How Time Flies

As a new blogger I was unaware of the dedication required to constantly update the world on my thoughts and actions. Since I have joined Facebook my creative activities (such as they are) have been directed to that forum of internet intellectualism. I posted about positive results for my alma mater's football team and their upcoming challenges. I will soon travel to witness the action in person.

I am participating in an event of momentous magnitude for my adopted city of Nashville, i.e. how to get more people riding bicycles so that bicycle shops can sell more bicycles. I rode my own bike 62 miles (100 kilometers to the rest of the world) in a local charity ride. It only took me five hours or so including stops for nature breaks and the rest stop cookies included in the cost of the ride. All paid riders received a reasonably acceptable spaghetti lunch after the ride.

My wife is busy planning a trip to the city by the bay, San Francisco. I understand you go there to see stereotypes (Chinatown, Castro District, Haight Ashbury), tall trees and a prison. Then we will drive one of Hertz's finest down the coast on Highway 1. I have discovered that the hotels and rental cars are expensive. I'm sure the bicycle ride across the Golden Gate Bridge will be the highlight of the trip.

The Good Old Bicycle

I didn't know Art Hobson when I was at the University of Arkansas but other people spoke very highly of him. He is a physicist and was very well thought of by my friends. Here he explains why two wheels are better than four or more.

Touring the Artsy Bike Racks of Nashville

I rode about 30 miles Sunday and included a visit to each and every art bike rack in Nashville. These were installed recently to show how the city is bike friendly. Some of them are kind of cute. The microphone at the Demonbreum Roundabout is my favorite. Excuse the picture quality they were taken with my phone.



These are at the Farmer's Market on Rosa Parks Blvd. Notice the agricultural theme.









Maybe we can organize an East Nashville to downtown tour of all the bike racks. It's only about 12-14 miles but there are some hills. I can testify to that.

The Right Reverend Houston Dale Nutt

I was not a fan of Nutt at Arkansas after the 2003 season when a team loaded with seniors, including several that went to the NFL, badly underperformed. He then flirted with the Nebraska job, received a lucrative contract extension and promptly produced two losing seasons. He lost to Vanderbilt in 2005 and should have been fired the next day. He has just signed an all-american candidate quarterback at Ole Miss who has had numerous run-ins with the law. Jeremiah Masoli led his team to the Rose Bowl last year and was then kicked out of Oregon after two different criminal incidents.

Nutt is of dubious character but this one takes the cake. I can remember one of his stars was arrested when he was found drunk and asleep in his car by the Fayetteville police. He played the full season. Nutt's idea of discipline starts with how much the player can help him as a coach. He did kick off a troubled player from the Ole Miss team weeks before this event. He then said he had no interest in Masoli but after his backup QB left the team he changed his mind. I hope this blows up in his face.

My favorite Nutt story is that one of the 1,000 text messages he sent to the "woman not his wife" (see Mandel's story in SI) was 20 minutes before the kickoff of a bowl game against Wisconsin. We lost the game.

Bike Racks in Nashville

I've written a post for the Bike Walk Tennessee blog about Nashville government support for cycling. It sounds like a press release for the Mayor but that's not my intention. You can find it here.

Au Revoir Lance

The Tour de France ended Sunday with a third victory by Alberto Contador and a 23th place finish for Lance Armstrong. The most publicity he received Sunday was for wearing the wrong colored kit (that's cyclist speak for uniform). Radio Shack did win the best team prize but no one cares about that except maybe the corporate executives at Radio Shack. Lance went out as a seven time winner in 2005 and his legacy wasn't seriously damaged by his return but it doesn't add any additional luster. The current Federal investigation into doping by the Postal team will impact his image more than his last two Tour attempts. From now on his lawyers are more important than what jersey he's wearing.

The best placed American was Chris Horner, a career domestique (that means worker bee in French) who is 39 years old. He finished 10th will riding for his team leaders but ended up higher than either Armstrong or Levi Leipheimer. Horner seems to be a great guy and deserves the accolades. My guess is he'll be on a another team next year making better money.

Chris Horner—Buried by TT, Rode for Team

The Downfall of Champions

Lance Armstrong, seven time Tour de France winner, crashed and burned on Stage 8 of the 2010 edition of the TdF. LA had incredibly good luck during those seven years and has suffered payback in the two years of his return. He suffered his first broken bones last year prior to the tour and this year fell and withdrew from the Tour of California. He also suffered an illness earlier this year that kept him out of another race. He did ride to second in the Tour de Swisse fueling hope for a TdF win by LA fans.

The odds of an Armstrong victory in this years tour were slim and none. The third place finish in 2009 after three years from the sport was a hell of an achievement. Apparently he truly felt he had a chance to win this year driven by his hatred of Alberto Contador. A second place finish in the Tour de Suisse fueled that drive for victory. He may have the strongest team in this year’s race (although Astana and Saxo Bank may argue the point) but they could not prevent him from suffering the ignominy of three separate crashes on Sunday.

The Floyd Landis charges may have fueled the Lance haters but they also drove his desire to prove them wrong. Desire and past glory mean nothing in any current competition especially one as strenuous and demanding as the three week long Tour de France. Whether his ill-fated return diminishes his legacy no one can take back those seven jerseys. Even the Federal government can’t take those although the final stage of that competition is yet to be decided.

I long ago decided LA doped because every competitor he defeated in those years was doing the same thing. Ullrich, Basso, Pantani (who died of an overdose), Hamilton, Landis, etc. were all using performance enhancing drugs. Anyone that reads David Walsh’s book From Lance to Landis will have a hard time disagreeing with my conclusion. He’s a great athlete but not seven years in a row great. I don’t think that EPO or steroids improve your luck in avoiding injury but they sure improve your ability to climb mountains. LA drive to win brought him those seven wins and also put him on the ground three times in Stage 8.

Michael Schumaker has equal claim to greatness in Formula 1 racing and is also a seven time champion, just as amazing a feat as Armstrong’s seven wins. Schumaker “retired” when his Ferrari team decided to move on with Kimi Raikkonen as their number one driver. Schumaker’s streak ended in 2005 as the championship was taken by Fernando Alonso in a Renault (yes those ubiquitous small French cars also go racing). He was competitive in his last years of 2006 and 2007 but retired and served as a well paid consultant to Ferrari in 2008 and 2009. Ferrari driver Felipe Massa was injured in 2009 and Schumaker was tipped to be his replacement for the remainder of the season. Schumaker is an avid motorcyclist (he has ridden the Dragon) and could not drive due to any injury from a motorcycle accident earlier in the year. However this apparently fueled his desire to return to the sport.

While he was retired Lance Armstrong raced in mountain bike race called the Leadville 100 in 2008. He finished second to mountain bike pro Dave Wiens even though he wasn’t in proper condition. A few months later he announced his return to pro cycling and credits the race with igniting his desire to return. He finished third in the TdF in 2009 and then returned to Leadville to win the race which was memorialized in an excellent documentary Race Across the Sky. Wiens commented that he never raced against anyone that used the Tour de France as training for the Leadville 100.

Schumaker’s return this year for the Mercedes Racing Team is a disaster. He has yet to finish on the podium (first three places) and is usually in the middle of the pack. His best placed finish is fourth. He currently sits in ninth place in points with 36 compared to Lewis Hamilton’s first place total of 145. Needless to say Michael will not be winning his eighth championship just as Lance won’t find that eighth maillot jaune. I don’t think PEDs will help a race driver but driving the best car in the field, Ferrari, for most of those years certainly gives an advantage to any racer.

Why is it that past champions cannot sit on the sidelines and enjoy life after their victories? Is it because their entire existence and reason for being is wrapped in the single minded pursuit of one goal? Apparently the focus required to win championships isn’t turned off and on with a switch. But the toll of aging takes Lance Armstrong farther away from Alberto Contador and Michael Schumaker from Lewis Hamilton. Time waits for no one.