Nature Valley Grand Prix

Friday night after battling a week of bad backs and head colds I made my way to Uptown to watch a stage of the Nature Valley Grand Prix. This was actually the first time I had gone to see a bike race in person. It was impressive to see how many spectators had gathered to see the Uptown Criterium. I got to check out the new Dura Ace electric shift system at the Penn Cycle tent. Pretty cool idea, but I'm not sure if it makes enough of a difference to be worth so much money.

The NVGP is actually a pretty big deal as far as US Cycling goes and draws some fairly big names and gets quite a bit of coverage from cycling media.

The Race started on Wednesday with a Time Trial along the Mississippi followed by a Criterium in downtown St Paul that afternoon. When the day was done Tom Zirbel was leading the men and Olympic gold medalist and last years winner Kristen Armstrong (no relation to that other Armstrong biker guy) was leading the women.

Day two was a 66.5 mile road race that started and finished in Canon Falls. Zirbel and Armstrong still held the GC leads after it was done.

Day three was the Uptown Criterium

A criterium (crit for short) is generally multiple laps on a short course with a bunch of sharp corners. In this case it was a 1k circuit with 6 90 degree turns. Throw a few dozen cyclist on this course going as fast as they can in a tight group and you can imagine it can actually get quite exciting.



We planted our selves at the first turn at the corner of 32nd and Hennipen and had a great view as the cyclists roared past inches away from us lap after lap.

Kristen Armstrong enters the first turn:


Some guy named Floyd Landis at the apex of turn 1:




Sebastien Haedo and Brooke Miller won the day while Zirbel and Armstrong held their overall leads.

It was a great time sitting and watching these riders FLYING around the course. After a couple of laps some riders were dropped off the back and were just limping along at a much, much slower pace. Q and I joked that these riders who had popped (to quote Mr Liggit)were still riding faster than us on our best days.

Saturday was an 80 mile road race in the Mankato area. Zirbel and Armstrong still held their leads.

Today is the final stage. A crit in super hilly Stillwater. With the top GC poitions seperated by only a few seconds there could be a shakeup. It is up in the air who is going to win this thing.

Right Wing Blowhard Admits the Truth

And so it went Friday morning when WLS radio host Erich "Mancow" Muller decided to subject himself to the controversial practice of waterboarding live on his show.

Mancow decided to tackle the divisive issue head on -- actually it was head down, while restrained and reclining.

"I want to find out if it's torture," Mancow told his listeners Friday morning, adding that he hoped his on-air test would help prove that waterboarding did not, in fact, constitute torture...

With a Chicago Fire Department paramedic on hand, Mancow was placed on a 7-foot long table, his legs were elevated, and his feet were tied up.

Turns out the stunt wasn't so funny. Witnesses said Muller thrashed on the table, and even instantly threw the toy cow he was holding as his emergency tool to signify when he wanted the experiment to stop. He only lasted 6 or 7 seconds.

"It is way worse than I thought it would be, and that's no joke,"Mancow said, likening it to a time when he nearly drowned as a child. "It is such an odd feeling to have water poured down your nose with your head back...It was instantaneous...and I don't want to say this: absolutely torture."

"I wanted to prove it wasn't torture," Mancow said. "They cut off our heads, we put water on their face...I got voted to do this but I really thought 'I'm going to laugh this off.' "

Torture

Pretty Funny

A Five Second Film

The Bod sums it up nicely

I can't believe I am quoting Jesse Ventura, but damn!

Ventura:I was water boarded, so I know — at SERE School, Survival Escape Resistance Evasion. It was a required school you had to go to prior to going into the combat zone, which in my era was Vietnam. All of us had to go there. We were all, in essence — every one of us was water boarded. It is torture.

KING: What was it like?

VENTURA: It’s drowning. It gives you the complete sensation that you are drowning. It is no good, because you — I’ll put it to you this way, you give me a water board, Dick Cheney and one hour, and I’ll have him confess to the Sharon Tate murders.

One of many gems in his Larry King interview last night

Some stuff

Haven’t posted much in a while, so this will be a “things that caught my eye” during the day kind of a deal.

A softball coach douching it up.

The right wing engaging in their latest round of manufactured outrage

Joe the Plumber really is a bigot.

You know it’s a fun day when it takes three tries with two different logons to do an ipconfig/ release

This is truly frightening, but unfortunately not all that surprising. Texas. 'Nuf said?

Yet another commute home with mother nature fiercely blowing in my face. Ugh.

Mother Nature just kicked my ass

Holy headwind Batman! The seven and a half mile ride home from work today was straight into what I am positive was hurricane force winds. Two days ago my average speed on the same route was a blazing 15.4 mph. Today? 12.5 mph.

I am tired now, and I need a beer.

Swine Flu