A view out my front door

JJ was talking about the snow- this is the view out my front door- the snow banks are taller then my wife and her car (you can't see my truck- blocked by snow) oh me oh my.


DEA

Box season and shoveling my roof

Not much of connection between DEA's proclamation of the beginning of "Box Season" and me spending a bunch of hours shoveling my roof, other than I placed my order to Team Bikeman.com's World Headquarters yesterday to get all the necessary parts to complete the Dos Niner frame that's on order. I was told the frame has been shipped from Salsa land, cause that's where they come from. It should be at the shop shortly. Ordered the Mavic 29er wheelset, actually 2 sets, one for me and one for DEA. Hopefully it will all be in in a couple weeks and I can make the trek to Bath, ME to Bikmean.com.

So after feeling good about getting that done yesterday, I left work early to go home and shovel some of the snow that has accumulated on our front roof this winter. I have been told we've gotten 14+ feet of snow this winter and I was starting to get concerned about our roof as a lot of places here have been having major problems with collapsing, etc. I got 90% of the front shoveled off and it made such a huge pile of snow on the ground we have a 5 foot high wall of snow blocking our front door. Now I have to shovel that mess. I have free beer for anyone who wants to come over and help shovel!!

JJ

box season begins

First box of the season arrived yesterday, inside a pile of SRAM mountain bike parts- brakes (Juicy 7's), rear shifty thing- x9, rear shifty thing controler- x9, a shiny thing with teath and with that the box season has kicked off.

Now I've got three more boxes that I'm waiting for- new team clothing, SRAM road parts, and of course the ever loverly Salsa Mamasita frame. Then of course comes the additional boxes from Team Bikeman.com world HQ as I'll need wheels (Mavic c29 is the goal), seat, seatpost, headset, crank + BB, bars, stem, grips, rubber, chain, tubes, bottle cage- I think that does it (I hope).

So here's to box season!


later

DEA

Rant con't

No Astana? Not suprising. Look at last year's Tour. I think there is a conspiracy amongst the French to try to get one of their own to win La Tour Da France. Maybe its because the sport is run by folks who have a horse in the race and not by someone that can trump them. I'm not saying that we have it all figured out in the NFL or MLB by any stretch, but with a commissioner for each league there is a person in charge to make tough decisions and their goal is to promote and protect the sport. I wonder if the organizers of the grand tours are more into protecting their own than protecting the sport in general. It seems more like a scenario where its a kids game and he keeps losing so he decides he's going to change the rules and not let the ones whio keep beating him play anymore so he can finally win. I wonder how much the organizers of the Tour figure they lose each year that a French rider or team doesn't win the race. I can't imagine that doesn't factor in. I also bet the champagne was flowing when Discovery folded up shop. I also think its a crock that a rider is ineligible if there is suspicion that they may have doped. That should be reason alone for the riders to get together and organize to protect their jobs. One nice thing about rants it their lack of flow. I am definately not a big union supporter, but it seems pretty clear that the riders that get screwed by the lack of any process would want to raly their mates to say "guys, this can happen to you too, we need to protect ourselves." That is unless they are all a bunch of cheating dopers. Regardless, I think the appeal of the sport is suffereing, not from the doping scandals so much as the fact that the stars of the sport are being excluded from the biggest stages. When a race can just not invite a team that has a load of world class riders including the most recent winner as well as another person that was on the podium, when all that remains from the team the year before is the corporate name seems ludicrious. More of the "I'm taking my ball and going home" mentality on display. Not by the UCI, but the ASO. Why is the ASO in charge of anything? Why dont the riders & teams say we're doing our own thing and tell the ASO to go run your race without us. It would seem that with some good leadership that the respective teams could get together and organize a race series that is run by a group with the goal of promoting the sport and its riders and allowing everyone to make a good return on their investment.

JJ

The state of cycling

I'm going off on a tangent without knowing all the details- which is dangerous to do- but also keeps life entertaining.

So here goes: I've been a Tyler Hamilton fan for a whole pile of years that requires me to take off my shoes to count them all up with my digits (and while I did take the tip of my middle finger off with a table saw in 8th grade I do have all my fingers)and while Tyler has long been one of the guys I get excited about watching race I'm not here to say he didn't dope in '04- cuz frankly I don't know. At one point I cared if he doped or not, but I don't really care anymore- but what I do care about is the fact that this dude served his time and has basically been getting f&*cked ever since by the cycling "powers that be". Now here is the thing I just can't get my head around- Operation Porteo or what ever the hell it's called- has been opened and closed more time then the beer cooler door at the local mini mart- at what point does this end?

The guy got busted and did his time, how do they then say they're going to go after him for other offenses that happened before that? If that is the case then anyone who has ever doped twice (two different injections) should be tossed out of the sport with a lifetime ban. Isn't that the logic here? I guess if this is a full on criminal situation that makes sense- I mean we do check prints of crooks against past crimes so I guess this works for cycling. I just don't know.

What sucks is here are a group of riders that have done their time and should be allowed to get back to making a living and they are being blocked. If that is how WADA/UCI/USA Cycling and all the others want to play make it a one offense and you're out for good rule.

It just drives me nuts, and on top of that nobody seems to have the story. This thing has been going on for years and we still know nothing.

While I'm on this- no Astana at the tour- WTF? I think Lotto should be banned as well- since Cadel was in proximity to both Contador adn the Chicken and I'm sure that means he doped and if not then he got doper sweat on him so he's contaminated as well. This sport (from a racing fan point of view) is really starting to smell like burnt rubber.

Ok rant off. Did some some trick pics of the new electric DA10- damn that looks good. A long way from Mavic Zap!

JJ's bike looks sweet- I went with the more subdued black Mamasita- can't wait to build them up.

later,

DEA

New frame for 08

Dos Niner

Well I pulled the trigger and put in my order for a new Salsa Dos Niner. Plan is to build it up with gears as a race bike with a set of new Mavic C29ssmax wheels. Paint color is a bit loud, should be safer during hunting season though. We'll have to see how light/heavy it ends up once its built. It will be interesting to compare it to the Mamasita DEA ordered.

JJ

My New Shovel

Let it snow.....

Here's a pic from last week. Since then we have gotten close to another 2 feet of snow. We had about 10 inches this morning, wow. Took a run at Cranmore this morning on skis and it was great. Just wish I had my snowboard. Crazy thing is we didn't really get any snow last year until Valentines Day. Our plow guy told me yesterday that we've gotten over 13 feet of snow so far this year. Not sure if that's accurate, but it wouldn't suprise me.

Time for me to go shovel.

JJ

Slackers

I don't know what to say- it's been awhile since any TWAF member has posted- sorry about that!

What's new- hmmm, lots of snow. As I write this there is a large bucket loader trying to remove parts of the huge piles around our office- not sure where they are taking the snow- but that's what they are doing. More on the way later this week- it's the first time I can ever remember actually being sick of moving snow. I'll post some pics later of our front yard- but the banks are over my head. Actually yesterday my wife and I skied off of one pile yesterday- one of them is large enough to do a front flip off of it with skis on- yes I'll post the video.

So the skiing is epic- and will be for some time.

Rode rollers last night- ok so I'm out of shape- hopefully that will change quickly.

Thats it for now.

later,

DEA