Tour thoughts, recent happenings in Longmont.

The tour is over and I think I was left expecting a little more. I didn't watch any of it on tv as we no longer have cable, but I did follow the days online as much as possible. I think the most exciting thing was seeing Mark Cavendish dominate the sprints and his close battle with Hushovd for the green jersey.
The mountains seemed to be blah. It was more like everyone was watching everyone else waiting for someone to make a move rather than making a move. In the end, it was a few mountain stages and the time trial that made the difference. But I find myself wishing for a Marco Pantani type rider who may not be so great at the time trials to come into the mountain stages and just blow it up. Just attack and go for broke, knowing that he would loose time in the TT and needed to make up several minutes in the mountains.
Lance did really well. If he had been the team leader, he may well have had win number eight under his belt. Now it sounds like him and Contador are squabbling and calling each other names and so on. And there is also Greg Lemond, who again had to get himself in the news by saying that Contador's riding was impossible for an unassisted rider. You may remember he made some remarks about Armstrong possibly doping a few years back which led to Trek discontinuing their business relationship with him.
But he did the math. I have read other's evaluations of his math and said his findings were inaccurate, and that the top few riders of that stage would have also had impossible numbers if you used the Lemond formula.
Last week I took the exhaust off of my motorcycle and cleaned all the rust off and resprayed it with some high temp black spray paint. Here is what it looks like now.
Alot better in my opinion. The only other thing I think I will do at this point is replace the shift lever as it is bent. I also possibly invented a drink while doing this work. Into a blender : 2 oz tequila, 2 ice cubes, 9-10 frozen strawberries, and enough orange juice to bring the liquid line up to 12 oz. Blend until smooth. It is so far unnamed, but be careful with them as they are strong and go down quite easy. They are also fruity and pink, so if you are a guy you may not want to drink these in public or around people you don't know well or want to impress (definitely a nono for work parties).
And speaking of my motorcycle, it shit the bed again on Friday. I did some errands and all seemed fine. When I left for work, I made it about a mile before things felt strange - I gave it throttle and it didn't respond, then did respond, then didn't respond, and then died at a red light. I couldn't get it to start and pulled over to the side of the road. I knew I was getting low on gas so I switched to the reserve tank but that didn't do anything. So I parked it behind a business and caught the bus in. Fortunately, I was still in Longmont so I had only a short walk to the nearest bus stop though I was still late to work.
On my way home I got off the bus where it was parked and pushed it over to the gas station and put a gallon in. That did nothing, so I started pushing it home. I was able to get it most of the way, but had to call Katie to come give me a hand to get it up the last part of the hill. It has not started since then. It turns over sometimes, and it sounds like it is sparking, but it will not run. Tomorrow I am going to take it to the local Buell dealer, which is around 25 miles away. I will either rent a trailer from Uhaul and/or am waiting to hear from a coworker whose roommate has a truck and motorcycle ramp I may be able to borrow.
I like the bike. It is a fun ride and definitely a good learner bike, but I am already looking forward to the day when I can sell it and get something nicer, faster, and more reliable. I really like alot of Buell's bikes looks and engineering and think I may purchase another. I really believe my problems with this one have been coincidence. Anyway, whatever happens my troubles are sure to provide inspiration for saving money over the fall and winter.
Or?
I haven't taken any pictures of our climbing wall in awhile. Here is how it is looking now.
As you can see we have amassed quite the collection of holds (notice the lightbulbs)! I would say we have somewhere around 250 holds. Though I do wish we had some vertical space to make the walls taller, it is still great to just be able to walk out to the garage to get in an hour or two of training. I feel like I have been climbing alot stronger lately and have done a few problems at the gym I have seen others who I consider better than me not be able to do. Of course there is always something harder and someone stronger (unless your initals are dw, dg, cs, pr, or of course THE fn). I have still been having a hard time getting on the bike. I am not sure what the problem is. Maybe I burnt myself out too early in the season. I feel little to no motivation to ride, which sucks because in a week and a half I will be heading to Colorado Springs for a 50 miler with Scott and company. I told myself I would go on a ride today. I would leave at 2. Then at 3. Then at 4. Now it is 5:15 and I have yet to leave, and it looks like we have the daily evening thunderstorms rolling in. I would say I will get the trainer out, but I think I would be lying.
And to end the day, here are some dog pictures. I was trying to get a dog's eye view of him in the first one, but every time I would squat down he would walk over to try to lick me. I tried to get a few action shots, but he didn't seem too interested in playing fetch at that time. He is doing really well!