The First 100 Miles

Is Lance Really Good For Cycling?

The current lead story over at Velo News is that Lance Armstrong finds the 2009 Tour de Frace route, which was unveiled today, "interesting."

That's the hottest story in cycling at this moment.  Seriously.

When Lance announced that he was coming back I didn't have strong feelings about it one way or the ohter.  I guess you could say that I found it "interesting." I didn't buy his claim that he was doing it to bring more awareness to his fight against cancer because Lance doesn't need cycling to do that; he's bigger than cycling.  It was pretty obvious to me that, after a few years off the bike, he found that he really missed competing and winning.  It's a big part of who he is and without it, there was a void.  That's a perfectly respectable reason to come back to the sport and I wish him all the best.  He's a joy to watch and it will make for great racing from everyone in the sport.

I even thought that it would be good for the sport because where Lance goes, interest follows, and the more people who get interested in cycling, the better.  More interest means more sponsors, which means more money, which means more cycling.  Yay.

However, now I'm starting to wonder if Lance is actually too big for cycling.  Like I said earlier, he's bigger than the sport now and since his return, his stardom has begun to eclipse everything else, and everyone else, in the sport.

He, like anyone else, deserves a place in the peloton, but I'm starting to rethink my earlier idea that Lance's comeback will be good for cycling.  I'm starting to think that now, instead of Lance Armstrong coming back to cycling, cycling is instead just going to become Lance Armstrong.

Happy Monday

It's Monday morning and it's freezing up here.

I had a great weekend with Brad and the kids.  The big case that Brad was working on ended up settling on Saturday morning so he didn't have to go into the office and he's now going to be able to take a few days off in the coming weeks to help me with the move.  Thank God!

I cooked up a storm this weekend making beef stew, roasted squash and sweet potato soup and some healthy banana muffins.  We took the kids to hockey and I got some more packing done.

Yes Cat, I do plan to do more blogging from now on.  I miss the routine of my regular blogs and I miss be as connected to my "family" here as I used to be. Plus, Ivan Basso and Lance Armtrong are going to be racing again this season and you know I'm going to have something to say about that!

Several people have asked - and even offered to send money - for early chapters of my novel.  I'm flattered and I think I may be open to sharing - for free.  I won't post it here online as others have done, but I may indeed email early chapters to the tried and true members of the Inane Asylum if they're interested.  The book - working title is "Georgia"- is still a long way from being ready for outside eyes but when it's presentable, you guys will be the first to know.

Okay, finally, after many requests, here is a pic of my new house.

White Trash

Today's title sums up my feelings about both Sarah Palin and chocolate.

Maybe I'm being a bit hard on Ms. Palin but she scares the crap out of me.  I know I don't live in the US, but we're so closely tied to you guys that we're on the edge of our seats up here waiting to see which candidate you guys choose to send to the white house because your choice will have a huge effect on us up here as well.  So, if McCain gets in and Sarah Palin finds herself "a heartbeat away from the Presidency," we may all have to move to another country. I hear France is nice.

And that brings me to chocolate.  Cathy pointed out that I'd promised a discussion on chocolate so here is where I stand.  While I don't like white trash in my candidates for VP, it's actually the best way to describe my tastes in chocolate.

I'm a chocoholic, no doubt about it.  I have a crazy sweet tooth and chocolate is at the top of my list.  Well, next to cupcakes and pie and donuts...it's more of a spreadsheet than a list.  But, unlike so many other chocolate lovers who crave fancy truffles and imported cocoa, I'll take a KitKat bar or pack of M&Ms any day. 

When my husband and I started dating he used to try to woo me with pretty gold boxes of chocolatey confections from Europe.  He was so proud of himself.  But I secretly tossed them out after he went home and grabbed for my stash of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  Mmmmm.

I promise to post a bunch of pics of the new house and the kids very soon. 

So, what's new?

Where to begin?

More positive tests - very sad.  The Schumacher positive I find especially sad becuase he was such a joy to watch this summer.  He seemed to embody what the Tour is all about - determination in the face of the impossible - so to learn that he was cheating all along really stings.

Like Cathy, I find Kohl's decision to come clean about his doping and the reasons behind it admirable.  The only thing worse than cheating is continuing to lie about it after you've been caught.  Kohl's admission that after his crash eariler in the season he felt enormous fear and pressure to do well in the Tour in order to secure a job after Gerolsteiner left made a lot of sense and it sheds some more light on how hard it can be for these guys and the strain they are under even when off the bike.  It's not an excuse but I give him enormous credit for being honest now, if not all along.

I'm working hard on my novel and closing in on the end of the first draft - thank the Lord!  Then it will be a long slog of revisions before I'm ready to think about getting out there and finding and agent and seeing if I can sell the thing.  The journey has just begun but I'm so happy that I'm getting closer.

We move on November 5th so basically my life involves packing during every free moment that I have.  My husband is heading to trial for a big case he's working on right now so he's working crazy hours which means that I'm basically back to being a single mom, just like during law school leaving even less free time for all that packing.  Ah well, the new house is great and I can't wait to get there.

We had our federal election here yesterday and, sadly, Canadians relected a Conservative government (sort of the Canadian equivalent of the Republican party in the US).  I hope you guys do a better job of moivng towards progress a few weeks from now.