Miscellaneous items

I attended Wes Bellamy's campaign announcement yesterday at Tonsler Park. I really appreciate Wes' energy and enthusiasm; the assembled were just as enthusiastic, I loved it. Of course, Ryan and I spent most of the announcement wandering the new playground at Tonsler. If you havent had a chance to visit Tonsler, you should, it is a great new playground. Ryan loved it.

Baseball practice started this week. Chris is coaching and practice time is from 5:15-6:45- prime dinner and homework time. This is an adjustment. We purposely decided to limit our winter activities, so this transition has been a little rough for mommy. I like to have dinner together as many nights as possible and now we are down two nights a week. If I have school board (like this week), then we are down three nights a week, then if Chris has a meeting, or there is a church thing, we are just out of luck. We will adjust, but this week being the first week has thrown me for a loop.

Baseball starts back soon, but if you have a chance, go see a UVA or high school baseball or softball game. The games are far cheaper and very exciting.

I am super excited about the new Pope. I suppose I have been carried away by the media coverage of the event. I appreciate as an example for me a Jesuit whose commitment to humility and the poor has been so obvious. I also appreciate that he speaks Spanish and is from Argentina.  I went to Argentina in the nineties. I was able to help out at a Catholic Charities in Buenos Aires and had the opportunity to speak to a priest who gave me a Spanish language Bible, a Bible I still have. I treasure the experience.  I know people have a lot of views, this is just mine.

Landis Guilty of Doping; Loses Title

The day Landis climbed and climbed and climbed into first place and the winner of the Tour de France in 2006 is a lie. The process has spoken, no one believes his theory of the case, in fact according to the decision of the doping court "Appelant's experts crossed the line, acting for the most part as advocates for the Appelant's cause, and not as scientists objectively assisting the Panel in the search for truth" (sic). I have to believe in the system, sure everything could be corrupt, but even my conspiracy theory brain recognizes its more likely that one person is corrupt than multiple levels of an administrative and testing process are corrupt. I will apologize personally if Landis is an innocent victim in all this. For the moment I know that the fans are the ones being victimized-

That historic day as described in Wikipedia
"On the following day's Stage 17, Landis stunned the cycling world with a 120 km solo breakaway attack that has been called "one of the most epic days of cycling ever seen".[9] The performance earned Landis comparisons to the famed rides of Eddy Merckx. At one point on the course, he was 9 minutes 4 seconds clear of Pereiro. Landis ultimately won the stage by nearly six minutes over Team CSC's Carlos Sastre and took more than seven minutes out of Pereiro's lead. At the end of the day, Landis sat in third place overall, 18 seconds behind Sastre and just 30 seconds behind the Tour leader. The next stage was a 57 km individual time trial, and Landis' strength in time trialing put him well within striking distance of regaining the tour lead. Landis finished third in the time trial of Stage 19, 89 seconds ahead of Pereiro and 3 minutes 31 seconds ahead of Sastre, to reclaim the yellow jersey with a lead of 59 seconds. Landis retained the lead through Stage 20, the procession into Paris, to win the 2006 Tour de France by 57 seconds.." As a sports fan, that day was one of the greatest in sports history- to have it all questioned a week later, I can still conjure up the heartbreak of the day the allegations of testosterone use came out. We fans lost and continue to lose when cyclists dope and sponsors let them.

The Tour starts again on Saturday. Will I allow myself to be victimized again by this event I love so much? My favorites are all gone from the Tour- Basso, Hamilton, Landis, Ulrich, Mancebo, Boonen, Vino, Contador, Levi etc. They are gone- some legitimately disgraced because of doping, others because of the knee-jerk reaction of the governing body of the Tour. Lets face it no one is innocent- even I know my hyperbole surrounding the epic day in the 2006 Tour feeds cheaters, advertisers, sponsors and the sport itself- if that drama doesnt happen- will I still watch? I will, but maybe others will not.

A whole team is out of the Tour because of last year DESPITE practically everything about the team having changed since last year. Astana has last year's winner on it- Alberto Contador- so he is unable to defend his title because members of last year's team (he wasnt on it) got caught up in a doping scandal.

There are bright spots and I hope this is a clean month for the Tour so next year we can begin to put the scandals behind and focus on the REAL drama, hard work and emotion of this incredibly demanding race.

Giro starts today in Italy

Danilo Di Luca is the favorite to win again this year. something about that guy I dont trust. Anyway- in the cycling news article- Contador looks to be a favorite, especially since his team Astana has been uninvited to the Tour. In the article, Contador is described as having great domestiques- Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Kloden. Those two are team leaders in their own right so its amusing to hear them described as domestiques.

WAHU Fox News @ 10

What happened to John Rodgers, the news anchor for the 10 oclock news on Fox? I miss the guy. I like Dan Shutte a lot because he has a sense of humor, but where is John?

For awhile Dan would say "I am Dan Shutte in for John Rodgers tonight..." and now, maybe they still are saying it. What I fear is he has been terribly injured and he is recovering, but slowly. Anyone know? Anyone else care? John is the only one who can really get the First Look feature correct, all of the other anchors do not have the timing down. As you can tell, I watch the 10 o'clock news- no other news programs. Honestly there is only about 5 minutes of news in the 30 minute program- about the amount I can tolerate.

Seriously though- what is going to happen in the summer when there are no UVA sports to report on, the sports guys need to look at some professional sports- baseball, NBA finals, even more Nascar would be more tolerable than all UVA, all the time (which usuallly only means one sport story all about UVA Lacrosse or whatever in the 3-4 minute sports time).

And because Stacy Berman has improved signicantly, I will give a shout out to her! Good job. I appreciate her, even though the forecasts have not improved, I dont think it is appropriate to blame her for that- is it?

Ivan Basso will be Back!

Ivan Basso, my favorite bike rider has signed with a ProTour team Liquigas. Basso is confident he can win the Giro again- which is held in his home country of Italy.



The last time he won the Giro- it was emotional- his wife was pregnant, his mother had passed away urging him to win the Giro. Starting in 2009 he will have the opportunity to defend his title so long as those durn bureaucrats decide for some reason or another to prolong his suspension, an unlikely scenario. But one doesn’t have to look far Tyler Hamilton and Floyd Landis among the riders still not able to return to the sport, for reasons not entirely clear and entirely undemocratic and unfair.

Nascar Clothes

Grandma took the boys to a store yesterday to buy short sleeve shirts to keep at her house, seeing as she babysits weekly for me she likes to have extra clothes for them and since I am a completely unreliable source for clothes she purchases them herself (thanks mom).

Apparently the boys were amazed and delighted at a hanger full of two piece NASCAR outfits(shorts/shirt sets). Imagine my surprise when I pick them up and they have new Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart sets! They are soo excited by the outfits, both are wearing them today (Jeff is red, Tony is orange). Jeff Gordon's outfit looks like Lightening McQueen a bit, Tony Stewart is sponsored by Home Depot, so it has a Bob the Builder, construction worker orange about it.

I have been watching racing lately. I like jr. and Edwards, even J. Johnson and Stewart. Gordon would not have been my first choice (a couple of years ago maybe, but then he dumped his wife, got himself a new family, I thought he had a bit more character than all that). The races have had great finishes so it has been easy for me to get into the competition and sport of it.

I will get a photo later, they look so cute and are so happy with their new clothes, I cant be complaining about their choice of racer, since they have no idea who Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon are (I am teaching them).

Awesome Sprint Finish in Belgium

Cycling News reports Cavendish from TMobile won the 96th Scheldeprijs Vlaanderen by sneaking and sprinting beside Tom Boonen. Boonen was raising his arms, declaring victory as Cavendish rode by him and stole the race from him. Apparently Robbie McEwen came in third and Eric Zabel from Team Milram came in 4th, off the podium but certainly in the mix.

The Sprinters are fun to watch especially the first week or so of the Tour before the mountains rise up (as Phil or Paul would say). The race can be pretty dreadful until the train (peloton) decides to catch up to the leaders (typically the train is driven by the teams who have great sprinters on them), then the peloton greets the leaders and flies by them, the sprinters arrange themselves in front behind their lead-out men and get catapalted to the finish line, if they are lucky there are no crashes or run-ins with objects on the sidelines. Sprint finishes are very exciting and competitive, any competitive soul will love it.

Astana out of Tour

Tour de France organizers uninvited/never invited Astana to the main event this year. Nevermind the complete overhaul of the team, including bringing Johan Bruneel in and firing all the people in charge last year (including the riders), it was not enough for the organizers. I feel like this is collective punishment, none of these guys have been implicated or tied to performance enhancing drugs. (Chris would like me to tell you however that all of them are guilty of it- in his opinion- his disdain is not just for the Astana team though).

Astana has last year's Tour de France winner Alberto Contador. He rode this amazing race, the Tour last year was marred once again by scandal, Contador's riding was a bright spot. He will not be allowed to defend his title, as Floyd Landis was not permitted last year. I wonder if the ASO (Tour organizers) are planning to do this every year? I guess on the bright side, Lance's 7 wins in a row certainly wont be broken any time soon.

Contador, Bruneel, Levi and others from Team Discovery went to Astana once Discovery stopped sponsoring the team. Cycling once again is shooting itself in the foot. How are teams to get sponsors if for arbitrary, vague and incomprehensible reasons these teams wont be allowed to ride on the biggest stage for the sponsors? Business people are not running the Tour or cycling in general, honestly I dont know that the organizers are fans of the sport anymore.

Levi only has a few more years to win the Tour, being out this year will impact his chance to ever win. Administration is getting in the way of competition- not a good thing in sports.

Sports and Nostalgia

With ACC basketball on a lot on Channel 29 and nothing else child-friendly on, David and I have been watching a lot of ACC basketball. Watching sports is one of my earliest memories- Yankees/Chicago Cubs, UVA Men and Women's Basketball, and football (which until I was old enough to know better, I really thought was always on). Living in Charlottesville the choices for watching sports on tv is fairly limited, except on WVIR which shows a lot of basketball. Last night it was UNC v. Miami, the other day it was Boston College v. UVA.

David is 4, almost 5 he would tell you, but that isnt really true. Sometimes when daddy isnt home, David will cuddle up in my bed and watch ACC basketball with me, he is so talkative- "now UNC is winning" "look, UNC has 38 points, and... mommy who is in white?" "Miami has 32 points" "there are five players on the court for UVA, 1,2,3,4,5, and for Boston COllege". I am honored to give him his education in ACC basketball and look forward to BASEBALL season ("how many players are on the field, what is the outfield" ... the questions are endless). I think these are pretty cool memories for him to have.

Wiiii

Cville Working Mom is a great blog, as indicated by my inclusion of it on my blogroll. However, I was disturbed to find this anti-Wii post after Christmas. Too bad she cant value the awesomeness of the phenomenon.

I asked for and received a Wii for Christmas. Why? I hate video games- Pac Man is my speed, but not Mario Brothers or other stuff.

During football season our friends traveled to our house for games with their new son and Wii. After the game instead of the bar scene (which prior to the child would have been the preferred activity), we gathered at our house and challenged each other to tennis, bowling, big brain academy and the like well into the evening and night (Chris would like to mention here that he scored a hole in one on Tiger Woods golf, for those who like the system).

I appreciate the comraderie of the system, it is engaging. Sure- going bowling is engaging, but I am not going to Keglers anymore, first I am not 19, last time I went it was full of smoke and drunk people (never mind the news stories on the violence there), oh and I have two boys who need to be in bed pretty early.

Second, it isnt exercise, but you know on any one given day it is more than I am doing normally. A few practice tennis games on the Wii at 9PM makes up for the fact that I didnt have time to ... well go to the tennis court (I think I last did that in the 90s).

Third, what are Chris and I doing after 9 at night anyway (which is when we typically play)? To the tennis courts? Hitting the baseball field or boxing rink? Nope, watching tv, doing chores otherwise not really anything. Why not a little Wii?

With respect to my kids, they are always in bed when I play. They play very limited games, in brief intervals. I would rather them experience outside and play during the day (so they sleep better at night) than watch tv or play video games.

I respect people's right to hate the Wii, I dont particularly understand it. I love it and am having a blast playing it. And we are planning a late night gathering with friends, adult beverages and fun soon with the Wii. Thanks Chris!

ABC's worst moments in sports

After the release of the Mitchell report earlier this week, ABC decided to list the top ten worst moments in sports - with no actual basis to define the top ten. Many of these are awful times for sports (Mitchell Report, Black Sox, NHL lock out, etc.). The problem is obvious so I wont belabor it too much, the top ten doesnt distinguish between what sports does to itself and what outsiders do to the sport (Terrorists at Munich in the same classification as the Mitchell Report?). It doesnt make sense. Finally as an avid cycling fan, the failure to mention the 2006 Tour de France or the 2006 Operation Puerto doping scandal prior to the Tour is disingenuous and incomplete or even if cycling is not a sport for Americans so ABC isnt going to include it, why not Marion Jones, this year? For goodness sake, she was just stripped of her medals for her doping. Incomplete and lazy work by the ABC folks in putting this list together.

A sad day for Baseball

I love baseball. It is the national pastime and what a delightful afternoon a day of baseball makes. Today's Mitchell report [pdf] is out and I am depressed again (cycling in the summer, baseball in the winter).
Brian Roberts? How is Baltimore drowning in steriods and they are so darn awful!? Lenny Dykstra? Bigbie, Clemons, Petite, Chuck Knoblauch, David Justice, Mo Vaughn, Miguel Tejada and the list goes on and on. My stomach is sick from this report.

I am reminded of the 1993 tobacco hearings- those five or six executives from the tobacco company stood up, put their right hand up and swore to tell the truth-->then said tobacco did not cause health problems. Liars. Cheaters.

Americans love their heros and I am certainly one of them - not that sports figures are heroic (certainly not now). We love to think if one works real hard, has that much commitment great things can be accomplished, it is fundamentally the American Dream played everyday. The highs and the lows, the drama all of it is awesome. I am really ok though if athletes are good but not record setting- sports is inherently dramatic without cheating.

Are we so needy as Americans to be the best that we drive our sports figures to steroids, performance enhancing drugs?

Baseball Meltdown

The Mets breakdown over the past three weeks caught me off-guard. I fully expected them to be in the playoffs, especially when I read last week that the Mets magic number was 3. My experience as a fan has led me to believe when a magic number is involved the team gets into the playoffs. Those durn Phillies.
Time and CNN are worried about the mental health of the Mets fan- here is the article. I am worried about David's godfather.

Cycling News...

CyclingNews is one of my favorite websites. It is updated frequently and always gets me the exciting and depressing news of cycling promptly. Tonight, thinking I was unlikely to find anything new...I found this news.
The lowlights
Another teammate of Vino has tested positive for blood doping in a surprise check on Aug. 1. Idiot.
Alberto Contador, the winner of the Tour de France after Rasmussen was forced to leave the Tour because of his stupidity, is making an announcement with Johann Bruynel on Friday. That cannot be good for the sport- or can it?

The sport is no longer about cycling, it is about who has been caught. It makes me sick. I look forward to racing being in the news again soon- perhaps at the Vuelta? Optimism is certainly my achilles heel (and what people find most annoying about me).

Man, it is tough to be a fan

About ten minutes ago I wondered over to www.cyclingnews.com to hear some rest day news. Sadly the headline read "Vino positive rocks Tour".
And now I am just bummed. The whole team withdrew- two top ten riders (not vino but certainly doping...right?) on this team are now on their way home.

I have a love/hate relationship with the tour. Love the triumph and hard work, Hate the cheating. My neighbor states the cheating is just as important as training for these riders so he isnt too concerned about it- the deal is not to get caught. Perhaps willful ignorance is best, but I have to believe in clean riders and a clean sport so that my boys will be clean.

David at 4 years old is riding 'superbly' (as Phil Liggett would say) without his training wheels. Andrew has a bike with no pedals but balances so well and he isnt afraid of the downhills. Ben King is this great local rider who has a bright future in the sport. These boys shouldnt have to compete against cheaters, even if the cheaters provide the drama and triumph we want in sports.

VS. the tv station showing the Tour showed an ad for chest/back acne- I know disgusting. Chris said 'that isnt right', in my ignorance I said 'what?' he said body acne is associated with steriod use so we know who they are targeting. I have a sick feeling in my stomach and it is from doping- other people's doping (OPD).

Tour de France et al

Everyone knows I love July for the Tour. The problem with July is surfing the web- I just cant do it when I havent watched the live version of the Tour (that is one reason I will not be linking to anything in this post but see www.cyclingnews.com for all the latest). I went to the NYTimes website yesterday to see the news and found out Steegman won by accident. I hurriedly changed the screen and averted my eyes. I watched yesterday's stage this morning, after I read the Progress' coverage (which was an AP article) and Chris told me to watch it. I am grateful the Progress has had an article everyday of the Tour so far. The Tour in only three days has been dramatic as ever- performance enhancing scandals certainly are an undercurrent- but the drama is awesome.

Robbie McEwen won stage 1, after crashing with maybe 6 miles left to go, he injured his wrist and knee. His team helped him get back to the peloton and then with 20 metres to go he came into the screen and sped to victory. Chris was on the trainer at the time and I was screaming 'it's impossible' I love the Aussie sprinter who also claims Belgium as his second home, so I was thrilled.

I didnt watch the prologue (we were someplace that doesnt get VS, I couldnt believe it, how can people not be obsessed with the Tour? j/k). But since I am obsessed and I have a little device called the Treo 650 I queued up cyclingnews.com/pda live coverage and scrolled down. Apparently I didnt get to the end (typical) so I thought Kloden (Asatana) had won. But Cancellara (CSC) did and Hincapie (Discovery) came in 2nd (he was my pick for the prologue). I do worry about Asatana (mostly that there arent that many A's in that word) and its commitment to a drug free sport- fingers crossed the main GC contender, Vino is clean.

A take on NASCAR

This weekend traveling home from Durham through the Fifth District of Virginia, very little could be found on the radio dial except for racing. I had heard all about the Car of Tomorrow, first road race, and this newcomer Juan Pablo Montoya driving from my obsessive newspaper reading. Montoya is the real news- first he is Columbian and he has won a bunch of races in other cars (Formula One, Indy I dont know these may be the same, but he is an impressive racer apparently).


As you know I love sports and racing is growing on me as a sport. I value baseball for the slow pace- as a pastime. I can see how racing would be similar- an afternoon of drinking, relaxing with earphones on as cars crash, pit, refuel ("did they get new tires, 4 or 2- how fast?"), and pitcrews strategize. I can see how it would be fun.

Having said that, this weeks race was only 110 laps (as a road course, the track was over a mile long), but it seemed like forever. The last five laps were absolutely decisive and exciting (cars RAN OUT OF GAS on the course- it was pretty funny- although the commentators felt bad for the drivers). I think watching it on TV would be more interesting because I could not visualize the road course.

I enjoyed it- I was glad to have anything to listen to and I appreciate some outsiders (Montoya) coming into the sport/cars/race.

OH another thing- remember how it was the WInston Cup series for a hundred years or something crazy long? It has been Nextel for about a minute- next year it will be Sprint. Change is not overly welcome in this sport, but with COT, Montoya and the like perhaps it will be more open (and maybe I will be too).

Other goings on

Mom says she saw me on tv this morning- I was at the Council meeting and of course the cameras panned the room. I was thinking about bringing the laptop to council and blogging it. I opted not to since well the laptop was at the office and I wasnt, perhaps next time.

This weekend we went to the Monticello trail- honestly it was my first time hiking on the trail. I had a great time, Andrew was a trooper, David was NOT by any stretch of the imagination. He complained the entire time- even when we walked back to the car. I dont have much patience for it all- we walked about two miles (up hill for one mile, downhill the other mile). He wasnt distracted by sticks, bridges, water towers, creeks, cars or animals- just whining for an hour and a half. We really didnt mind it though- it was a beautiful day and we had an opportunity to do something as a family.

Now is your chance to get into the Coventry Commonwealth Games, held all over the state and all sorts of sports. The ice rink has a sign up now, it must be hosting something. Although the games are not for another month, I suppose I will have to look at the sign for that long. If you are involved in any support, whether you are good or not, you can qualify for the games- you should too! Chris did the bike racing last year, we had a great time cheering him on and he got a nice shirt.

More bad news for Cycling

More scandal in cycling, actually it is just an extension of the scandal. I am repulsed. The Giro d'Italia is on and the headlines are dominated by Landis and LeMond. I love cycling in the news, just not this way and now we are on year two of this public relations nightmare.
What if Landis is innocent? What if Landis is lying? Both are equally horrible for cycling. Do we get Directv this year to watch a Tour fundamentally flawed, one where a winner is not declared for last year?
Sports are so fun, the hard work, the tenacity, drama and heart- it has everything. Cycling has three weeks in July where it all comes together (to be clear, plenty of other awesome races). I want to be part of it, but it doesnt seem to really matter anymore since everyone is a suspect and the authorities are complicit, blind or dumb.

U.S. Open Cycling Championships

Tomorrow- the weather is supposed to be cold and breezy- so stay in, and watch NBC starting at 2:00. NBC will be airing the US Open Cycling Championships which is being held right here in Virginia. Some very fine cycling teams will be participating- choose your favorite colors and follow that team, it does help the watching. Al Trautwig is doing the color commentating. Al is not the best, but he is recognizable and helps keep people engaged who are just learning the sport. I like the Navigators- they have cool colors. Around here though we have a Rite Aid and (possibly) a HealthNet (or is it Priority Health?) rider so those are good reasons to cheer for those teams. I also like to root for teams based on their names- Jittery Joes and Jelly Belly being my two favorite names.

For more information see this website.
I understand the Masters is on too, but that will also be on Sunday. Follow the leaders through Amen Corner, then watch the end of the third day after the race. And have a happy Easter!