Go Jen!!

Jens is the man, and if he ever test positive, I am taking up curling. Game over. Otherwise I hope he races until he is 80 years old.

White Lace and Strange US Heavy Psych and Power Fuzz 68-72 CD

"Heavy Psych and Power Fuzz"??? 20 tracks of bands that feel through the cracks. Think Hendrix, Zep, Cream, Blue Cheer, Sabbath, etc. Comps like this-obscuro old school odd ball types are always risky, but the occasional rewards are worth wading through the rivers of wanna bes.
This comp harkens back to the days when beer came in cans with pull tops and got drunk in large quantities in parking lots before classic rock dinosaurs kicked out the jams. Jeans were mandatory and shirts were optional. After who knows how many dozens of early to mid 60s garage comps, this dose of under the radar hard rock is total frenzied blast of fun.

The first 3 tracks are all killer, but my jaw hit the floor with track 4 Detroit's own Power of Zeus's(one album on Rare Earth) anthem "It Couldn't Be Me" which came to my attention last year as a Sabbathy sample on Obie Trice's 2nd LP. This nugget alone is worth the price of admission, but you get a lot more.
Boston gets 3appearances with Banchee, Eden's Children and Brother Fox and the Tar Baby who's "Steel Dog Man" has an awesome funky Hendrix groove. Walpole Mass gets on the map thanks to The Fort Mudge Memorial Dump! Who would have guessed MA was such a hot bed of hard rock! Don't forget my not so recent find of that Looking Glass 45! Genesis are up next with "Angeline" and push fuzz into the hard rock stratosphere on this midpaced stomper. Other stand outs are Mount Rushmore's "someone else's games". The bass playing on the Road's track "Spaceship Earth" might be familiar as it is Noel Redding at the helm. They also have a Rare Earth connection. T.I.M.E drop a jam that could easily be mashed up with any version of "Get Ready"- a more trippy take on that classic riff. Yellow Payges almost make you think Billy Childish snuck on here, but it just some standard bluesy garage stomp. You are so much better off grabbing this than dropping huge money on some Blue Cheer live boot.

Psychic Circle Records are dropping some serious comps that are worth your time, but this is good place to start. Hats off to Nick S for putting this together. There is not surprisingly a connection to grunge godfathers Nirvana.... Liner notes are minimal but informative and readable for a change!

SportLegs and Power Beans

Addicted to Sportlegs
For the last year or so I have been eying the new style of supplement. Not the energy drink bu the pills and powders that will improve your lactate threshold,VO2Max, or whatever magic claim they have. Optygen,Sportlegs,EPNO,Lava salt rock extract. They all sprang up pretty quick. Can't affort to try them all and who wants to spend $40 bucks on snake oil? One day in the bike shop, I saw the little sportlegs display with single use packs. 2 bucks. No commitment. No leftover unused bottle in the cabinet if it sucks. Brilliant. Tried it for the 1st time before a metric century.(Genius move try something new before a long hard ride-luckily I they didn't cause explosive dysentery) and I rode well and felt good. Can't say if that wouldn't have happened with no SLs but this formed the basis of my addiction. Positive association and like a mouse in an experiment I went back for the cheese. Any ride over 50, I was pretty religious about popping my pills. Then it was any weekend ride, then any training ride..... Now I am in afraid to run out of the precious pills. Stockpiling, stashing, not making fun of the goofy logo, clearly addicted. The only thing that makes you a better rider is suffering on the bike and losing weight, but these things don't seem to hurt

When it gets hot, I have found that I cannot drink gatorade/cytomax/whatever on long rides-more than 2 bottles and I want to barf. With the Jelly Belly Sport Beans, I can drink just water but still get some electrolytes and sugar-basically get the gatorade taste without wanting to puke. Come on "sports" and candy a match made in heaven (so much cooler than a snicker's endurance bar) They are also easy to eat-so you never get that mouth too full chewing, choking,can't breathe, blowing clif bar out your nose sensation you get when you try and hoover a bar on the bike.

So there you have it. Two examples of me helplessly falling under the sway of new product's hype and loving it.

Rasmussen Rides Again

I guess the next logical step for dopers it to make like Rasmussen and just keep riding and going to races. Ronde Van Pijnacker criterium is not the TDF, but it is still a bike race and Rasmussen will probably show up in his plain yellow jersey and sob story about getting railroaded (and he will earn 15,000 Euros!). Tyler still says he never doped. Floyd wrote a book and will turn up to whatever event will let him start, and now Rasmussen(who I realize hasn't tested positive, but...) is just going to keep riding and pretend everything is cool. That is brilliant. Maybe they can run a "Pro-Modified" category so they can all get back in the game. There was nothing lamer or phonier than Virenque breaking down in tears years after getting busted, and I can't imagine how much lamer it will be if Rasmussen,TH, or FL change their stories.
The pile of circumstantial evidence around this guy is ridiculous. Your own team fired you when you were in 1st place in the biggest bike race of the year. You consistently missed tests and lied about your where abouts. You ride about 2 races a year and are no where to be seen otherwise. You were even one of the "men in black". Add in the older "take my shoes to Italy" story and you don't have a picture of an honest athlete.
Never mind the endless list of climbers past who doped. Is there some link between super elite climbers and a proclivity to dope?
What race would let him start? This is the problem. You cannot focus solely on riders to end doping. Team management and Directuers need to get fined, banned, and punished as much or more than the riders.