In Lance We Trust

"While I'm absolutely enjoying my time as a retired athlete with Sheryl and the kids, the recent smear campaign out of France has awoken my competitive side. I'm not willing to put a percentage on the chances but I will no longer rule it out..." - Lance Armstrong

Furthermore, Lance was quoted saying "I'm thinking about it," as he told The American Statesman's Suzanne Halliburton. "I'm thinking it's the best way to piss (the French) off," he added.

Congratulations to Lance and Sheryl Crow on their engagement!!!

No Reservation

Have you seen Anthony Bourdain's new show on the Travel Channel? We caught a recent rerun of the Paris episode. For the first time, I got to see what the Rungis market (the relocated les Halles now in the Parisian suburb) is like. Ah, we couldn't help but feel wistful about not being in Paris this summer. Heck, we were wistful for not being in Paris, period. I have seen a few episodes of Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential" on the Food Network, but the one-hour "No Reservation" on Paris was well-done. The surprising "star" turns out to be chef and freelance food writer Louisa Chu, a Chinese American born in Hong Kong who has been training and cooking in Paris (at present, she cooks at the Michelin two-starred restaurant Les Ambassadeurs under Jean-François Piège at the Hôtel de Crillon). She is an articulate lady who knows her stuff (and speaks damn good French, too). Anthony is his usual cranky self, though he did go to several interesting-looking restaurants or bistros that we are dying to try out on our next trip.

Party is tomorrow

We drove up to Noe Valley this afternoon for this couple's house warming party. They used to live in the City during Dotcom Days, then moved back East so that the husband could attend business school. They are back (with their baby boy) as he got a new job with Google. We got to their neighborhood and found parking a block away. I thought, "Hmm, for a party that started at 1:00 o'clock and is supposed to go to 6:00 p.m., parking this close to the hosts' home is almost too good to be true..." As R rang the door bell (and there was no sound on the other side of the door), I felt a fleeting moment of panic, "oh no, the party is really next week. Silly us, we mis-read the invitation..." Our hostess opened the door, with a smiling but puzzled look on her face. I said, "How come it is so quiet?" "Uh, the party is tomorrow," she replied.

Friends from near and far are sharing their photographic memories from the recent Tour de France. Here are two awesome shots: The top photo, of Lance on the cobbles of the Champs-Elysees (with Bobby Julich of CSC trailing) in Paris, was sent to me by Keely Henderson (Colubmia University). The bottom one with Andreas Klöden, Popovich, Hincapie, and Lance was taken by Ted, a client of this year's Dude Girl adventure cycling tour, before the German rider from T-Mobile suffered a fractured wrist and was forced to abandon.

Found this quote by Lance Armstrong is a recent article in the International Herald Tribune...

"There's never been a Tour de France victory by a cancer survivor before me. That's what I'd like to be remembered for." July 29, 2003

Without TiVo, there is no Tour de France 2005

Thank goodness for TiVo. What would I have done if not for the digital video recorder?! We were in Upstate New York July 16-24 for our summer vacation, in a cottage by Cayuga Lake and there was no cable or TV in the cottage. Conventional VCR just could not record all the daily stages that I was going to miss. I am so glad (and relieved) that TiVo worked (as there were some inexplicable TiVo machine problems days prior to our departure), because now I get to enjoy George Hincapie's victory on Pla d'Adet, the queen's stage, the hardest mountain stage in this year's Tour. Just awesome...and so deserving for George, having been Lance Armstrong's most faithful lieutenant all these years. Rebecca especially liked the part where the TV motorcycle ran over that idiotic fan who had stopped in the middle of a mountain passage. When the driver recovered his balance, the cameraman hopped back on and smacked hard on the spectator's head as the motorcycle took off to rejoin the race. Whap! It was most satisfying...

Tour de France vs. Amazing Race

Americans don't seem to understand le Tour de France. People were interested in this year's Tour, because it was in the news so much, thanks to Lance Armstrong and his then-imminent retirement. But most Americans have no clue about cycling as a sport, even though most of us at one point in our life have ridden a bicycle. The rules (as well as the unwritten but long-observed protocols among the cyclists, like, when to pee, or what does one do or not do when a leader is peeing) can seem illogical or sometimes arcane.

Then it occurred to me...Tour de France is like Amazing Race (the reality show) in some ways:
(1) The objective is to win overall, but in each stage, there is a winner. In Amazing Race show, teams to arrive first at each location are awarded vacation packages.
(2) Cyclists can be eliminated from the Tour if they don't finish each day within a certain time limit (as determined by a formula that takes into account of the difficulty of the ride and the daily finisher's time). In Amazing Race, teams to arrive last are cut, unless it is a non-eliminatioin stage.
(3) The strongest rider in a physical sense does not always win. You also have to ride smart, and sometimes, ride with luck. Same with the teams in Amazing Race: you can be the first team to arrive in Venice, but if your flight out is delayed and other teams take to the road, you just may finish last in the next leg.
(4) Team work does count. No one wins alone in Amazing Race; each team of two has to help each other and those who bicker between teammates are often eliminated along the way. No one wins by himself in le Tour, either. It is a team sport. It takes 8 domestiques to ensure the one leader of the team have the best chance of winning. In Lance Armstrong's case, his super-domestiques often obliterate the opposition/competition by setting a fast tempo, while Lance conserves his energy until the final climb of the day when he puts the hammer down and rides to victory.

Time travel? a.k.a. Peloton riding thru sunflowers

Can I put in a new post that appears like an old post?

Well, the answer is YES. That is cool, because I have been wanting to add to my new blog in the past few days, but just have not gotten around to do it. Been busy fixing the TiVoToGo download problem I have had on my laptop computer at home (you don't want me to go into the detail...too painful).

The fact that I can select posting date and time means I can retroactively post anything related to the Tour de France as if I did it then and there. Fun...for now, to truly live up to the name of this blog, I shall include a Graham Watson's photo from this year's Tour.