cycling distractions and hand update...

I had surgery on the hand two weeks ago and it's becoming much more useable... the range of motion remains constricted (swelling persists) but my dexterity improves each day. I'm ready to get back on the bike and rode with Tommy for a couple of hours today... but I've developed an awful head cold so it was a pretty bad ride... I'll be taking it very easy for a few days!

Thankfully, I have some televisual distractions to entertain me while camping out on my bed. July means that it's Tour de France time. If I thought I was a tad obsessed during the Giro d'Italia in May, I've now taken it to the next level for the 2006 edition of the Tour de France. I tend to watch the morning and evening viewings on OLN, read articles, race commentary and interviews as well as watch videos on every cycling website that I am aware of! I also manage to get insensed at the incompetence of some of the OLN commentators... while Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen have some wonderful, colorful descriptions and vernacular... Phil is losing his ability to recognize and correctly name a rider in the peloton, and Paul just doesn't have the heart to correct him! As for Bob Roll and Al Trautwig... the former has such a narrow and superficial grasp of race strategy that even Al's insistent attempts to *get to the bottom of what is going on in the race* do not enlighten the audience.

Floyd in yellow
Let me expand on this point and use the example of "Phonak giving up the yellow jersey" to Oscar Pereiro by way of exposition of my superior knowledge of Tour history and race strategy ;-)

Bob Roll keeps referring to the fact that Oscar Pereiro finished 10th on GC at last year's Tour as evidence that Oscar is too dangerous a rider to be given back the 30mins he lost on the stage. What Bob fails to remember and point out to the OLN audience is that the composition of Oscar's time gains and losses in the 2005 Tour are similar to what he is experiencing this year... he gained (or rather was awarded) time on stages where he was in breakaways - the mountain stage where he was beaten at the line by George Hincapie and the stage he won after being led out by Cadel Evans who was racing for GC time. In the 2005 Tour Oscar did not ride with the cycling heads of state GC contenders in the big mountains and he lost a decent amount of time in the time-trials. He's strong but he has never shown himself to be a GC rider.

I'm also adding a couple of great pictures that I've come across while perusing all those cycling websites! George Hincapie sporting the sunglasses that make him one of the most recognizable riders in the peloton... not that Phil Liggett seems able to recognize any rider these days. I also like Floyd's shades too... see above!

I also had to include a picture of Dave Zabriskie and this TT pic was the best I could find... unfortunately that TT did not go so well for Dave Z!