Not following the plan

Astana revealed its true colors today. Alberto mounted a late attack and managed to gain two seconds on Lance, putting him in second position. That was not by the book according to Bruyneel, but face it, what else could Contador do? If I were him, I would have attacked too. If Lance gets yellow, Alberto can kiss his tour goodbye. On the other hand, even if Alberto gets yellow he will have to keep looking over his shoulder for the Texan and the rest of "his" team.

Don't get me wrong. I think it is super that Lance is riding. It shows great spirit and determination. It brings attention to the Tour and the sport of cycling. It helps clean up the image of the sport. Tons of good things for sure, but Lance wants to win. That too is normal and if he wins, kudos to him! The only sad thing is that Contador, a young rider of great promise happens to be on the same team as Lance. That is the worst possible place to be someone like him. Johan and Lance are tied at the hip in more ways than one.

Today I noticed that I lost a chainring bolt and nut on my tribike. Unfortunately, Campagnolo is using a proprietary format for their carbon crank. The upshot is that I can't find a bolt and nut anywhere and the few places that have it (on the web) charge outrageous amounts of money for it. Furthermore, I need to get my bike ready by Monday for shipping so there is no way to get the parts in time. I think I will switch out the carbon crank and put the aluminum one back on instead.

Speaking of Lake Placid, fundraising is lackluster, the cost is high and the preparation is not quite there. On Tuesday I ran a "fit test" (9 mph for 30 min on the treadmill) but had to stop at 4 miles, or 3:10 short of my goal.

On Wednesday I rode 38 with Alistair going down Wilcat, over the Bear, Happy Valley and then back over Wildcat. I felt pretty good.

Yesterday I tried another fit test, but I hit the panic button by accident and the treadmill stopped at 3 miles. It took some time to get it going again. These treadmills have too many fancy features making it pretty hard to just run. When it finally got going, I did some additional running at 9 mph but I have no idea whether I would have passed the test or not.

Today I swam for about an hour. I swam 1.5 miles and did about 30 laps breathing on the left (with a buoy to help me out).