Day 6 Tidbits

The tidbits from Day 5 seemed to be a popular item , I'll try to find some more tidbits to share as I go...

A great bath can make all the difference...

Upon arriving and unloading at the hotel in Carcassonne, I purchased some salami, bread, chips, water, apple and a coke at a near by grocery. I dragged my weary self, bike and gear to the third floor. I put the hot water full on and drew a hot bath, made the sandwich of salami and bread and got in. I soaked for nearly 30 minutes while eating my sandwich. Man, o man did that feel good. After cleaning myself , next it was the bike's turn. I brought some cleaning rags with me. So, I pulled the front wheel, set the bike in the tub and showered it off with the hand held shower device so popular in Europe. With the grime, sweat, sports drink, bugs, and other gunk cleared away, Ms. Veritas is looking pretty sexy again.

For those not familiar, the bike I'm riding was hand made by a good friend and great bike builder, Bob Duncan. The brand he chose for the bike is Veritas. And, the truth is precisely what you get. Ms Veritas tells me when I'm slow and when I'm fast (mostly tho, she says I am slow and HEAVY). Best, most comfortable riding bike I've owned; and I own a few. I am hopeful that this trip will help with both the heavy and the slow criticisms. BTW, I have received tons of complements on the ride. It is simple in design, a classic look in the over population growth of carbon fiber bikes. It is light, very light, but stiff. Stiffness helps you increase the efficiency of transferring the energy from a pedal stroke into forward motion. The welds are very well done, not easy to do with titanium. The pros in our group looked it over very hard because it stands out amongst all the carbon firer here. They love the bike, great work Bob.

Vascular legs...

Something every cyclist strives for is to be so muscular and lean that your legs not only look strong and shapely, but also show some veins near the surface of the skin. Not the varicose vein look, but think blue lines running along the muscle lines of the legs; a good indicator of how lean you are. Also, along with digging scars, some say chicks dig this look as well; particularly when guys shave their legs. Well, you can take it to the extreme. Today, I was about 20 feet from George Hincapie (9 year Tour rider, 7x with Lance, US athlete). I was near the guard rail at the start and yelled out "Hey, George." (I am such a tourist. Lost a ton of cool points on that one.) George look right at me, waived and smiled. I felt a little goofy; I'm sure the French people around us believed us to be 'partners'. Not possible, he married the podium girl from a few years back when he won a stage in the TdF. No kidding, it really happened that way. Well, George's legs are a mess. His legs look like a 90 year old man with varicose veins all over this legs. WOW. A physician in our group commented that while it appears unhealthy, it is not likely that bad. There are two levels of veins in the body, deep and shallow. The deep ones do the majority of the work. Thrombosis in these veins is a serious matter. I have no clue on this subject, so I took his word for it. Doubtful chicks dig Geroge's legs.

That boy's got some ass behind him...

Fabian Cancellara , world time trialing champion, rolled out of his team bus. For those unfamiliar, a time trial specialist has a huge engine. These boys are not the thin wispy mountain climbers and they typically cannot spin up a bike in a short distance to top speed like the sprinters. These boys can turn a big gear, with huge power, for a long time. Cancellara is bigger than most cyclists, but still thin. His legs are HUGE. I would bet his legs are 32-34 inches around. And this boy has some ass behind him. Not in the weird kind of way, but power. Think NFL lineman, but weighing 175 pounds, only 50 pounds from the waist up. He is small in the shoulders, waist and chest. Dude looks like the Hulk in the legs and ass. Pretty cool to see all this in person.