Vive le Tour!

As many of you know by now, the 2010 Tour of Missouri has been canceled earlier this week due to unapproved funding by Missouri's department of tourism. The Tour of Missouri is an international bicycle race that was first started back in 2007. It was ranked one of the top 5 bicycle races outside of Europe. The state only needs to fund $1 million for the week long race. Estimated state revenue would of been over $30 million. There is a slight chance that ToM can still get funding, not from Missouri's state dollars but by corporations and private sponsorships.

Q: Who are the victims in this?
A: The fans (of course), and the small towns and cities of the state of Missouri.

The ToM brought lots of business to these towns. One of the towns that will be hurt is the beautiful town of Ste Genevieve MO. I was in Genevieve last weekend for the Missouri's Road Race State Championships. I was also there last year when it hosted the start of the second stage of ToM.

Little about Ste Genevieve MO

Pics when I was in Ste Genevieve last weekend:

Ste. Genevieve: Still proud to be a host town for the Tour of Missouri, 8 months after the event.


Tour of Missouri fading away by the rains of politics.


A Bed and Breakfast








Music Video pick:
Your Ex-lover is dead by the Stars

Floyd Landis: My thoughts on the controversy

Yesterday was one of the biggest media days in American pro cycling in a long time. Unfortunately, the news story had nothing to do with any big American victories. Once again, pro cycling has been plagued by doping allegations. Yesterday, Floyd Landis finally came out that he was doping during most of his pro cycling career; after four years he was striped of his Tour de France title for doping. He also named many top cyclist for doping. On Floyd's black list included ex-teammates such as Lance Armstrong, George Hincapie, Levi Leipheimer, and Dave Zabriskie, all of whom are currently racing in the Amgen Tour of California this week.

In the last four years, Landis claimed his innocence by raising money and wrote a book about his innocence. He raised millions of dollars and made lots of money from his book. Many Americans (including myself), and other pro cyclist (including the ones he threw under the bus) believed his innocence. He lied to the public about his cheating in the sport and took millions of dollars from people. In a press confrence yesterday in California, Lance Armstrong spoke about the allegations that were made about him from his ex-teammate/friend. He was very angry with Landis and said that he fooled all of us including him. Armstrong ended the press confrence by saying "we have nothing to hide."

This controversy is bigger than any sports related controversy in the last year. Bigger than the Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods cheated on his wife, not his sport; Landis cheated his sport, ied to the public, took millions of dollars from his fans and now he's trying to take others down with him. I'm sure more will come of this in the next couple of months leading up to the Tour de France. This is not over yet.

A few weeks ago I saw Floyd Landis at the Joe Martin stage race in Arkansas. Never of thought that this might be the last time the public will see him on a bike. I imagine that Landis will no longer race again, or ever be caught riding a bike.

Floyd Landis at rider sign in, before stage 1 of the 2010 Tour of Missouri


Jens Voigt having a friendly chat with Landis. Wonder how this conversation would go now.


Landis, almost running me over at Joe Martin


Video of Landis last road race finish? He's at the end of the pack of this finish.



Almost forgot:
Video Pick for the day: Ben Folds Five - Song for the Dumped "give us our money back you BITCH LANDIS"

Powerlines

Driving through the city when I saw these power lines in those orange plastic covers...whatever they're used for.



Video Pick of the day: Broken Social Scene - 7/4 Shoreline

DZ-NUTS wins stage 3 in California!

09 Tour of Missouri
Originally uploaded by Philip Wilkerson

David Zabriskie wins stage 3 of Tour of California today. He went in a 3 man break with Michael Rogers and defending AToC champ Levi Leipheimer on the Bonny Doon climb. The 3 survived to the finish where DZ won the sprint just by a couple centimeters at the line. He now leads California, and he's an excellent time trialist. Congrats DZ-NUTS!!!


Another reason why DZ is bad ass:

Evening Espresso

I was out one evening during the week on the plaza and saw this guy drinking an espresso and reading a book. Reminded me when i was Italy when people would go to these little cafes drinking espresso.



Video pick of the day: recognize the skyline and city street in this video?

U2 - Last night on Earth
Uploaded by Angkor. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

Tour of California picks:

The Amgen Tour of California starts up on Sunday. The organizers of the race has pushed back this years AToC hoping for better weather in May rather than in February. This is an exciting time for American cycling due to its rise in popularity, international attention, and world class athletes such as Cadel Evans, Lance Armstrong, Fabian Cancellara, Tom Bonnen, and the Schleck brothers. Even with such world class cyclist that I just mentioned, none of them are my picks for this year's AToC.

My three picks will be dominated by these three Americans:

1) Levi Leipheimer; Looking forward to win his fourth straight AToC


2) Dave Zabriskie; won the 09 Tour of Missouri, showing that he can be a promising GC contender.


3) George Hincapie; rumors have it that this might be his last year in pro cycling, maybe he can win a stage race before he goes into retirement.



Other riders to watch for:

Mark Cavendish; this might be a good to chance to finally win some stages. He's only won two stages this year after having some bad luck with illnesses and crashes.


Jens Voigt


Gustav Larsson, great time trialist and was 2nd overall at Tour of Missouri


Martin Gilbert, won stage 7 of Tour of Missouri, maybe looking for another stage win?

Joe Martin Women's 3-4 crit race

My good friend Aubree Dock raced in Joe Martin's women's stage race. Last Sunday I was able to come watch her race in her crit. Before the Crit she was fighting to be in the top 10 GC and she was currently 14th in the GC. During the crit (the last race at Joe Martin) she was riding strong, always riding in the top 5 positions of the pack. She was looking strong until the last lap where I was waiting for her to finish. I saw the pack come over the hill in the final 200 meters to the finish when I did not see her. I never saw her finish, so I started walking the course and fearing the worst. I saw her walking up the hill with her bike with her leg dripping in blood. Despite crashing in the last lap and unable to finish with the pack, she was smiling and laughing. However; she was able to move up in the GC at Joe Martin, she finished 11th in the GC!!! Awesome job Aubree!!! Your such a bad ass.

The pics below are from Aubree's crit. While she was getting bandaged up she discovered some road rash in an odd place, but I'll let Aubree talk about that one.

Aubree during the crit race


In front of the pack, ready to make a move




Raise your hand if your a bad ass!




Where else did you get road rash?!?!



Music Video pick for the day:

Boston Mountains - Thats right MOUNTAINS!!!

Here are some of the sites I saw when I got to travel through during the Joe Martin Stage race in Arkansas. Most of the race was in the region of the Boston Mountains, Northwest Arkansas. Thats right, MOUNTAINS! They're no rockies but they do climb to an elevation of 2500+ feet. The area I was in are consider the "Low Mountains," just west of the 'high mountains."

Arkansas is a beautiful state, that I am sure that I'll come back to visit. Don't let the bad publicity of Arkansas prevent you to visit the 'natural state.' If you ever come visit Arkansas just a few things to remember:

1) Bring your own beer; many counties are dry
2) Don't stay in Bentonville AR, Walmart has destroyed the soul of that town
3) bring a bicycle, after all it is the 'natural state'
4) DONT LITTER! Arkansas has a strict policy for littering, that encourage people to report any violators and with fines that reach over $2000 + community services.
5) Bring your iPod, unless you want to listen to the radio that has nothing but Christian, and country stations.

Sorry about the whole set up. I'm trying to figure out how to work HTML. If you click on the photo, you can see the whole photo on my flickr.

The Boston Mountains (low mountains)



On Highway 540, just south of Fayetteville AR


At Mount Gaylor, AR


In Devil's Den State Park, AR:


One more thing before I go.
I had this song stuck in my head all week:

Joe Martin pics are up on flickr!

Stage 3_0250.jpg
Originally uploaded by Philip Wilkerson

Check out the pics from Joe Martin on my flickr. Just click on the photo on this blog post and once you get to the site click on the "Joe Martin" set.

Raw Honey - Discoveries from the bike.

Raw Honey
Originally uploaded by Philip Wilkerson

While I was in Arkansas for Joe Martin, I went on a 30 mile bike ride before one of the stages. On this ride I went through some beautiful country side with some nice rolling hills. I came across this small town, just outside of Bentonville, where I discovered an old gas station that was selling raw honey. This is a perfect example why I love cycling; I discover great locations that may be overlook while driving.

Another Video from stage 3

Stage 3 finish
Originally uploaded by Philip Wilkerson

Stage 3 sprint finish won by Jonathion Cantwell of Fly V Australia.

Video - In the feed zone with Team Bissell

Stage 3 Feed Zone
Originally uploaded by Philip Wilkerson

Joe Martin - Stage 3 - feed zone

I was taking pictures with my Nikon D200 as I used my Canon Powershot S90 to take some video as the peloton rode through the feed zoon, you can hear my D200's shutter going.

I thought I would post this video before I post the rest of the photos from Joe Martin.

Enjoy!

Joe Martin: Stage 1 - Time Trial

Stage 1 TT_0101.jpg
Originally uploaded by Philip Wilkerson

Thursday was the first stage of the NRC race Joe Martin. It was a 2.5 mile route with an average grade of 6.8%. The weather was hot (high temp of 88 F) and the climb was steep. It was Andrew Talansky of California Giant Berry Farms that finished with the fastest time of 7m54s followed by Benjamin Day (Fly V Australia) and Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell). Other big names in the race: Floyd Landis (OUCH Bahati Foundation) was +43 sec; Ivan Dominguez (Jamis Sutter Home pb Colavita) was +1m3s; Brian Jensen (Tradewind) was 1m9s; and Steve Tilford (Tradewind) was +1m28s.

I'm having a blast here in the beautiful state of Arkansas and I'm taking lots of photos that I will soon post on blogger and Flickr. Take a look at my photos on my flickr just by clicking on the photo that is linked to this post. I'm really looking forward to travel to more of these NRC races across the country this season!

Hope everybody enjoys these photos. Please feel free to comment and share these photos with friends!

1950 Chrysler Windsor

1950 Chrysler Windsor
Originally uploaded by Philip Wilkerson

Driving back to the hotel from the Joe Martin's TT and saw a truck pulling this old car down interstate 540.

Ride Away Credit

Ride Away Credit
Originally uploaded by Philip Wilkerson

I'm in Fayetteville AR this week for the Joe Martin Stage Race. But before I post any photos from Joe Martin, I wanted to share this photo that I took while riding the last Volker Monday night ride. This is Ty (http://www.facebook.com/ty.trammell) a new team mate on Colavita Parisi Coffee. I really lucked out with this photo as we we're passing a used car dealership on Troost with the sign saying "ride-away credit." I just find that amusing.

Soon there'll be photos from Joe Martin!!!

Edited photo from Iowa

Rural Iowa
Originally uploaded by Philip Wilkerson

Another photo from Iowa. Took this with my Canon S90 and edited in Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop.

Union Station

Union Station
Originally uploaded by Philip Wilkerson

Went down to Union Station to pick up a friend from the Amtrak Station late at night. I was pretty surprised how many people got off the Amtrak train. Didn't think too many Kansas Citians took the Amtrak. Of course my friend's train was 30 minutes late, but again thats Amtrak for you. If only the US could get a high speed reliable train system here, like they have in Europe.

Buy a BIKE!!!

IMG_0202_0002-Edit.jpg
Originally uploaded by Philip Wilkerson

Need a bike? buy one from Volker Bicycles: 1717 West 39th Street, KCMO

Midnight drive through midtown KC

IMG_0195_0015-Edit.jpg
Originally uploaded by Philip Wilkerson

I was playing around with my new Canon S90 the other night on my way home. Great little camera.

Capitol City Crit:

Some photos from Capital City Crit in Iowa City IA with my new kick a$$ camera: Canon S90!