fly fishing

I haven't fished, any kind of fishing, in over 30 years. Even though I'm from probably one of the fishing capitals of the world, Minnesota, I fished once there. My dad, whose patriarchal duty it was to take me out fishing, hated fishing. He was so poor when he was young that fishing wasn't recreation; it was a way to get food. He didn't even have the money for a rod.  He used to stand in the river, wait for fish to swim by, and throw them onto shore.  I think fishing reminded him of work and the fact that he was once so poor.

During my visit to Seattle recently however, my friend Ty suggested we and our other friend Robert head out to Yakima and go fly fishing.

SOLD!

As an aside Ty and Robert are both Norwegian. Their last names are Jungerhans and Ueland. They are pretty much what you'd expect from Norwegians. Strapping is the adjective that comes to mind when you see them. They are both ex-football players and annually, without any kind of training, climb Mount Rainer and ski down. They are manly men. The kind of guys you want around outdoors and when you're learning to fly fish.

There were a couple of interesting things I learned on the trip.

First, fly fishing is fundamentally different from traditional fishing due to the fact that the fly or lure is a completely different weight. In traditional fishing the lure is heavy and when you cast you are casting the lure; flinging this heavy object out to where you think the fish are. And thus a bob is needed to keep it from sinking.

Fly fishing lures are as light as a feather. They float on the water until they get waterlogged. And so casting something as light as a feather will not work. To compensate the line is what is heavy. Therefore you are really casting the line in fly fishing. It's thick, colored, and not prone to breaking. So the flicking motion to get the lure where you want it to go is designed around whipping the line back and forth. It's actually quite easy to learn but difficult to master. There is also clearly no bob necessary as well.

The second thing I learned was that where we were fishing (we stayed at the Canyon River Lodge), the Yakima River, is Washington's only Blue Ribbon fishery. Blue Ribbon is sort of a loose designation for one of the top fishing locations based on how many fish are in the river among other things. This is also a slightly embarrassing designation because we hooked absolutely nothing. A few nibbles but no catches. What you are supposed to hook is trout and maybe salmon if you're there at the right time.  But then I learned that catching fish is largely secondary to being on a river, outdoors, drinking beer, hanging with your buddies.  It was a great time.

And around the area can be found interesting wild animals - Bighorn sheep, mule deer, herons, hawks, which we saw. And also bobcats, cougars (downtown Seattle has those too), bears, elk. It's a beautiful area and hopefully I can get a second try at catching a fish next time I'm in town.

dope

The Tour de France starts on Saturday. I don't know. I'm not sure if I'm watching it this time around. I might peek at the results of some stages but the sport has devolved into an absurd state of affairs. I can't think of a sport or organization that is run more poorly, haphazardly, and more bewilderingly than cycling. It's bewildering. The system is reminiscent of Kafka's The Trial. When doping is suspected it's unclear who is in charge, who makes decisions about that rider and if the rider will be punished.

Take Contador, the current TdF favorite. He's won the 2007, 2009, 2010 tours. In 2010 he tested positive for clenbuturol, a performance enhancer, DURING the 2010 tour.  He was suspended and then cleared by the SPANISH Cycling Federation.  Yes Alberto is Spanish.  Why did the SCF rule on this?  I have no clue. Now the decision is being reviewed by The Court of Arbitration for Sport. And the hearing is scheduled for August 1-3 after the race is completed. You could be cheering on someone who then is suspended from participating after the fact. It's bizarre.

It takes almost all the fun out of this great sport.

More here in the NY Times.

the hat makes the man

I like baseball caps. When I grew up in England they were about the most American things in the world along with mailboxes and cheeseburgers. And I liked American things. I still wear a baseball cap fairly frequently. It used to be a plain red one until a sharpei got his teeth onto it. Now it's a NY Yankees cap. Mainly because I like their logo and dark blue. In reality I am apathetic about baseball and most sports and if I do I generally like underdogs and despise teams that buy their way to the top. In other words I don't really like the Yankees.

Which is funny because I get about a comment a day when I have the hat on. As I'm going into stores and grabbing coffee. They naturally think I like the team and that I'm a big supporter.

Hey Mr. Yankee!

I always get a little scared about this because I know next to nothing about the team.

How about that (insert some player's name) leaving huh?

I never know what to say. Should I explain I just like the logo. I generally think this might be bad because I'm sure to piss off someone with that comment. So then what am I left with?

What did you think of that bonehead play last night huh?

I'm not a particularly good bullshitter. But maybe I should embrace this. Just really get into it a little.

What was the score last night?

That sounds a little dangerous too. I'm not sure how to approach this one...

en garde

Beautiful shots of the World Fencing Championships in Paris. I used to fence in college. It's surprising that this sport isn't more popular given how much boys like to fight with pretend swords. It really is as fun as it looks. My daughter has taken an interest so perhaps I can live vicariously through her.

body check

Tips from a fitness trainer.  I tend to think fitness trainers probably have good advice since they have to produce results to get paid.  I've picked out a few with my comments in parentheses.

1. Pushups are the best upper body workout designed (P90X would agree with this but add pullups)
2. Diet is 85% of where results come from (given my prior posts this is no surprise)
3. Sugars is not our friend & high fructose corn syrup is making people fat and sick (carbs bad)
4. If I had one sport for a child to start with it would be gymnastics (could agree more, both kids are signed up)
5. The fittest people I know keep active daily doing what they enjoy (I love this one.  Someone once told me that if you want to work out regularly and forever then it simply must be something you enjoy)
6. The best performance enhancing thing I know of….is a cup of coffee (studies bear this out)
7. Supplements were are waste of a lot of money for me (studies bear this out)
8. To build muscle, throw away your Whey protein and eat more steak and eggs (carbs bad)
9. The best way to lose weight for most is lower carbohydrate eating (carbs very bad)
10. Meat and Fat are my friends (double time)
11. Breakfast is not the most important meal of the day (thank goodness, I never eat breakfast)
12. The eat low-fat advice was the biggest health disaster in the last 30 years (This!)
13. Apple Cider Vinegar is the only medicine I take if I feel sick (no clue.  Will need to try it.)
14. Bill Phillips was a marketing genius (He's the Fit-For-Life idiot)

norway rules

Back by popular demand I have the medal/population ratio for the winter olympics (click on picture for larger version). And Norway knocks it out of the park. Again we have a huge outlier in terms of medal production. Austria, Slovenia, and Sweden put in respectable showings. And again the US looks terrible. They are outgunned by the snowless Australia. And China again comes in last (at least among those countries that won at least one medal).

americas cup

I don't like watching many sporting events but the Americas' Cup is one of them. Actually I'm less interested in the sport and more interested in the technology which seems to change at a quick pace. The NY Times has a nice story on the two current contenders and a great slide show as well. Check that picture out on the right. Those are outrageous main sails. The BMW Oracle boat seems particularly innovative. More about the boat here.

The race is just starting now and is currently on hold because of poor wind conditions. It looks like the first race will happen on Wednesday (3:45AM for you east coasters). Supposedly you can view it on ESPN360.
Twitter feed: @33acup

p90x+

So I finished up the second round of P90X recently. I didn't see nearly the same amount of progress I saw on the first round. That is to be expected since the first 90 days are enough to get you close to peak performance.

For round three I decided to upgrade to P90X+. Note the "+". The "+" stands for new and improved levels of ass-kickage. There are 4 new discs that replace some of the P90X discs and the schedule is jumbled around. I didn't go through the kind of sore muscle agony that I went through when I first started P90X but the workouts are exhausting. P90X+ takes on a very different structure than P90X in many ways:

1. The workouts are shorter. Don't let this fool you into thinking they are easier. They are harder.
2. The workouts are more like the Core Synergistics workout. Each set entails a lot of multi-muscle exercises rather than a focus on a single muscle. P90X generally focused on a single muscle. P90X+ is more intensive and this makes the workouts more cardio and therefore more exhausting.
3. The 8-10 rep rule for muscle building is rarely used. Rather a time allotment is given for each set. Typically 1 to 1.5 minutes. In theory this will lead to less muscle building. Tony Horton in this set of discs looks less bulky and more proportionally fit.
4. The P90X+ sets are also characterized by many changes in form. For example for one set the pullups you no longer perform a single grip, maximum rep exercise. Rather, after each pullup you are allowed to touch down and then change your grips. This leads to a higher rep count and a more varied use of muscles.
5. There is less time spent in warm up and warm down. Many studies seem to show that neither of these do much for you so I'm kind of glad I'm not doing them much anymore.
6. The structure has changed somewhat. Each week in P90X was a highly varied weight training routine. You never completed the same exercise disc twice. In P90X you do repeat. I like this change as well. It allows you to really focus on improving in a set of exercises. I'm curious how I will progress with this structure.

To be clear. P90X+ workouts decimate me in about 40 minutes. I'm pausing the disc more and after it's done I need to lie down and recuperate. I do not recommend starting here if you are new to the routine.

who really won the olympics

I've been meaning to post this for a while. I usually do this after every Olympics. Usually a country is declared the winner. Either who wins the most golds (China) or the most medals (the US). But this is really an unfair comparison. More people means more likelihood of winning. So I take the total medals won and divide by the population in millions to get a rough gauge of how efficient a country is at creating world class athletes. I've only included those countries that win at least 7 medals. Totally arbitrary. And the numbers are surprising. Here they are (you can click on the picture to get a better view):


What's unusual is that 'island' nations do very well. I wonder if it has something to do with those nations being more outdoorsy and thus athletic? The US is below average. Although if you had the information you could redo this for medals gained by where an athlete trains. In that case most the US would move up some. But it's certainly not a great showing. Surprisingly the worst of all is China. Average US is still 5 times more likely to create a medal. It's notably inefficient. Even Ethiopia (not in this chart) scores better than China. I should point out that on this chart the worst is China. The absolute worst is India. Dead last among all nations. 3 medals for 1.2 billion people. They need to get cricket added pronto.

p90x - month 3

Well I finally completed the last phase of P90x on Sunday. Boy it feels good to finish. It is by far the most intense workout I've ever done. The last month I also went completely hardcore on my food intake. Not quantity; just what was going in. I probably shed about 5 pounds of fat. And the results speak for themselves. I'm probably in the best shape I've been in since I was about 30. I'm much stronger and flexible. And my cardio ability is way up.

• Building muscle just isn't what it used to be. I think if i did this in my 30s I would have a lot more muscle bulk. As it stands I'm a lot more sinewy. Having said that I'm still increasing the weight on the strength routines.
• I am more flexible now than I have ever been. Even as a teenager. Each week I could stretch a little more.
• Yoga, particuarly P90X's version, continues to be my favorite workout and one that I'll do in my 80s if I'm around. It is just grueling. There's one particular move that stands out. You are in a lunge and you link hands by reaching one arm behind your back and one between you legs. At this point sweat drips off my body at the rate of 3-4 drops per second. Never fails. I call the move the 'sponge squeeze'.
• The one area I was hoping to improve that didn't was my lower back issues. I get chronic lower back pain. It shows up every 3 months of so. Typically when I work out I get more back issues not less. This was true during P90X. They weren't debilitating issues (at least they weren't until the very last day) but they were more prevalent. I'm hopeful if I keep up the workouts this will eventually not be true but I'm not sure if that will pan out or not.
• I can't say I have 6 pack abs. I'm painfully close. With the right lighting you might be fooled. But there is still a small layer of fat in the very center portion where these muscles are. Everywhere else is fat free. Arrgghhhh!
• I never realized you have muscles around your ribs but then, of course, what are you eating when you eat ribs? The Ab Ripper and Core Synergistics have really built up these muscles impressively.
• Looking at some of the worksheets it's amazing how much more fit I am in a few areas. The one that sticks out is pullups. I could do maybe 6 full pullups at the beginning before I needed to switch to using a chair for help. Now I knock out about 8 sets of 8 or 9. My goal is to at some point get to 8 sets of 15. Pushups for me would die around 30 reps before I had to go to the knees. Now I can do about 150-200 over the course of 8 sets depending on the type of pushup.
• It's become difficult for me to really cheat with my diet. A lot of bad food appeals less to me because I can't help think what it'll do to my workout that night. Booze is completely out. I never really liked alcohol but a casual drink is about as unappealing as anything to me now. Having said that I have a required boozing session this coming Friday.

So now the question is what next? I'm taking the next week off. I'm forgetting the diet and the workout for 7 full days. And then I think I'm going to start it up again and run it through another 90 days. In fact I'll probably just keep doing if forever.

contador

So did that seal Contador as the true team leader of Astana? Probably. He has now beaten Armstrong in the individual time trial and the first major mountain stage. That's probably the best thing that could have happened to the team. I think at this point Contador is the better cyclist. We'll see how Armstrong reacts now if he's forced into a supporting role down the road.

tdf 2009

In the past I've blogged quite a bit about the Tour de France as it was being raced. I neither have the time or energy to do that right now. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be watching it. The first few days have been the most exciting in a couple of years.

The big news of course is that Lance Armstrong is back in this year's race. And today came to within 1/10 of a second of the maillot jaune as his team, Astana, put in a good showing in the team time trial.

I'm not about to start blogging now but I do want to make one comment. I don't think Armstrong has a chance in hell of winning. I think it'll taking something Herculean on his part to pull it off. Here's why.

Most obviously he is old. He's almost 38. As good as he is he's probably past his prime of nailing mountain climbs to gain 30 seconds here and there on a hungrier and younger field.

More importantly his team is a disaster. You wouldn't guess that by looking at the roster. Let's take a look who is on it: Lance Armstrong, Alberto Contador, Andreas Kloden, and Levi Leipheimer; not to mention Armstrong's old director, Johan Bruyneel. So what's the problem? Those are 4 outstanding riders to have on a team. That is exactly the problem. They are too good. They are all contenders and have never played a domestique role within a team. Contador won the 2007 TdF for crying out loud.

Imagine any one of these four guys is in the best position to win the TdF but is in trouble. Would the other 3 really come back and help a struggling team member or would they jump at the chance to steal the opportunity. Kloden f**ked Ullrich many times by not helping and instead going for glory. Contador in many ways should be considered the team leader. Leipheimer's days are numbered and Armstrong's even more so.

Let's look at the current standings:
Cancellara leader
Armstrong +0'00"
Contador +0'19"
Kloden +0'23"
Leipheimer +0'31"

Uh oh!

Unless a clear team leader emerges before the mountains or one or two days into the first mountain trials you are going see some serious shit flying. Which could be entertaining in its own right.

p90x - month 1

Yesterday I finished up the first four of thirteen weeks of P90X. I missed one optional stretch day so my perfect record is bust. But the required stuff I've completed. After my first post regarding the post-traumatic horrors of Week 1 I can report that things have gotten much better. I can't exactly say the soreness is completely absent but it's manageable. After week one you repeat the weekly series for two more weeks. Because of this the same muscles get reworked and therefore they've gained some capacity.

Week 4 is a 'rest' week. Designed to allow some recovery time. This is ridiculous because they throw a new DVD into the mix - Core Synergistics. It's another gut busting routine and you do it twice in Week 4. Plus you do the Yoga X twice as well. I was more sore in Week 4 than I was in Week 2.

Core Synergistics is a routine to work your core torso muscles. This should really be retitled Hardcore Synergistics. The ruotines are generally combination routines as opposed to single muscle routines. From a cardio perspective it's the hardest for me. I had to stop the DVD a few times to catch my breath. But for that reason it's also one of the best. You could simply take Core Synergistics and Yoga X and have a top notch workout routine from those two DVDs. They are both intense and well rounded.

At the end of Week 4 you also take your 30 day photos. I'll spare everyone the actual pictures. Comparing these against my Day 0 photos you can see improvements. You can search the internet for what others have achieved. I'm by no means ripped but I can see the increased tone throughout my body. I haven't done any weight measurement since I'm not particularly concerned about that but I can tell there's been a drop in fat content as well. I'll probably ramp up my diet towards the end so I finish strong.

A couple of observations

• I'm not sure this is the right workout for people looking to add a bunch of bulk. I don't notice a lot of bulk added. Rather I have become more toned. Maybe that'll change over the remaining 9 weeks as I get better at the routines and can increase the weight resistance I use. But since a lot of the routines use your own body weight as resistance this isn't a body builders routine. For me, that is good. That last thing I need is to have all my suits stop fitting me.
• Until you get reasonably decent at doing Yoga X it's impossible to truly appreciate what the 'model's are doing on this DVD. At times I stand back in amazement at the flexibility and balance these people have. It's truly impressive. Especially the instructor, Tony Horton. He's 45. I just want to headbutt him sometimes. They make it look so easy that unless you are doing it you can't imagine what's so hard about it. I can't imagine not doing yoga from here on out. It's clearly one of the best workouts you can do.
• As you get better at each routine, the routine gets more intense. This is a great aspect of the process. Instead of each routine getting easier it actually gets harder as you progress. You do more reps so you have less down time between sets and therefore you work harder and get a better workout. I'm not sure if it's designed that way but it's cleverly done if it is.
• Even after 4 weeks I'm still completely inept at parts of the routine. Mainly the advanced yoga moves and the pushup/pullups moves. One-handed pushups? That entry got the big zero. I just hope I can get to a respectable level by the end of the 90 days.
• I'm impressed with the huge variation in routines and innovative moves used. There are really some unusual routines that mix up which muscles you use. This also helps in creating a well rounded workout and one that doesn't get boring.

The next four weeks use similar DVDs but the strength sets are mixed up with new routines. I fully expect to be in agony again next week but perhaps I'm wrong. I just did the first strength workout and was spent at the end.

It's hard for me to not look forward a bit and wonder what I'm going to do after the 90 days is up? I know I should just focus on finishing but it's my nature to be pragmatic about these things. Should I do it again? Stop? Keeping doing it forever? I'm not sure what the maintenance approach should be. 1 to 1.5 hours per day is a commitment that means other things go to the wayside. Reading has all but stopped for me. I'm not sure how to incorporate all the things I want to do and maintain this level of exercise. I suppose I'll figure that out when I get to it.

the p is for purgatory

Or pain. Or, less cynically, perseverence. Actually I'm not sure what the P in P90x stands for. The 90 is for 90 days. The X is for extreme. For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, P90X is a work out routine. You may have seen the infomercial on TV. I would never have given it a second glance due to my natural aversion of all things informercial, but my friend David said it was actually the real deal. It is the real deal. This isn't "30 second" abs. This is "every other day do 339 situps" abs. This is a "workout for 1 to 1.5 hours every day for 90 days" workout.

The workout regimen seemed appealing for a number of reasons.

1. It entails hard work. I don't think there are any shortcuts in getting fit and this one didn't pretend there were any. The warnings from friends about how you need to make sure you don't overdo it seemed to drive this point home.
2. It's a robust, multi-faceted workout. Through the course of 90 days you will do weight training, stretching, yoga, kenpo, plyometrics (jump training), etc. There isn't a muscle in your body that won't get worked and stretched. My biking and weight lifting routines never made me feel 'healthy' because the results were too localized.
3. It's an adaptable workout. Let's face it. At the beginning you are simply not going to be able to do all of the workouts. Parts of the yoga routine are just impossible. That's okay. You can just do your best. Doing close to 150 pullups during the back session is not going to happen for at least a month but they show you how you can cheat with a chair.
4. There's no cheesy quality to the regimen. No hyped up pep talks. No metaphysical aspect to it. The DVD starts and you get right into it.
5. There's a big focus on stretching. I'm as stiff as a board. It's genetic. My mom has never touched her toes. I've only been able to do it once when I was young and worked hard at stretching. This program has yoga and an entire stretching DVD plus all the workouts begin and end with stretching.
6. There's a big focus on using your own body weight as resistence. Pullups and pushups are preferred over big heavy weights. I feel this tends to right-size your muscles and stop you from over bulking and overworking muscles.
7. The program is big on measuring everything. Everything gets recorded.
8. It doesn't require a lot of expensive equipment. You need some free weights and some way to do pullups (I have big doors and had to make my own).

Here's how it works. You work out every day for 90 days. A workout is 1 to 1.5 hours long. A good 10-20 minutes of that is warmup/warmdown so it is not as crazy as it sounds. You actually get an option on the 7th day; take it off or spend it stretching. I stretched. Each day you put in a DVD that walks you through the exercises. The instructor talks about options to make them easier if you're just starting out. One day is strength training, the next day is non-strength (yoga, stretching, cardio, etc.) then you go back to strength and keep repeating. Each DVD is repeated 7 days later. So for week #1 you go through 7 DVDs and at the start of week 2 you start the same 7 DVDs again. After a few weeks you transition to a different sequence of 7 DVDs. The program always tries to keep you working on different muscles in different ways (they call it muscle confusion). Each strength training day is immediately followed by an ab workout (Ab Ripper X) which is about 15-20 minutes long. There's a diet that goes with it that I didn't follow.

Week 1
The first week is something akin to hell. Normally after working out I am sore two days later. I was sore the night after working out on the first DVD. Painfully so. I woke up in pain. The rest of the week was no different. I had trouble getting a fork up to my mouth to eat my arms were so sore. I couldn't fully extend my right arm for two days. Sitting down and getting up was almost impossible and extremely painful. Actually I didn't sit down. I fell down onto chairs. Climbing up the subways stairs made me grunt and wince. Going down I almost fell. Sleeping was a chore. I could never find a comfortable position and my muscles would tighten up if I didn't change position every 20 minutes. Every single morning when I woke up it would take 5 minutes under the hot shower to relieve the pain. For 3 of the first 4 days I considered not going to work it was so bad. And every morning I thought there is no possible way I could do the workout that night. For reference I was in okay shape at the beginning. Not great but I'm not an overweight couch potato. The CIA should consider P90X now that waterboarding is out.

The other issue was the pain was universal. It wasn't just in my quads like when I bike or in the arms when I lift weights. It was everywhere. Including my entire torso which became incredibly sensitive. Right around the ribs being the most tender. My daughter would jump on me and I would scream bloody murder.

To make matters worse I just wasn't putting 100% into the workouts. Part of it because I was sore but part of it because I didn't want to get injured or more sore. I was actively trying to take it easy. So here I am thinking I was easing into this and it's absolute murder. I'm doing a half-assed workout and I'm still dying. What's week 2 going to be like when I'm supposed to put some solid effort in.

I start week 2 today. The pain has started to subside but I'm still stiff.

Week 1 Routines:

1. Chest & Back - A 1 hour strength session. Basically you run through multiple pullup and pushup exercises. To exhaustion. Then you do it a second time.
2. Plyometrics X - For me this was the most difficult. Sometimes it is called jump training. This is not really a good description. The focus is not really on jumping. A better description is squat training. Everything is done in a squat. Jumping jacks in a squat. Hops forward and backward in a squat. It's utterly horrible.
3. Shoulders & Arms. A 1 hour strength session. This was tough because it has a focus on biceps and triceps which incidentally got thoroughly thrashed in #1 via pushups and pullups.
4. Yoga X - The first 45 minutes of this are unbelievably friggin hard. Having a cheese grater repeatedly scraped across my ass would be more soothing. In many ways it's the best workout, but it is just brutal. Checking personal P90X reviews a lot of people (men mainly) give up right here. I think men are less limber than women and not being limber makes this very hard. You have to exert a tremendous amount of strength to stretch your body into position.
5. Legs & Back - More strength training. This was okay except for the effect on my calves. My legs had recovered a little from Plyometrics but my calves were in virgin territory. I had a huge amount of trouble walking the next day. Stairs were the equivalent of a torture device. I had to walk on my heels.
6. Kenpo X - Basically shadow kick boxing. Doable for me. I didn't struggle with this. You work up a good sweat but since there's no target it's hard to overdo it.
7. Stretch X - 1 hour of stretching. It's a nice end to the week because you really begin to tighten up.

Part of the reason I'm posting is to make sure I finish this program. I have my doubts. 90 days is a long time and my performance in week 1 was discouraging. I figure if I've laid out a goal publically I'm more likely to do it. I'll probably update again at the 30 day mark.

bobby fischer

I meant to write about this a while back. There was a nice Sunday New York Times Magazine piece last weekend on people who had died in 2008. The most interesting eulogy from my perspective was the one on Bobby Fischer. There’s something so tantalizing about a flawed genius. Anyway, the piece was mainly about Bobby as a young boy and one of his early games against Donald Byrne. This game has been referred to as the ‘Game of the Century.’ Presumably there will be another one for this century.

It’s a nicely worded piece. More importantly I was able to find a recreation of the game.

See the game recreated here.

I’m not a chess aficionado or even an enthusiast but I can appreciate the remarkable game that this is just by watching the chess moves.

tdf - stage 20

Well another Tour de France is over. This, more than last year, seemed like a tour where the old guard has made way for the new. A 24 year old Contador perhaps begins another great reign of Spanish climbers in the tour by winning in what is the closest race since Lemond rode to victory in '89. A 24 year old Soler took the mountains award. And a 26 year old Boonen took green. That's damn young for a tour rider. Basso, Ullrich, Landis all seem like history. A real changing of the guard.

And like most recent tours this one had more than its fair share of drug news. That seems to have impacted a lot of people's interest in the tour. A poll showed,

Of 808 respondents, only 13 percent said they were very interested in the Tour, down from 16 percent two years ago. Sixteen percent were somewhat interested, down from 22 percent, and 46 percent not at all, up from 40 percent.

I guess I can relate to that somewhat. It'd be nice to have a truly clean tour. But what sport is clean? Darts? Bowling? At least cycling is actually doing some systematic testing. It's not handled the best. But the drug users are getting kicked out. Bonds is going to set a new record this week because baseball doesn't give a crap about drugs. I haven't paid attention to that sport since Kirby Pucket was playing.

Some have argued that drugs should be legalized. This is a really stupid idea. What if the best athlete in a sport doesn't actually want a brain tumor when they are 40? What are they supposed to do? At least in cycling they have a chance of competing against a clean set of competitors. Contador would not have won without this testing and the related pressure to keep a clean team. So cycling is miles ahead of other sports in that regard.

In that sense watching the tour is more interesting to me now. All sports have their cheaters. At least I feel I have a good chance of watching someone win who is clean. What other sport can you say with some confidence that you think the winner did it without drugs? This is the only one. And it's the only sports event I'll continue to pay any attention to as a result.

tdf - stage 19

Well that almost became a Lemond-Fignon finish. Levi, Evans, and Contador all rode the time trials of their career. The end result was no changes in the GC. But getting there was awfully exciting. The final GC standings have Evans 23 seconds behind Contador and Leip 8 more seconds behind Evans. If Leip hadn't been penalized 10 seconds for some slight shenanigans where the team car pushed him along a little too long, he'd have second. But it was Leip's day with an unexpectedly strong performance on the time trial. He beats Evans by 51 seconds and Contador by 2 minutes 18 seconds.

I must say it's nice to have these three guys on the podium. I feel they have all stayed clean and worked hard for their positions this year. Evans has always been a favorite of mine and I couldn't be happier with his performance. Leip I feel could have done better if he attacked more but then I'm guessing he gave it his all. And Contador is definitely a name to watch. Ullrich won the tour at the same age. Let's hope he doesn't self-destruct like Ullrich did.

So Contador will take maillot jaune, Boonen will probably take the verte (although Hunter is only 24 points behind), Soler will take the polka dot, and Contador will of course take the blanc. Discovery will nicely take the team award.

tdf - stage 17 & 18

Mildly dull stages. Usually at this point the TdF does seem to drag a little as we wait for the last time trial.

There is a report (it's in Danish so no link) however that someone else has tested positive after stage 14. Contador won that one so he was probably tested. But a lot of others like Rasmussen would have also been tested. Apparently the announcement will come tomorrow. Should be interesting.

I ask you, what other sport to you get top quality athletics, drugs, and gossip like this? It's like the Superbowl, Studio 54, and National Enquirer all in one.

tdf - stage 16 (take 2)

Amazing. I must admit in the back of my head I was thinking something truly wacky was going to happen before this tour was over.

Rasmussen pulls out of the tour

I'm not sure I quite understand what happened. It seems his team fired him and withdrew from the race because a number of facts Rasmussen had contended (like where he was and when) were proven incorrect. It seems like they just didn't trust him and ended up thinking pulling out was better than winning with a cloud over the head of the team.

That puts Contador in the GC leaders spot. I'm sure he is in no way happy about this though.

I'll have more to say on this after the tour is over.

tdf - stage 16

Wow what a great stage. All the elite riders up there until the end. Leip, Contador, and Rasmussen duking it out untill the end. While Leip and Contador attacked quite a bit it seems Rasmussen was toying with them as he launched in the last 2 km and blew away the other two riders. He adds something like 42 seconds on Contador who, along with everyone else, will have a hell of a time catching up to Rasmussen for the full tour win. He basically has the win in the bag.

The only side note now is that someone tested positive for testosterone after the last stage and it hasn't been announced who. Rasmussen was one person who was tested but there were others. [seems like it's moreni]

Still waiting for the full GC standings to see who is in the top 10 now.

Here it is:

1. RASMUSSEN 76h 15' 15"
2. CONTADOR +03' 10"
3. EVANS +05' 03"
4. LEIPHEIMER +05' 59"
5. SASTRE +09' 12"
6. ZUBELDIA +09' 39"
7. VALVERDE +13' 28"
8. KIRCHEN +14' 46"
9. POPOVYCH +16' 00"
10. SOLER +16' 41"

The other question is who has the polka dot. Soler took most of the major mountain points on the stage but of course Rasmussen got the last one.

Looks like Soler did it:

1. SOLER 206pts
2. RASMUSSEN 196pts
3. CONTADOR 128pts