After talking about the Bear Mountain climb last week, I had the urge to go out there and take a video of it... well, the descent from the climb (since watching me huffing up the climb wouldn't be quite as interesting). The climb itself isn't really that difficult. It's a 4.5 mile climb at a little more than 4% with a fairly constant gradient so it's not hard to settle into a nice rhythm and just get up it without too much difficulty. The views are really great which is probably the reason why there are so many people who come up to the top of the mountain (mostly on cars, obviously). The only downside of the climb is that it's literally 45 miles from my apartment.... so to just go and practice climbing on that hill means that I have to ride a 100 miles round trip.
On another note, it looks like Contador won the Giro. I'm still not sure what to think about the whole clenbuterol thing. Without making a guess on whether he was doping or not, I personally think he should be handed a 1 year suspension because he is, under WADA guidelines, responsible for any level of clenbuterol in his blood. But that's just my opinion. Also filed under "my opinions" are the thoughts that he is still the most exciting and explosive climber out there and that his little pistolero hand gesture is still stupid.
The US National Road Race Championship is being held today at Greenville, SC (where George Hincapie lives). Some good names on the startlist so here are my thoughts:
- George Hincapie will make a good showing of it but will be a marked man and won't be allowed to get free. Same holds true for Ben King after his long breakaway last year.
- I really would want Ted King to do well, simply because he writes well and takes pictures of food.
- Taylor Phinney will (unfortunately) not do well. The kid has had a tough week....
- I think Tejay van Garderen will take the championship from a short breakaway. He looked really strong in the ToC last week.
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