Fat, Dumb and Happy

Figuratively speaking, of course.

I'm finding myself with plenty o' time on the weekends to do things like clean my house, enjoy coffee breaks (lots of those!), sleeping in and the occasional blog post. Even if I've not actually posted much, rest assured I've got lots of good ideas.
Take, for example, today; My big task is to make it to FedEx on time so that I can get my bike shipped off to Arizona for a few days of working on my badges of honor, er, tan lines.(Please note I'm not wearing an arm warmer to match the kit... that's the previous day's ride tan)
Two downsides to this trip are that I have to work for four days out of a week long trip, and once I've gotten used to 75 degree weather I have to come back to 20 degree weather. On the plus side, I've got two days to just ride my bike. I do have a few tasks to do for my buddy who is hosting me - a few small garage projects, nothing fancy. As he pays my mythical salary as CSO of DUM (that's Chief Sanitation Officer for Double Up Motorsports), I am more than happy to oblige.
In my own private cycling news, I got the new fork for my MTB and the build-up is slowly coming along. I'm in a bit of a holding pattern since the cranks I have slotted for my MTB are currently posted up on my CX bike while my road bike is boxed up for the AZ trip. Once that gets back, the full on build will finish and I can sleep well once again. That may also play well with the weather so that when the bike is complete I can throw a leg over ye olde rig and get in a sweet MTB ride, which has not happened since November 16th. This is too long.

Anyway, I'm off.

Later.

-the ATM

Classic

I asked for and got the Red Zinger/Coors Classic highlight video for christmas. I was pretty excited because I figured it would be a great way to see racing from yesteryear. It's a 3 disc set with 8 hours worth of footage, so I figured it would be really good trainer fodder.
It's pretty good, but unfortunately footage was not plentiful so the first several years (maybe 1977 - 1982) were struggling to get 10 and 12 minute segments. Then came 1983, a time when broadcasting companies got a new toy in the form of overlaid graphics and titles, plus noticeably better recording equipment (or they coughed up more cash). Plus, this is 1983 we're talking about when popular music also found a new toy in synthesizers. As with everything else, more is better so they overdubbed some really classic early 80s tunes with heavy synthesizers.
Now you may laugh when I say classic in the context of good songs from the 80s, but unless you were born in the mid/late 80s I guarantee you have some songs from the 80s that you have on your iPod, whether you admit it or not. And you listen to them. The Outfield, Softcell, Erasure, Journey, Toto, all of them. But I digress.
I couldn't find any videos from 83, so 1986 will have to do:

Then during one of the climbing stages up the Rockies, where a Colombian mountain goat is drilling it in his 42x18 A crazy familiar [classic] over-synthed tune comes on:

(Asia - Only Time Will Tell, by the way)
Forgive the video... the music video business was in a time that was as awkward as a 13 year old with braces and pimples at the school dance.

One of the more surprising things I saw was a young, pre-whatever the hell genre music he does John Tesh rocking a blue CBS Sports blazer asking the tough questions. I'm very proud to know that I didn't know John's career highlights included sportscaster.

Anyway, it's a cool video and neat to see from whence modern cycling came. From playing billiards between stages to unabashed, non-polished quotes afterwards. No media coaching going on there! Make sure you put it on your list o' vids to get.

later

-the ATM

Euro Mudflap

Vladimir Karpets has the most fierce mudflap in modern cycling. I think he had frosted tips last year so that's a bit of a loss, but it wasn't as long. He painfully looks alot like Billy Ray Cyrus back in the Achy Breaky Heart days. Somebody needs to tell him to go for a bit less party in the back. And by party, I mean par-tay.

yikes.



later

-the ATM