Calendar and results 2008

Autograph collection after RuK (24.03.08)

1. Stuart O'Grady
   
2. Karsten Kroon
   
3. Allan Johansen
   
4. Kurt-Asle Arvesen
   
5. Matthew Goss
   
6. Anders Lund
   
7. Matti Breschel
   
8. Marcus Ljungqvist
   
9. Lasse Bøchman
   
10. André Steensen
    
11. Jens Voigt
    
12. Andy Schleck
    
13. Nicki Sorensen
    
14. Michael Bludzun
    
15. Alexndr Kolobnev
    
16. Kaper Klostergaard
    

Critérium International (30. 03. 08)
I will try to get these men's autograph.

1. Bobby Julich
   
2. Gustav Erik Larsson
   
3. Fränk Schleck
   

Rund um Köln 2008 Part III

Monday, 24th March 2008. Still drizzling and chilly.

Chronological notes: (to be completed later)
I left the camping site around 7:10 in the morning. I arrived at the
"Sportpark Leverkusen" around 7:30. It was coudy and chilly morning.

I had barely slept the previous night so I needed a short nap in the 
parking lot just behind the Sportpark Leverkusen. As I lay back, I
noticed that it started to SNOW. This did it!

to be continued...



Team Gerolsteiner's mechanics making an instant fender (mudguard)
out of a cut mineral water bottle (very possibly Gerolsteiner mineral water).
Unfortunately, these devices were to be dismounted soon.



Erik Zabel's bike. I saw his devoted wife with that dog. I saw her father, too.



Milram bikes.



I think this is the bike of Gerald Ciolek's. It has a Zipp 404 wheel set insted of 
Shimano Dura-Ace. Of course the stickers are stripped.



Andy Schleck giving his autograph.



Jens Voigt giving his autograph.



Nicki Sørensen and Michael Blaudzun relaxed.



Red, white and blue signifies the Luxembourg's national flag.



Andy Schleck's supporter, I guess. Check out the URL!

Rund um Köln 2008 Part II

Sunday, 23rd March 2008. Temperature around 3 to 4 degrees Celsius and 
sunny /partly clouded.


40 meter before the finish. This street is with in an commercial or
industrial complex. As you can see, Schwalbe and Milram are the
main contributors to the race.


40 meters behind this barricade, there is a finish line.



I walked along the street and then saw the Milram trailer arrive.
This trailer has been spotted at the finish of various races (as far as I
remember, Bayern Rundfahrt, Drei Lander Tour and Rund um Köln)
Inside this trailor, there are promotional gadgets for Milram products
and Team Milram.


Monday, 24th March 2008. It was cloudy and chilly in the morning.


I arrived at the Stadium (soccer) around 7:30 and it started to snow!



It snowed and snowed until ...



One hour later, there was 3 cm of snowfall in the area.



This is the parking lot in front of the hotel. Bike racing, anyone?



Dan Dryer. At the McDonald's I took this picture. This Dan Dryer
is popular in Germany. I see them a lot. It is a Danish product.

Check it out and find about it.



Mechanics of Silence-Lotto used this Honda power generator to fire up the
air compressor.



It is nice to have a power generator while you go on a camping trip.



This is the men's room of Linderhotel, where most of the participants were
staying. Why did I take the picture of the men's room?



So this is what we aim at. It makes us, men, feel compelled to aim
our cannon at this annoying fly. It is a psychologically compulsive
habit for us. Men are natural fire fighters, gunslingers or something.

This ploy makes men use the john clean as it induces less sprinkles.
OK, this is a man thing.

to be continued ...

Rund um Köln 2008 Part I

This photo was taken just a block away from the start. This says it all.

Abgesagt! In other words, cancelled. Cancelled because of snow!

Nothing happened!


It was around 2:30 PM Sunday March 23rd, one day before the race.
I was driving on the Autobahn. As you can see, the sky was cloudy
and there were patches of snow along the way. The road is dry.



It started to snow a bit. The road is wet.



Suddenly, it was fine. This was around 3:00 PM. Urbacher Wald.



I recently purchased a set of roof carrier and a roof box. That day,
I saw so many cars with roof boxes. You can see three cars with boxes
in this picture.



Horses or ponies.


This is one of 4 CSC logos I painted at the feedzone. Look the sky is
blue and although the temperature was around 3 or 4 Celsius, it was
warm under the sun.



The yellow sign is the "feedzone start" sign presented by Schwalbe. Last
year, there was a big screen TV (satellite) and one or two "Wurst"
and drink stands there for the audience. Some team stuff members were
there and enjoyed the festivities.



One of my efforts. No riders were to see my efforts. Pity!

to be continued...

Camping (cooking, eating and etc.)

It is necessary to eat. We live to eat or eat to live. While away from
home camping, eating is fun. Even cooking is fun at times.

In 2007 I bought a cooker set from Trangia. It is a set of 2 pans, a frypan
and the alcohol burner with a windshield. It worked fine. I used it
during Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré and Tour de France in 2007.

This distilled alcohol (Spiritus or Brennspiritus in German, Alcool a bruler in French)
is easy to locate (at supermarkets) and not expensive.

Cooking at camping sites beside the tent was fun. I could prepare my lunch
while waiting for the race to pass at the feed zone. I prepared a meal on top
of le Mont Ventoux. Even under that extreme condition (that incessant strong wind),
Trangia worked perfectly. I am now convinced that Trangia is the right choice.

Trangia works fine. It is, however, not optimal if you just want to drink a cup of hot
coffee because of the assembly hustle. I obtained the JetBoil personal cooking system.
In 2008, this item will accompany me along with the Trangia.

On the other hand, shopping for food was not so much fun. I was always
pressed for time. Following a stage race is a stop and go situation. Occasional
shopping was necessary, of course. Shopping is time consuming.

It has something to do with the l'autoroute (motorway, highway) in France.
It is a toll way and you have to pay as you go.

In Germany driving on the highway (Autobahn) is free, at least you
don't pay at the toll gate each time. In Switzerland you purchase a vignette,
a sticker that shows that you have paid the yearly toll. In Austria
I always bought a vignette valid for 10 days.

Since driving on the highway costs, I avoided the l'autoroute in France when
possible.

There are huge supermarket chains in France like Carrefour, Géant or E.Leclerc.
They call those supermarkets "hypermarché". I realized that finding
these supermarkets as quickly as possible was essential. So this year
I already plotted those supermarkets along the TdF 2008 parcours
as waypoints in my Garmin StreetPilot.

Ma Voiture (Mercedez-Benz A-Class)

My automobile has now a roof carrier and a roof box on it. I bought and installed
the Thule Atlantis 200 and Atera Signo. Here is the photo. The box is big enough
for my wheel set and other stuff so that while on a race watch trip my A-Class is
less cluttered inside.

The only problem is that I have to be really careful where I go. In other words,
some underground parking lots have a height limit of 2 m and 20 cm or so. My
A-Class now is almost 220cm tall.

Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne Report Part VII

Other picutres from Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne 2008

Team Milram uses Garmin GPS equipment on their bikes. This equipment 
is expensive, thus well protected. The bikes are set aside the bus without them and
the riders come with them and set the equipment on their bikes.



Some Skil-Shimano riders had these brakes on their bikes. I think they
are prototype of Shimano brakes. It is CNC machined prototype. From the
way they looked, the main objective of this new brakes is "lightweight".


Look at the way the aluminum alloy is shaved and carved. 

I heard the new release of Shimano Dura Ace is coming. The
new Dura Ace series goes lightweight this time?

Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne Report Part VI

The weather had held up. It was impossible to take good pictures with
my small digital camera.


His mustache has given him a great popularity. Steven Cozza has 
inspired his colleague, ex-Team CSC man, Dave Zabriskie. I can't
wait to see Dave with his version of Cozza impersonation.



This is, I believe, Anders Lund.



This is, I believe, Marcus Ljungqvist. He crashed but survived it and
finished the race.



This is Tom Boonen after the finish, heading to the bus.
He looks depleted and a bit disappointed.



This is Leif Hoste after the finish, heading to the bus. Look at the
poor little boy with his autograph book. This little boy recognized
Hoste and started running along him begging for his autograph.

I think the boy said something like, "Hoste, please give me your 
autograph, please." (of course in Flemish or something) Leif,
however, refused to stop and take a moment to do so. I don't
want to imagine what had become of this heartbroken little boy
afterwards.



Matti Breschel and Anders Lund??? after the finish, heading to the bus.



I met this cat at an autobahn rest area in Belgium. On my way home I had
to fill the car up. After filling up, I wanted to rest (and sleep) a
while in the parking lot in the back of the gas station.

This seemingly less-than-one-year-old cat was looking for food, I thought.
It (he or she), I believe, was a homeless cat living in this area.

I gave what I had: sliced smoked pork meat and some cheese.


Autograph collection after KBK (02.03.08)

1. Stuart O'Grady
   
2. Karsten Kroon
   
3. Allan Johansen
   
4. Kurt-Asle Arvesen
   
5. Matthew Goss
   
6. Anders Lund
   
7. Matti Breschel
   
8. Marcus Ljungqvist
   
9. Lasse Bøchman
   
10. André Steensen
    

Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne Report Part V

The publicity caravan.


Cargo vans running amok.



Ditto.



Cargo trucks running amok.



Fuel transport trucks running amok.



This car ran ahead of the race with a funny music, "Rodania".
What is Rodania? It seems that it is a watch manufacturing firm.



These are the riders who came first at the feed zone.



Lasse Bochman came a bit after the break group.



After the feed zone. Karsten Kroon is looking at me or looking at
the general area where I was.