If nothing else, cyclists are opinionated. Even crappy ones like me have opinions, and damn it, we're right and you're wrong! So stick with me as I step on every third rail of cycling, or at least the ones I could think of while putting off real work this Friday afternoon.

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Two weeks ago, I rode the Best of the Bay Century, which traveled 118 miles and 10,000 vertical feet down the SF East Bay. At Mile 92, it hit the dreaded Cat 1 Sierra Road climb, last seen at the 2006 Tour of California -- 3.7-ish miles at nearly 10%, with the first couple of hundred meters at 15%+. It was a sadistic piece of rock, especially for someone who sucks at cycling like me.

But I finished! How could I not? I was sporting this great kit, and had to do it justice:

To be clear, this isn't bragging. I really DO suck. I was just showing off the kit, even if I need to do a better job of sucking in my gut when taking pictures like this one (I can stand to lose another 5-8 lbs).

I'll be wearing this kit at Death Ride in less than two weeks, so if you see me, say "hi"!

Update: Here is the elevation map for that ride: 

For those of you who know the East Bay, that's Mama Bear, up Happy Valley, up Wildcat Canyon, to Skyline, down to Canyon, up South Pinehurst, down (and up) Redwood into Castro Valley, up Palomares, up Calaveras, up Sierra. 

Love it.

The International Cycling Union (UCI) management committee, meeting here at the world road race championships which end Sunday, said they would phase out the use of the two-way radios which link riders to their team cars. Race radios are already banned in junior and under 23 races.

Detractors of the radios claim their use renders races more predictable, and thus more boring to watch. Advocates of the radios, such as former Astana team manager Johan Bruyneel and Saxo Bank boss Bjarne Riis, say radios are a necessity for modern day bike racing.

That motorcycle that rides up to the breakaway with a little chalkboard with the time scrawled on it will finally have a reason to exist again. And back in the team car, team managers will finally be able to focus on the road, because god forbid an assistant drive so the DS can concentrate on paying attention to the race. 

Now the riders will have to adjust to looking at the road ahead, rather than wait for the team to relay "hazards up ahead", and I'm not sure riders will be able to finish a time trial without the obnoxiously repetitious "encouragement" from their managers ("allez Lance, alleaz!"), but I'm confident they'll find a way to persevere. I admit, though, that I feel sorry for the poor domestiques that will have to make extra trips back to the team cars to get instructions in addition to water bottles. It'll suck to be them. That is, unless the riders ride the entire 2010 season "slow" in protest. If so, Kenny Robert Van Hummel might be a good gamble for the 2010 VDS team. 

About the only thing I'll miss from race radios are those last-200 meter catches of the breakaways by the sprinter teams. You know there was a guy back in the car with a calculator, feverishly determining the exact speed the chasing teams needed to ride to catch the poor saps in the breakaway with the finish line in sight. It wasn't enough to catch them, you had to crush their spirit within sight of victory. But every once in a while, the breakaway would survive with the sprinters breathing down their necks, and that's what I lived for on those boring transitional stages -- turning the tables on those obnoxious sprinters. But alas, that will be much tougher without the calculator guy constantly relaying new speed data to the riders. 

One of the things that makes cycling so fun is that any of us can ride the bikes the pros ride (if our wallet allows), and we don't need to join leagues or put together teams or rent facilities. We just get a bike, dress up funny (as my wife says), and then hit the road.

So unlike most other sports, I've always assumed that the majority of cycling afficionados actually cycle. Since it's never a good idea to just assume, hit "Entry Link" and take the poll.

This week I'll easily surpass 100 miles on my bike for the first time in ... forever. I went from being completely unmotivated to ride (it is a time drain, and worse with an infant and toddler at home), to day dreaming about my next ride.

I think there are two factors:

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The Daily Herald is reporting that the Bulls and Timberwolves are having preliminary talks about Kevin Garnett:

League sources indicated the Bulls and the Timberwolves have had some preliminary discussions about Garnett -- and the price would be Luol Deng, Tyrus Thomas and possibly a first-round draft pick.

P.J. Brown and a couple of other players would be needed to even out the salaries.

I've been out of it lately because of work-related travel, so was I the only person who missed the news that Leipheimer will be joining Discovery next year?

George Hincapie and Jason McCartney ride bicycles for Discovery Channel, America's only international team. Levi Leipheimer rides for Gerolsteiner of Germany, but will join Discovery next year.

They even got some practice working together at the US Road Championship.

Hincapie, McCartney, Leipheimer and Zabriskie were on the same radio frequency with Discovery's fill-in team director, Vyacheslav Ekimov.

Before the race, Leipheimer said: "We're not a team but we have a common interest. We'll work together for a while. Then it's every man for himself."

Well, it looks like they will be working together next year, and it looks like Discovery will have their team leader.  

I'm watching the game on TV, seeing Prior having a great game. The offense is clicking, we're up 7-0, Prior gets out of the fifth no probs, qualifying for the win.

Bottom of the inning, Prior comes up to bat.

What the hell is Baker thinking? Is his mission in life to destroy our young arms? Prior is making a comeback from the DL, there's NO FREAKING REASON to keep him in a game that is pretty much safely tucked away. But he does anyway.

I know some of you have complained about a lack of RSS functionality on the site. Well, we finally got it done. Below the Recent Diaries, you'll find links to RSS1, RSS2 and Atom feeds.

You can also subscribe to RSS feeds of your favorite diarists. Go to their home pages, and click on the RSS links on those pages.

Enjoy!

Excuse things around here as we celebrate Maya, the newest addition to the A's Fan Club.

Blez will be back soon (probably Saturday) with the second installment of his killer interview with Billy Beane. Until then, you're going to have to make do with diaries and baby pictures.

And as a friend of Blez's, I can confirm that yes -- outside of work -- he only wears A's gear.

Just got word that our fearless leader Blez is now a proud father.

7 lbs 14 ounces, 20" long, and a head of full, dark, thick hair.

More details as they become available.

We've turned on the rudimentary Scoop RSS feed. Not the most modern, or up-to-date, but we'll get to RSS 2.0 and Atom eventually.

http://www.athleticsnation.com/index.rdf

There are some technical difficulties that come with a migration of this sort. The big one is that people can't register. We're on it. I'll post an update when that error is fixed. Thanks for being patient.

Update [2004-9-21 18:18:47 by Blez]: The site will now allow you to create usernames...have at it, folks!