Catwonsports

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Bigger than Daisy

I wish Daisy could read because this story would make her feel svelte.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

All finished


All finished
Originally uploaded by Ippoc Amic
Along with the other two new American teams, Team Bicichat p/b Mobile Meowzer completed their 1st Grand Tour. Yay!

Saturday, July 26, 2008

LG

What a ride...now let's pass all the doping tests.

The Tour is like Christmas

Every morning, we wake up with anticipation wondering who is going to win and what is going to happen.

We hope Carlos gets a cool surprise and stays in yellow.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Praying


Praying
Originally uploaded by Ippoc Amic
for a good time trial so she can keep her jersey tomorrow. Or maybe, another version of downward kitty.

rest up for Saturday


rest up for Saturday
Originally uploaded by Ippoc Amic
So, no wind issues today. Looks like it will be all out tomorrow. Just thinking that all the favs have worn yellow except Menchov. He's a bit far back, but he still is one of my podium picks for Paris. Here is the other picks in order:
Evans
Sastre
Menchov
Kohl
FrankS
CVV

headwind today?


headwind today?
Originally uploaded by Ippoc Amic
They say there might be a headwind on today's stage. A headwind could offer an opportunity for CSC to try and make the pace really hard. A few years ago in La Vuelta time trialists Aitor the Traitor and his teammate Frigo were caught out in the windy plains of Spain the day before the itt. Needless to say, the next day their times were slow, and they lost any chance of winning the race. So, I wonder if CSC is going to try and make up some more time today? They surely need it.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

call me naive



but this is just weird. I guess they have to do the routine search.
from velonews

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Will the yellow jersey


Will the yellow jersey
Originally uploaded by Ippoc Amic
change teams today?

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

I have a teammate


I have a teammate
Originally uploaded by Ippoc Amic
who has an expression so appropriate to today's stage. The question of the day: I wonder who will get their "ass handed to them" on the HC climbs? Marscat hopes it is not Cadel, and I hope not either. I'd like to see him kiss that lion a few more times.

Also, is WF having tendonitis problems? If so, the next few stages are going to be extra rough.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Team BiciChat p/b Mobile Meowzer

Rest day 2 wrap-up

Like the other two American teams, Columbia and Garmin-Chipotle p/b H3O, Team BiciChat has secured a major sponsorship for their team. After several years of private funding and out of pocket expense, Co-owner/manager Ms. Catwonsports was very pleased to make the announcement on the 2nd rest day of Le Tour. Co-owner/DS Ms. Marscat was equally happy with the announcement of the much longer than normal 5 year contract. We have been rewarded with our transparent system as well as our open “cat”door viewing of the team’s urine samples that any detractors may wish to analyze. We maintain that Team BiciChat is a clean team. A 5 year contract is unheard of in our sport. A contract of this magnitude allows us take a 3rd tier team to the Pro Tour level. We can recruit and develop athletes at a much younger age and see their development to a successful fruitation. Amazing. This is beyond what we had hoped for when we started looking for a partner.

Talking further about the sponsorship, the co-owners stated numerous times how this was a sponsorship for the ages. This is who and what we are: we are mobile, and we are meowzers browsers. How good can it get? Team BiciChat and Mobile Meowzer are an extraordinary partnership. We can take them to the next level with the added European exposure, and it goes without saying, that they add the financial backing to allow us to compete with the best out there. BiciChat did have other offers such as the rumored BarfoWorld. BiciChat was somewhat offended that BarfoWorld insisted on their patented brand of furball gel so that contract was going no where fast. Another sponsorship is pending for 2009. Lauren offered the tip and if all goes well, there may be a Mobile Meowzer team cam to rival that of the Garmin Chipotle in car cam at next year’s’ tour.

With the added financial backing, Team Mobile Meowzer will be able to purchase more athletes to add depth and address the weakness that this year’s Tour exposed. One new member for next year may be the Tuxedo that Lauren currently manages. The Tuxedo is agile and responds well to added diversity like the new canine addition. Two other felines that are being looked at are the brother sister act from Corralitos. CSC has two brothers, why not add a second brother-sister act to the current line-up. Not quite a Donny & Marie duo, the Corralitos crew could be called a franchise act. If we sign them up now, we are the team that others will fear in 2009. However, the Corralitos crew is so good that they may be beyond our budget. We are going to meet with their agent and discuss the possibility of a partnership. If they are beyond budget, we might take the David Millar/Slipstream approach and offer a co-owner form of contract. Either way, the Corralitos duo are a class act that will light up the 2009 Tour.

Summarizing the Tour up to this point, DS Marscat, no slouch in her day and very experienced in stage racing, maintains the Tour is the most wide open that it has been in years. Marscat said that wearing the KOM dotted jersey and the Meow Jaune were so much more than the team had expected that this Tour is a success regardless of the final third week’s outcome. Of course, we will do out best and that is what is expected in the Tour. We, like all teams, are committed to that end. Daisy came in to the event a little overweight, but so did Jan, and he still reached the podium. We have four legs while others have two, we will maximize that advantage to the fullest. Asked to address the rivals, Co-owner Catwonsports said: please just let us have our day. We know we are an unknown and that others are stronger and have proven they can win. However, we are not discounting the other unnown: CVV. We know Menchov has been a winner twice at a grand tour. We know Evans has been on the podium of Le Tour, but we are confident that what we bring no other team brings: the others have not raced Madera or Kern. We have raced both, and we have won. Yes, let me state that again, we have won Madera, and we have won Kern several times. These two stage races bring us experience and success that will be very important in this last week of Le Tour. Pressed further for clarification, Marscat admitted that the team lacks depth that the third week needs. However, she stated again that we were not a favorite, we did not come to win, and we only found ourselves in this (podium) position. We will do what we can and build on our experience this year. A podium is not out of our paw reach for 2008. And do watch for us in 2009.

No rest day for Marscat


No rest day for Marscat
Originally uploaded by Ippoc Amic
She has a blue day.

rest day


rest day
Originally uploaded by Ippoc Amic
yay!

Sunday, July 20, 2008

name that team


name that team
Originally uploaded by Ippoc Amic
Wild Dingo says our crew needs a name. Any suggestions for the 4 of us?

I am so happy that America's Best Inn has the Tour showing and so is
Minnie.

2 questions of the day: will CVV hang on and keep 3 position? Will
CSC-Sexy Bank utilize their super team to the max and steal yellow
from Evans?

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Downward Daisy


Downward Daisy
Originally uploaded by Ippoc Amic
Some yoga for relaxation on the short transfer day.

We have a transfer


We have a transfer
Originally uploaded by Ippoc Amic
stage, and the crew knows it.

Will it be win #5? I think CSC needs to do something aggressive, but
if they get the yellow, tomorrow is a hard day on top of having to
control the race.

I'm thinking today's winner might be an opportunist, and I still want
to see Zabel get a "W".

Friday, July 18, 2008

getting ready for a transition




Lots of deals made in the village of Le Tour. German Nat'l Champ at 19 and U23 world champ riding as a leadout. Having a Petacchi and a Cipo on the same team is overkill. I wonder if Ciolek is looking around? I would. Too bad he's not Russian or Tinkoff would have picked him up in a second.

Sponsors

"It’s a sport team" say the French telecommunications group Sagem. I wonder if any of them will be jumping ship after this latest escapade by Ricco and company?

Konica was replaced by Sagem a few years ago.

What is Brandt? Brandt dot com has some little flash thingy happening on my computer and it won't load. Brandt USA is a construction equipment group.

My favorite: the hands that cut, but not because of that.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Does EPO cause memory loss?


I think it might or it causes selective memory retention. I'm no expert. However, I was going back through my memory bank and came to the conclusion that Mauro Gianetti might not be as misled as Mr. Millar believes. A few articles blasting from the past.

Most recently. David Millar: Cyclingnews 17 Jul 2008
However, Millar believes that Mauro Gianetti, Saunier Duval's team manager, has good intentions and Riccò was more likely misled by others.

I think that Mauro Gianetti has been taken advantage of and he is someone I have a lot of respect for," said Millar. "He does not deserve this and he has a good heart. He has perhaps put a lot of trust in people that he shouldn't have and he will learn from this.

I guarantee - you watch Mauro - he will have an independent anti-doping programme within the team by the end of the year. He was close to doing it last year, and now he is going to have to extend his budget and get that programme in place. It is by doing that the sport will change.

Not as innocent as it seemed back in May 11, 1996, cyclingnews.com
Team Polti Offers Itself As EPO-Test Guinea Pig
With biochemists working with the UCI unable so far to isolate EPO from urine samples, a new approach is being pursued which would involve blood samples being compared with urine samples. Until now all the teams that UCI president Hein Verbruggen has approached have refused to cooperate with experiments to try out this analysis technique. However Team Polti has come forward and agreed that blood samples can be taken from its riders, starting in the Tour de Romandie currently being run.

This is said to have been as a result of a personal demand from Polti rider Mauro Gianetti. Team trainer Giosue Zenoni says: "We're absolutely certain they won't find anything amiss in our team, but if by collaborating we can contribute to exposing cheating, I'm all for it."

A Canadian drugs-detection specialist has arrived in Ferrara to work with Prof Francesco Conconi on the comparative method which it may be possible to institute in time for the Tour de France.


Interesting historical note a fews year later in 1998
The first artificial oxygen carriers belonged to a class of synthetic perflourocarbon-based emulsions. PFCs, which are quite similar to Teflon, are insoluble in water but can absorb huge quantities of gases--some products can dissolve more than 100 times more oxygen per volume than blood plasma) and are yet biologically inert. In 1966, the capability of PFCs as an oxygen transport medium were spectacularly displayed when a study in Science showed that a rat immersed in the solution could survive for hours--it literally breathed liquid.

A PFC, which is taken in an injected emulsion, stays in the bloodstream for only a few hours before dissolving out and expiring, chemically unaltered, through the lungs. This raises the somewhat comic and, at the same time, disturbing image of anti-doping officials combing finish lines with breathalyzer kits.The first suspected use of a PFC in cycling was at the 1998 Tour de Romandie, when Mauro Gianetti collapsed mid-race and was rushed to the University hospital in Lausanne, where Gianetti spent two weeks, some of it in intensive care where his body battled against anaphylactic shock and near-total organ failure. Gianetti "almost died," said hospital physician Gerald Gremion in news reports, "probably following an injection of PFC." Gianetti denied he had taken the drug.

What cyclists who took PFCs either did not know or care about was that not one of the various types of PFC had ever been approved for human use by the medical governing body of any nation. The drug was strictly reserved for clinical trials and known adverse effects included everything from mild flu-like symptoms to the kind of near-complete organ failure that Gianetti suffered.


And then they tout his return, 1998
VALKENBURG, Netherlands (Reuters) -- Five months ago Mauro Gianetti was fighting for his life in a Lausanne hospital for the second time in three years. On Sunday he captains Switzerland in the elite world road race championship over 258 kilometers. Last May Gianetti collapsed during the Tour of Romandy. His kidneys failed and for three days doctors feared that he might die. But once again, the Swiss rider has surprised everyone with his power of recovery.

However Sunday's race, the blue riband of the world road championships, has been hard hit by the absence of several leading riders. Among them are the Swiss trio of Alex Zuelle, Laurent Dufaux and Armin Meier who were suspended following the Tour de France when they confessed to using the performance-enhancing drug EPO (erythropoietin).


And technically, it's really the start of stage 13 in France.

Another one bites the dust

Bye bye Ricco. There was a reason why he was so unliked. Are unbelievable rides suspect? I guess there is no Santa Claus and sorry no Easter Bunny either.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

I may not make it


I may not make it
Originally uploaded by Ippoc Amic
to Paris with my daily posts. A 3 week Grand Tour may be more than I can handle. Perhaps, I should have started out with medium size 10 day Tour instead. We'll see since I resorted to recycling today. In all fairness though, I am out of town. And, I did make a post on a rest day.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

23 year anniversary


23 year anniversary
Originally uploaded by Ippoc Amic
today at the same job...frack!

rest day...

sort of.

Did a little motor pacing in an attempt to gain some top end. Maxed out at 36 mph, but others are at 38+, so I need plenty more. Over the years, I reached the conclusion that I needed aerobic more than power. So what's a gal to do. Kern or top end. The dilemma of all my years and every year since I started racing has been hilly vs. flat events. I have my Kern taper and I love Kern, but it's like a party that I should not be going to or a discipline that I don't really need to get all excited about. I can't climb, never have, never will. However, the Kern taper and its training regime makes the difficulty and suffering less than if I didn't make any effort. I used to have much more power than I have now. I was still lacking on the top end that a bigger rider would have, but I could hold my own and was not too far off from getting one of those free jerseys they hand out at nationals. The following year I stopped going to the gym in the winter and increased my base miles. Why after getting so close did I change directions and work on the aerobic vs. the power?

Being a road racer was and is way more fun than track racing and crits. Minimal success in crits and the short time trial events on the track came easier than all the years working on road races. It was like I felt that if it was so easy, it wasn't as valuable to me, and I decided to concentrate on something that I really sucked at: hills, and managed to put a lot of time and effort into road racing. And, I still suck. I have way more fun and way less success.

For the last few months, I have been putting much more effort into the track and less into the road racing. It's major work, and it's a bit daunting to see how much power I need and how much I've lost. I guess that I shouldn't have taken it for granted back then. At least, I am having a bit more fun at the track than I used to have.

Enough about me…

I absolutely loved seeing Cadel kiss the lion on each lion cheek.


I liked seeing the emotion that all the years of working for something meant to him. That was cool. I think that those favorites who won in April are really showing the strain of a three month peak, and I am not surprised. It is hard to peak once and then peak again in such a short time. Another favorite, but one who took the quiet build up to the TdF like Cadel did, is Menchov. Unfortunately, Menchov seems even more dull than Cadel so I hope he doesn't get yellow. I couldn't even follow the Vuelta last year knowing how flat line it was with Menchov in the Golden jersey. The most that I have enjoyed watching Menchov was in last year's TdF when he was working for MR. His open mouth grimace is one for the ages. This isn't last year but it looks just like it.



And last but not least, I have to admit something. If CVV wasn't on Garmin, I would think he was a cheater. If he was on CSC or even Columbia, I might still have doubts. So what's up with that? Do I really believe JV and company? I guess I must. In all fairness though, CVV has shown that he can climb.
He helped Roberto in the Vuelta and did some good climbing then. However, Liberty became the next Astana, and everyone knows what happened with that. So there we go, another minor dilemma going on in my mind.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Getting closer


Getting closer
Originally uploaded by Ippoc Amic
Will Evans be recuperated enough from yesterday's crash to take yellow today? I hope that knee is ok.

I have a feeling someone could get their 3rd stage win or will he make good on his promise to help his teammate win today?.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Trade pink for yellow?


Trade pink for yellow?
Originally uploaded by Ippoc Amic
Is it possible that CVV might get a chance to wear yellow for a day?

Saturday, July 12, 2008

It's 1 o'clock


It's 1 o'clock
Originally uploaded by Ippoc Amic
do you know where your keys are? Alternate title: Just another day of scattering crumbs.

Last night during the rush to the hospital, both sets of our keys were safely locked up in the truck.

Today, I am feeling lazy and unmotivated to ride so I am chalking up my 3 hours on this little iPhone keyboard.

Marscat did go out on her bikie. We have been checking in throughout the morning now early afternoon.

On our latest check in, she realizes there are no keys in her pocket. She is pretty sure where they are though: some place on Ignacio Valley. Ok, I hope she is right.

Who will win wet


Who will win wet
Originally uploaded by Ippoc Amic
chilly stage today? I think a mass sprint in the rain has "Robbie" all over it. Or a smaller bunch sprint? I'm rooting for the old guy Zabel.

Sending Bella beams out to Sabine, Donna, Dorit, and BJM.

Friday, July 11, 2008

So I decided


So I decided
Originally uploaded by Ippoc Amic
That with the marriage and everything we ought to have a joint account. Even though my spouse is known to misplace items like ATM cards, wallets, keys, shoes, etc... I gave into better judgment, and together, we applied for a credit card.

The first week of having the card, marscat proudly shows me the card and boasts "I still have it".

The next few weeks there are opportunities for her to use it, but she opts not to. Finally and after just 3 weeks of joint card ownership, I jokingly say "you lost it, huh?"
Of course not, it's just in a different wallet. I want to believe this vs. the thought that it might be lost. I even tell our joint friend Eike this story with the footnote that I believe Erika, and the card is some place in the house.

Today, I'm at the store buying beer, cat food, and other things. They go to ring me up, and the fricking card is declined. I get home, call the bank, and they tell me "Erika's card was found on the streets of San Franciso".

Well, at least, it's not lost anymore. And lucky for us, it wasn't used. Yes, she'll get another joint card.

what a dog


what a dog
Originally uploaded by Ippoc Amic
Yet another ex-teammate of he who must not be named has been busted...Triki positive for EPO.

Too cute


Too cute
Originally uploaded by Ippoc Amic
First saw these little creatures in Australia and have liked the meercats since then.

Question of the day? Can an Aussie get lucky today?

Thursday, July 10, 2008

a good day at the office


a good day at the office
Originally uploaded by Ippoc Amic
We had some visitors, and they brought presents. But, prudence says I should sample the Virgin Island drink moderately the night before the Bella Biergarten festivities. Or else, my vision may be truly blurry tomorrow evening.

Question for day 6

Will there be a return to Millar time? Will the Slippies slay the Super-Besse?

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

a reluctant winner


a reluctant winner
Originally uploaded by Ippoc Amic
but very deserving. After months of watching her diet by having Minnie gobble her food, Daisy reached her ideal racing weight. Her training included many sprint intervals running up and down the hall to fine tune her glycotic oxidative system. To top off her muscle glycogen, she ate every greenie in the house. And finally, her climbing was improved by wall repeats: jumping up the wall to touch imaginary spots made more
imaginary when Marscat painted the wall. Overall, Daisy's day in yellow was achieved by gastronomic sacrifice, a challenging training regime, attention to detail, and last but not least, the unconditional support of her loving family.

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

No mountains


No mountains
Originally uploaded by Ippoc Amic
until Thursday, so he'll keep his polka dots for a few more days.

Question for tomorrow a day early: how many French racers or French teams will be in the long break away tomorrow? I am thinking a break because it is the longest stage with the first real climbing starting the next day.

cyclingfans.com


cyclingfans.com
Originally uploaded by Ippoc Amic
Best streaming video. Thanks to
JenSB for the links. This morning Vs has lots of commercials.

Question of the day: how come the Garmin TT looks so much better than the road kit? The top and bottom actually match.

Monday, July 07, 2008

no one guessed

that the answer to yesterday's question was Stuey O'Grady. Stuart and Mark(with different partners though) were madison champs: olys and worlds.



So the new question of the day: why isn't Robbie winning? The team's resources are being saved for the for GC guy and no one helping out the sprinter? Caught up in too many crashes? hmmm????

Sunday, July 06, 2008

won't win today


won't win today
Originally uploaded by Ippoc Amic
but I think he will get a stage in France to go with his Italian 2.

Day 2 question: what rider in this year's Tour has something in
common with the rider below.