PMA and Spring Tanlines

Been bitching a lot lately. Riding the trainer, too cold, too wet, too windy. Bottom line is "shut up and ride". Being on the bike rules and there are a lot of people that would probably switch places with me and goof around on a bike all the time.
Maybe it took a sunny day to dope slap me into a state of gratefulness.
Like the bumper sticker says ...a bad day on the bike is better than..... almost anything else.
Thanks bike!

Was also working on my tan today. Joe Dirt Style
Phase One

Phase Two

Phase Three

Final Phase-sick Tribal calf ring.

Madness

There this kind


And then there is this kind.........

South Bronx Special

7 more 8 minute segments on youtube. Frank comes through.

return of the livng dead

It's like the day of the doping dead in mexico. Maybe Reanimator is a better analogy. Hamilton,Floyd, Simoni(I know it was just cocaine candies...). Then this. How bummed was Floyd to get caught in this photo op. Good to see Rasmussen keeping himself in cycling/zombie movie extra condition.

New Day Rising

How stoked were No Age to get to play new day rising with the ever improving huggy bear? New Day Rising remains an untouchable classic.

Monte Paschi Eroica

The only thing better than having three brothers on one team would be if they are triplets. Well Aqua Sapone at least have the brothers thing with the flying Masciarelli brother. All three will be contesting the Montepashci Eroica this weekend. I guess the DS hasn't seen Saving Private Ryan-can he really risk all three brothers on the same day?
I guess the biggest question is will Cancellara appear or not?
Some odd team selections. Rogers and Shleck for example-seems like they should be at Murcia or P/N. Maybe they will race Tirreno after this?
Canada gets heavily represented wiht both Rollin, Hesjedal and Tuft-when were there that many Canadians racing in Italy? I guess they couldn't spare Micheal Barry . But three Canadians? Reminds me of Venom's classic Canadian Assualt live lp. Hopefully they make some noise. Hesjedal was 10th last year. Outside of maybe Barry and Steve Bauer what other Canadians have raced at the pro-level in Italy?
Ballan, Pozzatto, and Visconti are the Italian heavy hitters. Pozzatto has been close but no cigar a lot and running his mouth too-so maybe he needs to put up here so McEwen and Steegmans stop making fun of him. The #3 and 4 riders from last year are both here again. Gerdemann and Masskant. So all the fixings for a good race are ready.
For some reason, I like Gadret as a long shot. Cervelo have been flying and maybe with no Thor, Hammond can get some podium time-Klier was up there at Het Volk though. The Russian element has had some success here, but with no Kolobnev, it's up to Pavell Brutt to pick up the flag and run.

So that would be my long shot podium Gadret, Hammond, and Hesjedal. Most likely Ballan, Pozzatto, and Klier.
Either way can't wait. Hopefully they can get this race on TV or video soon.

Odds and Ends

Two from Sram. Wegmann's none more white bike and some Het Volk shots. The piles of white spoked lightweights in the last Wegmann related photo is amazing. White hubs, etc. There was a definite lack of crucial photos from this years HV.Not loving the new Het Nieuwsblad layout.

New blogs. Svelte.
Another local bike builder.
Greasemonkey dropped this killer. Ditto for BKW

Racing continues with Tour of Murcia and 3 days of West Flanders( or the cooler sounding Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen) starting today.Paris-Nice (will the Astana stage race domination continue or will SaxoBank reclaim this race) kicks off this weekend as well as the new Italian epic Eroica -the white gravel Roubaix of Italy (paging Ballan-time to win one). If that wasn't enought P/N's big rival the crash fest Tirreno-Adriatico starts next week. Hopefully no one gets sidelined. I have left of a couple other races in Italy and Belguim, but the next few weeks will see both classics guys and grand tour guys starting to race in earnest. So good. Hopefully with this much racing some crucial coverage will emerge.