WOW

Quite possibly the most dramatic day in professional cycling history. Operation Puerto has exploded to implicate some of the biggest names in cycling involved in the Madrid Doping ring.

Jan Ullrich
Ivan Basso
Francisco Mancebo
Alberto Contador
Tyler Hamilton (who is already serving a ban for using EPO)
...and most of the Astana Wurth team (formerly Liberty Seguros)

All the riders listed above have been withdrawm from The Tour de France...which starts tomorrow...

Mancebo said today he will end his career...wow

absolutely insane!

Judge

Lack of blogging lately due to obligations for RESI awards from Residential Systems. My first experience being a judge for a design competition! And I must say...it is tiring! Yikes...so much stuff to look through and so many descriptions to read. Cool seeing some of the new products and technology for home entertainment though :)

Shitty weather the past few days...rain rain rain. Sun poked through just a tad today to snap off a quick pic:

Ignore the furniture...

Spent lunchtime on Thursday checking out a few condo's. One in particular was nice. New hardwood floors, real tiles in the kitchen, garage, and a HUGE basement. Priced decently (for NJ anyway). Still thinking about it. Whats more important is life in general. Is this a wise investment? Will I be living here for a while? Will I still be at this job for a while? decisions decisions...

Anyway...some pics:

Scale

Big...


And small...


Three stations apart on NJ Transit Gladstone line...

Passer by...

Took part in the Tour of HighBridge last Sunday. Beautiful day...good temps...although didn't feel as strong as usual. Came away with a good learning experience as I hope to compete in some other Cat 4/5 races this season. Need to get more training in gear! Two quick snapshots rolling away from the start line next to the eventual winner. Me in the white helmet / orange shorts:



ok...some things I learned:
1) Find out when your race is...I waited around ALL DAY and it turns out the Cat 4/5 race was next to last. Could have spent my day more wisely, haha.
2) Warm up wayyyyyyyyy more. I only did one lap of the course and a light spin. Next time I should do at least 10-15 hard warm up miles...break a good sweat...and then be read. Although I passed a butt-load of riders up the first and second climbs...that initial shock I payed for later. Which wouldn't have happened if I got that over with in the warm up.
3) Suffer more. I "just" missed the lead break because I let up slightly the second time up the steeper section of the climb. If I had hung on it would have been easy descending in the slipstream. Just have to put in that little bit more of effort to follow the wheel before the road tips :)

Altogether a good learning experience. Tour of Basking Ridge may be next. In the meantime I'll be training harder!

Did you drink your pimp juice today?

One again little bro Paolo scores with the ladies. This time its Dazza Del Rio

Great Discovery

For the past two years I've used the trusty Civic hatch for the daily driver. The awesome thing about this is I could store my bike inside by folding down the rear seats. An easy in-out maneuver...so I could put in some miles after work. I LOVED the fact that I can keep inside, locked up...as opposed to an exterior bike rack.

During my contemplation of purchasing the G, I did everything to find out if my 5900 could fit inside the car. Trunk measurements, peering in showroom models, asking friends and other owners. In theory...it seemed to work. But when looking at a trunk in person...it looked too shallow. Today was the day of truth...could the G house my passion?

And the answer was...........................................................

YES! It fits! wooohooo. With a little more finesse than plopping it in the civic, it fit snug. Only part that needed removal was the front wheel. Which was necessary in the civic anyway. I'm super happy.

Soaking

I forgot how riding in the rain can be so fun! Aside from the shoulders of roads filling up with gobs of water...my 35 mile drenching ride after work today went well. Climbing the ridges of Hunterdon County in the rain was awesome :-) ...was tempted to bring along the camera...but I didn't feel like taking the risk of ruining the FX9...

Random sketches..........................