KV reminded me of this today. So good. 2006 Tour de Suisse
Remember when I said that Tom Boonen was going to win Milan San Remo? Well, I was right and finally CD and I can agree on something. At the party last night he came up to me and said...
CD:
"Do you know who won today?"
Me:
"Yes, of course. Tom Boonen."
CD:
"You are correct because Oscar Freire was being helped by the Right Hand of God."
Fact.
And I do not remember who was standing with us when all of this happened, but I am sure that they were mystified beyond reason. This MSR outcome makes me even happier than if Boonen would have won. Oh, I do love our Booger Sugar touting Belgian friend. (That's streetcode for Cocaine.) But Freire? When he is anywhere near the front in the last few K's he reaches into his jersey pocket and pulls out sheer magic. The three time WC is a crafty-crafty man who knows where to be and when to be there. Besides, who would not want a leadout from the Liquigas team?
King-Kong Classic
Number two went off without a hitch. Especially with Daniel Lloyd, the Cervelo Test Team rider pictured in the KKC2 flier being alerted to his participation in at least the photo portion of the ride. This photo was from last years Gent-Wevelgem. Straight up and over the town of Gent, and we were standing at the top of the hill as Daniel and Co. flew past.
The real best part though? MsR was the talk of the town as we rolled out on the now monthly King Kong Classic ride/race/friendly slugfest. Is it monthly now?
Also Dave G. from River City Bicycles was on the ride. And he was all talk about the MSR race as well, I snapped this photo just as I heard him telling Matt Kare that he was actually present in 2002 when Cippolini won. I find that to be pretty damn awesome. Plus, his use of the full on fendered steel bike was a pretty awesome sight to behold.
Abby and I were speculating on whether or not the previous days good weather had anything to do with every ones good moods. People were calling to us from their Porchside viewing spots and we cruised up Thompson and into the hills. She made the great observation that there was reportedly great weather all over the country. "I hope that everyone goes into this Health care Reform vote as happy as we are. And I guess they were.
The weather looked as though it was going to hold off for at least the first bit, but by the time we made it to the top of Thomson it was already starting to come down. And no one wants to stand around in the rain. So, off we went. Things got a little tense when we hit the gravel sector, we will call it Gravel Sector 1, or GS1, if you will. At GS1 is where things really started to heat up and I watched Weaver pedal through a full on two wheel Tokyo Drift through the first right hander. It was awesome.
There were a few things that happened after that but most of them involved heavy breathing, at least on my end, and me staring cross eyed at the wheel in front of me. Especially when that wheel in front of me belongs to a couple of people. 1. Molly testing out her new Ridley Helium. And 2. New father Shannon Skerritt on his fully fender-ed ultra commuter. The bottles were a dead giveaway though.
I flatted out of the first version of this ride/race and did not get to see the entirety of the climb. Well, today I found out what I was missing and it involved a little bit of and incline. Some grunting, and then more of an incline. This (photo below) is what kept me going for the entirety of the ride. While I could not hide in the vast shadow/wind block that is the Weaver (that is not meant as an offense either.) I did have the image burned into my retinas for the majority of the ride.
Weaver got this when he was over for the Cyclocross worlds a couple months ago. And I have to check with a few anonymous sources but I do believe that this is the same character that raced in the full Budweiser kit in the Luxembourg Cross Race last year. I remember this clearly mainly because the only other Americans that I knew there were Yash and his girlfriend (now fiance Megan). But someone else in the crowd, and I couldn't tell where it was coming from - just kept yelling "Goooooo Budman!! YEAHHH BUDMAN."It made me feel gross and unamerican.
But now I am over it.
Also, we had a little bit of a party over at Ampersand the other night. Great stuff came of that and thank you to everyone who came out to help celebrate and make Volume 5 possible. Take for example this little guy. To end on a cute note is always good. Especially when it involves a super great Spider-Man hoodie...
