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Viva

The Giro es finetto. Bassonova was the blooded jackal, Gibo left snivelling in that accepted Italian manner. Who's to say what was really spoken between gladiators as they crested the cols together? What if we lived in a world where the racers were mic'd and proof could be presented? Oh wait, we do. Race radio, if only it was recorded and broadcast. Instead we can merely form opinion from the words of others, read over slopped coffee as we follow the morning ticker or try to watch the Italian webcasted stream. Whatever the case, Ivan retained victory in Milano while Simoni crushes sour grapes with his patented scowl. It is unfortunate that Gilberto's lion awoke too late in this year's Giro, his team another hinderance to the singular glory which is all that can make him happy. Onward to July and the next grande opera of gears and wheelmen. Will Basso double? Ulrich certainly proved nothing in the mountains of Italia. Landis had a brilliant spring but has since been quiet. Le Tour is a race of the clock more so than the Giro, and both Jan and Floyd can do big damage in the TT's. Those precious minutes must be held in the Alps though. CSC brings an even stronger team to France with the addition of Cancellara and Davey Z, so Ivan will have plenty of support in his quest. Landis too has a powerful squadra, and there are certainly spoilers in the groupetto - it is anyone's game come July.

Classy

Jens Voight is high class. "I didn't take any leads for a long time in the break, so I didn't want to sprint for the victory, that's simply not who I am. If I'm to win it has to be because I'm the strongest, not because I've been sitting on someone's wheel and letting them do all the work." from team-csc dot com. This guy makes burly carbon bombhuckers. This guy rides vegan and could kill you on distance and speed any day. On the politcal front, there's a new movie about global warming featuring a certain former non-president. Stephen Marshall over at GNN has some interesting points to consider. Back in the Giro, who the heck won Francesco Moser's water bottle competition?? Onward. 80 mile 'training ride' tomorrow. I will grovel.

Currently

A short excerpt of our Ghana documentary is linked above. The link will take you to a 9 minute version of The Village Bicycle Project at Current's on-line studio. Very soon, a six minute version will be airing on Current TV, which is available through your local cable or satellite provider. Thanks to Current and all who have supported this project - much more is on the way. You can get updates on the feature film's progress here. Onward.

Water Into Wine: The Real Giro

Cycling News shares this gem with us: "Water-carriers battle in the Giro. Cycling is traditionally divided into stars and water-carriers and while battle rages at the top of the Giro d'Italia rankings between stars such as Ivan Basso, José Gutierrez and Paolo Savoldelli, a literal contest among water-carriers has been going on further back. According to La Gazzetta dello Sport Quick-Step's José Antonio Garrido recently set a new record by carrying 16 water bottles simultaneously from the team car to his team-mates. With one bottle in his mouth, two in the cages on the bike, two in his pockets, six under the front of his jersey, and five under the back, Garrido lugged over five litres of water to his team-mates. In yesterday's stage, Fabio Sacchi (Milram) beat Garrido's record by carrying 18 water bottles simultaneously, but Garrido thinks he can beat the Italian. "I've already done a test, and think I can manage 20 bottles," he said. There's more than just bragging rights at stake too. At the end of the Giro on Sunday, Italian cycling legend Francesco Moser will present a prize to the man who manages to carry the most bottles: a bottle of wine for each of the bottles carried. "It will be a kind of miracle: water will be turned into wine!" said Moser. Courtesy Michele Lostia". Wonder if they'll be checking for hidden pockets tomorrow.

Bassonova

Big mountain, big smile, big win to start the final week of hell. They've paved almost all of the dirt at the top of 17, which sucks; it's still arguably the gnarliest stage. Mr. Pink can just sit in with the groupetto at this point, he's miles up the road on time against his rivals. Previously, the sprints have been interesting for other reasons. Namely, why is Miram leading out Bettini? And why is Lampre using Cunego as an excuse for engaging the sprinters? Later this morning, Manolo Siaz was busted on dope charges. That's pretty big folks. Something completely different; ever hear of Parkour? This Russian ninja has.

Spew

So where exactly is the plane in this video? Read some scientific details here on that 'zone' yer always trying to get into. The real Von Dutch collection went to auction last week and whooboy, everything sold. Efforts toward fairness and balance available here. Note that the previous post refers to attacks not far from where Tinker Juarez got bikejacked a few years ago. Ride safe.

Crime And The City Cyclist

This came via email from Vontz after our morning fixie fix. Be advised and be careful - this could move North rapidly on the river bikepath.

*LG stands for LaGrange - a local club team.

...................................
Note: forwarded message attached. We had that problem down here in Anaheim a little while ago, they would wait at the end of a long freeway overpass, when your eyes were just adjusting to the bright light, and close line riders with a long poll, take their bikes and anything else that had on them at the time and leave the riders for dead.

Jeremy Keller XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX wrote:

Attention…Just in case any of you are planning to ride the bike path!

-----Original Message-----

Subject: [Velo Club LaGrange] SERIOUS and Dangerous: Ballona Creek Problems

Fellow LGers: This is a SERIOUS and DANGEROUS Situation.

Today at about 10:40am a follow LG'r and I were riding down the Ballona Creek path heading towards the beach and foolishly did not take Jeffrey's advice. We were stopped just after the 405 by the LAPD and told to get off the path immediately - that there was a crime scene ahead. Looking ahead down towards the Mar Vista Projects it looked like a bike was lying on the ground. There were police all over the area and helicopters in the air. The problem looked serious. We were diverted to ride through the streets to get to Culver Blvd. It was a scary scene with many hostile people out front and 10-20 police cars lined up in the area - it was like a war zone.

Not sure what happened but told that it may have been a cyclist that was attacked and pulled down by the jersey. This is not confirmed. What I was told was that there is a gang there and they are dangerous. It looks like they are on the war path. We are easy targets: clothes that stick out, nice bikes, we usually have money and cell phones, and can not run far or fast once off the bike.

Let's be safe and consider an alternate route through this stretch.

Please read the below email from an LAPD officer:

-----Original Message-----

Subject: From an LAPD Officer


Hey All,
I am an LAPD Officer who used to work in that Division. That area is patrolled by LAPD Pacific Division. The gang in that area is called "The Culver City Boyz". They are a Hispanic gang that runs the Mar Vista Gardens, which is where the problems are on Ballona Creek. They have robbed and murdered many times before, and the Police are very familiar with them. They're 1 of 3 main gangs in the Pacific/Venice area, they are not afraid to use those guns either, so please anyone who was there and either a victim or a witness report it to the Police. I would advise the upper echelon of La Grange call Captain Williams and request a meeting. He is a very good Captain and will get the problem taken care of. Also any information you can provide will greatly assist the CRASH/Gang Officers identify the suspects. I will make some calls to fellow officers over there and have the Culver City Boyz get some extra attention in that area. Anyone that has any questions about what's going on feel free to contact me and I will assist in any way that I can.
You might remember about 3 years ago there was a pursuit of 3 murder suspects that ended at the end of Supulveda BLVD at Ballona creek. I went in foot pursuit of the shooter and caught him just inside the projects at the creek. All three were captured, convicted and are doing life in prision, but thier amigos are the ones that you have to worry about at the creek. That is the type of criminal that you are dealing with in those types of confrontations. Once again, please call and report the crimes, you guys empower us to go after these shitheads.
I would give them the attention myself but I work in South Central now, and will only be in Pacific once in a while over the summer. Then I will give them a little attention. And there is not much I like more than giving gang-member shitheads the attention they require. Let me know if anyone needs assistance in contacting Capt. Williams.

Stay Safe,
Rusty Redican
LAPD Newton Division

Giro Goes Cylco

Continuing the spectacle of high-caliber road racing as it's ment to be, the upcoming stage seventeen in Italia goes full cyclocross at the top of the mountain with what looks to be loose-packed dirt and gravel roads. Thanks to Igor Tavella and the VeloNews posting. Viva!!!! Thanks to the forum lurkers at DR, here's a video clip from GoogleVideo of a guy decking it at 172kph on a mountain bike. Damn; Saul bongoed in a road race at 60 k's and is relearning how to walk and talk. Makes you think about dirt vs. pavement as a landing pad.

Viva Italia

Today's stage in the Giro is what big league racing is all about - hat's off to Axel for giving us a real race, better luck next time old chap. Meanwhile in Keyesvile they raced old school skull and bones last week in a different kind of classic event. And in the UK a 24hr party ride, er, race went down for charity. Comin' up, a badass timed double century affiliated with this race in Tulsa. Vontz pulled a double of his own with this feature in Dirt Rag about BFF honcho Brendt Barbur. Could Cancellara be a darkhorse threat at le Tour? Back in the homeland Wil Frischkorn got banged up good - peep that snapped carbone frame. On other fronts, our man Danny Schecter posts about history in relevance to surveilance here. The phones are tapped at the major media centers; the screws are ever tightening. Ride on.

Ghana Chronicles; Pt.14

4.26.06: Songornya: The night after a rain is bug night. All the twitching, jumping, skittering dive bomb pilots hatch and come out to play.

4.27.06:Songornya: Reflecting on the trip to Anyamam. The adrenalin charged air is salty and freshly fired in the glaring mid-day sun. Units of sailors run a drill of moving logs of iron pipe and runners of wide lumber to help roll the ships ashore. They move the last to the first in concert with the pullers. At the end of the line elders sit anchored in the shade of palms, around which the line is twice rapped and safely taken up or held depending on the call from the head of the operation. Small children hang from the bow to weight the forward end of the ship as it reaches a docked position on the berm. The whole effort takes maybe thirteen minutes or more. Every person has a role; every age is ripped with hard muscle and lithe tendons.
Later: Salt left uncovered goes grey in heavy rain, like bus-splattered snow piled against vestibules along the avenues of north American cities in winter. The saline crystalline mounds are pocked with dirty holes from the droplets. The perfectly tapered piles now misshapen with undercut depressions of spillage melding formerly separated heaps with the next. Mostly the salt is intact though, hearty and glistening in the post-storm glory of evening light, waiting to be bagged, stacked, covered sold, transported or stored. The remaining hillocks are entombed with thatched grass sarcophagus’ that resemble cartoon breasts dotting the banks of the lagoon. Deep in the rainy season, these will yield a higher price. In the same late daylight small boys trap doves in the bush by our window. They use traps made of twig, twine and carefully sliced inner tubes from the bikes. The tubes are old, patched many times yet they afford several complete slings from a single bladder. The trapped doves are kept in a makeshift box labeled ‘Fourtry’. This cage is cobbled from scraps of tin, bits of fencing, an old fishing net and some bark. Today the boys are quite pleased, having captured seven birds.

4.28.06: Accra: As we left the community and made our way to Accra, then London and L.A., Don Linker grasped my hand and told me if wishes were horses, beggars would ride, whether you like it or yes.