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Txzen

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Posts posted by Txzen

  1. If you want cycling perspective from a human being, I would suggest Greg Lemond.

    Greg Lemond - What I've Learned

    Quote

    Sometimes I wish I was more cutthroat, cared less about things like that. But 25 percent of CEOs in America are sociopaths. A lot of very successful people are sociopaths. And I’m not. It’s easy when you have no emotions, when you have no empathy for people. But that’s not how I operate. So I wouldn’t change that.

    Quote

    Myself and Laurent (Fignon) were friends. We got into a big battle in 89. We just raced it out, battled it out to the end. But honestly, I felt bad for him losing the race because he’d struggled like I had to come back to the top. We met up afterwards in 97. Then we met in 2008, rode, had dinner, then again in 2009.

    We got along. I think the only thing that for him was painful was sometimes when I’ve been with him, and people went ‘Greg, Greg, ’89, what a great deal.’ And to Fignon, ‘oh, how could you lose?’

    And I’m standing right there with him, seeing this. Imagine, he’s known not for his two victories, but the one loss.

    Laurent never went back to the Champs Elysees after the 1989 Tour. Imagine that. I’d almost give the Tour back for that. Racing wasn’t that important to me.

     

    • Like 2
  2. What has never really been uncovered is how he managed to evade a positive drug test. From either being tipped off to the testers coming, 'donations' to testing agencies, and who know what sort of backchannel skullduggery, they not only operated an unbelievable doping program but did so at a time when almost everyone one else was getting popped. 

    The full extent of the corruption has never been uncovered, and those repercussions are still with us today with the latest Sky/Froome bullshit. For his lingering effect on the sport, I say fuck off. 

  3. On 7/7/2018 at 12:46 PM, Lhorn said:

    Playing devils advocate but thought I remembered that some of the guys he beat  weren’t clean either so they aren’t exactly victims. 

    I continue to respect that he survived cancer to compete as a world class athlete but unfortunately his victories were bullshit. 

    Sure, the top 20 were mostly doped to the gills. 

    The victims were the ones who couldn't afford 'the program', or were determined to ride clean and were thus deprived of an untold amount of professional achievement. 

    Then's there's also the clean riders who he literally bullied out of the sport. So, fuck him.

  4. This one hits hard - I worked with her really closely, and she was a lovely human being. She was on a delayed honeymoon / 1st anniversary. 

    A woman originally from the Chicago area was shot and killed in Mexico, where she and her husband were celebrating their first wedding anniversary.

    Quote

    Tatiana Mirutenko, 27, was shot by a stray bullet as she was leaving a taco restaurant in Mexico City on July 7. Her husband, James, and their friends were just steps away.

    The couple was on a quest to dine at as many Michelin-star restaurants as they could. They were traveling with three other couples.

    Mexican authorities said gunmen on a motorcycle were aiming at a bouncer at a bar, but one of their bullets struck Mirutenko in the head.

    The bouncer was wounded. He will survive, but his attackers escaped. A manhunt is still underway.

    The shooting happened early Saturday in the upscale neighborhood of Lomas de Chapultepec.

    Mirutenko's parents are devastated. They live in the Chicago area, where she grew up.

    "She was telling me how wonderful, how safe it was," said Natalie Mirutenko, Tatiana's mother.

    "A year ago, we were selecting flowers for the wedding. Today we were looking at flowers for the funeral," said Wasyl Mirutenko, Tatiana's father.

    Senseless.

  5. Someday, Movistar will have to realize the importance of TT, let alone the ITT. Tough to see Nairo continue to go backwards. 

    Froome gained a little on some of his rivals, but it's interesting to see him still down at this point. The cobbles stage could be intense, but I would bet some of the interim stages with those Cat 3/4 rollers might also be interesting as people try to make up some lost time. 

    I wonder what form NIbali has. I'm sure he's not happy about losing his advantage due to the TTT.

  6. On 7/6/2018 at 5:52 PM, DoobieWah said:

    Uhmmm. Houston says, "Hey".

    😁

    Houston is where I developed an education and appreciation for Turkish, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese, food, while finding little gems like a great Belgian restaurant (and yes, almost all in ugly strip malls). It's an amazing food town for many of the same reasons LA is. 

    • Like 1
  7. I like Quartino, but perhaps the vibe is better than the food. Don't get me wrong - the food is solid, and I would go back, but ultimately there may be better choices closer to you. 

    The Gage is great - prefer to eat at the bar solo when I'm there on business. 

    The tasting menus are interesting at Topolobampo, I quite enjoyed the recent 'Art Menu'. The margaritas there are seriously good. 

    Jotting down notes here for my next visit. . . 

  8. It's not surprising that this happened, more so that it didn't happen for others busted previously for the same infraction.

    The main issue is that there's too much scientific grey area in the salbutemol test, which was so easily exploited by Sky. The biology is too complicated for such a stringent failure line. It's easy to get over the limit without really abusing the drug. Worth a read.

    salbutamol.jpg

    The second issue is that even from their press release, WADA quotes the rule to say that they need the CPKS to prove that this wasn't an attempt to gain advantage, but then accept that there are all these mitigating circumstances which render the CPKS unnecessary. This should open the flood gate to any challenge in the future for salbutemol, as they basically quoted the rule and then decided it was invalid. What's the purpose for a rule if it is then thrown out in the face of scrutiny.

    "Based on a number of factors that are specific to the case of Mr. Froome -- including, in particular, a significant increase in dose, over a short period prior to the doping control, in connection with a documented illness; as well as, demonstrated within-subject variability in the excretion of Salbutamol -- WADA concluded that the sample result was not inconsistent with the ingestion of inhaled Salbutamol within the permitted maximum dose.

    Third, TUE exemptions are off the charts. Without it, we wouldn't be here. 

  9. Eh, I don't know it's all that dire (the death of WADA). A shit-show indeed, though. Month of this crap, and all it took was the ASO threatening to ban his start for this remarkable ruling to occur.

    That said, so many of these tests are remarkably qualitative and noisy - it's the nature of the beast. I'm absolutely sure in my heart that Froome/Sky have pushed to the edge and abused his therapeutic exemption. But the study which gave birth to the threshold of the test appears to be somewhat flawed. 

    Scientist behind salbutamol threshold admits 'terrible blunder'

    The founding scientific work for salbutemol abuse and threshold came from work with swimmers. The urine is even more concentrated in a cyclist at the end of a three hour stage, which makes that threshold determination more tricky. It's not a blood test, and it's not a test detecting the presence of a man-made cytokine (like recombinant EPO) or something which should not be there (a simple yes/no), it's a threshold detection. There's a factor for 'urine dehydration' built into the test, and even with that, he was 19% over the limit. But that's frankly not very inspiring, when you consider the variation of the biology, and however they decided to factor in the dehydration. 

    Of course, that would have been a nice way for Sky to attack the finding, but yet we've subjected to months of reports suggesting that their defense would be that a kidney problem caused adverse drug metabolism, which is a fun argument. Not only is it likely utter horseshit, but it would be darn near impossible to re-create, even if they did do in-patient pharmacokinetic test they were supposed to do. I'm sure they'd argue that no resting test would re-create the stress of a stage. The fact that they decided to go the whole Tyler Hamilton Vanishing Twin route is pretty telling, in my opinion.

  10. My too favorite quotes : 'It never gets easier, you just get faster' (Greg Lemond), 'Don't buy upgrades, ride up grades' (Eddy Merckx). 

    I have the body of a Belgian Spring Classic Rouleur, but my spirit animal is an 100 pound flyweight Spanish climber (my Basque climbing name is 'Patxi'). That means that I too, suck. Nothing gets you better than just doing it as much as you can. I think there's good evidence that finding a nice long tempo climb (say 4-6%) for training is great for cardio, particularly if you work in some intervals. That said, nothing gets you in better climbing shape than regularly doing a nice hard climb. I know many people bring in deadlifts, squats, and sled workouts to their training. I just try to ride more.

    Obviously, drop as much weight from your body as possible. You didn't mention what sorts of hills give you problems. Gears and cadence are important - I'd argue that most people in my neck of the woods (SF Bay Area) are well-served by a compact front crank and a slightly higher cadence rather than mashing the pedal in a higher gear.

    You may find that some hills will just always be a problem. No matter what sort of shape I'm in, once it gets beyond 10% (and sustained), I'm in pure survival mode. 

  11. He was a real inspiration to me - his whole philosophy of travel and eating (and eating while traveling) is something I still aspire to. I will admit that the last few seasons of his show were a little less interesting personally - they often seemed to devolve into fun trips he took where he would meet up with friends from the industry and dine like Gods in a remote location. It just didn't seem as attainable or important. The original series of his was really far more profound, and searched to find commonality in foreign places by bonding over food and what people found to be important in their lives. It was good stuff. His writing, though, was always on point and implored us to explore and embrace the unknown.

    I simply can't imagine the demons one has in their head which would make you take your life when you have a young child who likely still depends greatly on your love and attention (he wrote a cookbook based solely on the foods she liked to eat). His depression must have been oppressive, and I hope he's at peace. But I sure as hell will miss his voice.

    • Like 1
  12. 10 hours ago, Thatguy said:

      Oh, and the homeless. Went to Fisherman's Wharf a few years back. Broad daylight. Came out and the window on my Audi looked like this. What did they steal? A homeless guy stole a blanket my daughter(5 at the time) was using on the trip over. Guy passing by says it happens more than once a day.

    ouch.jpg

    Part of the problem with this city is all the tourists who feel the need to drive to Fisherman's Wharf.

  13. 4 days here, 2 days there...not much of a vacation. You'll waste a whole day traveling with little payoff. 

    Take those two days and see the surrounding areas outside of London. Easy to spend 2 days with a Bath/Stonehenge itinerary, with a sprinkling of Salisbury for good measure. Or, head up to Warwick Castle and stay on the grounds for two nights with one full day at the Castle - jousting, awesome birds of prey show, a working trebuchet. Soak up some countryside.

  14. 2 hours ago, sidis said:

    elizabeth's dream sequence was the only somewhat peculiar thing about it to me...felt like it was a little microcosm of her evolution from not even wanting their kids as anything but props but to what?

    I think it was a few things. Certainly she was the most devoted and ideologically between the two, but towards the end she did get outside herself (her art 'lessons') and certainly her feelings as a mother. She may have never wanted children, but that dream was likely a foreshadowing of many more to come - she will be haunted by her abandonment of her kids.

  15. On 5/25/2018 at 7:55 AM, thrillhammer said:

    would like to see tom hardy play bond one day.

    Sure, if you like an actor on screen talking with marbles in his mouth. 

  16. 10 hours ago, SpiralOut said:

    Honestly, I think the show went out being true to itself.  It was never about Russia v. USA or being spies or any of that stuff.  It was about two married people and their family. 

    They lost everything and only have each other. 

    The garage sequence and the train sequence are some of the best television I've ever seen.  Flat out.  And poor fucking Stan.  As if his life wasn't blown up enough Philip just drops that last poison pill on him about Renee. 

    Gonna miss this show.  Had the balls to slow-burn itself all the way to the end.  Understood how to build its characters and stay true to them and how to keep the story about them. 

    Exactly right. The show was at it's core, about a marriage. The purgatory of living the rest of your life after leaving your children is almost unbearably sad, particularly considering how their last conversations were with both. And both kids will hate them forever. 

    It was also a show about friendship and betrayal, as well as the sacrifices that one makes in the service of an ideal. Stan certainly had his, as well as his own moments from staying the course. But Philip and Liz sacrificed everything, including the only pure things they actually had (their kids) for their country. While they stood looking at the twinkling lights of Moscow, it seemed as if they could almost get to the point of thinking it was all for a just cause, but of course the viewer knows that the idea of Russia they had in their heads really no longer existed by the time they returned, and what waited for them wouldn't be be there for much longer. So, all that sacrifice, betrayal, loss and an eternal purgatory of abandoning their children for...what?

    I could have envisioned a much more dramatic ending as many here, but for this show it fits. Perhaps it was a little anticlimactic in the end, but it made the price they paid even more severe. 

    As a parent, that final call to Henry was just gutting, as was the sight of Paige on the platform. These are the casualties of war.

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