Boulder based Garmin, congrats on a great win! We are all looking forward to seeing this team in the Tour de France and the US Pro Cycling Tour here. Thanks to Lomax bike for this post that I am humbly reblogging.

lomaxbike

So its official Ryder Hesjedal has won the Giro d’Italia and created cycling history by becoming the first Canadian to win.

Hesjedal, claimed the pink jersey from Spain’s Joaquim Rodriguez after the 28.2km final-day time trial. Rodriguez, who led by 31 seconds overnight, finished 16 seconds behind in second with Thomas De Gendt third. Briton Mark Cavendish came second in the points competition after Rodriguez overtook him on the penultimate stage.

Hesjedal said “It was just an unreal experience from day one, with what we’ve been able to do, with the support of the team”.

“I couldn’t have done it without them. I knew I was good when I came here. I just stayed focused and took advantage of the situation. I kept feeding off that support.”
This is also the first time his Garmin team have made the podium in their five-year history.

I also love Ryder’s name –…

View original post 128 more words

Happy Mothers Day

I want to wish all Mothers that read this a Happy Mothers Day. I am serving as father and mother right now for a very nice 16 yr old and happy to be able to fill this role. To this end some of my thoughts on this day.

First, thanks to my Mom for all of her support over the years. Her love is unconditional and she supports me and my brother and sisters regardless of what happens in our life. There have been difficulties that she has endured but she has been there for us through it all without judgement or criticism. She has been able to voice her opinion, and has the right to say she doesn’t like some of what she has seen, however she has not waivered in her support. While riding today I thought about this and another mother who is currently ignoring her son just because he made a remark that she didn’t like months ago.

Mothers love is important to us all, and the withholding of that love by a superficial mother is painful. This is not how my mother is, and not how mothers around the globe treat their children. They love them whether they are university grads or barely grads. They support them when they mess up, and hope that they can make everything better. Mothers have to endure the pain of seeing their child struggle and treat them the same as the one who has just accomplished something special. They cry in the backround when they know that destructive behavior is hurting their child but put on a good face when they make them a nice meal and hope that it will provide hope for them. Sometimes that support is hard to understand but they don’t care, they do it anyway. That is why we celebrate them today.

There are those who will expect the kids to kiss the ring today, make a big deal about the day, and will feel slighted if they dont get a gift or flowers. Those mothers may have every right to hope for that type of treatment but in all liklihood that “its all about me” type of attitude will have been present all year and todays celebration will be a furtherance of that attitude. Those mothers will only get that type of respect if they give unconditional love but they may be incapable of that.

We, as the children, cannot take our mothers for granted. We must respect them, and not take advantage of the kindness they send our way. We should learn compassion from them and hope we can pass that on to our children. We have to understand their pain if we make poor choices and vow to do better if only to make them proud of us. We must return the love they give us by our actions, and remember that they will always be there, but we cannot take advantage of that.

I have had success in my life and have not had too many “o my god” moments. Moms of the kids who are successful can look back and see how their good qualities and how those have been nurtured by their Mom. She is proud of seeing those accomplishments but I would guess that it is more important to her if you are a good person. Be that good person.

Happy Mothers day to all.

Burden of Proof is on the one claiming the existence of the fact

It makes you wonder why the people that believe in God, refuse to listen to logic and reason when examining their own existence.

Wind, hate it or tolerate it

I just got back from a ride with the Irishman and a gal training for an iron man triathlon. We rode through the rollers south of Denver and I struggled to fight the wind. For all of us in this part of the country it is inevitable that you will have wind this time of the year. If you live in Wyoming its all year, all the time. I try to embrace the challenge and keep a positive outlook because in golf I have always said that half the field has lost before they tee off if it is windy. They complain, they piss and moan, and then they play poorly. If you are not one of these people you now can work on beating the other half for the day.
I think the same is true of cycling. I am not a racer but in my mind I hope to do well against others I ride with, and against. When it is windy it really gets into your head. Today we had a headwind and were going uphill for most of the first half of the ride. The Irishman and I couldn’t keep up with the gal and her aero bars, though we tried.
Coming back, slightly downhill and predominately down wind, it was different story….

As I try to get back into better shape I need to avoid thinking negative thoughts about the weather or the fact that I can’t keep up with some of the other riders on the bike path or training ride, and just ride within my level. I like the challenge of riding with better riders, so I will just keep plugging away..I may have felt like the greyhound chasing the rabbit today, but sometimes the greyhound, even an overweight one, catches the hare. 🙂

Ireland Southwest Coast, Ring of Kerry

I had hoped to cycle the Ring of Kerry however the Irishman could not locate one single bike shop that would rent us road bikes for the ride. They wanted to give us hybrids with panniers so we declined. In retrospect, after having driven it, it would have been both beautiful and maddening. The ride itself would be really nice however there was virtually no shoulder to ride on and approximately six hundred thousand tourist buses going on the tour every day. I was imaging myself getting clocked with the side mirror on one of those buses as it went by. If the road was better it would be one of the great rides in the Ireland and the UK.

Happy St. Patricks Day

From Killarney, looking out over the lake from the Hotel Europa

Words to live by

I have borrowed this poster from Elena so I will give her proper credit here. She has a very interesting blog that I hope people will look at.

I saw this on her site recently and it caused me to reflect on some of the principles that I feel are important, and how to be a good person without the constraints of religion. I gave up on the Catholic church a long time ago, but that doesnt mean that those of us that are not religious can’t have some guiding principles by which to conduct ourselves. I haven’t ever tried to codify mine but found a lot of what is said her to be helpful.

Given the current political climate I wish some of those that thought themselves to be “religious” would live by these principles.

I would encourage a visit to this blog (God is not here). Intelligent, rational and very well written.

God Is Not Here

Evolutionary biologist and author of The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins believes that education is the only ‘antidote’ to religion. “We need to protect children from being indoctrinated. It goes on to the next generation and then they see that their children get indoctrinated. Children are getting educated into the religion of their parents. We shouldn’t just assume that a child of a Christian becomes a Christian,” he says.

“If children are taught, however moderately, that faith is a virtue, they are taught that they don’t need evidence to believe something; that they can believe something just because it’s their faith, then that paves the way for the minority to become extremists. If children are taught that they don’t need to defend their beliefs with evidence, then that does pave the way for extremism.”

“There seems to be a correlation with education. It’s certainly true within…

View original post 147 more words

Every cycling club needs a post ride headquarters

Our official unofficial headquarters!

Johnnie Fox’s overlooking Dublin

The Irishman in hot pursuit of a pint

One of the joys of traveling is that you run into places unexpectedly that are so unique and special that you have to stop for a few minutes and take in the local culture. My trip to Ireland with the Irishman included very few sights and many local pubs. In fact as we were driving from his home to the center of Dublin I saw many of the sights from the car with the Irishman pointing right and left, but we did stop at some lovely pubs for a pint of Guiness.

Johnnie Fox’s is on hill a few miles outside of Dublin and is worth the trip, assuming you can drive on the right side of the road without killing yourself.