SB Nation User Blog: Hons

Today I was honked at...I caught up and made a great honking noise back...he caught up and said I'm...

Hons — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:22:25 -0000

Today I was honked at...I caught up and made a great honking noise back...he caught up and said I'm gonna punch you in the face...I laughed.

http://twitter.com/dzabriskie/status/6685845395

This is why I love DZ

LA Road Rage case needs your help

Hons — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 02:30:59 -0000

As some of you have no doubt heard, the jury has reached a verdict in the Thompson case. The jury found the defendant guilty on all seven counts charged:

- Count 1: Reckless Driving Causing Specified Injury (victim: Ron Peterson)
- Count 2: Battery with Serious Bodily Injury (victim: Ron Peterson)
- Count 3: Battery with Serious Bodily Injury (victim: Christian Stoehr)
- Count 4: Reckless Driving (victims: Patrick Watson and Josh Crosby)
- Count 5: Assault with a Deadly Weapon (victim: Ron Peterson)

NOTE: The jury also found that the defendant had committed a Special Allegation of "Causing Great Bodily Injury"

- Count 6: Assault with a Deadly Weapon (victim: Christian Stoehr)

NOTE: The jury also found that the defendant had committed a Special Allegation of "Causing Great Bodily Injury"

- Count 7: Mayhem

A request for letters of support was forwarded to me by a friend/cyclist at UCLA. I know that many of you out in fleshspace live in and around LA, have friends and loved ones in LA or have ridden in LA. If so, please consider taking a minute and writing a letter/email to the District Attorney or to the District Attorney's office. Also, please keep in mind that these letters will be presented in a court of law and will representative of cyclist, so please keep it professional and appropriate.

I have attached the details of the request on the flip.

The range for the defendant is anywhere from probation to 10 years in prison and the District Attorney is anticipating that the defense will submit a boatload of letters to the judge and/or the probation department on his client's behalf. Please, if anyone from the community who has views on the sentencing you are also allowed to write the judge and/or probation officer.

As the defense will probably argue that no one else's opinion is relevant to this defendant, the District Attorney will indicate that we are offering letters toward the issue of general deterrence, in other words, simply because the defendant was in his car does not change the blunt nature of the unmitigated assault on the cyclists and that drivers everywhere must become aware that they have to share the road. To that end, anyone who would like to contribute a letter or an e-mail may send it to the District Attorney's office (below) or to the District Attorney herself, her e-mail address is also below. She will package all the letters and e-mails for us and submit them with her motion so the judge gets them all at once instead of a slow trickle. She plans to file the motion at the end of next week so it would be great if she had the letters/e-mails by then. And, yes, the more, the better.

Please address your letters appropriately, like we were able to touch on in court, which is that cyclists are not some alien breed of monsters that are claiming the streets, but regular people, fathers, sons, mothers, daughters, police officers, bankers, lawyers, doctors, teachers.... So, if anyone is writing a letter, it would be nice if you could begin with an identifying fact such as what your occupation is and that you are a motorist and a cyclist. I truly appreciate everyone's commitment to this request and I hope you all feel the same as I do in making sure the defendant serves his appropriate time in prison for all 7 counts the jury found him guilty on and not just a slap on the wrist and probation.

Please make your voice heard. Also, please forward on to your cycling community and make your voice heard throughout your area. This has resulted in National attention and the more letters from across the country the louder our voice will be heard.

Mary Stone
E-mail Address:
mstone@da.lacounty.gov

District Attorney's Office
Attn. Mary Stone
11701 S. LaCienega
Los Angeles, CA 90045

Armstrong Announces 90% Completion Toward Transformation Into Huge Nerd

Hons — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:03:22 -0000

Armstrong Announces 90% Completion Toward Transformation Into Huge Nerd

Fat Cyclist Fake News Service strikes again

Stage 2 Circuit Franco Belge

Hons — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:11:54 -0000

Stage 2 Circuit Franco Belge

1 111 Farrar Tyler (GRM), 2 51 Haedo Juan José (SAX), 3 21 Bonnen Tom (QSI) [my bad...that was stage 1]

Stage 2:
1 111 Farrar Tyler (GRM)
2 USOV Alexandre (96)
3 CASPER Jimmy (131)

Stage 3 is underway as I type

Thor just wants to ride his chicken

Hons — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:44:23 -0000

no matter what he says in his interviews. For example...last week he told Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet

I'm not sure if I will ride in the Tour de France next year," said Hushovd. "I have other goals that are starting to become more important than a third green jersey in the Tour. To win the spring Classics and the World Championships is more tempting."

But nooooo, that can't be right. ah, yes, once his sponsors caught wind of this, he released the following

“Winning the green jersey was my major objective for 2009, and 2010 will be no different," said Hushovd. "I love the Tour de France. Given the level of competition for the green, it will no doubt be a great fight in 2010 and I am looking forward to it."

Much better. Or something. But don't worry, it's not a total about face

I am going to change some things in my program next year, to be in top form at the Worlds, since next year’s race suits me better than this year’s course in Mendrisio

Whatever..as long as Thor gets to ride his chicken.

Hincapie to dress his new teamates

Hons — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:20:44 -0000

Hincapie to dress his new teamates

Oh. my. goodness. I .am. so. surprised.

Hincapie Sportswear announced this week that it will provide cycling apparel for the BMC Racing Team in 2010. Apparently it was a key aspect of Big Georges contract negotiations. Shocker, I know.

I am prohibited from racing in Italy, but I can come here on holiday, go to a hotel or wherever I...

Hons — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:26:11 -0000

I am prohibited from racing in Italy, but I can come here on holiday, go to a hotel or wherever I want.

Alejandro Valverde

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/spanish-move-valverde-out-of-italy

I’m the opposite of cycling press. I’m completely subjective. I don’t even try to tell both sides of...

Hons — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:26:18 -0000

I’m the opposite of cycling press. I’m completely subjective. I don’t even try to tell both sides of any given story. I make news up, and I twist the truth to suit my own ends.

Oh, waitasec. I guess I’m regular cycling press after all.

Fat Cyclist

Armstrong's Bio Passport Critic Speaks

Hons — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:10:12 -0000

First of all, some may see this as a dead horse...to you, I apologize. However, this seems to be a fairly rational rehashing of said dead horse. In short, Velocity nation interviews the scientist at the root of the recent allegations.

More on the flip

Velocity nation has followed up on their original post regarding LA's blood values. Becuase there were unable to get anyone to speak on the record regarding the allegations (shocking I know), they went straight to the source, Jaekob Moerkeberg. A couple interesting snippets...

First of all...why did he comment:

There was a journalist from Denmark’s Radio that approached me, called me last Tuesday. He asked if I had seen the results posted on Armstrong's website, and I had. Then he asked me how I interpreted the data, and I told him what I saw, and he asked me if I was willing to say that on television.

and what are his qualifications?

I'm an exercise physiologist, Copenhagen University graduating 2006, and I have just written up my PhD and submitted it one week ago, the PhD is about detecting autologous blood transfusions in an anti-doping context.

...and has published with Damsgaard and Ashenden.

Some details on his concerns:

I am not saying these values are suspicious because they are high. That is the whole point. I am talking about a lack of relative low values for that specific athlete, which you would expect from a physiological point of view at the end of the Tour.

and my personal favourite comment (my emphasis)...

...when you as an athlete choose by yourself to publish your values - then it's free for people to comment on them. This was his own decision. If you're not ready for that scrutiny, you shouldn't publish your values. If a journalist comes to me, it's because I've done work in this area, and want my opinion as a scientist. If he has got a problem with people commenting on his values, he shouldn't have chosen to publish them. When he does that, it's an open forum, it's public, and if something looks strange it would be wrong for me not to say that, when I was asked. If I didn’t say his values looked suspicious, I would dismiss the scientific literature, which I have based my comments on.

There is much more there as well, including comments regarding expected patterns in the presence of blood doping and his thoughts on the bio-passort...go check it out. It's nice to see that the younger generation of scientists, as well as the younger generation of cyclists (see Kohl, Bernard) seem to be leaving omerta behind. It will be interesting to see what reprocussion result from this incident.

Vuelta VDS smack talk: premature edition

Hons — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 13:58:12 -0000

Yes I know, it's a little early for this, but I'm leaving for some altitude training in Sequoia next week until stage 3 and I didn't want to mis out on the fun, or for you all to realize why your collective teams don't stand a chance...You see, I've been peaking for the Vuelta all along. The details of your demise on the flip

So who do I have? Funny you should ask...I was about to tell you

SamSan (this is his year...it's going to be gold, orange and gold all over the podium)

JAGM

Barredo (we saw only a tiny hint of his form at San Seb)

Hesjeda/CVV

Anton (yes, the Euskies will have 2 in the top 10...this is their redemption tour)

Mixing it up in the sprints will be:

Rollin

Ciolek and

Gilbert

And incase there happpens to be an ITT (oh look, there is)

Tuft (he will be honing his form to improve on his modest performance in last years WCITT)

That's right...not a dud in the bunch. So who you got that will trump that? And don't tell me Valverde...Danielson almost beat him last week.