Chasing Legends – cycling documentary

After just commenting on the great cycling coverage provided by Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwan, their names pop up once again as it relates to a new film to premiere on May 15th. 

I am hoping the film tour schedule will expand to include Canada, but for now, those living in California have a leg-up in seeing it first.  Chasing Legends is being released to a very select group of cities in California.  It focuses on the professional cycling team of HTC-Columbia and the Tour de France.

 

image from press info found at www.cyclinglegends.com

Check out the trailer:

TDM – some data

 

 

Data submitted by Paul (Garmin Forerunner 310XT)

Special thanks to the feed station support crew near Mt. Albert and those ensuring a well-stocked refrigerator at the finish line.

Thunderous TdM goes into history books

“Look at them.  They’re like goldfish out there'” each one sucking air as they “turn themselves inside out”.  The “peloton makes natural selections” as it “stretches across the road like a long sausage”.  And, at the front…well, he’s “an absolute beast of a man”.

“His face giving nothing away. He is in complete concentration but I imagine that his ears are twitched back just listening for the whistle of a tire on the pavement -- the sound of an attack.”

The ride would be arduous and the weather at times was “something of a damp squid”, but the boys were “feeling quite frisky today”.  With the lightning behind them, all but one rider mindfully repeats "Don't look back. You know what's going on back there, because you just left."  Focus on the task at hand. 

That lone rider gives the sky ‘the look’ as if to say “well, are you coming or not and the answer is NOT!”.

Up ahead, the “crowd is cheering for their pin-up boys”!  The lead-out man knows “he's done his job at the front and now he must concentrate on getting his enormous carcass up the rest of the way.”

Despite this being “a pedigree group of men, they are holding on by the skin of their shorts”.  “It’s a viciously cruel sport”.

It was only a few kms ago that they were “passing a field of white cows. This region…is known for its bovine....Of course, none of that matters to any of the riders, except that they might like a nice steak at the end of day."

But the rider at the back knows what that means.  He is “crawling all over his bike” to stay on the next rider’s wheel.  He knows that the title of lantern rouge means that he’ll be doing dishes and clean-up after dinner.  That’s enough incentive to be “stamping on those pedals” and stay with the lead pack.

With the finish line just around the corner, “the shadow boxing is over”.  Their “grimace is turning into a smile now”.  “The crowds are going berserk”

These “riders know how to win in style” and they have “added another page to this fairy tale that just keeps going on”.

What a Tour de Muskoka!  This is “not a made for television event”.  You need to ride it to truly appreciate it!

Today, each rider wears a badge of honour with some bragging rights…”tomorrow he’ll wear little more than a pained expression"

Forget about tomorrow…where’s the BBQ?!

L to R : Dave, Paul, Mark, Martin   (photo by Stacey)

special props to Liggettfan site for compiling so many great Phil Ligget and Paul Sherwan quotes.

Tour de Muskoka - now underway

The second annual Tour de Muskoka (TdM) is today!  These guys are crazy!  There will be at least 260km of riding today with the option to bump it up to a triple century ride if the legs and weather cooperate – a possible 300km?!  Yup, they’re crazy.

“…is he a superman or a fool?"                                                 Thank goodness for chamois cream!!!!

“They said this tour was too short. They said this tour was too easy.  …They were wrong!”

L to R: Mark, Dave, Paul , (Martin will join them along the route)

The array of now-infamous LIggett-isms and Sherwan-isms from cycling coverage over the years will find their way into TdM history as well.  Stories will be told for years to come to children, to grandchildren, to great-grandchildren, or to any captive audience willing to listen. 

Ahhhh, the glory days, when “dancing on the pedals in the most immodest way” was seen as, well…not really immodest at all.

Here, in the early morning hours, the riders are “circling like caged lions waiting to get into the start house.”

And they’re off.  Tour de Muskoka is underway.

“It’s a great day for a bike race!”

"The race has no respect for reputation, you’re only as good as now.”

Weather, so far, is perfect…but then again that’s how it all started  last year as well.  It wasn’t until later in the day that the clouds moved in and the rain began. 

"Bridge to engine room - we need more power. There is no more"

Should the weather take a turn for the worse, and they find themselves in a “wee spot of bother”, they’ll have to “reach into their suitcase of courage”. But, for now…go get ‘em! 

Just checked a few weather updates in some towns along the route and right now, winds are light from the south for the most part, so it should make for good riding conditions for the first leg at least.  Hope the boys enjoy “a nice slice of tailwind” where they can “tap, tap, tap out a rhythm" and ride “on all cylinders today”.

“I think you bring out something special in a rider when you throw in a few cobble stones!".  Alas, no cobblestones on the TdM route today, and there is “no reason to rush into hell”, but guaranteed at some point, each of these riders will be “pumping those two pistons they call legs” and “riding to a high level of superb-ness”.

"The history of the…” Tour de Muskoka  “…was chiselled into these walls of rock by men willing to ask more of themselves knowing that this time, for some, the answers from their bodies would be...no more".

But for these four riders, “the heads of state have come to the fore”.  May they ride today “like the halcyon days of Eddy Merckx!”

Note: all quotations above have been attributed to either Phil Liggett or Paul Sherwan  (Google ’Liggettisms’ for these and other now-infamous quotations)

‘cause I can!

Easy button

Point and shoot digital cameras are amazing and are as close as I can imagine to the Staples Easy Button that was ever invented.

And quite honestly, they were made for people just like me – I am no techno-geek and basically, I’ve been a bit lazy when it comes to photography, as of late.  I like to be able to turn it on (assuming I remembered to charge the battery) and press the shutter button when the mood warrants.  It’s just that easy…because I have the dial welded into ‘idiot-mode’.  Yup, automatic all the way baby!

Happy in my ignorant bliss I walk into my first photography class this past week and without any remorse, they pull out the pliers and force the dial away from “Auto” and move it to the “M”!!  Hey ‘Auto’ is green for a reason!!!  The collective shrieks in the room make me feel like I have found some lifelong friends.  We all thought the “M” was just short for ‘must not touch’! Well…almost…it’s the dreaded Manual mode.  This is a point and shoot camera not one of those fancy, schmancy DSLRs!  What’s with a manual mode?! 

So much for the easy button!

My point and shoot actually has a lot of features (that I didn’t even know existed), but the biggest difference between it and a DSLR is…yup, I now have lens envy.  Once the instructor discreetly suggested I wipe the drool running down my chin, I knew that life would never be the same.

It’s time to start selling stuff on Craigslist or Kijiji so I can justify a new camera.  Does anyone need a set of VisionTech TT aerobars, or possibly a new 53/39 Dura Ace crankset?  Or…an Easy Button?

Anyone?  Anyone?  Bueller?…

mmmm coffee….Starbucks for no bucks!

If you like coffee, and particularly Starbucks coffee, then today (Apr 15th) is your lucky day!  Take your reusable travel mug to a Starbucks location and you’ll get a freebie cup of java!

From their website:

Obsessed with stuff? or Just in Case

I am in purge mode.  I’ve been inspired by my organizational, label-obsessed neighbour!!  You know who you are! ;)

For two people, it’s amazing how much stuff we have accumulated over time that is used once, twice…or maybe it’s never been used…ever!  But, for some reason there was  a ‘need’ to have it at the time and there is a need to hold onto it…Just in Case.

Outdated, broken, ripped…why keep it?  I have receipts from 20 years ago!  Do I need those?  Nostalgia?  I doubt it!  Cookbooks that have never been splattered from the makings of a culinary creation..and likely, never will.  Anyone need some cookbooks?!

And while I would like to shift the blame as to why I ‘keep’ all of it…I can’t.  The only reason it’s still there is…well, ‘just in case’. 

Wouldn’t it be great if you could give away stuff with the option to borrow it, just in case?!  I see a new venture for someone…anyone?

I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that maybe I don’t need several telephone extension cables from those ‘dial-up’ internet days that I found yesterday tucked away.  And, I could even take a pass on the 25’ Cat5 cable that was my ‘laptop link to the world while sitting on the patio’ - everything is wireless now. 

Just thinking about the purge is making me feel lighter (the bathroom scale LIES!…actually, my favourite pair of jeans must also be lying! hmmmm…ooops! - maybe I should toss the scale and the jeans too!) It is time to start simplifying, by minimizing the just-in-case stuff. 

OK, who needs some ‘stuff’, because I might have some available.

Wilderness Survival

With the love of the outdoors and getting off the beaten track, there comes the very real possibility of getting lost on a hike or maybe worse…injured and unable to reach ‘safety’ before it gets dark.

Setting oneself up for success is the best course of action and for us, that means being as prepared as possible by taking a Wilderness Survival course.

There are things that go bump in the night, creatures big and small, the cold, the wind, the rain, the snow, where to take refuge, and how to stay warm – we need shelter, we need fire, we might need to be rescued. 

Of course, in true survival fashion, we had it all - rain, an impromptu snowfall, winds, and below-freezing temperatures.  There would be no sleeping bags or tents for this overnight in the woods.  We had our survival kits and the clothes on our backs – everything we needed to hone our skills of surviving in the woods.

After the in-class learning and a some hands-on sessions outdoors, we now had to put what we learned into practice.

The goal was to start a fire in the afternoon and keep it going throughout the night to the following morning – about 18 or 19 hours.  In addition, we had to find enough boughs and branches to build our shelter plus a signal tower, collect enough firewood so that we didn’t have to go searching for wood in the darkness, and do what we could to stay warm.  

We were surprised that sleep was almost impossible.  Even with two of us.  We would try to nap, but those lasted for no more than 15 minutes at a time.  We would wake up to cold toes or a body that was shivering and the only relief was to get within inches of the fire once again to regain warmth.  Of course, one of us was always watching the fire to make sure it continued to provide much-needed heat, all the while listening to the heightened sounds of a living forest that surrounded us.

 

In warm summer temperatures, the experience might be a bit different, but having the colder temperatures gave us a greater appreciation of what ‘could be’…and…

 

…WE SURVIVED! 

Paris – up close

I saw a link this morning to this incredible website developed which allows the viewer to see some of the most amazing sites of Paris up close.  The technology is pretty cool in the way it links more than 2000 individual photos together to create what you’ll see in the link below.  In addition, it’s a great tool to get your bearings with respect to where things are located in the city.

There is a navigation bar which allows you to zoom in and out, auto rotate, etc…but you can also turn off the sound from there (hint, the more you ‘play’ with the site, the less likely you’ll want to listen to the background music loop).

Check it out at:

http://www.paris-26-gigapixels.com/index-en.html