Camp Alexander Mtb

Put it on your calender for May. Camp Alexander MTB.

Its all messed up.

That stem has messed my bike position up.  I had it leftover from last years bike so I put it on the hardtail.  That bike fit perfectly last year but I wanted the cool carbon stem on it.  Its 7deg rise and 100mm long.  Last years stem was 6deg rise and 100mm long.  Using some Sine/Cosine geometry I found that my bars are 2mm higher now because of the stem.  It feels terrible but there is no way I can feel 2mm??  So back to the trusty ritchey stem I go and it instantly feels better. The only other factor I can think is that the Fox fork is longer than the Magura from last year and the combination of the two makes it noticable.

Its crazy how the smallest changes make such a big difference.  I have been battling the position of my cleats on my new shoes as well.  This is all a good lesson of, if its not broke, dont fix it.

Drug stories are everywhere.

I guess Contador didnt dope, he accidently ate meat that had illegal drugs in it.  Ricco pretty much killed himself by a botched do it yourself blood transfusion only weeks after completing his previous 2 year ban.  I dont know what the point is, except to make money.  These guys obviously dont care about finding out how good they can be without drugs.

You have probably already seen this list on Tilfords blog, where I stole it from, but its pretty crazy think about how many of these guys have been busted for doping. 

Here’s a list of how the podium of the Tour de France would have looked during Lance’s reign to Floyd’s problem. Anyone that was ever positive for doping was left out of the results.  The actual results from when the race finished in Paris are in parenthesis.  This doesnt mean they were necessarily caught at the Tour, just caught at some time in their careers.  Its pretty obvious you have to get some kind of extra help to compete at that level at that time.


1999

1. Lance Armstrong (1)
Alex Zulle (2)
2. Fernando Escartin (3)
Laurent Dufaux (4)
3. Angel Casero (5)

2000

1. Armstrong (1)
Jan Ullrich (2)
Joseba Beloki (3)
Christophe Moreau (4)
Roberto Heras (5)
Richard Virenque (6)
Santiago Botero (7)
2. Fernando Escartin (8)
Franciso Mancebo (9)
3. Daniele Nardello (10)

2001
1. Armstrong (1)
Ullrich (2)
Beloki (3)
2. Andrei Kivilev (4)
Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano (5)
3. Francois Simon (6)

2002
1. Armstrong (1)
Beloki (2)
Raimondas Rumsas (3)
Botero (4)
Galdeano (5)
2. Jose Azevedo (6)
Mancebo (7)
Levi Leipheimer (8)
Roberto Heras (9)
3. Carlos Sastre (10)

2003
1. Armstrong (1)
Ullrich (2)
Alexander Vinokourov (3)
Tyler Hamilton (4)
2. Haimar Zubeldia (5)
Iban Mayo (6)
Ivan Basso (7)
Moreau (8)
3. Sastre (9)

2004
1. Armstrong (1)
Andreas Kloden (2)
Basso (3)
Ullrich (4)
2. Azevedo (5)
Mancebo (6)
3. Georg Totschnig (7)

2005
1. Armstrong (1)
Basso (2)
Ullrich (3)
Mancebo (4)
Vinokourov (5)
Leipheimer (6)
Michael Rasmussen (7)
2. Cadel Evans (8)
Floyd Landis (9)
3. Oscar Pereiro (10)

2006
Landis (1)
1. Pereiro (2)
Kloden (3)
2. Sastre (4)
3. Evans (5)

big game.

Coco bolos and then to bramlage. Perfect valentines day, as long as we win.

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Must ride inside

Custom bikes are really cool.  They get a cultlike following.  I tried to order a Badger a few years back, but luckily never got a hold of anyone and they were out of business a few weeks later.  Soulcraft has a video out that is pretty neat.  They are made in Petaluma, CA where I lived for a summer awhile back.  Its a pretty small town with some really great riding all around but I didnt know about Soulcraft at the time.  You can ride to Mt. Tam and the ocean from Petaluma on quiet back roads.   If it werent for racing, I would definitely want to ride custom bikes but small builders cant compete with the technology that brands like Trek have.  My fully suspended Top Fuel probably weighs less than a Soulcraft hardtail and custom geometry cant fix that.

Other than that...Ive been sick for the past few weeks.  You would think  I would have learned my lesson last year, but i repeated it again this year.  Get sick...get a little better...go for long ride in freezing temps...get sick again...repeat.  So now ive ridden inside for 5 straight days and im half afraid to go outside tomorrow.  The crazy guys in Nebraska go for ridiculously long rides every weekend on gravel.  Its colder up there than it is here, so they must be pretty tough, or crazy.  I read somewhere that Wolfram Kurschat from Topeak/Ergon does all his training on a trainer, all year long so he can perfectly control the workouts.  That probably explains why he gets passed on every downhill.

A box of tires arrived today from Maxxis.  Mostly full of Aspens, but a few Ikons in there as well.  I just wanted to give them a try but I can already tell that Ill be sticking to the Aspens as the Ikons have to big of knobs for my liking.