As you can see from the bike carnage above, junior racer Denisa Bartizalová (Kona Cycling Team) of the Czech Republic took quite a spill during Stage 3 of the Cyprus Sunshine Cup. The story on mtbs.cz reports that she suffered some bruising and scratches and needed a few stitches. I suppose it could have been WAY worse given the state her bike is in.
Photo by Michal Červený, mtbs.cz.
I totally dig this photo of Jolanda Neff (Giant Pro XC Team). She appears to be in early season beast mode as she blazes down the descent on her way to winning the GC at the 2014 Cyprus Sunshine Cup.
A month or two back, like many of you who also follow pro mountain bike racing, I read the news that Topeak/Ergon was cutting their Pro XCO team and focusing their sponsorship dollars on marathon racing. With the popularity of endurance, marathon and stage races these days and the financial and logistical stresses of having two elite teams racing all over the world, that seems like a pretty logical move (some have argued in the past that you lose a fair amount of spectator eyeballs on sponsor logos and products with marathon format races, but that’s debatable).
However logical and/or amicable the decision by Ergon was, it still meant that after seven years, two-time World Champion, 2008 Olympic Bronze medalist and consistent XCO podium finisher Irina Kalentieva was without a team. The official press release said “Ergon will continue to work with Kalentieva and remain[s] committed and grateful to her” but after that, I hadn’t read much. I needed more…
Most of the paved roads surrounding my neck of Michiganderburgh are snow and ice-free. The dirt roads are however are not, nor is my driveway (seen above) or the neighborhood sidewalks.
I believe my driveway perfectly illustrates the Seven Levels of Ice that we are currently encountering (Six and Seven are not pictured above). The sixth levei is giant piles of frozen solid snow at the corner of every driveway, parking lot and sidewalk in town caused by copious amounts of shoveled and plowed snow, followed by rain and 40˚ temps which then froze solid when arctic temps and high winds returned last week.
The Seventh Level of Ice is two to three ice cubes direct from the kitchen freezer, placed in a high ball glass and covered with 4 fingers bourbon, vodka, scotch, gin or boxed wine of your choice.
Speaking of ice and wind, the National Weather Service has issued ANOTHER Winter Winter Advisory for the next 24 hours that includes: blowing snow, wind gusts reaching up to 35 mph and wind chills of minus twenty degrees. I really need the weekend (see next post) so I can give myself the green light to enjoy the Seventh Level (except in beer form).
This photo has nothing to do with anything other than it’s the only photo in my recent stash that comes close to illustrating how I feel right now.
The above pic was from the Transalp race a couple of years ago (2012 I believe). I only post it here now because A. I like the photo and B. The snow and slush is about what it looks like around here right now and it’s only going to get worse. If I were out on the snirt roads right now there would even be cows (most likely not roaming the roads, but they would be there).
When I first saw this photo of Philipp Walsleben on Pez Cycling News, I thought maybe he was all sorts of pissed off and slamming his bike down for some reason or moshing to some sort of hard-core Euro-techno whilst hopped up on ecstasy. Or better yet, having some sort of mental breakdown caused by years of huffing embrocation, riding in circles and jumping over man-made barriers, freaked out and started doing a chorus line dance while holding his bike aloft and laughing maniacally like a smoked up Jürgen Klopp going mental on the touch line.
It turns out I was wrong on all counts, he just fucked up a barrier jump. I like my imagination better… I don’t think I’ll read the photo captions any more.
I can’t thank Philipp enough, because if I had not seen this photo, I would not have been inspired to Google search videos for hard-core Euro techno and I would not have discovered this gem…
This post has nothing to do with cycling and everything to do with respect. Read on if yinz wish, if you don’t… well, I really don’t care.
Lately, blogging has been pretty easy and my mind has been pretty generous with topics. Sadly, that ended today. Feel free to read on but I can’t promise much (except a bunch of photos and that the blog is even more lackluster than usual)….
I have been off the bike and out of the gym for…um…. ah…. Hell, I don’t even know how long anymore. I was on a scheduled family vacation for a few days and despite making it to the gym today, I feel exactly like a big fat swollen blubbery miserable gorilla turd.
