My friend Mathias, keen observer of both cycling culture and ethical transgressions, posted this photo sequence on his Facebook page.  Very interesting.

The guy in the Livestrong devil suit with the double-hypodermic pitchfork has apparently gotten under Sir Lance-a-lot’s skin.  (No pun intended.)  This is the ugliest PR mess of the year.  (Hey, is that the UCI’s Pat McQuaid in the devil costume?)

Otto made the move to a new Roubaix.  We hung his Bontrager and FSA parts on the new Roubaix Pro frame, and it looks very hot:

It’s a sweet rig, a super endurance machine.  Congratulations, dude!  That’s one super stylin’ ride.

The Amgen Tour of California is over, and the racing action returns to Europe.  The classics are coming up, and the rivalries are getting heated.  Boonen and Cavendish had their first real showdowns, and Cav got the better of Tommeke.  Will the same hold true on the hard cobbles of Belgium and northern France?  Levi won Cali with commanding authority, leaving no doubt about his impressive talent, but the Team Saxo Bank riders were pushing his buttons whenever they could, with Voigt, both Schleck brothers, and Jason McCartney seizing opportunities to ruffle Levi’s feathers.  Had Cancellara not fallen ill after winning the prologue, the race might have unfolded differently.  The barrage of attacks on Palomar Mountain during Sunday’s final stage showed that Astana is far from invincible, but Levi also proved that he could look after himself just fine, and he rode with distinction.  Throughout this race he showed great class and amazing fitness, and no one deserved the win as much.  Great job, Levi!

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Our sales rep from Trek, Barrett Ladd, dropped off a brand spankin’ new Madone 5.2 for me to try out, and I was happy to take him up on it.  I’ve ridden one before, although it was too small and difficult to really analyze.  This one is a 58 cm frame, perfect for me.  And even though I’ve been feeling pretty awful these last couple of weeks, I was determined to get out for some miles.  Fortunately, my nasty head cold seems to be abating, and I was able to take the Madone for a good test ride.

Today was a good day.  I spun a nice steady pace down to Princeton and back along Canal Road, and at the end I decided to tackle Washington Rock Road, one of the steepest hills around.  It’s a brutal climb, and I was already tired and depleted of energy.  At the top I felt like puking, but I recovered quickly.  By the time I got home I was on the verge of bonking, but a sandwich and a Starbucks mocha drink got me going again.  I met Jenn at the gym a short while later and lifted weights for an hour, and then swam a half mile after that.  By coincidence, I bumped into Stefanie at the pool, so we swam together for a while.  It was really energizing to swim with her.

But anyway, the Madone 5.2 is a pretty awesome bike.  It’s a quick and responsive ride.  It’s more comfortable than most race bikes, but it’s not plush.  It’s a race bike, and it feels like one:  snappy reflexes and a feel for the road.  It’s not as cushy as you might think, even with the integrated seat mast.  It feels fast.  I think the new 5.2 is a huge improvement over the original Madones.  There are only two flaws.  The Bontrager VR handlebars suck.  If you’re running Campagnolo Ergo shifters, the shift cables fit nicely into the groove along he back edge of these bars.  If not, the ridge along the top of the bars tends to dig into your palms in a very uncomfortable way.  A pair of 3T Ergonova Team bars would be a nice upgrade.  Also, I’m not impressed with the Bontrager Race Lite wheels.  They look very cool, but they lack lateral stiffness.  In fact, they’re downright flexy.  I didn’t feel comfortable pushing the limits on descents, and I felt like the wimpiness of the wheels was really evident when I stood up on the pedals to sprint.  For the same money, a pair of Mavic Kysrium SLs would be a nice compliment to the stiffness of the frame.

The Drake sent this to me.  Amazingly, it’s the senator from Florida that’s fighting the renewal of ISTEA, which reqires that 3% of all federal highway dollars be spent on alternative transportation, i.e. bike lanes.

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Thanks to Pez Cycling News for the great photo.  Levi took command of the Tour of California today, chasing down the breakaway on his own, then powering the breakaway to the line with enough time in hand to take the lead.  It was an impressive ride, balls to the walls.  Even on the wet and slippery descents, he held nothing back.  It was a brave and completely supercharged performance.

Finally I’m feeling relatively healthy again, and I’m going to ride tomorrow no matter what.  Our Trek rep left a brand new Madone 5.2 at the store for me to try out, so I’m going to do the flat spin down to Princeton and back.  Maybe I’ll ride like Levi . . . or not.  Hell, I’ll just be happy to ride.

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My friend Matthias posted this video on his Facebook page.  It’s a pretty funny assessment of bike locking skills in NYC.  Hal, the dreadlocked mechanic from Bicycle Habitat, scores various locking jobs around the city.  Pretty funny stuff.  Hal should come visit the bike rack at the Westfield train station - that would be good for some laughs.
Happy Valentines Day!  Jen and I are having a very subdued V-day, as I’m feeling like crap right now.  I thought I was getting better, and yesterday even felt fantastic for a while.  I went to our new gym and swam 1000 yards, nice and easy.  It was great to get back in the water for the first time in almost 6 months.  My technique is just as bad as it was in August, but I haven’t lost too much strength.  I went from there to work feeling charged up and clear-headed, and I felt pretty decent all day.  And then this morning I woke up with a giant ball of green snot in my right pre-cranial sinus trying to push my brain out through my ear. Maybe it was the super-spicy chicken I had at Thai Basil last night, but I’m bummed because I thought I was making great progress toward getting well again.  Ugh.

I usually loathe Valentines day for a multitude of reasons, but this year Jen did something really cool.  She ordered a shipment of pints from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, which is some of the tastiest, most interesting ice cream anywhere.  My friend Jeni Britton originally opened an ice cream stand called Scream in the Columbus North Market as a school project, making her own ice cream, but not really making much money.  A few years later, missing the business and the creativity of producing her own unique flavors, she started her new venture.  Not long after that Food and Wine magazine featured her as one of the best and brightest tastemakers in the food and restaurant industry, and the accolades just keep coming. And the business is doing very well.  The ice cream is simply amazing.

So the Tour of California is underway.  As I write this, the prologue is beginning.  With the Tour of Georgia now defunct, this is the premier stage race in the US, and an even more important date on the international calendar.  Levi Leipheimer is motivated to win his 3rd ToC, and appears ready to go.  With a domestique like Lance Armstrong helping him out, I don’t think he has much to worry about.  Levi will crush the time trials and the mountains.  He won’t get to lead Astana for either the Giro or the TDF, so now is his chance to shine.  Hopefully he’ll still have great form for the Vuelta, which I think is his best chance of grand tour success.

(Look for Hincapie to be going after a stage or two.)
I’m also excited to see how Christian Vande Velde fares.  Can he return to the amazing form he had last year?  This is going to be an interesting season.  The competition is going to be tough.  The new Cervelo Test Team will be strong, Saxo Bank looks terrific, Quickstep will be tough, Columbia will definitely win a stage or two, Garmin-Slipstream is always a force to be reckoned with, and Astana will be ready to dominate whenever they can.  I only hope that Astana doesn’t take control of the race right away, because they will ride defensively and stifle any action for the remainder of the race.  Remember how the Tour de France got really interesting after Lance retired?  Well, he’s back.

The most interesting racing will be the last 3 km of the flatter stages, as the much anticipated showdown between Mark Cavendish and Tom Boonen will finally take place.  The best two sprinters in the world both have already won races in this young season, and it’s going to be very interesting to see who goes faster here.  Good stuff!

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I’m wasting a semi-warm (by that I mean a damp 40 degrees, but it’s like summer compared to the last month) day sitting at home recuperating when I should be out riding.  I’m debating whether it would be a bad idea to go for an easy 90-minute spin.  I have a raging sinus infection that seems to be abating slightly, and I’m wondering if some exercise will speed the expulsion of that rank green mucus that my head is secreting madly.  Or will it set me back for weeks.  I did a 5-mile run with Jen and Winston on Saturday morning, and I felt like hell for the rest of the day.  Maybe just a quick spin, just to re-adjust my mind.  Some fresh air would be nice.  Then off to the doctor to get some meds.  I’m tired of waiting for my body to get rid of this on its own.

Patty from Action Wheels Bike Shop sent out this great little tidbit.  It seems that Bogota, Colombia shuts down most of their urban streets on a regular basis so that everyone can get out and ride their bikes safely.  From this video, it looks like people really take advantage of the privilege.  Rather than doing battle with the flood of Critical Mass hipsters, the city of New York might be better served to proactively close sections of the city to cars for one morning each weekend.  New York is a great walking city, and there is no place that you can’t get to by mass transit and a short walk.  So the inconvenience that closing the streets might cause some people might just wake these people up to the world beyond automotive travel.

The sun just came out, so I have no excuses left.  I’m off.

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Playing around on the web today I found this link:  It’s a sweet sensory experience.  Makes you want to spin along a quiet country road without the din of traffic.   Thank you to Copenhagen Cycle Chic for brightening my day.  Jenn and I need to move to a city like Copenhagen where so many people commute by bike, so that I’ll be shamed into riding to work more often.  Honestly though, I don’t need the motivation as much as I need the extra time.  I’ve been a pretty bad example these last few months.  Last winter I rode to work many times, but this year only once so far.  Since we adopted Winston last May, I’ve spent my mornings running around with him, then scrambling to make it to work on time via automobile.  That’s going to change once daylight savings time arrives in March.  I’m eager to get back to the routine of riding into Westfield, a half hour of easy pedaling that recharges my soul in the morning, then detoxifies my mind on the way home.

This also gets my enthusiasm for riding going again:

Does his bike look familiar?

I’m glad to see Boonen back.  He has amazing form right now, and he’s pumped up for the coming classics season.  I think Milan-San Remo would be a good place for him to show his speed . . .

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