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Monday, July 30, 2001
OLN withdrawal starts tomorrow. They had excellent coverage of the final day's race, of which about 2 minutes was aired on the network coverage. I'm gonna miss Phil and Paul, but there's always the Vuelta a Espana, Sept. 8-30, live each morning on OLN. Guess I'll try to get some work done in August... (0) comments Sunday, July 29, 2001
Sadly, the Tour is over; no more mornings spent watching the live coverage from France, nor the repeat with interviews at night. Lance rode a brilliant race. Unfortunately the last day coverage on CBS was pretty pathetic. I'll have to wait for tonight's coverage on OLN to see who won the green jersey and what really happened in today's race. I guess CBS doesn't think Americans are ready to spend more than a few brief moments watching a bike race. It was also sad to see that today's coverage was the only one listed in the Washington Post, who ignored the previous 3 weeks of coverage on OLN. Rode a metric century on the croweded bike trail yesterday. I was wishing for hot weather to keep all the casual trail users safely in their air-conditioned homes. It only takes a few jerks to make the trail nearly unuseable on a cool, sunny day. It was mostly the hotshot rollerbladers and a couple of fast cyclists in pacelines who made the trip dangerous. I guess its the authoritarian in me who gets annoyed at this kind of behaviour, but as much as I try to chill out, I usually get pissed and yell. If only some of the walkers could use the parallel unpaved trail that goes unused. (0) comments Friday, July 27, 2001
The University of Michigan team won the recently completed American Solar Challenge race of solar powered cars. The cars reached speeds of up to 110 kilometers per hour along the remains of Route 66 from Chicago to Claremont, Calif. Spent much of yesterday trying to figure out why my NT system freezes every time I try to view certain web sites, such as , www.co.fairfax.va.us, or www.camworld.com/, or pubs.water.usgs.gov/nawqa. The only time it didn't freeze was when I used the default VGA resolution, so I assume it's related to my video driver for the Diamond Monster Fusion card. Loading the newest driver and updating to NT Service Pack 6 didn't seem to help. (0) comments Tuesday, July 24, 2001
I was going to link to an interesting article on Larry McMurtry and his bookstore in Archer City, Texas at the New York Times, but you would have to contend with the pop-up ad. Since I despise pop-up ads, I'll suggest buying today's edition if you want to read the article. On second thought, if you really want to go there, here's the link. Reading the article makes me want to start a bookstore, a longtime dream that I've never acted on. Instead I spend my time searching out book bargains around town. Lance had a quiet day at the Tour, cruising along with the peleton behind his US Postal team on a relatively flat stage. After the race it was comical to see Bob Roll trying to interview the winner, Rik Verbrugghe from Belgium. Roll would ask a question in English and Verbrugghe would answer in French. Translate that! Which Roll did, but it made for a tough interview. (0) comments Monday, July 23, 2001
Lance showed some real class during yesterday's tour, riding with Ullrich and finishing behind him as Ullrich advanced in the standings with a time bonus for finishing 3rd in the stage. Looks like if nothing drastic happens, Lance will win the Tour. (0) comments
Al Young, one of the survivors of the Odyssey 2000 around the world tour, wrote an online journal during the trip. She's been back for a while but continued to write, and now has submitted her final report. She's done some great projects for her community since returning, showing what an effect a single person can have. The Goehring family and friend are cycling across country on the TransAm route. They are also keeping an online journal. They are currently in Wyoming, headed toward Lander. Someday people may be able to use the National Bicycle Greenway, but not anytime soon. There was supposed to be a rally at the Capitol on Sunday, and only a handful of us showed up, wondering where the organizers were. It doesn't bode well for the greenway. (0) comments Saturday, July 21, 2001
Back from a great vacation in Vermont, spending several days at Ma and Pa's cabin on a lake. Took our bikes and took a couple of beautiful rides along the Connecticut River, and along some isolated gravel roads. It helps to have 38mm tires and a touring frame. The weather was typically cold, wet, sunny and gorgeous in the course of each day. Hiked the Benton Trail up Mount Moosilauke, the 10th highest mountain in New Hampshire at 4,802-feet. The trail ascends about 3,000 feet in 3.5 miles. My calves hurt for 5 days afterward. The cabin didn't have a tv for many years, but now there is a satellite dish and Direct TV, and I felt guilty hooking it up. That is until I sat transfixed watching Lance Armstrong destroy the field in the Tour de France. He has been amazing, timing his attacks perfectly, sprinting up the final ascents of the mountain stages. Ullrich has been fighting hard, with his team setting a blistering pace much of the time, attempting to break away from the elite peleton near the top, only to have Lance sit on his wheel until the right moment and then just riding away after a long glance into the face of Ullrich. It's been a truly great tour so far. It was pretty amazing to see Ullrich do a flip on his bike during one of the mountain descents, only to pick up his bike and catch the pack within a few hunder meters. It helped that Lance didn't attack during that time, but Ullrich showed real determination. (0) comments Thursday, July 12, 2001
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Another morning shot watching the Tour. The Posties, the moniker of the USPS team, were doing great, with an excellent time, doing some precision riding in two parallel lines, when two of the riders crashed. Even though the other riders waited for the two to catch up, the team still finished with a respectable time. It's good to see American Bobby Julich healthy and riding well. He's been due for a good showing the the Tour for a long time, and is currently 3rd. (0) comments Wednesday, July 11, 2001
It's going to be difficult to get any work done this week with the Tour being broadcast live on OLN TV each morning. Laurent Jalabert won the stage today with Lance in the front pack. It was surprising to see the so much effort expended on a relatively flat stage a day before the team time trial. It's also odd not to see the Lion King, Mario Cipollini, contesting the sprints. For those who can't receive OLN's coverage, you can catch the live audio broadcast on the official tour web site, along with lots of other good info, including Flash animations of the sprints. (0) comments Tuesday, July 10, 2001
Zabel wins another stage in the Tour de France, but Lance was right there in about 4th or 5th place. Consider yourself lucky if you can get Outdoor Life Network TV for great coverage of the race, with commentary by Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin. (0) comments (0) comments
Back from a long weekend in Lansing, Michigan for a family function. Managed to talk my way into one of the MSU grad dorms for the 3-day stay. Brought back memories of ghetto life as a student. There's a great bike trail between E. Lansing and Lansing that I used every day since I brought along my Bike Friday. It was a great excuse to get some exercise each day, and I continue to enjoy the idea of riding to the airport and stuffing the bike in the suitcase, although it never seems to fit quite like it should. I cram it in and it usually fares OK. Thought of a new game while walking around the Pittsburgh airport on the way home: Guess the destination of a flight based on the people waiting to board. It occurred to me when I passed a crowd waiting for a flight and I wondered "where are THESE people going?" and it turned out to be a flight to Las Vegas. Volunteered to get bumped from my return flight. Was the only one bumped, getting home a little later than planned with a free continental U.S. round trip ticket in my pocket. Not bad for a super discounted ticket bought through Priceline.com. (0) comments Friday, July 06, 2001
Wonder why it is so difficult for computer manufacturers to figure out how to make a good web appliance. The Post reviews the Sony eVilla, which sounds OK but has some problems. I want an appliance that costs around $200-$300 that I can use to read anywhere in the house, comes on instantly, and has a readable display. Maybe the technology just isn't there yet. (0) comments
Rode the Northeast and Northwest Branch trails along the Anacostia River yesterday at a SLOW pace. I think it's more difficult riding at a slower pace than a faster one, and I ache a little more today. There was lots of water and mud on the paved trails after the recent thunderstorms. (0) comments Tuesday, July 03, 2001
Still haven't gotten around to writing up the Bike Virginia trip, but here's a snapshot of the last camp, at the Luray, VA fairgrounds (left) and a church in the Fort Valley (althought I've got to be careful, my disk quota is almost full and my service provider won't sell me more space. Need to find some disk space that I can rent for additional web content):   (0) comments
Heard about slashdot.com on NPR's All Things Considered. They were talking about the slashdot effect, when a site is listed on slashdot and then can't handle all the new traffic. Well guess what, when I pointed to slashdot, for one of the first times ever, I couldn't reach it. Did NPR slashdot slashdot? I link to the stripped down version of slashdot, which doesn't contain the mostly useless graphics, and loads twice as fast (before today anyway). (0) comments
It took a while, but the head of the Tour de France finally said he thinks Lance is clean. Four more days until the start of the Tour. (0) comments
The past two days have been those rare, crystal clear, ozone free summer days here in the DC area. Couldn't resist and after leaving work yesterday, headed west on the W&OD trail, riding at an easy pace for a change, savoring the day. (0) comments Monday, July 02, 2001
Finished reading Tom Wolfe's Hooking Up. It contains an interesting essay on the sorry state of the novel ("My Three Stooges"), and of course Wolfe has come to the rescue with his realistic novels "A Man in Full" and "The Bonfire of the Vanities". I agree with a lot of what he has to say, but he's so arrogant that it detracts from his arguments. With the hot, steamy weather, didn't do much riding this weekend. There were some spectacular thunderstorms over the weekend, although not so spectacular for the 2 or 3 people struck by lightening. Seems like thunderstorms have been getting more frequent and violent lately. (0) comments |