Giro d'Italia

Over the last few years I have come to enjoy watching the Tour de France. My favorite stages are the mountain stages, but I have come to really appreciate the flat stages with the big sprints at the end. For most of these years Lance dominated the race and it was all about watching Lance and USPS or Team Discovery. But with Lance retired, Team discovery no more, and the sweeping drug scandals, there has been some serious shuffling of teams.

During the Tour I keep up with the race every morning on my PC, and watch the spectacular finishes at home late at night. There is something mesmerizing about how the race unfolds, watching the break-aways that rarely succeed, and sitting amazed as the riders struggle up amazing climbs.

So when I turned on the TV the other day and saw that a cycling program had been recorded, I decided to see what it was about. The Giro d'Italia is a long, multi-stage race just like the Tour de France. I did some quick investigating on the internet and found that team Astana included some of my favorite riders - Alberto Contador, Levi Leipheimer, and Andreas Kloden. Shortly after that I found out that they were a very late invite, and had less than three weeks to prepare. Then, to my amazement, Alberto Contador grabbed the race lead (its a pink jersey instead of a yellow jersey in the Tour de France.) Of course Alberto did win the Tour de France last year, but still...

There are several American teams, including Team High Road (with George Hincappe) and Team Slipstream-Chipotle (with Christian Vande Velde and David Zabriskie).

In todays stage the big man Jens Voigt, who never misses a breakaway opportunity, joined one early in the race, then left them with 35km to go, never to be seen again. The man is crazy.

So there are only a few stages left, including key mountain stages on Friday and Saturday. You can bet I will be tracking this on the internet since I can't find it on live TV.

Ride like the wind Alberto.

The Weekend Review

Friday. Kerry and I celebrated our 10th anniversary so I took the day off. My parents came down and watched the kids so we could go out for a nice dinner (Jaspers at the Shops at Legacy) and a relaxing night away from the kids at the Marriott (courtesy of my Marriott rewards points). This is the first time we have both been away from the kids for an entire evening. We opted for kid-free shopping at the mall, something we cherish as much as going to a movie. And we were in bed early. Kerry enjoyed her rest the next morning. I slept in til about 7:15 then walked up to Starbucks, grabbed some iced coffee, and sat by the lake for about 45 minutes. We returned home to a very normal house and glowing reports on the kids behavior while we were away.

Saturday. A trip to the pool. Shopping at the mall. Grilled pork-chops for dinner. Very Memorial Day Weekend'ish.

Sunday. Kerry went to Church to teach. I stayed home and saw my parents off, then gathered and checked all of my biking gear to make sure it still worked, didn't smell, etc. I was able to get a quick ride in at Erwin Park, a tight single track trail with just enough dips, roots, and trees to make it interesting. I was very proud of myself for riding over all but 2 sections of the course. (I passed on the 20 foot 'v' dip that looked like it would require a wheelie just before hitting the bottom to avoid an endo due to the mud and trail conditions). But I easily cleared some taller logs, off camber climbs, and root filled trails.

That afternoon our friends Mike and Holleigh came over for dinner. It's always a bit chaotic with 7 kids all going at full speed, but they keep each other entertained.

Monday. Some work around the house, then a trip to the pool. Caden is now fearless! He loves to put on his arm floaties and jump into the water. Full submersion. We were all cracking up, including some of our friends who were amazed. We finished the day off with a trip to Olive Garden.

Now I'm catching up on some reading. I just spent some time on Christianitytoday.com reading about the new Evangelical Manifesto (the goal is to reconfirm that being Evangelical is a theological, not a political belief), some debate on Obama's Pastor Wright comments, and several articles on how Starbucks has influenced our society and what Christians should (and should not) take from this. I love how one person starts calling it St. Arbucks. That will stick with me for a while.

Manitou FS

My bike is back up and running with a new front fork, rear shock, and stem. The rest of the bike, most of which is 12 years old, is still in good shape. Considering how out of shape I am, and how my skills have deteriorated, the bike will definitely keep up with me.

I did some searching on the web and never could find any other pictures of a Manitou FS from this year (except a small thumbnail of a frame only). I suspect a very small number were made, and would love to see how others are holding up.

Thanks Mike for helping start this project and partially funding it. The pictures below are from the initial work we did at my parents house in Oklahoma.

Happy Birthday Madison

Madison's celebrated her 6th birthday with a mini-sleepover. Collin, Caden and I (here-to-after referred to as 'the boys') vacated the premises for most of the evening.

The girls all wore pajamas, ate pizza, played pin the slipper on Cinderella, and decorated tiaras.

When the boys got home, I expected a house full of girls watching the movie Enchanted. I knew that wasn't to be as soon as we pulled up to the driveway. I could hear the girls playing and screaming in the backyard. Collin and Caden immediately joined the girls in the backyard, with Collin chasing the girls and Caden getting pushed in the swing.

Happy Birthday Madison!

terror on wheels

Caden HAS to do EVERYTHING that big brother and big sister do. He has been riding his tricycle for some time now and insists on riding it when we want to go on a bike ride. Obviously that doesn't work to well because he is so slow. The other day we went to get Madison a new bike and he hopped on this bike at Toys-R-Us. He rode round and round the aisles at the store, putting kids twice his age to shame. So we decided to get him a bike. He hasn't figured out the coaster brake, but he is pretty fast. Today he rode up to the pool and at times I had to walk briskly to keep up. And of course he has no fear, so cars beware. He'll cut you off in a heartbeat.

Coming Soon....Rebirth of a Legend

The bike that made me famous has almost been rebuilt.

Air Robair will ride...

and fly...

and crash...

again.

the tables have turned

Collin is in a slump and I'm taking advantage of him. His game has gotten weak, and he rarely beats me at the tank game now. Perhaps he's bored. Or maybe since we play at 6:30 in the morning he's not awake yet. Either way I don't care. I've been training hard, and I usually get some coffee in me right away to wake me up. It seems to be working.

madison gets her ears pierced

Madison has been dying to get her ears pierced. Originally it was going to happen this Friday on her birthday, but she couldn't wait and we were not sure there would be enough time to get it done before the party. So Kerry took her tonight.

Madison was very excited until she actually got to the store. Then a little apprehensive. She insisted that they did both ears at the same time, which involved tracking down another employee how had just left but wasn't yet out of the mall. But she was brave and didn't cry.

Of course she is very excited and those are the first words out of her mouth when she sees a friend.