terminus in Fountain, then turned around and headed for home, with a quick detour into Bear Creek Regional Park for extra credit and a deer sighting.

It was headwind out, tailwind back, and good for three hours in the saddle, which should reduce my gravitational potential somewhat if I keep it up. I can manage another such outing today, but tomorrow — not so much. The weather wizards predict a 50 percent chance of showers and a high in the mid-40s. Oh, the humanity.

Whipping post

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 18 Comments

My friend and colleague Charles Pelkey will be appearing on “The Outspoken Cyclist” with Diane Lees on Saturday. You should give it a listen.

But first, listen to Frank and the band performing the Allman Brothers classic “Whipping Post” live in Barcelona, circa 1988 — with a few interesting alterations to the original lyrics — and praise Jeebus that Frank never got hooked up with Cher the way Gregg Allman did.

It’s a live! It’s a live, it’s a live … it’s a live!

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 14 Comments

Fans of Charles Pelkey’s live updates from top-shelf bike racing as seen at VeloNews.com will be pleased to learn that he hopes to continue providing them via his own website, LiveUpdateGuy.com, during the Vuelta a España, which commences mañana.

Unlike consigliere Pelkey, I am not an attorney. Nevertheless, I don’t consider that I am violating my contract with Competitor Group Inc. by noting that VN.com will not be providing live updates from the Vuelta, by Charles or anybody else, though you may expect the usual post-stage journalistic virtuosity from Andrew Hood, Graham Watson and a cast of … a cast of  … well, it ain’t gonna be Cecil B. DeMille, but just pop round the site for a look-see anyway. Hoody and Graham are always worth a good, long glance.

Meanwhile, the occasional high-powered guest may appear at LiveUpdateGuy.com during the Vuelta to provide keen insight, cogent analysis and witty repartee. I may drop in, too.

ChipIn for Charles

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 19 Comments

My friend Charles Pelkey, a.k.a. The Explainer, Live Update Guy, etc., et al., and so on and so forth, got a bit of good news for a change today — the fine folks at NYVelocity have set up a ChipIn account to help Charles defray a portion of his medical costs as he undergoes treatment for cancer.

Charles, as you know, was among those recently downsized by Velo‘s corporate overlords, Competitor Group Inc. CGI extended his health insurance for a period, but the sand is rapidly running out of that hourglass, and once he finds himself in COBRA country the costs will commence piling up like venomous snakes in an Indiana Jones movie.

If you’ve enjoyed one of CP’s famous live updates (and who hasn’t?) or gleaned some insight from one of his Explainer columns at VeloNews.com, please consider making a donation. You’ll find yourself in some excellent company. For example, I have it on good authority that a certain American winner of the Tour de France has kicked in a couple of bucks.

And no, it wasn’t the rubber-band guy.