Best Moment (to date) of the 2012 Tour de France

Thibaut Pinot put in an amazing ride yesterday to take the stage win.  For a 22 year old guy, it had to feel amazing to cross the line first, even more importantly; to salvage the pride of his countrymen in what has again been a bad Tour for the French.

When he stormed up the last climb and blew by the then lone leader you knew what he had in mind.  I'm sure his team manager, Mark Madiot had already made it crystal clear to him that he wasn't to catch Fredrik Kessiakoff and work with him to the finish, but instead blow by and ride like an animal to the finish.

With 12km or so to go and only flat roads in front of him the stage was set.  He was something like a minute ahead of a 10 rider group that contained all of the Tour's big contenders.  Guys like Brad Wiggins, Cadel Evans, Vincenzo Nibali, and Denis Menchov; all of whom seemed to be intent on eating Pinot for lunch.

As the kilometers clicked by and Pinot struggled to keep his time losses to around 5 seconds a kilometer, his team manager would pull up in the car to provide some rather animated encouragement, with his screams of Allez! Allez!:

Two Wishes - Both Granted

It's almost 5 years ago to the day that I blew up my left leg in a crash at the San Marcos Curcuit Race.
In late July 2007 as I was laying in a hospital bed. Life sucked. I couldn't make my toes go up, let alone my foot or ankle. My knee cap was wired together. My pelvis was held together by steel plates and screws. As I layed there in pain and despair, I asked for two things:

1. To be able to ride my bike again. I envisioned that I would have Carol drive me down to B&L to collect my repaired bike, they'd somehow throw me on top of it and push me down the road, with me somehow pedaling before falling over and hitting the pavement.

2. To be able to do my favorite east county ride and be strong while I did it.
Five years later, I'm extremely happy and blessed to say that I've been able to achieve both of these "goals". It's been a while since I did my favorite east county loop.

Today was the first time in a year or so. Hopefully the following link will work for you:

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/108821885

All I can say is that it was a long road back. Folks like Carol who stood behind me and allowed me to succeed, fail, and then eventually succeed were critically important to everything I've achieved in the last 5 years. Most importantly for me right now; I've gotten my love of cycling back.

The Masi is Finally Done

For those who weren't aware, I recently purchased a 1989 Masi Gran Criterium off of eBay. It was listed on eBay by a pawn shop in Pacoima. $535 and a drive to north LA later and I finally owned a bike that I've wanted for a long time. If you follow the Gran Criterium listings on eBay you'll know that every now and then a mid-70s Masi comes along. While they're beautiful bikes and I guess for a lot of people they're the Holy Grail, for me after already buying my Colnago Arabesque and keeping it in original condition, I was looking for something that I wouldn't feel bad about gutting and building up with modern components. When I bought the bike it had Shimano 600 shifters/derailleurs, a real nice set of wheels (Dura Ace hubs with Mavic Open 4 CD clinchers), some odd Stronglight cranks and some weird bars/stem. Here's the before:



For the rebuild I purchased a new Campy Record 10 speed group, a 3TTT quill stem and alloy handlebar, 3TTT seatpost, a Fizik Antares saddle, Velocity Escape tubular wheels and some 215g Tufo tires. Gord at VeloHangar put the bike together. The new wheels arrived today, so all that's left is to glue the tires on tomorrow. Short of a repaint, this is where she stands:

Can't stop laughing

I could watch this clip of Vancouver Canucks coach Alain Vigneault losing it behind the bench on Sunday afternoon 1000 times and still pull a muscle laughing.



You've gotta love it when things are going so well for you that you can laugh even when a clown like Vern Fiddler makes a fool of himself like this. Now I've got something to keep me laughing for a week or two, no matter how tough things get.

Welcome to the Ghost Town

It seems like blogging has quickly gone the way of the Dodo. What once used to be a media where people took the time to write thought provoking articles and share their insights with the world, has very quickly been replaced by the uber-positive, "let's all love each other", "look at me" worlds of Facebook and Twitter.

Fear not, the Angry Canadian has come out of retirement and will once again be spending some time documenting in this here blog. There's lots of stuff that's going to be happening over the next 3 or 4 months. Stay tuned to this channel, there's lots to discuss.

One Base Phase Done - More to Come

I just finished up 4 weeks of endurance base building. For how long and sporadic I've been with riding my bike the past 6 months, it's nice to get back into a consistent groove, eat better, ride better, and most importantly feel better. I think I've mentioned this before, but regardless of all other things; the one thing that I know I must do to be happy is to maintain an aerobic base. That's not just happy when I'm riding my bike, but happy in general. When I'm exercising regularly and feeling like I'm in shape everything else seems to flow so much better. I sleep better, I am more mentally focused, I'm more dedicated at work, I'm more relaxed and tolerant with people inside and outside of work, etc.

So, the past four weeks have been a start at what I know I need to do regularly for the rest of my life. To be more specific, it's consistent riding and at least two rides per week that are long (3+ hour) endurance rides. Next up, starting today, is three or maybe four weeks of base phase 2. There will still be long rides, but there will also be some more intense riding.

I'm also going to try three week phases; two weeks of hard work, one week of recovery for a while. Normally you do four week phases, but in the past I've found that I'm pretty worn down by the end of three weeks of hard riding. So much so that I almost always get sick by the end of base phase 3, which leads to burn out and lack of desire to be active.

Nice 3 Hour Ride to Work This Morning

I rolled out of bed at 5am this morning and was on the road at 5:30am. Three hours of fun and games up and down some nice hills east of Encinitas: