Posts Tagged "tour de france"

Juan Pelota VS El Pistolero: A fistful of words

Posted by Bryan on Jul 29, 2009 in Blog, Uncategorized | 6 comments

Sounds like some kind of old school western showdown doesn’t it? With the 2009 Tour de France now over the war of words between Lance Armstrong (Juan Pelota) and Alberto Contador (El Pistolero) has already heated up.

Everyone who watched this years TdF knows that Team Astana wasn’t sitting around the campfire singing Kum Ba Ya everynight with both LA and AC fighting for control of the team. While both showed at least a little restraint while the race was ongoing they’ve both come out swinging in the last few days starting with El Pistolero’s deragatory comments and then Lance firing back on Twitter.

I love it. Personally, I’m not a fan of Contador. I think he’s got a lot to learn before he comes a great cycling champion (I really just don’t like his grin). The sport of cycling needs a good rivalry like this and, even though Contador is nearly 12 years younger than Armstrong, next year is already shaping up to be a great year of cycling.

Now toss in the fact that Armstrong will be racing on the newly formed Team Radio Shack and it gets even better. Who will make the switch to the USA’s newest pro team to help Lance dethrone Contador? Who knows but I’ll bet El Pistolero’s pea shooter that they’ll be gunning for him come July 2010.

I’m glad too because somebody needs to wipe that cheesy grin off Contador’s face.

What do you think? Is this rivalry good for cycling? Am I too hard on AC? Am I a LA fan boy?

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List of Tour de France Contests

Posted by Bryan on Jul 10, 2009 in Blog, News | 15 comments

UPDATE: I’ve redirected all Tour de France Contest posts to this page and updated the links for 2011 Tour de France Contests and Giveaways. I’ll add more as I find’em but if you know of one not listed please leave it in the comments or contact me.

With the Tour de France in full swing it seems like everyday I’m seeing where somebody is running a contest or giveaway ranging from trips to bicycles to gear. I thought I’d try and put them all in one spot. Here you go.

1. RoadID Tour de France Challenge – Multiple ways to enter and with the Grand Prize totaling $8500. And if you don’t have a RoadID it’s a good time to get one.
2. Map My Ride Aquaphor le Tour Challenge – jerseys, bikes and a trip to Paris.
3. Trek Travel daily giveaways
4. Tour de France Fantasy Cycling Challenge at NBC Sports
5. IZOD Race for the Podium – trip to Paris, Cervelo Bicycles, Giro Helmets, and Clean Bottles
6. Training Peaks – daily giveaways of Training Peaks premium subscriptions plus drawings for more prizes on July 23.
7. Easton/Cycling News Trivia Challenge – answer the trivia question each day for a chance to win a EC90 XL Carbon Clincher Wheelset, EC90 SL stem, SLX3 handlebars, & seatpost, or an autographed BMC jersey. The grand prize winner gets a BMC Teammachine SLR01.
8. PerformanceBike.com – Three lucky winners get over $5000 in gear including a Scattante CFR Race Road Bike.
9. IG Markets Cycling Tour de France Competition – ‘Like’ their Facebook page and enter to win a signed copy of On Tour by Bradley Wiggins.
10. Pro Bike Kit £1000 Gift Voucher Competition.

Here’s a list of special sales and/or promotions by some of our sponsors:

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Century Training Series: Day 2

Posted by Bryan on Jul 7, 2009 in Blog, Century Training Series | 0 comments

Today would see me actually doing my first ride as part of the Century Training Series. It was nothing serious, just an hour at endurance pace. I consulted with @331miles regarding how to work in my warm up and we agreed that I ride my warm up of six miles then do an hour at my projected century pace which is 15 mph.

The weather was pretty nice actually with it not being as hot or humid as it has been the last couple of weeks. It made for a pretty pleasant ride. There was a large number of cyclists around White Rock Lake today too. This was the first day I’ve ridden there since the Tour De France started so I’m thinking some folks have been watching on TV and deciding to hit the road. Call it the TDF effect.

Overall I think this ride went pretty well. Near the hour point I was starting to feel it a little but I think that’s because of my bibs. Here are the numbers for today’s ride:

Total Time: 1:36:11 (1 hour at endurance; 36 minutes warmup/cooldown)
Avg: 14.6 mph
Distance: 23.49 miles
Crunches: 20
Push Ups: 20

I was going to make a copy of the training plan found in Bicycling to post here but won’t be able to. I emailed Bicycling for permission and was told I could request a PDF of the article but prices start at $1900. I like my readers but that won’t be happening.

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Cycling Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: July 2009

Posted by Bryan on Jun 30, 2009 in Blog, Desktop Wallpaper Calender | 4 comments

With July comes the biggest professional bike race of the season. The Tour de France. How could I not design a desktop wallpaper that doesn’t pay tribute to this great race. Instead of profiling pics/names of individual cyclists I decided to go with the classic images from past tours which includes fields of sunflowers and El Diablo. The size of the image is 1024×768.

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Will politics ruin Astana’s Tour De France?

Posted by Bryan on Jun 27, 2009 in Blog, Opinion | 10 comments

For those of you following professional cycling you know that teams are selecting their final nine-man rosters for next month’s Tour De France. The Cervelo Test Team and Team Milram released their squads on June 23 and Garmin-Slipstream released their team on June 24. Astana released their roster on June 25 but not without a little controversy.

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