Back into the swing of things in Boulder after an awesome Tour of Utah. First year that the race has decided to go big time and I’d say that it was a success. Challenging courses, great spectators, and a motivated field. I went into the race with low personal aspirations, after being sick for the majority of the previous month I knew that I would be mainly surviving. Turned out that I was able to do quite a bit of work for the team, plenty of tempo the first two days in the hot, windy, and flat plains of SLC. By stage 4 I was feeling a bit better and made the early move with the intent that I would be able to help out our GC guys on the final 35km climb to the finish atop Mt.Nebo. Things went perfectly on the climb, I rode away from my breakaway companions and was able to help out Burke and Chaddy when they came across to me on the climb. I was happy to hang on and finish with Wherry for 8th place. Went for the early move again on the final day, epic day with three mountains finishing atop Little Cottonwood Canyon at the Snowbird resort. Had the same intentions to help out the teams climbers once they were able to come across on the final climb. That never happened and I found myself in a position to win the final stage, wasn’t able to quite capitalize however. Blake from TIAA-CREF had a great climb and held on to win. I was pretty inconsistent on the final 10km climb and went back and forth a bit, eventually salvaged a podium spot and pulled out a 3rd place. Aiming to put in a few big weeks in the mountains now and build upon Utah to have a solid ride at nationals in a few weeks. Think that it should be ideal.
Caught a friend of a friend performing last night in his jazz band as part of the Boulder Fringe Festival. Great show, amazing artists all around. Impressive to see how much heart is put into a musicians instrument. Definitely parallels between an athlete giving 100% physical effort and a musician putting their heart and soul into their instrument.

I wholeheartedly believe that the cyclist of 2006 is quickly becoming a fashion mockery of itself. The cycling cap is becoming a thing of the past luckily. I believe that Floyd’s abuse of the neoprene cycling cap while speaking with the French Press is an offense worthy of a two year ban.

What concerns me most are a few disturbing trends. Number one is Salvatore Commesso. His rolled up sleeves and pompous riding  aren’t doing the image of  the sport any favors.  Number two  is  Matthias Kessler’s undershirt.   Can’t find a decent pic of it but to any of you who watched the Tour he was the t-mobile guy on the front doing massive pulls.  Jersey zipped down completely to reveal an undershirt that had been hacked to shreds and was full of holes.  Day in day out, even after a heinous crash one day that must have surely ripped apart his undershirt even more he was back out the next day with a fresh holey undershirt.  For number three I will simply point you in the direction of this Us Weekly article.  Lance Armstrong.