waiting for the caravan

Gino Bartali

2012-01-29T12:55:00.000+01:00

Often athletes are seen as role models and heroes. Kids plaster the walls with posters of their favorite soccer star, race car driver or cyclist. They dream to score that goal that earns your team the championship like Andrés Iniesta. They dream to earn the most pole positions in Formla 1 like Michael Schumacher or to dominate the Tour de France time trials like Miguel Indurain. But these sports stars are merely entertainers. I agree, they do things us mortals cannot achieve, but they largely owe it to talent and training - nothing so heroic in that, I assume.
So here's to a sportsman that proved to be a hero and a role model when it counted: Gino Bartali. Bartali won the Tour de France twice and the Giro d' Italia three times. But those are not his biggest accomplishment. During World War II he supported the Italian Resistance and helped saving the lives of 800 jews. Bartali himself wasn't too keen on talking about his actions. He prefered deeds over words and so most of his achievement were only noted after his death. According to the UCI, Bartali is to be honoured as a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem.

George P. Pelecanos: The Cut

2011-12-18T14:22:00.000+01:00

I first came across George Pelecanos when I was given a box of the first three D.C. Noir books as a birthday present. Usually, I'm not a crime fiction guy but I liked these books a lot. Not only because of their departure from typical detective stories but also because Pelecanos' characters seemed credible and unique at the same time. I moved on to read "Right as Rain" and "Hell to Pay", both good books but by far not as fascinating as the D.C. Noir series. Afterwards I didn't really look for more of his books.
But of course I've watched The Wire. Pelecanos was a writer and producer for the show (and earned an Emmy) - his work for HBO is what he's best known nowadays (he's also involved in The Pacific and Treme). His work for these shows put him back on my map and when I came across his most recent book The Cut in my favorite bookstore I picked it up.
The Cut introduces a new character that might be the protagonist for a new series of books: Spero Lucas, an Iraq war veteran, now working as unregistered private investigator in D.C. Besides working for a defense attorney he specializes in retrieving lost and stolen property. When a job gets a drug dealer's son off the hook Lucas gets assigned with a new task: the dealer's operation has lost some of its product and Lucas gets out to get it back, charging his usual 40% fee. The job turns out not so easy and soon enough Lucas is in a downard spiral that puts him in the kind of conflict he had hoped to have left behind in Iraq. Family baggage, his own values and the way his job has to be done frame Lucas' development through the novel. At the book's end he's another man, changed for good. How much he has changed, however, will be told in his next adventure.
Pelecanos keeps a lot of his trademarks in his recent book: Spero Lucas is own of four adopted kids to a Greek American couple, two of the silblings are black and two are white. This lays the foundation for his treatment of family and racial identity. As always, Pelecanos' reader is taken through Washington quite a bit, be it through intense knowledge of the city's map or by introducing certain Go-Go acts.
Pelecanos writing seems to have benefitted for his work on TV shows: the story is told straight and fast paced, developing characters deeply but without much ado and leaves me hoping for more.

2012

2011-12-18T03:26:00.000+01:00

Instead of a list of my favorite records of 2011 here's one of stuff coming out next year. I'm really looking forward to...

Asphyx - deathhammer
Napalm Death - utalitarian
Burning Love - rotten thing to say
Nails - new LP and split 7"
Black Breath - new LP
Wolfbrigade - damned
Grave - endless procession of souls
Phobia - remnants of filth
Swans - new LP
Failures - 12"

to be continued.

the nightstand

2011-12-14T22:50:00.002+01:00

As a child, I couldn't wait for being old enough to go to school. Well, school itself turned out to be one huge letdown but it provided me with a skill that should change everything: reading. As soon as my reading skills were good enough for books, I read everything I could get ahold of. Today I still spend a lot of my time reading, be it books, magazines or Wikipedia articles on stuff like gravitiy anomalies, priories or animals.

When I changed this blog from being on cycling only to an "all things I care about" blog, it seemed logical to add a "current read" category in the sidebar. I never really kept it updated so I removed it again and now its back.

While reading has always been important to me writing about it has never been easy for me. But keeping literature out of this blog doesn't really make sense to me. So there'll be a post about George Pelecanos up until sunday and more to follow. I'll try to keep the Nightstand updated. Sometimes posts about books shown there will follow, sometimes they won't.

Previous entries:

Philip K. Dick: Voices from the Street
George P. Pelecanos: The Cut
George P. Pelecanos: The Way Home
Nick Cave: The Death of Bunny Munro
Kurt Vonnegut: Slaughterhouse Five or The Children’s Crusade
Leonard Cohen: Beautiful Losers
Kenzaburo Oe: The Catch/Price Stock
George P. Pelecanos: The Night Gardener
George P. Pelecanos: The Turnaround

It's a long way to the top...

2011-12-03T13:39:00.001+01:00

if you wanna roll and roll

Beyond - no longer at ease

2011-11-06T17:00:00.000+01:00

original cover

Way back, in that somewhat extensive post on Acme, I mentioned a tape's b-side recorded by a friend. I know how cheesy it sounds to say how certain music changed one's life so I just leave it by saying that this selection of songs changed my perception of music for good. This thirty minutes contained the Acme 7", Ego Trip's "Alone" 7", three songs of the "There Is No Man" EP by GO! and finally, two songs of a record that doesn't seem to get the praise it deserves. I'm talking of "Vitality" and "What Awaits Us", two of the fantastic songs on a fantastic record: "No Longer At Ease" by New York's Beyond.
Saying the LP is underrated seems to be a bit off at first: I know a lot people who love that record. But it doesn't get the recognition many (often way poorer) records of their peers get, be it youth crew stuff put out by Revelation or bands from the ABC No Rio scene. Maybe this is because Beyond didn't or don't seem to fit with either of this scenes? Their sound seems to be musically developed much further than that of bands of either scene. Well, not everyone agrees: "Generic stop and go posi-core, short hardcore blasts and dragging mosh parts, we’ve all heard this a million times before. Not bad but nothing new at all" is the devastating review in the Flex! discography.

re-release cover

Well now there's a lot of reviews in Flex! that are a bit curious, bit I still wonder how the author managed no to notice the unique bass lines or the outstanding guitar work that makes me think of a metal-influenced Brian Baker. The music is passionate and fresh, the records easily passes the test of time. More than twenty years after it initial release No Longer At Ease's sound still is creative, distinct and individual. It's no wonder Beyond's members went on to other bands that created styles of their own as Quicksand, Burn, Inside Out and 1.6 Band (I generously look past Tom Capone joining Bold). A bit more on Beyond's biography and connections to other bands can be read in the liner notes Walter Schreifels wrote for the records 1999 re-releas on Some Records. Speaking of their labels, originaly the record was release on Jason O'Tolle's Combine Effort label - seems fitting that this records was put out by the singer of Life's Blood (yea, I know what he does today).
Beyond's lyrics might seem a bit childish or cheesy at some parts, but for a band of kids in their early twenties they still seem good and sometimes even moving to me (again, especially compared to their peers in bands like Bold or Gorilla Biscuits). As an example here's the last line of "What awaits us":

And I still got a life to live that I'm tired of wasting
And I still got love to give that'll keep spreading
And I'm sure you are all feeling scared in the corner of your mind
But we mus remember what we have and let it shine
What awaits us now...

The original LP is a bit of a collector's item, but still available at modest prices. The re-release CD contains the band's demo a bonus tracks an should be easily available.

<p>&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;TZ&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>

This video has been put on youtube by user Corejunkie who has a vast collection of great videos. Go check it out

Tweet of the year

2011-10-29T14:13:00.001+02:00

Tyler's a funny guy

Long time no post - but I've a got a couple of things in the making and am considering a new layout. So hopefully a there's going to be a bigger update in a few days.

Rise of the robots pt. 2

2011-10-09T16:15:00.002+02:00

Rise of the robots pt. 1

2011-10-09T16:11:00.001+02:00

Movie loathe interlude

2011-09-29T18:34:00.002+02:00

So my friend David asked me if I was watching all these movies when writing posts for the "ten movies I loathe" category. My answer was something like "Of course not! I'd really hate to got throught all this crap again." I think he was half-joking but he certainly has a point. When doingt the small posts on E.T.and Basic Instinct I easily could remember I hated the movies and still a lot why I hated them. But seriously, I'm not really satisfied with the outcome. So.... sigh.... I've put myself in that spot by announcing that category, so there's no excuse. I'll watch these movies before/when posting. That probably means it'll take longer to get to ten movies - and it certainly means I'm going to watch less movies I like in the nearer future. My biggest fear? Some of the films might be better than I remember them. Well, the next to go is stil There's Something About Mary. I certainly can't imagine to suddenly like this piece. The two movies already covered will reappear sometime, I think.

Let's go rock collecting!

2011-09-20T21:38:00.000+02:00

I've been fascinated by all things science since I was a child. While I'm not talented enough (or too lazy) to be a natural scientist myself, I'm still interested. I might not understand everything about gravity, neutrons or the higgs particle, but there are things that amaze me. A lot.
I've been following Phil Blait's Bad Astronomy blog for a while now. He's posting quite stunning pictures and videos taken by peers of him frequently. All of those are really really worth to check out. So do yourself a favor, and look at this. And this. And this.

Ten movies I loathe - part 2

2011-09-18T18:33:00.001+02:00

Basic Instinct

That's how erotic it gets

Basic Instinct was all the rage when I was thirteen. Besides living in a town with no cinema this was probably the last movie my partens would have let me see. So of course I did no see it back then, but as it was covered in the media a lot I knew quite a bit about it. Surely a movie about a woman killing men while being intimate seemed exciting for a thirteen year old boy.
However, when watching Basic Instinct for the first time, the latter didn't seem that trilling to me anymore and I was merely looking for a good dose of suspense. I've read about the flick being similar to Hitchcock's work, so I had some expectations. However, the 'suspense' in this movie is totally lame. Even the "surprising turns" offered all are predictable. It's just a stupid story presented in a atmosphere that obviously tries to be cool and post-modern but turns out sterile and boring. The stupid substance-less story is presented by actors that resemble robots more than actual human beings, Sharon Stone surely sets a standard in superficial bland acting. She earned a Razzie Award some years later for Intersection and The Specialist but Basic Instinct should have earned her one as well.
Add the blatant misogyny and homophobia that sets the tone in the movie and you've got another entry to the movies I loathe list.

Up next: There's Something About Mary

Circles

2011-09-18T01:56:00.001+02:00

Well, I haven't written about cycling since the Tour de France's first rest day. Cycling hasn't been boring, in fact the Tour itself turned out to be pretty exciting. But things haven't been really extraordinary. Cadel Evans scored a well earned victory. Andy Schleck provided one of the best stage victories in years and would have been a worthy winner as well. He had to settle with second place the third time in three years but the Leopard managed to place his brother on the podium as well. So it was a successfull tour for them. Well, was it?
Apparently, team owner Flavio Becca does not think so.
So he has kicked general manager Brian Nygaard off the team and hired Johan Bruyneel who'll bring in half his Radioshack team. So, a lot of riders and staff don't know about their job for next year. Phew. A week after this news, a rumor of a possible Astana-Saxobank merger started off. It doesn't seem that likely right now, but that what I thought about the Schleck Shack as well.
Other news have Longo missing doping tests and linked to Epo. Alex Rasmussen might get banned for missing three tests as well. Or he might not because the UCI and the Danish Cycling Union don't really know who's responsible. Well, those news might come with new names. But it's still about the same stuff. Cycling in circles.

Ten movies I loathe - part 1

2011-09-06T02:10:00.001+02:00

A few days ago, while walking to my friends David and Stef's place I somehow started to think about a certain movie (see below) and how much I hate it. So, my next thought was to put a list of movies I hate on here. I know, it's not exactly the most unique idea ever as a lot of these lists exist. But I've got a soft spot for lists and decided to do it anyway. When I was thinking about how to do these lists I searched the web for other peoples' lists and was amazed how bland most of these are. Basically I came across two kind of lists: One mention movies that everyone already knows they are bad, e.g. Showgirls or Glitter. The second is made by oh-so-smart guys who want to be very special by compiling lists of movies a lot of people like (Pulp Fiction, No Country For Old Men and The Godfather are popular choices). Yawn. Well, my list might be just as lame as theirs are but I try to include my personal reasons, so here you are. Ah by the way, I haven't put these movies in some particular order. I'd prefer none of them had ever been made.
I'm gonna write about one flick at a time, so here's the first entry:

E.T.
"The best Disney movie Disney never made" - This Variety-quote say it all: the movie is utter crap. I know, some lines above I said there'll be no particular order, but there has to be some exception and here it is: Of everything on this list, this is the movie I hate the most.

E.T. or Drew Barrymore?

Granted, the film and I hadn't had the best start. When I was a child, I didn't watch much T.V. - only some stuff carefully selected by my parents. But while I was happily spending my time with Lego, Matchbox cars and books other kids were used to watch a lot. One of my friends back then loved T.V., so no wonder his birthday parties were like this: Once the cake was eaten his dad put a movie into the VCR and a quiet and easy party was guaranteed, for the parents of course. It wasn't that easy for me when E.T. was on. Honestly, that creepy little alien scared the shit out of me. The way E.T. looks when they find them half-dead in the dry river bed haunted me in my dreams for a very long time. This was everything I remembered about the movie for a very long time. And this couldn't be just due to me being scared. The year before (or after? don't remember) we had watched Labyrinth on the guy's party. It also scared me but I really liked it from the beginning and do so today.
Years later I tried the movie again. I wasn't scared of E.T. anymore and I realized the movie was successful and generally well liked. While watching it I soon realized why I hadn't remembered anything else: Of course it is because that flick is sooooo dull. The way Spielberg tries to make this flick a heart breaker is so obvious that it's beyond embarrassing. So is the brain dead acting, by the way.
However, it teaches us some things: 1. People in hazmat suits are evil. 2. Aliens can telekinetically make themselves, kids and bikes fly - but only at the end of a movie. Not in the beginning when flying to that space ship to escape the evil humans would have been quite usefull. 3. Terrestrial defibrillation works on dying extra terrestials. 4. Logic or reason don't exist, but aliens do.
Extra hate: E.T. was the first big big movie starring Drew Barrymore. I guess it really helped her in her career. Thank you very much Steven Spielberg.

Up soon: Part 2 - The movie I was thinking about when walking to my friends' place: Basic Instinct

grrröööääääarrrrrrrr

2011-08-27T13:51:00.002+02:00

Mi 31.08.
Karlsruhe
Proberaum Faltenbruchstr. 105

Uzbeks
Attention Armageddon

After promoting friends I thought there's also room for a bit of unashamed self-advertising. My band's playing next week and we've got a demo out that you can download at our bandcamp.

Ghost Of Wem - s/t LP

2011-08-16T16:25:00.005+02:00

To get it out of the way right at the beginning of the post: Ghost Of Wem are dear friends of mine, so I'm heavily biased. But this is a personal blog, so that's nothing to worry about. I was planning on adding some reviews here, so why no starting with promoting good people? Also, I'm not much of a fan of doom, sludge or whatever this genre is called that's been oh so trendy for the last couple of years. I guess that kind of levels that out for a totally objective review.

That said, I like this LP really much. Some say it sounds like Burning Witch while other see it more akin to Eyehategod. I'm certainly no expert and quite frankly: I don't care if they sound like band blabla or band dangdang. I like that record because Ghost Of Wem have a certain aggression and power a lot of doom and sludge bands lack. As they sport a lot of the trademarks of contempary doom, as down tuned guitars, slow but driving guitar riffs, heavy basic drumming and some sinister melodies, they also know how to ride a song that's catchy and unique. The songs on this LP grab you right by the throat and shake your head to the band's brutal groove. Singer David's screamed vocals just add to making clear: Ghost Of Wem are not around to make prisoners. Their label describes them as sounding "fucking pissed and filthy". Well put. Of course they are even better when playing live as I was able to witness a couple of time during their recent tour. Too bad for those that missed out. Well not too bad for those ears as they surely go to eleven. Ghost Of Wem kick ass, slowly and painfully.

For those who care: the records is availabe in urine yellow and standard black and is availabe through the band and Blind Date Records.
http://www.blinddaterecords.de/
http://www.myspace.com/ghostofwem

Listen to a "Obey the Black Order"
<p>&amp;lt;a href="http://ghostofwem.bandcamp.com/track/obey-the-black-order"&amp;gt;Obey the black order by Ghost of Wem&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;</p>

to rest

2011-07-11T23:22:00.000+02:00

It's the first rest day of the 2011 Tour de France and this feels like a good moment to write something about cycling again. Following the fatal crash of Wouter Weylandt in the Giro d'Italia I hadn't been enjoying watching cycling for quite some while. I'd look into the coverage sometimes and check for results, but that was about it. Interest came back with the Tour de Suisse, but Mauricio Soler's accident in this race was another blow.
As much as I know that tragic accidents happen in any sport and in any profession, I couldn't just put it aside. Professional sports are, in a large part, entertainment. Athletes are providing a service of entertainment. Going down narrow roads on two narrow wheels at 80 kph adds to that entertainment. Weylandt's death and Soler's condition are part of it too, sadly. And so we have to admit: this tragedy is also related to us.
But we also have to admit: death is part of life. People die in all jobs. Some blue collar guy dies in a tragic accident at a construction site while, just across town, some white collar guys doesn't surviv his second heart attack. People die in traffic accidents while driving a truck loaded with our food. Wouter Weylandt died riding his bike. Judging comments by his team mates, friends and family he died doing what he loved. No mercy in this. I guess that's how just life is - it doesn't evite tragedy.
The Tour de France, however, proves to be a very special race. With its first stage underway, my interest, my excitement and my joy have been back. It's been a chaotic first week and the peloton has reached the rest day 18 men down. Some of this crashes weren't atypical for a first Tour week, only the number is extraordinary as well as how much GC contenders have been affected. The weather, some narrow roads and the abscence of a prologue may have played their part, but I guess it's just been a week like it's only seen very seldomly. However, two incidents have been quite shocking: Nicki Sörensen being taken out by a motorbike as well as Juan Antonio Flecha and Johnny Hogerland hit by a car. Both drivers have been expelled from the tour.
Of course the usual messageboards provide with a plethora of theories on the number of crashes, the number of head injuries and of course Contador's crashes. While Evans, Basso and the Schleck brothers are the only contenders to have stayed out of trouble, Contador has had a rough week with several crashes resulsting in hurting, swollen knee. While his aforementioned competitors are somewhat used to going down once in a while, Contador has been a rider staying out of such trouble in the past. I've been wondering if the Giro would damper his chances in the Tour. I was thinking about his physical form then but now it seems likely as he's tired mentally as well. It's going to be a difficult tour for him.
Andy Schleck hasn't shown much in this tour, he's kept out of trouble but lost eight seconds due to suboptimal position at the Mur de Bretagne. His brother Fränk didn't lose any time so far, but has neither been attacking. Cadel Evans, however has scored his first Tour stage win at aforementioned Mur and tried some attacks in Super Besse. However, Contador and the Schlecks followed with ease. But his form seems to be back and he's a serious contender to win the Tour.
The race goes through two modestly roling stages before hitting real mountains on thursday. I can't wait. The peloton rest day is about to end and so has my rest from following the sport.

108 forever

Goodbye Zann

2011-07-08T14:45:00.000+02:00

Zann - photography by Marc Linkenheil

This is coming a bit late but nevertheless here's something about Zann disbanding. Two weeks ago I attended the anual "New Noise Fest" just outside my hometown. I was particularly looking forward to this year's edition as some bands were playing I really like and hadn't seen in a while as Just Went Black, Trainwreck and Zann. All three bands' members are roughly my age and I think it's save to say we're coming from a smiliar background: the 90s diy hardcore scene. Soon after these bands arrived the word spread quickly that Zann would split up after the night's show. This wasn't totally unexpected: already the year before their guitarist John had told me he had to shorten his engagement into music due to being a father and he couldn't say how long Zann would be able to continue. Nevertheless it still was bit of a surprise - I guess a lot of people were a bit shocked and sad to hear the news while being glad to have the oportunity to see them one last time.

The first time I was in touch with Zann must have been back in 2000. Robert was planning on doing a small run of Rites Of Spring shirts on a non-profit basis. I purchased one of this shirts and he send me something on his band Zann that was about to tour Europe and put out a three way split 7". Since then Zann had been a constant factor withing do it yourself hardcore, they toured Europe many many times, often with American bands whose tours they booked. On their tour with Blame Game they stayed at our place and I have lively memories of Zann being amazed about the posibility of vomiting into our basin while sitting on the toilet. A lot of records and tours in America and Japan followed, spawing to the end of a 12 year ride two weeks ago.

For me, the end of Zann marks a bit of a lagged end of an era. In the early and mid 90s, under the influence of the Rorschach tour, labels like Ebullition and Gravitiy, in contrast to more mainstream success of bands like Ryker's and the Lost and Found label, a more DIY-focused scene flourished in Europe. Bands like e.g. Acme spawned of this scene and became classics in their own right. Zann started some years later, sticking to that DIY-ethic and carried it on through the next decade. The influence of this scene is still there and there are still a lot of people and bands around that have grown up as mid 90s hardcore kids, but the survivors of our generation are getting fewer and so it's sad to see a band like Zann quit.

Both Trainwreck and Just Went Black dedicated songs to their peers, however with different sentiments. Trainwreck's Marc dedicated a song to Zann saying "you all know why" while Sven of Just Went Black put it that way: "This song is for Zann ... ... ... you assholes!"

These three bands, alongside Punch and bunch others played a small tent while the big stage was reserved for big player like Shai Hulud and Amen Ra. In advance a lot of people were a bit concerned that the obviously too small tent might turn out a bit dangerous but after the side wall were removed it provided for intense and exciting shows. Indeed a nice goodbye.

As far as I know, all members of Zann will continue to play music. The picture is taken of www.xembracex.de - thanks, Marc.

Xavier Tondo R.I.P.

2011-05-23T11:56:00.002+02:00

For today I planned for a longer reflection on the tragic death of Wouter Weylandt. Now I've just read that the world of cycling has to cope with another loss. Xavier Tondo wanted to go on a training ride today. When he prepared to leave with teammate Beñat Inxtausti, he somehow got caught between his car and the garage door and was injured fataly.
Xavier Tondo had been riding for smaller Spanish and Portuguese teams before riding for the Cervelo Test Team in 2010. He experienced his career's second spring here, riding in service of Carlos Sastre as well as achieving better results than ever before. For the current season he changed to Team Movistar and won the Vuelta a Castilla y León and seemed to develop into a grand tour contender.
He gained wide respect when he forwared an e-mail offering him doping products to the police. Hereby he helped busting a doping ring that mainly targeted amateur and junior riders.
It's a terrible month for cycling and words fail in such situations. Goodbye Xavier, you will be missed.

Rest in peace, Wouter

2011-05-09T19:29:00.003+02:00

I've just come home from a walk in the sun and wanted to check on the results of today's Giro stage. I'm shocked to learn that Leopard-Trek rider Wouter Weylandt died after a crash. I'm terribly sad and my thoughts are with his wife, friends and family. He was only 26 years old. Farewell, Wouter. May you rest in peace.

What if it is Spartacus who crosses the battlefield, looking for you?

2011-04-16T20:56:00.003+02:00

With Amstel Gold awaiting tomorrow, here's a finally a more extended look at the cobbled races of the last weeks, focusing on the rider that was said to win them all and went away with close to nothing. Well, did he?

I am Spartacus

Take a look at the coverage of the monuments already ridden this year. Don't you get the impression it's all about how Fabian Cancellara didn't win these instead about praising Matt Goss, Nick Nuyens and Johan Van Summeren? Well the extensive focus at Fabian Cancellara during spring is no wonder concerning his riding in the past. While the enormous media attention certainly is to the liking of team management and sponsors Cancellara himself most likely would be quite happy to trade it in for another monument.

I am not an animal

Cancellara's 2010 spring campaign established him as being noted as the currently best cobbled classics rider. And taking a look at how he won E3-Prijs, Flanders and Roubaix last year makes it look plausible why this year's races were about marking him the most, don't they? Well, let's take a look at those 2010 wins.

E3 Prijs Vlaanderen - Harelbeke 2010
In the finale of the race, a strong riding Tom Boonen ignited the race-winning break with a powerful attack. Only Juan Antonia Flecha and Fabian Cancellara were able to bridge to the Belgian favorite and the trio was able to keep the chasers at distance. Of course, Boonen seemed to be the outright favorite but Cancellara launched one of his trademark late attacks. Not unlike Milan - San Remo 2008 or his Compiegne stage win in the 2007 Tour de France he went with one kilometer to go and stayed away to take the win. Here is cyclingnews' extensive report of the race.
However, this race did not show any clues of Cancellara being superior to his rivals but established him along Flecha and especially Boonen as favorites for the coming races.

Ronde van Vlaanderen 2010
Team Saxobank headed into this race with two riders that were listed as likely winners: Fabian Cancellara and Matti Breschel who had won Dwars Door Vlanderen and rode a very strong Gent - Wevelgem until he punctured with 16km to go. They used the possibilities of two favorites quite well: Breschel launched several powerful attacks which Boonen, in the race's favorite's responsibility, followed. While Boonen did his best to control the young Dane, Cancellara quietly sat at the wheels of other team leaders (e.g. the aforementioned Flecha) and let them pace him back to Boonen and Breschel.
However, Boonen was strong enough to follow Cancellara's attack on the Mollenberg. The two riders stayed away until Cancellara rode away from Boonen at the infamous Muur. He quickly gained a decent lead and rode away to victory. Again, cyclingnews report.

Paris-Roubaix 2010
When the peloton soldiered onto the cobbles of northern France Cancellara was the number one favorite without a doubt. However, nobody expected him to win by attacking with 50km to go. But that's what he did. Later on the wild speculations he might have used a motor in his bike - a rumor that still seems quite ridiculous to me. I can't help, it just looked and looks like trying to launch a clever marketing campaign. Most of the accusations weren't really spot on: They mostly focused on how he got away. So let's a take a closer look on this move. Tom Boonen had launched a couple of powerful attacks on the cobbled passages before. Now, on a stretch of tarmac, the pack had eased the pace a bit, some of the riders were eating or drinking. Boonen himself sat in the back of the group idling a bit. In this moment, Bjarne Riis told Cancellara to attack. He chose the moment not only because his rider's rivals were stretching their legs a bit. He knew the route was heading to sharp turn that would result in benefiting an attack with a strong tail wind. So Cancellara went, to be never seen again.
The real story of the race isn't Cancellara attacking, it's not even him staying away. Why? Because he's the world's best time trialist. If there's one rider to be good at riding 50km on his won, it's him. So, what's the real story of the day? It's his rivals not being able to catch him. Well- haven't I just said Cancellara is good at riding on his own. Of course he is, but if the pack actually had worked together, he most likely wouldn't have stayed away to win with a massive gap. Nobody took responsibility, nobody wanted to take Boonen to the line. At the front of the race, Cancellara rode extraordinarily strong, the peloton didn't do enough to be even called poursuivants.

However, the cycling world was struck in awe and wonder and shortly every word on Cancellara's spring campaign and his abilities was exaggerated. Sure, a rider staying away over a distance of 50 kilometers in the hardest race of the year sounds louder than a bunch of world class riders too lordly to chase. It took not long as his other wins were interpreted in the same way as Roubaix, it wasn't due to Breschel that Boonen was tired when hitting the Muur anymore. And Cancellara's late attack in Harelbeke seemed as glorious as his Roubaix ride.
Don't get me wrong: Cancellara's 2010 spring was extraordinary and a success the cycling world hadn't seen in a long time. But it wasn't about his strength alone: It was also about choosing the right moment to attack. It was about team mates, about tactics, about competitors not riding and about a lot of luck.

Gladiators don't make friends. If we're ever matched in the arena together, I have to kill you.

Heading into the 2011 cobbled classics season, Cancellara was the favorite. Not only due to his performances in the year before, but also because he had been showing impressive form in Milan - San Remo. He finished the race second after the lead group's sprint. Cancellara was said to have a major weakness in his sprint.
In San Remo he still lost to race winner Matt Goss but still managed to beat the likes of Phillipe Gilbert and Filippo Pozzato.
Besides showing promising form, Cancellara himself wasn't afraid to brag about his chances. He said he was targeting to win the same three races he already won the year before. Well, Cancellara might be running his mouth frequently but he's letting his legs doing the talking as often.
And his legs did speak. Specifically at this year's E3 Prijs which he won in impressive manner. After a number of mechanicals and a bike change he attacked fiercely on the Oude Kwaremont and used the remaining 32km to catch and leave behind two groups before soloing to win in the most impressive way.
Even during his ride message boards went wild: "Cancellara has Flanders and Roubaix in the bag" was a line you'd read more than once. So Cancellara went into this races not only as the only 5-star-favorite but also as the rider expected to be marked like no other.

Spartacus again. This time he dies.

Before Flanders the main question seemed to be: Can Cancellara overcome the world? Because the seemed to be nothing but him vs. the world. And Cancellara's powerful attack out of a lead group formed of him, Boonen and Pozzato let everyone think he could. Chavanel still head a lead of 40 seconds on him, but Cancellara managed to bridge the gap. When the duo hit the Muur, things looked a lot like 2010. Cancellara and a Quick Step rider in front. Many expected Cancellara drop Chavanel just like he dropped Boonen so year before, but he couldn't. Instead he obviously suffered and the race came together. Later on Gilbert launched a powerful but couldn't get away. A number of attacks followed, each was neutralized. Cancellara recovered in time for a late attack and got away with Nick Nuyens and Chavanel. On the line Nuyens beat Chavanel and Cancellara, being the freshest of the three.
Afterwards, Cancellara seemed a bit more human to some, especially those that had fallen for the hype about his strength. However it couldn't be denied Cancellara had shown impressive form, no matter what. The same had to be said about Chavanel who seemed stronger and more determined than his captain, Tom Boonen.
However, with an impressive Ronde and said to be better shaped for Paris - Roubaix, nothing had changed in regards to Cancellara's status. However, his final sprint wasn't as strong as in San Remo and one other weakness seemed obvious: his team was weaker than the year before. He still had solid helpers like Klemme and O'Grady but lacked a dangerous rider he had in Breschel the year before. His main rival Boonen had such a rider in Chavanel and Garmin seemed to be full of those riders.
The latter team, however, was under pressure following Vlaanderen: Due to race radio broadcast the whole world hear Vaughters tell his riders not to ride for the win. Seemed strange for a team that was considered unbeatable just a few weeks before. This needs a closer look, but not before we move on to the queen of the classics. Paris - Roubaix.

Rome is the mob

Paris - Roubaix, I only have to hear these words and I'm excited. I don't know if it's the route's sheer brutality, its singularity or it being so unpredictable. It's not just a special race, it's the special race. Well, concerning the race favorite it wasn't so different to the races before, but hey... let's pass the mic to Jonathan Vaughters on that matter: "Of course he’s beatable, but in order to do it you just have to use very negative tactics just against him. You can eliminate him but then you risk losing the race because you’re not watching the other 100 guys. Yeah, you could beat him but whether it’s in your best interests or whether it makes for exciting racing, well, I don’t think that is necessarily the case. We’ll have to see how we play it. I don’t want to say to the guys, all we’ve got to do is beat Fabian, just stay on his wheel no matter what.” This is not only a preview of the tactics his captain Thor Hushovd was to display in the race but also a deliberate choice of words to heat the role that was put upon Cancellara. In stressing that winning had to be about beating Cancellara Vaughters cleverly shifted focus away from his strong but unsuccessful classics team. However in Roubaix his game went well. He had Hushovd glued to Cancellara's wheel while eventual winner Johan van Summeren was in the main break. Garmin closed the gap to the latter's group to 50 seconds, just enough for Cancellara to close the gap, but ultimately with Hushovd in his wheel. When Van Summeren went clear at the Carrefour de l'Abre, Garmin had no reason to ride anymore. Cancellara got away in the last kilometres, only to become second after the Belgian.

Garmin finally fulfilled their potential and Cancellara scored another podium. There's a lot of woulda-shoulda-coulda: What if Boonen had still been in the race? What if Cancellara's helpers wouldn't have punctured before Arenberg? What if Ballan had ridden instead of looking to be brought in front by Cancellara and Hushovd? However, it's to no avail. These race showed again: It's not always the strongest who wins. Cancellara had relied on his strength too much. It's up to you to decide: Are three podiums in three monuments success or failure?

He is free, Spartacus, free. He's free.

Tomorrow, a week later, Cancellara will ride the Amstel Gold Race for the first time since 2004. He doesn't start as a favorite or team leader. In difference to the cobbled races, Leopard-Trek seems to be stacked with strong riders for the Ardennes: The Schleck brothers are the obvious team leaders with Wegmann, Fuglsang, Voigt etc as super-domestiques. So there's a plenty of things Cancellara can be: a joker that might surprisingly win, a strong helper that reels in the breakaway or just a rider that tests himself in the Ardennes because he wants to target Liege - Bastogne - Liege someday. And Cancellara himself enjoys the situation. After all the pressure during the weeks passed he feels free heading into Amstel. Free as a bird.

Posting title and italic lines are quotes from Stanley Kubrick's 1960 movie Spartacus.

Paris Roubaix recap

2011-04-14T18:33:00.000+02:00

Just prior to a more extensive post on Cancellara, the burden of being the f'avorite and the dynamics of the cycling world here's a bit look at the past winners I introduced before:

Frédéric Guesdon winner 1997 - 11th
The 39 year old veteran did quite well. It was his attack that brought race winner Johan Van Summeren to the front and he managed to finish as best french rider for a seventh time with his 11th top-20 placing. By the way: he rode a modified aluminum cross bike that he had used in the since 2006.

Tom Boonen winner 2005, 2008, 2009 - DNF
Sometimes, when it rains it pours. Boonen, as well as his whole team were struck by bad bad luck this year. He punctured in Arenberg with no team car close. However, he had a team mate with him - that punctured as well and couldn't help with a wheel. But Boonen wouldn't be the guy he is, hadn't he put everything into catching up, and a furious ride brought him close to the main group again. And then he crashed.
So no glory this year for Boonen in Roubaix - his Gent - Wevelgem vitory won't make up for this.

Fabian Cancellara 2006, 2010 - 2nd
Well, being marked by his rivals he wasn't really able to get to the front soon enough. He got away from his shadows Hushovd and Ballan in the finale to score his 3rd podium in the 3rd monument running. More about this failure or accomplishment in the coming post.

Stuart O'Grady 2007 HD
O'Grady was expected to be Cancellara's strongest helper but as the rest of the team he wasn't seen after Arenberg. This will be addressed in the next post as well.

l'enfer, c'est les cyclistes.

2011-04-10T10:00:00.000+02:00

First I planned to post something about this year's cycling season during the next week, just between the cobbled and the hilly classics. But today is the day of Paris - Roubaix, l'enfer du nord, the race that is like no other. The cobbles are more brutal than those in any other race, they are more punctures, more crashes, more bad luck and many will argue more excitement. If I ever had to decide on my favorite one day race it would be a difficult choice but probably I would settle for Paris - Roubaix.
If you follow some of the many cycling websites and blogs you surely have read a lot about the races during the last week. You have read about the cobbles, special bikes, special tires, the famous velodrome and its famous showers. And of course you've read endless pieces about the favorites, about Cancellara, about Boonen, about Hushovd, Ballan, Haussler and many more (maybe even Hincapie).
Well, there's not much I have to add to this enormous output of analysis, features and sometimes odd opinion, even more because a lot of this is just last year's pieces redone. These showers don't change a lot. Neither do the cobbles, except for the (re)introduction of stretches that weren't included yet or for some years.
But with this race being such a highlight and the climax of the cobbled classics, I still wanted to put something in, so here's a quick look on past winners that still participate today.

Frédéric Guesdon winner 1997
Born in 1971, Guesdon is one of the oldest riders around. His palmares aren't really extensive. His victory in Roubaix is for sure his biggest, Paris-Tours and two stages at the Dauphiné Libére are other major wins. He's starting his 16th Paris-Roubaix today and for sure he's the most unlikely past winner to succeed again, he'll be more likely shepherding his younger team mates through the race. In his 15 participations he scored ten top-20-places including a 7th place as his second best. He's been the best french rider six times.
Quite special is the time he spent with just one team. After a year each with Le Groupement and Polti he joined FdJeux in 1997 and has stayed ever since.

Tom Boonen 2005, 2008, 2009
We have to take a big jump through the years since Guesdon's victory, none of the winners of the years 1998-2004 still participates. Some of them are sports directors or with the media now. 1998 winner Franco Ballerini passed away last february, you might remember the riders paying him respect last year.
However, Boonen is for sure a very special rider. Only rivaled by Fabian Cancellara to be viewed as the greatest classics rider of his generation, he has the chance to equal Roger De Vlaeminck's record of four victories. As you know, a lot of other victories add to his palmares including Flanders twice, the world champs, a Tour de France green jersey and a lot lot more.
Not living in a country as cycling-crazy as Belgium it's hard to imagine how popular Boonen is at home - to put it short he's nothing less than a super star. This sounds nice, but it also means a lot of pressure is being put on him. Not only by the public but also by his team that need World Tour points desperately.
Losing to Cancellara in E3 Prijs, Flanders and Roubaix in 2010 might be a huge motivation but also unwelcome pressure today, so might be his 4th place in Flanders a week ago. Anything but the win should be disappointing, not podiuming a disaster.

Fabian Cancellara 2006, 2010
There's not much that hasn't been written about Cancellara during the last weeks and the year since his great 2010 classics campaign. A lot of this is totally exaggerated and out of place, but this is something I might address to in a separate blog entry in the next days. However, everybody will agree he surpassed Boonen as the current best cobbles rider last year, even he can't match his arch rival's list of victories in those races - yet. Roger De Vlaeminck thinks Cancellara is more likely to match his four wins records than is Boonen, even if the latter already has three wins to his record while Cancellara only has two - yet. However, Cancellara easily outdoes Boonen when it comes to number of nicknames: the Swiss bear, Spartacus, fabulous Fabian, de Plattwalzer and most recently superman are just the more prominent ones.
His race in this year's E3-Prijs was simply amazing but he had his difficulties in Flanders, some think he peaked too early (hence a strong Milan - San Remo) but he didn't look out of shape in Flanders, I think. He may have overestimated his form or just may have thos cramps in the wrong moment, this happens to any rider every now and then.
Today's brutal stretches of cobbles (or rocks thrown out of a helicopter as Aldag said) fit him a lot more than the repeated sharp climbs in Flanders. Most see him as the overwhelming favorite for today and I agree. His team might not be a as good as last year's with Saxo Bank, but a maturing Dominic Klemme (14th last year) and a Stuart O'Grady in great form may make up for the lack of the likes of Matti Breschel.

Stuart O'Grady 2007
I have to admit: I'm kind of a Stuey-fan and the edition he won remains one of my favorite races ever. O'Grady is now mostly known as a world-class domestique, one of the best road captains in the business and a rider hard as nails who will spend endless hours in the wind during boring Tour de France races controlling the race for Andy Schleck. This easily leads to forgetting his own results: he's a winner of the green jersey and stages at the Tour. And he's an Olympic and world champion on the track.
The story of his 2007 victory is one of the beautiful ones only this race can tell. He was in an early break, mainly to take the pressure of controlling the off his team mates' shoulders and to be there for his leader Cancellar once the break would be caught. However, things didn't go as planned when he punctured in Arenberg iirc. Surely he cursed the undue mechanical but his DS told him to just keep his calm. He was equipped with a wheel by Mavic's neutral service, ate and drank, and rode easily to regain strength until the group of favorites caught him. When being reached by this very group containing Cancellara and Boonen he realised everyone in this group appeared to be tired and spent already while he still felt fresh. After he had been told Cancellara didn't feel too good he was free to ride for his own good. So he sneaked away on the wheel of the next attacker (Wesemann?) and then stormed to victory.
I watched this race on German TV and the station switched to broadcasting news in the very moment the race was about to be decided. Even though the news lasted just about five minutes it had me walking in circles in front of the telly nervously. The station then showed the rest of race live from tape and I still witnessed O'Grady riding into the velodrome alone, using a neutral spare wheel that had been build 20 years before.
Today's race seems not to be O'Grady's. He's riding for the biggest favorite, but that isn't that different to the 2007 situation is it?

To add one last thing: Leonardo Duque is trying to be the first Columbian ever to reach the velodrome in Roubaix.

alright...

2011-02-11T22:52:00.000+01:00

...like each year I couldn't wait for all these early races like Tour Down Under, Qatar or Mallorca Challenge. And like each year they've been not that great (read: snooze fests), the top riders are there to put in some training rides, and the domestique in best form or a random specialist wins. And no one really cares. So, like each year, I'll have to wait for Omloop and Paris-Nice for some excitement. But wait, there's been some "exciting" stuff. But sadly, it's not about racing. Ricco has qualified as number one d-bag of cycling (again) and the Contador-case shows more and more characteristics of a laughable soap opera by the day.
Speaking of Ricco, I understand he is back together with the mother of his child who he left after her doping positive? Well, maybe she'll dump him now for revenge? However, Manuel Quinziato has sent a message on behalft the rest of the world on twitter.

Finally I managed to give the latest SWANS album "My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky" a listen, and wow - it's really really great. Other than that, I haven't really added much to my listening routine. Still a lot of early 90s Swedish death metal and a lot of 90s hc madness (Golgatha, Uranus and Reversal Of Man today). Plus a decent dose of Carcass of course.
Don't laught too hard: I really enjoyed watching Back To The Future 1+2 for the first time in ca. 10 years last week, but I'm a bit scared of watching part three, as I remember it too be quite bad. I guess I'll have to do it as well (that Doc Brown romance is really terrible, isn't it?). However, good to know we've got only four years to go until we have flying cars, hover boards and multiple fax machines in every room.

PS: If you have something to say and don't want to comment, I've added a contact button @ the upper right.

It's about time we get down to...

2011-01-17T20:28:00.001+01:00

...Australia. Yes I know, north is not up and south is not down (thank you, Atom) but the Tour Down Under is starting in some hours. And I can tell you: it's sooooooo about time. As every year I'm fed up with everything that's going on in the off-season but it has never been such a pain in the ass as this time.

As exciting the transfer season, the birth of new ("super") teams and even the constant re-shuffeling of the sport's organization ("World Tour" again, well I guess it's a progress that it's still the same name) can be, the vast amount of comments, discussion and endless bla-bla loosely floating throught the internet is too much to take. Some posts ago I told you the way cycling is discussed online isn't really my thing and that's why I changed this into more of a personal blog. It's not nice pointing fingers in certain directions, but here I go: Take a look at the last months' threads at the cyclingnews forum and you'll see what I'm talking about. Pages and pages of people talking for example about how bad the Leopard Trek-jersey look and most of the time it's totally blatant that the poster hates the jeryes because he has decided to hate the new team (on the other hand those guys will tell you the best looking jersey is - surprise surprise - the one of their favorite team). That's okay with me but you don't have to make up a thousand reasons why you hate some team's jersey, bikes, cars, bidons, haircuts, website, twitter posts (I hate all of them) or part time mechanic. It's cool to dislike one team and root for the other, but it's not the most important thing in the world. Winning stupid fights on messageboards seems to be.
Look, I agree Brian Nygaard's endless media stunts and the Leopard Trek team presentation were downright ridiculous. But so what, it's just a cycling team and it's a good one. Some riders I like are there so just wait and see if they can put also this talking into some nice pedalling (in a few hours, remember?).
Maybe the most interesting of all these discussions right now is the one about the Tour de France wildcard selection. Do yourself the favor and read this good piece at the great blog "The Inner Ring".
As you know I love lists, so here's my prediction for the four spots

1. FDJ
2. Europcar
I think these two are certain, FDJ is the best of french team wildcard teams and Voeckler seems to be a guarantee for Europcar.

3. Saur-Sojasun OR Cofidis OR Bretagne-Schuller
A third French wildcard selection seems likely, I think chances are in the given order.

4. Until a few hours ago I would have place Geox-TMC in the certain category but now there's rumors they've been told already they're out. Menchov and Sastre not invited? I can hardly believe this but if so I don't really know who else will be invited, so I stick with them.

So enough of this and back to the Tour Down Under. It's not the most interesting race and quite a number of people will argue the season starts for real with Omloop or even Paris-Nice. However, it's the first major race and therefore attracts a lof of stars. It's Lord Livestrong's last race ever (by the way, are the Stones touring right now?) and that means attention. But mainly it's a sprinter's race. Greipel and Cavendish riding as competitors for the first time seems really exciting but there are a lot of other big names as Farrar and McEwen. We'll see about the overall. Each year people argue that Williwonka hill is too hard for sprinters but Greipel has taught them wrong the last two years. If the race wants to continue to grow, it needs some changes and again I have a link for you @ The Inner Ring blog where some nice ideas a presented.
I hope I'll be able to find a decent live stream and can deal with the time differnce. The night is mine.
And by the way, the weather is getting better around here, so my excuses for not going out riding myself sound lamer by the day. About time as well.

Hooray for stupid lists.

2011-01-15T17:02:00.000+01:00

Yes, I love best of-lists and as there's no better time than the turn of the year, here are some.

Best records of 2010
Black Breath - heavy breathing
Nails - unsilent death
Burning Love - songs for burning lovers
Ted Leo And The Pharmacists - the brutalit bricks
Hail Of Bullets - on divine winds

Best live shows 2010
Bolt Thrower/ Asphyx - Esch-sur-Alzette
Black Breath - Lausanne
Burning Love - Freiburg
Punch - Durmersheim
Zann - Karlsruhe

Best cycling moments 2010
Cancellara destroying the competition in Flanders
....and again in Roubaix
Schleck vs. Contador in the last Tour de France TT
Ivan Basso riding away from Cadel Evans in the years best mountain stage in the Giro
Thor Hushovd sprinting to become World Champion

how cold is cold?

2011-01-15T13:51:00.002+01:00

ACME

2010-12-25T16:46:00.005+01:00

I think I was 14 old when I listened to AcMe for the first time. I was midway in my evolution from some kind of Alternametal-fruit to your average hardcore kid. I' was reading German heavy metal magazine Rock Hard every month and its four page hardcore section had already become my favorite part of each issue. This section was done by Bernd Granz of Lost&Found who used this oportunity to push his records as much as possible. No wonder I was listening to Sick Of It All, Battery, Ignite etc etc.
I had this tape with Battery's "Only the diehard remain" on one side while the other side was still blank. My friend Jan, two years older and playing in a band with guys that were another five years older, told me of this exciting band he had just discovered: AcMe. So I gave him said tape to record their 7" and some other stuff on the empty side. Some days later he returned the tape in school, having recorded AcMe's 7" as well as Ego Trip's second EP "Alone" and some tracks of Go! and Beyond. As you can imagine I could hardly wait for the school day's end and my return home. But I have to admit I had no idea what would await me.
After returning home listening to this tape was the first thing I did and telling you it blew me away can't describe what it did to me. Beginning with the 7"s intro taken of Full Metal Jacket I knew this 7" was my new bible. The sheer power of frustration-driven aggression the music was about was all new to me. Now wonder my interest in NY- and youth crew hardcore faded away in the minutes this 7" lasted. Not a long time after I was totally into this "new generation" of hardcore bands like Dawnbreed, Zorn, Systral or Golgatha from Germany as well as Uranus, Iconoclast and all the Mike Kirsch-bands from North America.

I guess a lot of you have read the AcMe-interview Gonzo did for Heartattack. It captures the band towards the end of their development, already bored with the scene and their own band. Another interview was published earlier in the Belgian Tilt-Zine. I've typed it for you:

>>>
'Machination'-man Jeroen once again came up with a young and exiting band: ACME. When I first heard their 7", I was amazed, my mouth fell open... I saw them perform 'live' a couple of times: it was a long time I experienced such power and energy going through me and at the same time felt relieved of all my hate, anger, frustrations and negative feelings. I talked on several occasions with them and they seemed like nice, caring and intelligent people so I decide to to let them introduces themselves. Hannes (vocalist) answered the questions 'cause he had the most time and he writes the lyrics... Gregor (the exorcist-drummer) felt the need to add some funny touches...

What's the story behind the band's name?
To be honest, there's no important meaning behind the name. We were searching for a name that sounds no too serious or that you cannot stereotype. Perhaps to make music , play live and have fun is our acme.

What made Raw Deal change into ACME? What are the differences?
We found out that there are other bands who had the same name. We also thought the name sounded like a "wanna be hard N.Y.C. SxE kiddies" band and that's something we totally don't want. There are no reaö differenced between "Acme" and "Raw Deal". Everyone in the band matures and so does the music. The lyrical changes have nothing to do with the new band name. To us the band name is not unimportant, that's why perhaps it is so silly...

When we met, I told you your music brings out the bad in people. We can vent all our frustrations and anger through your music. Is that the intention of the band?
Yeah, that's one intention we have with Acme. But I think the main intention is to make you think about the lyrics. We also want you to enjoy yourself while you listen to our music at home and especially at shows; and to, like you said, vent your frustration and anger through our music and to draw strength and new motivation from this anger. Our music should be somehting like a strength-perperation from which you get new power/motivation for actions and a good life.

Your music is so full of hate , it's foul and filthy. What kind of anger and frustrations lodge in such nice and gentle people as you?
Hey, you think we're nice and gentle... Haha, you don't know our dark, evil souls... Seriously, I think there are so much fucked up things that make me scream and keep me from making some kind of 'lalala-pop-music-shit'. One week I might be full of anger because of what I see what our ignorant, capitalist society does and the other week I might be frustrated because my girlfriend leaves me. The things that frustrate me are so different and sometimes there are so much of them that I don't know what I should get excited about the most. There will always be enough shit happening on this planet for us to do three million songs that sound full of hate.

On stage, your thinger recited a poem about how a person changes when (s)he wants to fit into a group of peers. Can you give us the words and comment on them a bit here?
First the words:
I don't like to be alone. I like to be somebody. Somebody you can be proud of, somebody about who people will say: "Look at him, he's a real cool person." So I change my looks, my friends and my ideals. I give away every little piece of my weakness, every little piece of myself. Now I feel great. I spoke to nobody and nobody heard me. Now I feel alone with all my new friends around me. Now I am somebody. Now I am, I said, and now I'm lost.
The poem is about a friend of mine who nearly exactly said as what I've written. I'd like to quote something by SLEEPER which expresses it all exactly: "The sooner you realize that you don't have to change to be accepted, the sooner you'll find your happiness."

You have a song on addiction . Do/did any of you guys smoke/drink/...? How do/did you deal with these addiction(s) eventually?
We all drink and unfortunately our guitar-player smokes (fuck him for that) (Gregor: I don't think you should fuck him for that) but expect for his smoking non of us are addicted to alcohol or other drugs (Gregor: Oh we're so clean... How nice!). The most imnportant thing is that we don't drink to solve our problems or when we're sad or something. It's just for fun but believe me: we can also have fun without drinking. That's all I have to say. I think it's one of the most unimportant things to discuss whether you are SxE or not... I think it's important to try not to fuck people over in your life (but that's what you do when you smoke... Yeah, I know beer can contain animal-products...)

After reading the lyrics to 'Blind', I was left with the question wether you think that in the HC-scene one shouldn't criticize or aks questions about someone's attitude (in zines e.g.) 'cause it could be interpreted as backstabbing. Wasn't it the german socialist Lafontaine who said "Battles should be fought in the open; (that's the only guarantee for democracy after the revolution.)"?
What I wanted to say is that not alot of people in our great HC/punk-scene think about theirselves. They just take the opinions and statements of some scene-gods and try to live that way. Too often ones real personality gets lost behind some kind of 'HC-mask'. I think you you always have to be critical about the things you hear and see in our scene, That's why I don't call myself HC or a punk-rocker... I'm just myself and I try to to live the way I choose. HC/Punk inspires me a lot though and it gives me a reason to get my ass out of my bed. I wrote the lyrics to 'BLIND' after a lengthy discussion with my father who was active in a political group for 25 years and now that this group has split, he doesn't do anything anymore becaus he does no longer see the sense of it.

In 'Attempt' you talk about how different it is to describe one's emotions, one's feelings, one's arguments. Don't you think it's overwhelmingly frustrating not being able to express what is in your mind? What would you advide people who have that problem?
Of course it's frustrating to when you've something important on your mind and don't know how to express it. But I believe in the fact that every human being has the talent and chance/possibility to expess him/herselves. There are so many things you can do; for example: write, play music, draw or paint or make pictures, put on an act,... The most important thing is that you do something, it's not necessary for someone to like it or to become famous through it. It's important that it comes from yourself and is honest. Otherwise you die from inside. So my advise: leave your room, go out on the streets, meet people, scream out what you want/need and think for yourself. Use your right of speech. ACT! (Gregor: ...blabla... Kent McClard... blabla... clean soul... blabla...)

Interview done in summer 1994 by Brob for Tilt #8 (released in 1995).

Lyrics to Blind:

Philosophizing with this smiling of brightness you are living silent in the same way little less than the people you hate feeling great about the things you've done about the war you've won incinsiderate your intellectual mask has made you judge you so fast your fucked up great experience is your evidence your right to do anything to give a shit on everything resignation is your justification blind conclusions are your solutions I want to see you without the mask I want to see your blinded eyes

Lyrics to Attempt:

Laugh you strike down my attempt and say not what I really want to say things I say are too easy to take all I can try is to set you thinking unfortunately it's up to you to change it means to struggle inside with your mind I'll ever try I'll ever fight you strike down my attempts and I say not what I want to say too many emotions are in my way

Years later I was planning on doing a fanzine and sent Gregor some questions for some kind of post-Acme interview. The zine never got finished but I still have Gregor's answers (but not my questions...). So here's some of his answers that still have some relevance if you ask me:
My first question was about the status quo of Acme - quite a number of records where (wronly) praised as ex-Acme back then and their Discography had the line "watch out for the future Acme project" printed in its insert.
Acme have split up years ago. Our bassist is drumming for Systral and I play in new band that doesn't have a name yet (music is in the vein of Down/Kyuss/...)
By "Acme future project" we meant a couple of projects, that all have broken up already. Nevertheless we did rehearse around the time of the Discography release and have written some new songs then. These were never recorded in studio. Too bad, I think those were the best Acme songs ever.

My next question was about the reasons for Acme to split
The reason was that we did way too much with Acme in 94 and before. Too many shows, too many rehearsals etc, Expectations and pressure got bigger and bigger and we've lost all the fun in it. Besides that, everything got really boring: live gigs, always the same people attending those and so on. Take a look at the Heartattack interview, out all time low. We didn't want to continue for fame or money only we decided to split up.
Our lyrics and statements didn't make any sense when done in front of the same people over and over again. And really, it was the same people everytime as they took the journey to any show etc). We were kind of bored by all that PC-scene in which we acted and could piss off people easily by simple means.

Then I asked if he would change anything if he had the chance to do it all over again:
No, I wouldn't really change a thing as it was a beautiful time, maybe the best of all! Only exception is the money thing as we were ripped off everywhere and a lot of people made a lot of money through us. My advise to young bands: Never ever trust that HC code of honour and trust bookers, labels etc easily.

As Acme were quite popular I asked him how that felt.
The praise we got in review or at shows was very nice und always pleased me alot, even it was a bit embarassing at times. The other guys had more problems concerning that. Anyway, that "groundbreaking"-position and all that "fame" - all of this came after we had split up. When Acme was hyped, than we also sold records. When we released the 7" we had problems to find shows because people weren't used to our kind of music. That didn't really matter to us as we were most happy with things like even recording a recording or having a sticker of our own band. The first press of the 7" was a run of 500 and that seemed a lot to us. Now we are at 16,000 records...
But the pressure put on us by labels and the people who liked the band was too much for us soon and was one main reason to end the band.

Acme myspace
Acme at Gonzo's blog
The videos are taken off threepennie's youtube. A lot of nice stuff there!

Shocked.

2010-12-19T02:42:00.003+01:00

O . O

totally off season

2010-12-15T04:12:00.002+01:00

If you don't have any entries on your road cycling related blog from march to december that means something is wrong. I still enjoy riding my bike and I still follow pro racing. I still have some opinions but the majoritiy of cycling related opinion voiced in the internet doesn't make me want to take part.
So, this will become my personal blog - probably there'll be some cycling related posts in the future, besides other stuff.

By the way: that One Eyed God Prophecy records is really really great and I still cut my hair myself. And Dave Zabriskie is on a vegan diet now

To push that "personal blog" thing a bit further, here are ten records that have changed my life:

Sonic Youth: dirty
Sick Of It All: live in a world full of hate
AcMe: s/t
Go!: there is no man
John Coltrane: giant steps
Entombed: wolverine blues
The Stranglers: black and white
Rites Of Spring: s/t
Napalm Death: from enslavement to obliteration
Rorschach: remain sedate

Of that list, the SOIA is the only record I don't listen to regularly anymore.

The season's on!

2010-03-09T14:01:00.003+01:00

Starting this blog near the end of the last season might not have been the best idea concerning continuity. So long time no read, but now that those skinny guys are right back in the action it's about time to start all over again. Wait, you might think, haven't there been races for weeks? Yes, the ProTour has started with the Tour Down Under, a week long race that's so hard that it's usually one by a heavy sprinter. And there have been numerous other races but to me the real season start has always been Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (or Het Volk as it had been called for many years - and still is for many people), followed by Kuurne - Brussel Kuurne. These two are the first northern classics and they have it all: Hellingen, Kasseien and as it's in February: bad bad weather.
The expectations for the races were quite high. Flanders has seen a rather harsh winter, so the roads were said to be in disastrous condition and the weather forecast was storm, rain, mayhem. Both might seem to be good reasons for race organizers to be worried, but not with these races. The organizers as well as the audience wants this races to be brutal and unbearable. And those longing for hard racing, riders so exhausted that just stop the race with some kilometres to go, crashes, rain drenched jerseys and glorious winners were not be dissappointed.
This year Het Nieuwsblad turned out to be the less dramatic race, but ended with a bit of a surprise. Juan Antionio Flecha, runner up for every northern classic you might think of, finally nailed his first big classic win. It really seems like going from Rabobank to Sky might have been just the right decision (more on the new Sky Team in a post during the next days).
Kuurne turned out to be one of the most grueling races in the last years. Global warming might have been the factor that we haven't seen such weather for years, but this time the cold continental winter has Belgium in his claws. The race was struck by storm and heavy rain, so that only 26 riders managed to reach the finish line. When a classic-proven team like Saxo Bank hasn't one rider finishing the race, you know it's been tough.
Sure, it's exiting to watch these races but it brings up questions that probably are just as old as these races: Is all of this necessary. Do we need nearly 200 men racing at temperatures just above the freezing point on a days when a storm kills dozens of people in western Europe. Do we need to look for even rougher Pavé for Paris Roubaix. I can't help: It's archaic, it might be overly macho, it's dangerous. But honestly. I love those races. I can't wait for Gent-Wevelgem, for the Ronde van Vlaanderen and for Paris-Roubaix. And deep down I wish for bad bad weather for these races as well.

in vino controversitas

2009-09-04T15:24:00.002+02:00

2009 saw the return of seven time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong. His return was brought most media attention to cycling and especially the grand tours he participated in, Giro d'Italia and Tour de France, benefited from his presence. Armstrong doesn't ride the Vuelta, but Spain's grand tour has a comeback appearance of its own, maybe not as spectacular as Armstrong's but not less controversial.
Of course I'm talking of Alexander Vinokourov who has just returned from a two year ban for homologous blood doping. Before being tested positive during the 2007 Tour de France Vinokorouv was one of the riders most suspected for doping and for a lot of people it was only a matter of time for him being busted. Of course this hasn't made him the most popular rider in the peloton but still there's something to him that fascinates a lot of people, including me. It's the "bad ass" aura Vinokourov has established that makes him quite a character.
Let's just dive into this with his doping issues. After having ridden for Telekom/T-Mobile for some years and being third fiddle only behind Ullrich and Klöden, Vino wanted to captain a team himself in order to win the Tour. He went to Saiz' Liberty Seguros-Würth team and was about to lead the team in the 2006 Tour de France. Shortly before this Tour started in Strasbourg the Puerto case exploded and led to the suspension of all riders suspected to be involved. This included star riders and race favorites Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso, but not Vinokourov. But so many of his team mates were involved that the team wasn't able to take on the race with the minimum of six riders and therefore was excluded. Vinokourov then started to build a team of his own. Supported by the Kazakh cycling federation and sponors the Astana team was built around him. He won the 2006 Vuelta and became a favorite for the 2007 Tour de France. Prior to the Tour de France a lot of media focuses on the doping problems within cycling - the Puerto case wasn't cleared up (and still isn't today) and Vino was one of the favorites heavily under suspect. So what does Vino do? Does he quit doping? No. Does he microdose EPO? No. Does he dope himself using his own blood, still a effective and hard to detect method? No. Vino goes for the die hard-option: Using another person's blood. I have to admit: Autologous blood doping is creepy enough in my eyes - but infusing the blood of someone else? Vinokourov seems to have something for a "more risk, more fun" lifestyle.
After being caught Vinokourov of course didn't confess but was looking for a way to sneak out of the case. The way he tried to explain his positive test was quite interesting. Some days before he had crashed, smashing his knee oping. During his crash his blood must have been contaminated with another person's blood cells. Not bad, you think - but still not as creative as Tyler Hamilton's explanation when he was caught with blood doping. He blamed his chimera twin that still was to exist within his body - surely here's still something to learn for Vino being a bad ass doper.
Blood doping usually is to be sanctioned by a two year ban, but his national federation settled the case with a one year ban only. Of course the UCI wasn't pleased, especially because it was quite blatant the Kazakh federation's close relation to Vinokourov was the cause. So the UCI planned to appeal the case at the CAS and only stepped back when Vinokourov anounce his retirement. First hand, this plan seemd to work and Vinokourov planned to come back for the 2008 Olympic games in China. The UCI reacted promtply and the ban was lengthened to two years.
But even outside of his doping career Vinokourov happily took every chance to prove how bad ass he is. Mostly he did so by acting by a super confident loudmout. For example, whenever another rider complained about the weather, be it too hot or too cold, Vino quickly said that European riders were just too wimpy compared to him. Prior to his return this year he had a press meeting where he anounced he would rejoin Team Astana. If team manager Johan Bruyneel wasn't too agree, he would have to go. And where are they now? Vinokourov is racing with Astana and Bruyneel is about to leave at end of the season, joining Lance Armstrong in his new Radio Shack team.
His riding style was always quite aggresive, always on attack. This earned him a lot of fans. But there's quite a number of attacking riders so Vino was looking for a way to do it in a more bad ass way: Vinokourov was the rider to end a long run of sprint royales on the Champs Elysees by attacking during the last stage of the Tour de France 2005. Grabbing the bonus sprints awarded for the stage victory he also attacked the general classification moving some places up. Hereby he violated one of the unwritten laws of the peloton - at last in some riders' eyes. As with all unwritten rules it's not so clear how that law is too be taken. Shouldn't you attack on the GC at all? Or ist just about not attacking the podium? The white and yellow jersey? Just the yellow? However, his attack pissed some riders off - and without a doubt Vino did knew that beforehand. Either he din't care at all or it was just some extra motivation to go for it.
Vinokourov is a cheat for sure and he isn't the most likeable person, but he's a character. And that's something the peloton misses. Come on, how many riders speak of themselves not only in the third person but also in a way that reminds you of someone talking about a super hero. There's a reason Vinokourov has a saddle with The Thing on it.
By the way: He‘s the only rider having a mountain named after him:
Taking a look at the legal matters he deserves a second chance as much as anybody - a lot of people would have liked to see him dismissed forever anyway. But to me that's not what it's about anyway - I hope he finds a way to stay out of the doping clinic but sticks to his gutsy behavior and - of course - his gutsy riding. So welcome back, Vino. Don't spoil your second chance (yes, unlikely...)

Hats off to the slow guys!

2009-09-04T15:13:00.005+02:00

If you're a rider looking for your break through performance there's no better race to take part in than the Tour de France. Heinrich Haussler had a stunning season before this year's Tour but without doubt his victory in Colmar finally established him as a top rider.
This very stage took place within 200 km from my hometown, so there was no excuse not to be there. My friend Joel and I made our way to France and watched the race on the rain struck Col du Firstplan, the last climb of the day. Haussler was the first rider storming the climb, having already dropped his breakaway companions before. As focused he rode and as tired the chasing Chavanel looked it wasn't really a question Haussler was on the way to his first major win. Some minutes later, the favorites' group, led by Saxo Bank and Astana, followed. After this group had passed we started our way downwards. It was raining heavily, so we hoped to take some hundred meters between the different groups.
However some dutch fans weren't really pleased with our behavior. Apparently they thought we were about to ignore all following riders. There was one rider they wanted us to take not off especially. "Support the Dutch sprinter Kenny van Hummel" they screamed at the top of their voices. Van Hummel's Tour de France participation is one of the rare stories only this race can tell. He rides for Netherland's second tier team Skil Shimano that have earned themselves a Tour wild card by their performance in the spring. Riding with their hearts in their legs the team didn't wait around but tried whenever possible. This and a strict anti-doping policy clearly made them an attractive pick for Tour organistion ASO. For the team itself the participation itself was a big success and they mostly tried their luck by taking part in every breakaway possible.
Van Hummel himself came to the Tour after riding a successfull spring. In Monaco he was the first rider to start the opening time trial. At the end of the day he was the second to last rider in the general classification. As a pure sprinter he is no time trial specialist and especially the climb within the TT course didn't suit him a lot. However it wouldn't take him long to finally pass the rider behind him in the classification taking the last place, the lantern rouge.
Being last in the Tour de France classification isn't as bad as it may look firsthand. Wim Vansevenant has ended the Tour de France as lanterne rouge from 2006 through 2008, being the first rider to do so three consecutive times. Thereby he established his own record.
Being the slowest guy in the pack surely earns you attention and Kenny van Hummel had soon become a popular man along cycling fans. I have admit to be impressed by his Tour as well. There's a reason he's been labeled the "worst climber in Tour ever" by French sports paper L´Equipe. He finished every mountain stage behind the grupetto, mostly on his own or in very small groups, being close to not making the time cut. The grupetto or autobus is a group of sprinters and heavy riders that don't climb as well as riders like Contador or Schleck and therefore organise a group that takes them all through the stages without being disqualified for not making the time cut. When such a group arrives outside this time cut organisers tend to not disqualify them for being so many riders. So arriving after this group and still making the time cut is quite impressive, especially for a rider that just can't climb. Doing this day after day even more shows how much willpower van Hummel must have.
Too bad van Hummel didn't make to Paris. He crashed out of the race on stage 17, falling in a slippery bent. Again he was taking a lot of risks in order to make it through the stage in time.
A lot of people would have loved to see him make it all the way, however he has earned himself a place in the hearts of these cycling fans anyway.
On the Tour's video channel you can watch a short clip of van Hummel making his way to one of these stages with some other riders.

The hog has the swine flu?

2009-09-04T15:05:00.004+02:00

Columbia HTC rider Craig Lewis was recently diagnosed with the H1N1-virus, commonly known as the swine flu. Lewis is well again and has helped team mate George Hincapie winning the American road championship.
Johan Bruyneel, now Astana and soon Radio Shack team manager and being called "the hog" since his day as a pro rider, has spent some days in hospital because of high fever, as he says on his twitter. Rumors say he has been infected with swine flu as well - I don't know if there's any truth in the rumor but have to admit: The thought of the hog having the swine flu - it's hilarious.

Too good to be true

2009-08-24T12:01:00.002+02:00

Among people following cycling "too good to be true" has become quite a common phrase. Just think of the performance of a rider like Kohl during last year's Tour de France. Performing way above everything he had shown previously, many people were concerned he might be on something. As we know today he was tested positive for Cera shortly after.
Yesterday, UCI president McQuaid announced he does not know of any positive test from the 2009 tour.
Honestly, this is also something that sounds way too good to be true. During the Tour many people wondered why things where oh so quiet on the doping front, some suggesting the UCI and ASO came to the conclusion that turing a blind eye might be better for them then the strict policy of the last years. This might be going a bit far, but still the thought of no positive test during the Tour seems odd. Especially if you recall what AFLD president Bordry had to say during the Tour.
However, there was one case associated with the 2009 edition of the race. Mikel Arstaloza, winner of a stage, had failed a test prior to the Tour de France.

La Vuelta awaits

2009-08-23T16:33:00.002+02:00

Normally, race organizers aren‘t the kind of people I tend to think fondly of, but I have to admit I‘m quite sorry for the people who run the Vuelta. Being the third Grand Tour of the season the Vuelta seems to have nearly lost all its presitge since being moved from early spring to september in the 1990s. Nowadays the top favorites mainly are those of the big stage racers that failed to deliver in Giro and Tour. The rest of the pack is divided into riders taking the race of a nice training camp for the world championships (and therefore stepping out of the race somewhere on endless sun struck roads somewhere in Extremadura) while the rest consits of second tier spanish teams that get into every break without acutally winning something.

In order to make the Vuelta a bit more exiting the organization includes more and more climbing each year, but making the race harder all of the time doesn‘t really save their game. So this year they have had a really big idea, that might seem a bit nutty to rest of the world. As the Tour de France is quite successfull having thei grand depart abroad as in Monaco this year and in London in 2007, the Vuelta wanted to do something similar. Having only started outside of Spain once (in Portugal) an abroad take off seemed a good idea. But why in the world the Netherlands? Sure, the Netherlands is nation inhabitated by cycling enthusiasts, but hey, who far is that from the spanish border? The prologue and three stages, the last finishing in the Belgian city Liege (a name that has a special ring for anyone into cycling).
So now the riders spend four days in north western Europe racing, then have their first „rest“ day that they will spend travelling the continent.

The course is tailor made for climbers, a phenomen whe have seen with most grand tours lately. In this year‘s Vuelta the peloton will face four mountain top finishes but only 60.5 kilometres of time trialing. Despite being a climbers‘ race the Pyrenees are not included in the course that focuses on southern, western and central Spain (after the Netherlands and Belgium).

I can‘t remember one year when the Vuelta wasn‘t rumored to be moved back to march, to be shortened to two weeks, to swap places with some minor race etc. But with the UCI trying to get the sport globalized, the Tour of California growing quickly and less and less interstes in Spain‘s grand tour it seems to get more likely that something will be done. About time, if you ask me. Just let‘s hope those changes won‘t push the race even more into insignificance, as Spain has the potential for a spectacular grand tour for sure.

The 2009 edition might just be the first of a string of exiting Vuelta, who knows. The riders seeking success are promising.

Euskaltel‘s olympic champion and bad-ass descender, Samuel Sanchez, has planned his whole season with winning the Vuelta as his main goal. He‘s even left out the Tour de France and his team has to make up for Mikel Astarloza testing positive for EPO.
Cadel Evans rode a promising a Dauphiné Liberé before sucking big time in the Tour. He‘ll be hungry for revenge, and has shown something this season he lacked ever before: attacking.

Liquigas sends a strong roster, sporting some of ther big stars, including Ivan Basso, Roman Kreuziger and Daniele Bennati.

Saxo Bank comes with an ultra strong roster that has both Schlecks and Fabian Cancellara, the latter is obviously gunning for a prologue win, while all three have stated they‘ll be among those riding themselves into shape for the world champs. Jakob Fuglsang, maybe the most promising talent around, will be their captain for the race. But who knows what will happen if Andy Schleck is within striking distance of the golden jersey after the first half of the race?

Caisse d‘Espargne list Alejandro Valverde, who mighr or might not face a world wide ban just before the Vuelta. If he‘s allowed to ride he‘ll surely aim for the overall win, as it might be has last chance for the next two years.

After crashing out of the Tour with a broken wrist, it‘s unsure how Rabobank‘s hope Robert Gesink will perform, but the team brings their ever versatile sprinter Oscar Freire as well.

Astana still list Vinokourov, who has just returned from a two years long „holiday“ (his words), as a reserve rider but noone will be too surprised if he rides as their captain, eh?

Just take a look on cycling start list for all the other teams . There are enough big names for a great race if enough of them have more in mind than the world champs.

I'm so bored with the C.A.V.

2009-08-23T16:08:00.001+02:00

Lance Armstrong surely is the riders whos has been getting most of the attention this year but among sprinter it‘s been Mark Cavendish without question. There have been a lot of praises and lot of rants which shows one thing: the guy is a really exiting rider.

I have to admit, when he had his breakthrough season last year I became a fan quickly. The way he took wins with ease being snotty on the bike as well as off – I really liked it. In a peloton that had lacked real personalities for some years, especially among sprinters, he was nothing but refreshing.

But the 2009 season changed things a lot of me. Somehow it seems Cavendish run into some bad marketing guys whose advise may proove benefitting financialy but seems to strip him off the charisma he had before. Last year he was a young loudmouth sometimes stepping over the line a bit. People had been annoyed by him every now and then but everybody seemed to forgive him fast as he just was a nice kid with a big mouth. This year he seems to push it a bit. His snotty comments don‘t sound to spontaneously but more like being part of building an image. Cavendish wants to be an asshole, be it because he gets a lot of media coverage, be it because he things as a sprinter he has to behave that way. I don‘t have a clue what influence his team has, but a comment long time friend and track partner Bradley Wiggings has on his twitter is quite interesting concerning that.

Canvendish‘s Tour de France campaign was super imressive. He took six stages and was the only real competitor to Thor Hushovd for the green jersey. A lot of peoply concerned being bored by Cavendish taking all of the wins during the Tour and in the months before, but that‘s not what annoyed me. The way he celebrated his victories were what bothered me the most. I don‘t want riders celebrating a stage win mocking a phone call so everyone at the team‘s newest sponsor, a mobile phone company, is most happy. I want to see riders struck with surprise and joy when taking their first Tour stage after being a hard working domestique for long years just as Nicki Sørensen who took the victory in Vittel. I want to see them cross the line in tears just as Heinrich Haussler who perfected his break through season with winning the next stage after a strong effort. Sure a sprinter is used to winning a lot more than a domestique or athlete just becoming a top rider, but that doesn‘t mean taking a stage in the biggest race of the year is just like another day in the office.

As a conlusion, I still like Cavendish but hope he‘ll focus on being the exiting rider he is instead of trying to be an asshole just because he thinks big sprinters have to. Somehow it seesm a strong dose of defeat would do him good. Hopefully riders like Farrar and Ciolek will become stronger during the next years so we‘ll see Cav acutally be amazed by winning again.

Not so Grand Depart

2009-08-23T15:57:00.000+02:00

So why another cycling blog? Sure, loads of them exist and most of them are mostly a bore. While there are some I like and read regularly I really have no interest in endless description of some amateur rider‘s daily traning routine, and certainly I don‘t want to read any more fanboy posts about one rider or another nor am I interested in clueless doping accusations. But bad blogs aren‘t the reason to start my own, maybe better one.

Those blogs I actually like mostly still seem to lack something. For example, cyclingfansanonymous is something I read a lot, but the writer seems to be a bit too consumed by anger and frustration. I admire his work and knowledge, his diving into the subject, his news round ups. But those round ups mainly consists of the worst news there are – That‘s important, but not what I want to do. Other blogs are simply rund by enthusiasts that don‘t dare to look behind the things happening, be it fucked up power play, riders too stupid to even look at them or the endless scandals from the meditaction department.

I would like to run a blog that transports some of my enthusiasm but still doesn‘t fail in taking a further step by naming some of the shit going on (or those thing that I believe to be crap). And, most important, it‘s about the fun. Cause that's what cycling is to me, fun. Be it watching the pros killing themselves on the road or riding myself.

One more thing: English is not my native language so please excuse mistakes – I try do find a way to get my point across and keep this readable for both native speakers and those who have learned English as a second language.

Contact

2009-01-29T17:25:00.001+01:00