Down South

Saturday morning, I found myself back on Staten Island with my gear and my bike, ready to ride from New Dorp to St. George to whatever that industrial / junkyard area near the Bayonne Bridge is called to the Outerbridge past the mall down Arthur Kill Road up those godforsaken hills to the bagel shop and down Hylan Boulevard back to New Dorp.

Riding in Staten Island is always something of an adventure. If the gas-guzzling SUVs illegally hopping across the double-yellow line to speed head-on into bicycle traffic (meaning us) and blast through steady red lights don’t provide enough entertainment, all that’s required is a keen ear to absorb all the conversation one would never hear during a group ride with the Westchester Cycling Club. For example, after coming to a stop, Kelly realized a screw had embedded itself into her rear tire.

“I got screwed and I didn’t even realize it,” she said, to which someone else responded, “You going to try and pull it out or are you just going to leave it in?”

Apart from that, what I definitely don’t miss are the potholes. That’s not to say upper Westchester is pothole free, because it’s certainly not that, but after two-and-a-half hours on the road in Staten Island, I was amazed my bike was still in one piece.

So that happened. And other things happened, but nowhere near as exciting. I read on VeloNews.com that Johan Bruyneel may lead the Astana team and he may take Levi Leipheimer and Alberto Contador with him.

A quick word about Contador. I may be repeating myself here, but does anyone really believe that a twenty-four-year-old kid was in a position to beat a guy like Michael Rasmussen (who was probably swimming in EPO and other doping drugs) on natural ability alone? I think not.

And if Leipheimer’s going with Johan, does that mean Mr. Leipheimer’s comfortable and confident in Bruyneel’s ability to get his riders doped up as efficiently as possible without getting caught? I think so.

More on that. Take a guy like Basso who tells everyone, “Fuentes had my blood but I never doped. I only intended to dope.” Do Basso and his lawyers and the media actually expect us to believe a bunch of crap like that? They expect us to swallow a line like that after Basso absolutely destroyed everyone in the Giro? Are you kidding me?

I think I’ve been reading too much on professional cycling racing. I really need to tone it down, or better yet, just tune it out. While I enjoy watching some cycling on TV every now and again—and I admit to owning the 2006 Tour de France 12-hour DVD set—it really doesn’t do much for me when it comes to my own cycling, so why bother?