I had thought about posting rides 128-131, but since I don’t have access to my photos, I’m just gonna ramble about the Tour de France for a few minutes.

I can honestly say that this week is the very first time that I’ve missed the cable package that I dropped 4 months ago. Luckily for me, NBC universal sports (a broadcast channel) carried the Giro, and I was able to catch the Paris-Roubaix live online via a pirated Dutch television feed. But right now, being cable-less, I’m relegated to the online tickers and animated widgets that the different cycling sites (including the official TdF site) offer to help me follow the tour. This is compounded by the fact that our home desktop just crapped out on us last night….so all my TdF updates have to be enjoyed at work. That being said, I’m doing my best to follow the tour, especially on account of the potential for an Astana mini-drama.

I followed today’s tour on the BBC comment feed. Like with other commentaries in the past few days and weeks, they seem to be hinting that Lance Armstrong is looking to jump into the leadership role if Contador flounders in the coming stages. Its clearly a popular angle to play up, simply because it’s the controversial, gossipy thing to talk about. I think I personally rank the probability of this happening a lot higher than most people, and not because of its newsworthiness, but simply because I tend to think Armstrong is way more egotistical than he would let on. This isn’t to say that I doubt Lance’s sincerity in returning to cycling to raise awareness for cancer. Then again, wouldn’t winning an 8^th tour after 3 years of lounging around on the beach with Matthew Mcaughnahey and banging Olsens (ok, so he did run a marathon and do some mtb racing) raise the most awareness possible? It’s not just cancer research that could use a boost from Lance’s success. You figure the sport of cycling took a massive hit the moment he retired. Lance provided a huge boost to the visibility of the sport, especially here in the states. Not having passed the torch to anyone as a “viable” replacement in terms of star power (Landis, Contador and Sastre are all pretty vanilla when you think about it), I think even having this discussion, and having Lance back on Sportscenter – is great for everyone.

Getting back to Lance’s ego. I just don’t buy the fact that he’ll ride shotgun to Contador if he thinks he’s the stronger rider. Lance is too accustomed at getting inside other rider’s heads to be 100% honest in saying that he’s riding in purely a support role for Contador. I’m inclined to believe that this is all one big mind game for him. We’ve seen it before with the way Lance dominated Ulrich, but pretended that it was always way closer than it really was.

Most of the signs immediately prior to the tour pointed to Contador as the undisputed leader. They dropped Horner who was an unabashed Lance supporter and they made sure to fund Contador’s contract as opposed to resigning with a Lance-favoring, possibly U.S. based company – and risk losing Contador. That being said, what if Contador is simply an expensive distraction to downplay Lance’s chances of winning an 8th?

My prediction: if Lance continues to crank out strong races, and if Contador falters one or twice more (just look at all the chatter about him being responsible for the peleton split), then we’ll start to see Lance emerge as the de facto leader and Contador will mysteriously come down with an illness. He might continue to ride, but I bet we hear that he’s riding through an injury or that he’s somehow not himself. There will be some kind of face-saving going on… When you think about it, I’m not really going out on a limb here….this is just a few stages away from becoming the reality of the 2009 tour.

A measly 10 miles at lunch was all she wrote for today.  It was however a productive 10.

Today was the first day in which I did a full on mini-grocery run (oxymoron?) with the road bike (as opposed to the fixie which was a semi-weekly thing until her departure).  Not a big deal obviously, but for some reason walking around the store in my carbon-soled road shoes kinda drives me nuts.

Anyway, I also found myself committing to the one habit I thought I was just “gonna try” on account of how poseurish I thought I was being the first time I tried it several months back….  See for yourself below:

Maybe most of you won’t really see what the big deal is, but to me this is a sign of A) a messenger, or B) a dufus wannabe.  I think I clearly fall into the latter category, but like many things that are born out of function and later become “hip”, I can tell you the back pocket lock thing is great.  The deep pocket on my Dickies knickers (thanks again for the hem-job Oksana) works perfectly for this lock.  I can’t even feel it when I ride, and it takes weight off my back and is one less thing to crush the eggs.  Which brings me to my awesome pack job.  If you want to see a beautiful thing, look below and you will see a lovely assemblage of delicate items placed perfectly for break/crush/bruise-free portage.  I’ve found over time that bread works as a great back pad, and returns to a normal un-squished size once the bag is opened.

Anyway, I also wanted to take the time to callout what I think is a pretty kick ass little setup my buddy Eric L has stashed deep down in the double digit quiver.  Below we have a custom Salsa 69er that made its debut awhile ago before the Trek marketing machine laid claim.

The great thing about this setup, is that it takes advantage of a trick that I had planned on employing with my Dekerf SS before I sold it.  Eric is running a 26″ rigid carbon fork (Pace) which has a short axle to crown measurement (so it doesn’t jack up the geometry too much with the larger wheel in front) but yet somehow still manages to clear a 29er wheel with boat loads of space.  Checkout all that clearance:

I think its sweet.  I kinda regret not setting up the Dekerf after seeing his bike for the 2nd or 3rd time now.  He had it out this past weekend, and picking it up is ridiculous…down around 19lbs as pictured and not a stupid 19lbs either.  You can’t really see the spec, but there’s really nothing ultra fancy on it.  If a person was so inclined, I bet this bike could be 18lbs….anyway, sweet bike Eric.

You might be asking: “What is 300 to 30″?

The 300 part…

Well, back in January, one of my 2008 goals, was to log a minimum of 200 days on the bike this year.   Right now I’m just 20 days shy of that goal, and it’s only October.  It occurred to me on the eve of my last year of being a “twenty-something,” that I wanted to spend this next year logging more miles, more time, and more days on the bike than I ever have before.  So what better way than to step up and go for 300?  Now I know there are people out there that have ridden 365 or have significantly more impressive streaks, but several trips abroad will cut into my available ride time in a big way this year, so I wanted to be realistic…

The “to 30″ part…

You guessed it, as of today 10/3/2008, I’m turning 29 (happy birthday to me).

Anyway, I hope that over the next 365 days, I’m able to post up a fraction of the types of cool things I’ve been able to see and experience while logging the 180 or so days I’ve put in thus far in 2008 (e.g. amazing sunrises, random light-stunned nocturnal forest animals, epic vistas, ridiculous singletrack, etc.)

More details about me, my riding style and everything else related, will leak out in the daily ride reports and pictorials.  You can also check the “What’s this blog all about” section for some more info about how I plan to make this entertaining for cyclists of all stripes.

Stay tuned…