Competitive Failure

I'm not an extremely competitive person, certainly nothing like the LA that Bill Strickland describes in Tour de Lance (a great book regardless of what you think about Lance). I played high school sports but basketball is a team game. I was always disgusted by the guys at the YMCA that played every game as if it was the NBA finals. I never really participated in individual competition such as track or swimming or bridge or chess.

Nevertheless, this spring I entered the Podium Cafe Virtual Directeur Sportif, a fantasy league about bicycle racing. You get 150 points to purchase riders. Alberto Contador, 3 time tour winner of beefsteak fame cost 32 points with the expectation of a great return on investment and Gorka Izagirre Insausti is 1 point but whoever heard of him?

At one point last spring the East Nashville Slow Riders were in first place. Thanks to Fabian Cancellera and Tom Boonen, stalwarts of the spring classics such as Paris Roubaix and Tour of Flanders I was rolling along. Then Boonen was hurt and didn't ride in the Tour de France. Fab had a great year but the spring is his strength although late in the year he did win the World Championship in the Time Trial. Tyler Farrar, the sprinter for Garmin Transitions had his best year and led my team in scoring. Next year his price will increase. The long and short is I finished the season in 116th place quite a come down from my early lead.

My downfall was the lack of a contender for the overall championship (General Classification or GC in the lingo) of a grand tour such as Contador or Ivan Basso. I did buy Christian Vande Velde but he kept falling off his bicycle and scored no points all year! He's a nice guy but how does he keep his job? Chris Horner was a good buy as he was cheap and his score was 10x the previous year, plus he seems like a good guy. I needed more Horners and Farrars.

As an aside on a recent trip to California I dined at an In and Out because it's his favorite fast food hamburger. For a guy who is pushing 40 he's doing well.

Next year's strategy is obviously to broaden my team to include all types of riders. The winning team, Sleeping Maiden Velo (huh?) had Vincenzo Nibali as its leader. Who is he? He is the winner of the Tour of Spain but I never heard of the guy before this season. I guess I'll have to read my old copies of Velo News all winter in preparation for next year's competition. But that would make me competitive.

Bert's Bad Beef

Alberto Contador is the latest cyclist to return a positive drug test during the Tour de France. It's for clembutrol whatever that is. His protests seem rather silly, that it's from some bad meat from Spain, but he has some "experts" on his side. Other say it's just not possible. I guess his story may be true but I wonder what comments we'll hear from Andy "dropped chain" Shleck?

Great weather to ride a bike even if you're a lot slower than Bert. Have a steak and beer after you're finished. There's no need to worry about a drug test although I do wonder what they're feeding those cows these days.