a blog about motorbikes, bicycles, and the folks who ride them.
We are back safe and sound after a soggy but rewarding Loop the Lake. A full report will follow, once we get all of our video diaries compressed, images collected, all that kind of digital stuff. But first, here’s some Monday morning commentary from our friend Dave Z:
Dave Z did it again, claiming a podium spot and a bronze medal at this year’s World Championships, behind Bert Grabsch and Canadian Svein Tuft. Here’s the story on cyclingnews. With the Silver medal he earned in 2006, there’s only one he hasn’t claimed. As far as the U.S. chances to do something in Italy, I am sure all eyes were on Levi Leipheimer for his commanding time trial wins in the Vuelta, that is, until his new boss announced his return to professional cycling. Levi certainly had the form ten days earlier to indicate he was going to crush it. Z Man wasn’t even on the start list posted by cyclingnews, leaving fans wondering if he was scratched. I think that’s Z’s style, fly in low under the radar, then drop some big bombs. Can a brother give me a Hell Yeah for Zabriskie? Leave a comment and say Hell Yeah.
September is usually a quiet time in the newswires of professional cycling. You usually can get all the news you need by briefly scanning the headlines of cyclingnews.com and velonews.com. Vuelta results, riders changing teams, news from Interbike, then the World Championships. Mainstream sports news, let alone mainstream media rarely picks up any news of cycling unless it’s a doping scandal. But then Lance steps back in from the shadows. Maybe he’s sick of dominating the tabloid headlines with his personal life and wants to get back to the bike. Lance has announced and confirmed he will make a comeback, and all of the sudden, the TODAY show is picking it up, it’s all over ESPN, interviews in Vanity Fair, and the cyclingnews servers are overloading. The bike industry must love it. There’s no doubt that Lance mania has always brought a lot of new people into the sport of cycling. Hopers, dreamers and survivors. There’s no doubt Lance has done more for raising cancer awareness, and giving hope to those fighting the illness. It’s hard to hate the guy for that.
When Michael Jordan came back to play with the Wizards, it was sad. He was older, slower, but he was still Jordan. He could still toss in 45 points, but the Wizards still sucked. The tv commentators called him “Floor Jordan” instead of “Air Jordan” because he lost that skyward step. It was still entertainment, though, and probably the only reason anybody watched the Wizards play. If Lance just shows up, wins a time trial here and there, it will be looked upon as a failure. He has to come back and win. Lance didn’t just win the Tour de France. He dominated his rivals, broke their spirits, and crushed the hopes of a lot of pretenders. His main rivals at the time are all gone: Ullrich, Mayo, Vinokourov, Kasheckin, Basso. All out of the sport for positive doping tests or they are creeping back after serving suspensions (Basso), but won’t ever match up again. So what’s the endgame?
I’m waiting for when he will start working on his next book: It Was All About The Bike After All.
Glad to see our man Dave Z get another stars and stripes outfit for winning the U.S. Professional Time Trial championships for the third year in a row. He fought valiantly in Beijing to represent the U.S. of A., but I know his result there wasn’t what he was looking for. Good to see Dark Meat climb back to the top step of the podium. Read the story on cyclingnews.com. You’ll notice that DZ’s Garmin-Chipotle squad owned the top five, with Vande Velde, Cozza and Danielson.
Wow. Just read an article on VeloNews about an apparent exchange of words and blows between former U.S. Pro road race champion Marty Jemison and Garmin-Chipotle team doctor and apparently, former heroin addict Prentice Steffen. I was down spectating at the criterium and saw Marty before the race. He was super-friendly and after exchanging pleasantries, he had a job to do, and we had a race to watch so we went our separate ways. Here’s the thing about Prentice Steffen. What the fuck? What could this guy possibly hope to gain by tarnishing the reputation of a hard-working cyclist who has been retired for years. A guy trying to make a living and support his family through riding a bike, with his tour business. I’m not just sticking up for Marty because I know him, and I’m not passing judgement about whether or not he doped. To my knowledge, aside from the unsubstantiated claims by Steffen, Marty had never been implicated in any doping. The only stain against him is his name was mentioned in the same vein as Hamilton. I’m just saying. This Prentice Steffen guy has a job as team doctor for Garmin-Chipotle. Mind your own business and do your damned job. In the sport of cycling, no doubt there are many people who know where bodies are buried. Move on people. The past is the past. Focus on the now and get rid of the dopers, because there are plenty of them still beating the system. And focus on the future. Make sure today’s young talented riders stay clean. Meanwhile, Tyler Fucking Hamilton, one of the biggest and saddest cheats of all time, was here in SLC racing his bike, courtesy of Michael Ball’s idiotic and pathetic attempt to rescue the careers of proven dopers in hopes of selling a few pair of overpriced jeans. I’m sorry for the language, but I raced against Tyler in New England. He was always good. Better than me. I was stoked when he crushed everyone at Liege Bastogne Liege. Then I almost cried when he smashed his collarbone in the Tour and soldiered on. What a sham. How ironic that while the Olympics were going on in Beijing, Tyler was doing circles around Pioneer Park in Utah. Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust.
Here’s one for you: apparently there is an offer for Floyd to return to racing with Rock. Floyd: don’t do it. You are better than that.
The 2008 Tour of Utah brought big time bike racing back to Utah, and the downtown criterium stage brought enthusiastic crowds and fast action around Pioneer Park. After the exciting sprint finish won by Ricardo Escuela over Fast Freddie, we got a chance to catch up with two local rockstars, Burke Swindlehurst and Dave Harward, as they were warming down. They didn’t have black Escalades waiting for them. They didn’t have team boss clowns walking around with bodyguards. Just two good old boys who ride their bikes really fast, who took time out to say hello to old friends.
T-Bird, the girls and Harward took some time to say hello after a fast stage.
About a month ago, professional bike racer Dave Zabriskie called me to see if I knew of any nice places to stay in Park City or Deer Valley. His coach wanted him to train and sleep at an altitude above 8,000 feet. This was right after I started my new job as Director of Marketing for Deer Valley Lodging. Duh. This was a no-brainer. Thanks to a cycling-friendly General Manager at The Village at Empire Pass, one of our Deer Valley slopeside properties, we were able to set him up with some nice accommodations while he spent time motorpacing behind a scooter on the roads of Park City, and sleeping above 8,000 feet. Dave leaves for Beijing on Sunday, and will be representing the United States in the road race and individual time trial. A former silver medalist in the World Championships time trial, Z is no dark horse in this event. He beat Armstrong in the Tour de France to claim a yellow jersey, and I believe he still holds the record for the fastest ever average speed in a TDF time trial stage. And did I mention that he beat Armstrong, which was sweet. Unlike current time trial world champion Fabian Cancellara, who can’t help being Swiss but often refers to himself in the third person, which I find quite annoying, Dave is pretty down to earth despite being an international star. If you read this recent interview on cyclingnews.com, you have to think he’s got as good a shot as anyone for a medal. As you can see below, Z has shorn the Dirk Diggler moustache which he sported for much of the 2008 season, something we have never seen before in professional cycling.
Good luck Dave. I’ll give you ten bucks if you race with a face mask on.
Here is another update from Race Director T-Mac, asking for some help from Utah motorcyclists:
The Tour of Utah is in need of experienced motorcyclists for our NRC Pro mens stage race. We would prefer those that can handle riding two-up in a large caravan. Our race is being covered by all your favorite cycling news organizations (Velonews, Cyclingnews.com, ROAD, RoadBikeReview, etc.) and we need to accomodate their photographers as well as our locals covering the race.
We also need motos for traffic control support to UHP as well so please let us know if you can help even if you cannot or do not wish to ride the event two-up. Just go to www.tourofutah.com and click on Volunteers. If you will just fill out the application and let us know when you can help (road stages only, August 13, 14 and 16) and that you wish to be a volunteer moto.
Tour of Utah needs your help. I got a call from T-Mac (Terry McGinnis), Race Director of the 2008 Tour of Utah bicycle stage race. This is a multi-day pro-am cycling event on the prestigious NRC calendar, and will draw all the best U.S. domestic bike racers. Local icons like Burke Swindlehurst (T-Bird) and Jeff Louder will likely be gunning for glory, but there will be only one king crowned after the final ascent up Little Cottonwood Canyon, the same climb as the annual Snowbird Hillclimb. My best finish in the Snowbird Hillclimb was 3rd, behind Dave Z. and T-Bird, but that was just starting at the bottom and racing to the top. These poor bastards in the 2008 TOU will ride a hundred miles or so AND THEN duke it out up the final climb. With a $75,000 cash prize list and a grand prize of a new car to the winner, TOU is back after a hiatus, and from the looks of it, living large indeed. But putting on a multi-day pro bike race all over the state is a messy affair of tangled logistics, and T-Mac needs some motorcycle riders to volunteer for various support duties, such as assisting UHP in traffic marshaling, neutral support, and chauffeuring race officials from one spot to another. I will likely volunteer for a day or two, but T-Mac needs all the help he can get. If you are a Utah-based moto rider with any sort of scoot, email T-Mac and offer up some assistance. Now let me tell you a little bit about my friend T-Mac: we were former team mates in our younger days on the X-Men Cycling Team, and T-Mac helped me win a lot of races at the Rocky Mountain Raceway “Tuesday Night World Championships.” T-Mac was tenacious then, and is even more tenacious now as he continues to fight some nasty cancer. And, did I mention he is race director for the grandest bike race Utah has ever seen? This guy is tough, but needs a little help.
View of my old arse. Stage 1. 2006 Tour of Utah. Photo by T-Mac.
So my phone rings and it’s an unfamiliar SLC number. Turns out, it is founder and CEO of DZ Nuts chamois creme, Dave Zabriskie. Dave is a professional cyclist with Team Slipstream and a former winner of the Maillot Jaune in the Tour de France. In that opening time trial a few years back, he shocked the world by beating all comers including a retired, silly well-known Texan (see Dickipedia) and everyone’s favorite recreational drug-using former Eastern bloc talent-squanderer Jan Ullrich to claim the leader’s jersey in dramatic fashion in the world’s most televised biking contest. Dave has had his flashes of brilliance on the bike since that historical moment, but some who know him well would argue his real talent is in making people laugh. Here’s to Dave and his wife and new baby, and to a speedy recovery from a nasty fall in the Giro d’Italia, right after helping his team win the opening time trial (editor’s note: Dave is still the only American to have won a stage in all three of the Grand Tours). Shaka.