TagsTagsToday was the final day of the Amgen Tour of California, and American Levi Leipheimer of the Discovery team won easily, after two excellent time trial performances earlier in the week. Here’s the sprint finish of Stage 7, in Long Beach, California. In the first part of this clip, the peloton ...
Tour de France winner Floyd Landis may beat the doping charges that threaten to strip him of his title, because the French apparently mishandled his urine samples: Report: Case against Landis in jeopardy. According to a report in the L.A. Times, the anti-doping case against Tour de France champion Floyd Landis ...
Tour de France, Cycling, Fitness, Health, Sports, Floyd Landis
If you read the lefty blogs, I’m supposed to be dressed in sackcloth, rubbing ashes into my hair and wailing, “Oh, how could I have been so wrong! I am worthless! Kill me instead of the noble Jamil Hussein!” Instead I traded the sackcloth for some Pearl Izumi bike clothes ...
Today’s ride: 41.88 miles, through some highly active air caused by a storm system moving through southern central California. It was a cyclist’s nightmare ride; brutal hobnailed headwinds in all directions. Kind of like last November 7, come to think of it. No real climbing today, just striving against the ...
Today’s ride: 44.63 miles, mostly at a medium pace but with one really hard climb, a 2-mile beast with very steep sections. The weather started out miserable but got warm and sunny around 11:00, just in time to get good and sweaty on the aforementioned steep climb. Average speed: 16.5 ...
Today’s ride: 41.02 miles, on another stupidly beautiful SoCal October day. Not too hot, not too cold, no arm warmers needed, just a full bottle of Orange Cytomax and a clean bike. That’s all I need. Not a lot of climbing today, but enough to keep the ol’ cardiovascular system ...
Today’s ride: 47.45 miles, on a somewhat meandering but fairly high-paced undisclosed route that involved 1,922 feet of climbing, an average speed of 16.0 mph, a maximum speed of 38.7 mph, an average temperature of 80.6 degrees Fahrenheit, and a wind speed of 8.6 mph from the south-southwest. The wind ...
Yesterday’s ride: 47.35 miles, with an elevation gain of 2,726 feet on several undisclosed routes in the South Bay region. Almost didn’t ride because rain was threatening in the morning, but it turned out to be a beautiful day. (Last night’s photo thread should give you an idea.) Encountered several ...
Today’s ride: 50.20 miles, into Palos Verdes for a total of 2425 feet of climbing on several undocumented routes, in the perfect 70 degree SoCal climate. The bike paths were remarkably uncrowded, probably because there were several big football games today. Maximum speed: 40.3 miles per hour.
Today’s ride: not a biggie, just 35.09 miles. I took a week off from riding (which I do every couple of months), and this was the maiden voyage, so to speak. If you will. As it were. So it was a lightweight day with no climbing, a few harder intervals ...
Yesterday’s ride: 50.21 miles, again into the perilous urban jungle of Palos Verdes but on a slightly different route. Kept a pretty hard pace over the rollers and on several short climbs, with an elevation gain of 2,123 feet and a maximum speed of 44.9 miles per hour on one ...
Cycle of Violence, Cycling, Exercise, Fitness, Open Thread, Photograph
Today’s ride: 45.32 miles, mostly flat but with impromptu intervals of sustained near-max effort alternating with short recovery periods. I don’t even want to say how perfect the weather was today, because you’ll all move here. It sucked, really. Nasty, brutish weather. Fascist, in fact. Yep. Fascist weather. No sane ...
Today’s ride: 50.71 miles, not at killer pace, but not exactly easy either, on several undisclosed routes in the vicinity of Palos Verdes. Managed to get in a total elevation gain of 3,225 feet, and hit a maximum of 43.5 miles per hour on one descent through the slums of ...
Yesterday’s ride: 47.92 miles, mostly flat, mostly uneventful. And then there was the bee, near the end of the ride. We were pedaling along at a pretty high intensity into a headwind, when suddenly it felt like someone had stabbed my leg. I looked down; a very large bee (about ...
Saturday’s ride: 58.45 miles, with an elevation gain of 3,225 feet, on one of the harder climbs in the South Bay area, a series of punishing rollers leading to a 3-mile mini-mountain with switchbacks and grades of over 10% in places. Elevation at the top was almost 1,000 feet. Haven’t ...
Yesterday’s ride: 49.65 miles, through the barbarous Palos Verdes highlands. The most difficult climb was about half a mile long, with a grade of 8-11%. We’re talking about a serious upper aerobic zone workout, on the pedals for about half of it, lactic acid burn time. Today’s ride: 47.73 miles, ...
Today’s ride: 48.93 miles, in the globally warm hot heat that threatens to destroy civilization as we know it. Temperature: 83.2 average, with a high of 84.9 degrees, and an average humidity of 54.4 percent. (See! There’s the proof! I hope Al Gore’s reading. We’re all doomed.) Wind was out ...
Today’s ride: 48.47 miles, into the uncharted depths of Palos Verdes for some medium to high intensity training that involved about 500 feet of climbing with a maximum grade of 11.8%, an average speed of 15.8 mph, and a maximum speed of 36.6 mph. Not a Lance Armstrong ride, I ...
Today’s ride: 50.96 miles, in another day of amazing weather. Not a fascist headwind to be found. On yesterday’s ride I dropped in on a bike mechanic I know, and was very lucky to find him with nothing else to do—so we spent about an hour tracing down some nasty ...
Today’s ride: 41.52 miles, in the brilliant sunshine and plentiful ultra-violet rays. With lots and lots of people, coming out of hibernation and getting those skates and bikes out of the garage for the first time in six months. Based on my numerous close calls with oblivious walking dead iPod ...
Cumulative total for yesterday and today: 105 miles and some change. The infamous Los Angeles “June gloom” has set in and mornings are invariably overcast and cool—ideal for cycling. I’m trying to do more climbing so I can lose those extra winter pounds and take the endurance up another notch, ...
Today’s ride: 51.20 miles, with two cycling friends, on several undisclosed routes ending up in Palos Verdes where we did two of the more difficult climbs in the area. The weather was exceptional and the wind was not fascist, but some of those hills were exerting hegemonic oppression on my ...
Today’s ride: 53 miles. With yesterday’s 51, and Saturday’s 44, that comes to (calculating furiously) 148 miles. The weather was so perfect I felt like weeping. (Not really.) Perfect blue cloudless sky, perfect air temperature just cool enough to keep things perfectly comfortable on a long ride. The wind was ...