Child of the 80's

While we all 'enjoy' the daily drama that is the Tour de France, I thought a distraction is called for so I'm writing about a guilty pleasure - the 80's... I've recently begun using all this high technology that I've surrounded myself with to relive my adolescence.

On my recent trips back stateside, I picked up seasons 1 and 2 of Miami Vice, the quintessential TV show of my youth. Using Mac the Ripper and MPEG Streamclip I ripped and converted the episodes and watched them on my iPod Touch on the flights. It's much better to enjoy your own selection rather than some in-flight chick flick. Why no iPhone yet? Check back - I have some issues to resolve with that first!

Anyway - aside from that, I've also been tuning in to MV on something called the "Sleuth" channel on Slingbox, a program and device that lets me control a friend's DirecTV in Connecticut from my computer in Switzerland! Let's just say Swiss TV doesn't do much for me other than cycling and the odd english movie or TV series. Slingbox is an ex-pat TV junkie's dream device. I can watch my Buccaneers get beat live on Sundays as well.

Where's this leading? 80's music! MV had some of the best (and worst) music soundtracks of ANY TV show then or now. I'm currently going through all the Jan Hammer and Phil Collins tracks and hitting a strong sense of deja vu. Of the 8000 songs in my library, I would bet that almost half of them are at least 20 years old. Next up - VH1 (where they actually play videos still)!

Evidently...

Versus is running some of the Everything Matters spots in certain markets. I've gotten some fan email, so I know it's out there somewhere. This is a pg site, so I can't translate, but it should be fairly easy to figure out. Pippo...

5 Days At Altitude With The Superstar

This week was spent in Park City, Utah for a big meeting. I came with Ivan from Milan after a nice pizza near his place on Sunday night.

We arrived and headed right out on the bikes in a group of about 40. Someone almost ate it after flatting on the descent. Struvie stopped for him - not sure who or what happened, I turned around to give a hand while the group (and Ivan) went ahead only to struggle for 3.5 hours trying to read the "map".

The next 3 days consisted of short 40km rides with Ivan out into the countryside with very little climbing (lucky for me since the altitude made me feel like crap). Ivan would do 100km in the morning and 40km in the afternoon with me, or 40km in the morning with me and then again with a group in the afternoon. Try as we did, we couldn't get him on a mountain bike, which probably wasn't the worst idea since a fall onto a rock could spell disaster.

We had about 150 guests and another 100 of us, for a nice big group who were very enthusiastic to see Ivan and spend some time on the bike with him. He's a good sport and patient in waiting for us slower guys. Good trip, can't wait to get home.

Dachshund Guitar Hero

Had to keep awake for the 11-hour drive home last night. We encountered a nice long traffic jam so I decided to play what I call 'Dachshund Guitar Hero'.


Rockin' out to the Pixies.


Much like the popular video game, once you level up to the top level, you get to Yngwie Malmsteen (one of my favorites, who I missed in concert at the Black Forest thanks to this race that's going on in France). This is I Am A Viking from the Marching Out cd.


One drawback to this game is that the guitar sometimes gets fed up with it all...

Legal Note: Tucker was not harmed in the playing of Dachshund Guitar Hero. He rather enjoys it except during the high part of the solo in Night Ranger's Don't Tell Me You Love Me.

Lago di Garda

My work has recently spiked the kilometers I've traveled. Not ridden, but traveled. Basel-Milan-Basel-Lago di Garda-Basel-Brittany-Basel-MIlan-Utah-Basel... in the span of ten days!

Last week we had a big meeting at Lago di Garda and my main responsibility for the event was to bring a certain Ivan B. and have him join us for a large road ride. I quickly found him to be very giving of his time and interested and engaged with the company and products – oh yeah, and freakin’ in shape! He's very happy with the bikes and we're beginning to engage him with the product guys... that's really my job (sounds strange that you could do that for a living, no?).

We did the ride... about 50 of us! At one point early on, we had to wait for il presidente, who had flatted or taken a wrong turn, still not sure which. While we were crowded on a street corner, over comes the local federale who was none too pleased with our group. "Who's in charge of this event?" We feigned a lack of speaky-Italiano until it was obvious we did. When he threatened a large fine on us, someone piped up... "don't you know who that is?" He didn't believe us, then finally, a hand was outstretched and the cop's attitude changed quickly and off we went.

We did a nice 500m climb north of Riva (I suffered a bit, but not too embarrassed with my performance). The return trip split the group up and we finally were left with a group of seven, including Ivan, who sat at the back once it became obvious some of us were at the limit. Wet roads and 'glory-dayers' at their limit doesn't spell 'safe ride' to a superstar. Anyway - great ride, quick dinner, got back home at 4:00 am!


"Nice shirt... where you get that, from the hamper?" - Damone

...

I’m not sure why I am such a fan of the ellipse… I’ve always used them… You should see my emails… they’re even worse! Sometimes, I’ll throw in a dash – but that pales in comparison to my ellipses use… oh well…

Campiglio

So I'm a week late on this ride report... not sure what's up about that, but anyway...

Before the men's pro XC world championship race, I left my hotel and went up... straight up the north side of the Madonna di Campiglio climb. I first did this from the south side back in 1992! Although it's not a super hard climb, it is sorta long (16km). I managed to do it pretty quick for a flatlander and felt good on the way up. Managed to get a few pics as well.

Aliens...

Gregg from the Alien Truth was doing some work with us and took this shot of me with his favorite mojo right after the Bethel crit...



He writes - 'human... italian... leg machine... wins the big one......'

New Saddles for an Old Prostate

I just swapped out my Ariones for Aliantes in an attempt to add a bit of comfort to the ol' undercarriage. I've been running them on my cross bikes, so it makes sense anyway. I'll add about 60 grams but figure... if you don't have a stupid-light bike already, then why worry. Plus, at about 16 pounds, I think I'm ok as it is...

Mtb World's and Internet connections...

The guys did well and gave everything they had for mtb Worlds. Our booty - a silver in the junior DH by Sam Dale! I had a nice chat with Sam's dad Steve, who is from Macclesfield - yep, he went to school with Joy Division's Ian Curtis (who hanged himself the day before leaving for their first US tour). Ironic in that I just picked up Paul Morley's new Joy Division book days before.

Anyway, Joost was killing it in the 4X early rounds, until getting t-boned by a US rider. He wasn't happy at all... but that's 4-cross!

I wanted to get some reports filed, but as you can see, sometimes in Italy, an internet connection is about as far away as the US... check this photo out from my hotel room!

On the XC side on Sunday, Jakob grabbed the lead from the gun and then began to fade as the heat got to him a bit. After the race, he said he didn't drink enough but gave it everything he had. Roel did well to climb back up into the top 10. At the finish, he was mobbed... clearly one of the most popular riders out there.

They were on some new forks and wheels. The bikes were coming in at around 9kg! They were all stoked with the bikes as well.