Happy Birthday Chris!  I hope you have a fantastic birthday today, Thursday November 19th.  How is the weather up there, maybe you will get a chance to get in a good long bike ride, and your wife and kids will feed you cake.  Yes, cake on a birthday is quite a treat.  Cake, and a bike ride, and maybe some presents, yes, presents on a birthday can be a nice surprise.  Let's all join in together to wish Chris a Very Happy Birthday today!  (And thanks again for keeping Podium Cafe a fun place to visit.)

OK, I'll admit, a Versus Tour de France T-shirt is not exactly an all expense paid trip to the 2009 Tour de France, but still it's a thrill to win something given all the promotions and fantasy games I enter.

A couple of years ago I won a Graham Watson coffee table book from Velonews.com for guessing Paolo Bettini as the winner of a race.  Since I guessed Paolo Bettini as the winner of every race I guess I just got lucky that time.

So far this year I am playing

The Podium Cafe VDS year long game

The Points Competition at Cyclingfever.com (Thanks DZI)

The Kenda Cycling challenge on versus.com

Also on Versus I am playing

The unscramble word game (this is the one that I won the T-shirt on, expecting it in 4-6 weeks woohoo!)

The Who Am I game

Saab fly to the finish game, BTW you can enter up to three times each day there are three ways to get a codeword.

If you click Take Back the Tour in the versus sidebar you can enter to win a Felt Bike and a trip to the 2009 tour.

Is anybody else entering the contests?  What other contests are out there?

I'm having really mixed feelings about versus channel's takebackthetour.com ad campaign.   The first commercial that aired, showing little Tommy Voeckler climbing was  OK, but the new one that is showing today (June 22nd) during Cyclism Sunday is a bit disingenous I think.  I think what I most object to is that last shot of David Millar, who is shown in his Saunier Duval kit.  IIRC, Millar was riding for Cofidis when he was busted for using PEDs.  So why not show him in his Slipstream kit if he wants to be made example of?  I think it's unfair of Versus to cast aspersions on Saunier Duval, especially since they were the team who gave him a chance to come back to the pro peloton.

Cycling is chock full of nicknames for riders, even if they have one sometimes someone here at the Café will coin a new one.  One of the earliest ones from here that I remember is "evil Cricket" for Paolo Bettini who is fondly known in Italy as il Grillo, or the Cricket.

Alberto Contador became "The Accountant" because of a babelfish translation of a news story that contained his name, (I think.)

Tony Montana, aka Fabian Cancellara is almost self explanatory.  Then he became Spartacus to his fan base, and was even rumored to have that name on his bike helmet.

My husband and I call Tyler Hamilton "The Muppet" because of his riding style.

Someone here at the Café coined the nickname "Bubble Boy" for Tommy Danielson, that gave me a good laugh.  Another one I saw here the other day was  "Mr. Excitement" for Levi Leipheimer.

When I was putting together my VDS team for this year I was reading rider profiles on Wikipedia (I was surprised at how many riders actually have a Wikipedia page) and saw that Heinrich Haussler's nickname is "Beans."  Made me think I would not like to be riding behind him in the Peloton.

You can post your favorite rider nickname in this thread, or ask about why a rider has a particular nickname.  Someone may know the answer.

For most of my life, I was a cigarette smoker.  I'd tried a lot of different ways to quit, since will-power was not a viable option; gum, lozenges, patches, hypnosis, acupuncture, nothing worked for me until I tried this new drug from Pfizer called Chantix.  WIthin seven days I had given up the habit for good!  

Continue reading this post »

According to velonews, Alessandro Petacchi will not be riding the tour this year, and CONI has recommended a one year suspension.

Well, the Brits have done it again.  In an effort to promote cycling as an alternative to motor driven vehicles, some 200 folks set off on a nude bicycle ride.

Let's hope the Tour organizers don't decide that this is one way to ensure clean cycling for the prologue in London.