CUBS

Forgot to say anything about my CUBS! They are doing really well even though they lost last night to the Phillies! They are only one game back from leading the NL Central after being at least 14 back at one time! I think they are 16-9 for the month of July! That is just AWESOME! For once I think they are doing things right. I hope with the trading deadline near they do not mess with the team much. Sometimes good chemistry is better than a BIG NAME player!

I am sure that my mom had something to do with getting them all fired up! She LOVED HER CUBS. I am sure that Lou has had quite the earful from her telling him right where they lost the games they did! To add to that I am sure my dad was enjoying a nice cold Old Style beer with Harry Carrey and both of them getting a chuckle out of my mom chewing Lou's ear!!!

GO CUBBIES!!!

Back into biking and help for my golf game!

Now that the Tour De France is over and my life gets back to allowing me to do things in the evenings I think I will hop back on the bike again. I think me and a few friends are going to do the Margarita Ride in Vermillion in September. I have heard great things about the ride and that it is fun also. How could it be a miss with margs and Mexican food at the end of the ride? Ya, that is what I thought also. The ride is 15, 30 or 50 miles long. I am opting for the 30 mile ride. This is a place to start. We will see how much training I can get in between now and then.
I wonder if there will be random drug testing for this event?.....hahaha....bring it on!

This weekend is the the PanCan golf tournament in Brandon. I am a three year participant and it is always a GREAT TIME and of course all proceeds go to a great cause. My golfing has not been that great but better than last year. I just have not golfed as much this year so given that I plan on hitting the driving range and also do some putting and chipping a couple times this week to help that part of my game. We will see!

I will report on my progress!

Tour is over.....good or bad

The Tour De France is finally over. I am just waiting for the next thing to happen in the world of cycling...who will be caught for doping next? My hope is no one will be that stupid to challenge the system.

Americans:
I believe that Floyd Landis did not dope and that it was the shoddy practice of the lab that is at fault. Why would anyone take a synthetic testosterone when the are going to give it their all to win a stage knowing full well that the stage winner ALWAYS gets tested? From what I have also read that taking the synthetic testosterone for one day would do nothing for the individual anyway. He had been tested during other stages of the 2006 tour and was negative. Where the French jealous of another American winning their beloved Tour?

I believe that Lance Armstrong never doped. He was the most tested athlete in the world and never tested positive ONCE. I also believe what he went through fighting cancer that he would never dope to risk his health.

I believe that Tyler Hamilton doped. There is no way that someone elses red blood cells can get into your blood system unless you have had a transfusion. He has been banned once for doping and then a few months ago he is in trouble again.

I believe that Greg Lemond has a lot of sour grapes toward the other Americans that have done well in the tour and loves to point fingers at everyone so he looks good. I don't care if he doped or not as he is just full of himself and puts other riders down that are MUCH better than he ever thought of being.

Other Countries:
Seems like Jan Ulrich is looking to be implicated as his Swiss bank account information will be release and shows large payments to questionable people that have been implicated to doping.

The Confidis rider that tested positive during one of the stages this year must have been guilty as he never even asked for the second test (sample B as they call it). This guy was in 50-something place so I guess the doping really helped him didn't it!?

Alexander Vinokuroff (sp?) I believe was doping. He is like the Tyler Hamilton story. Somewhere he had a blood transfusion of some sort. Although at least he did have a bit of a humor in a not so funny subject. They (interviewer) said it would be like taking a pint of blood from you father and transfusing it into yourself. Vino said, "No, because if it were my father, I would have tested positive for vodka!"

The Chicken (Micheal Rassmuson) who wore the yellow jersey for a good part of the tour being kicked out and dropped from his team for missed anti-drug testing. He missed one test in May and one in June (cyclist are tested year round at any given time and have to submit paperwork as to where they can be found at any time so they can be tested). These missed testings were all known before the tour started then all of a sudden he is out of the tour after being in Yellow for days? There is more to the story than what he had let on to his team and so I think he undermined the rules of the team by putting them on the line. He said he was in Mexico when he was really in Italy training part of the time. This I think diminished the trust he had with his team and thus they were forced to let him go. From things I have read he should not even been allowed to ride in the tour with his missed drug testings. They had ample time to make that judgement as if he should ride or not. They let him ride then I think the media got a hold of it and exploited it more thus putting pressure on the team sponsor to make a decision that should have been made before the tour....but then they were not given the real truth from the rider were they?

The real sad thing is that there are people on the teams (Yes, cycling is a team sport!!) that might not have doped but their team pulled out of the race because an implicated rider was on their team. We can not assume that guilt by association is true, sometimes, but not always. These few people have trained hard and sacrificed a lot for their passion to be taken out by one selfish act by another teammate.

This selfish act of doping hurts EVERYONE! You have teams looking for new sponsors for next year. Now potential sponsors will think twice about having their name associated with the mess that cycling is in. You have every clean rider out there defending themselves every time they have a great ride in a race...it all goes on and on and on. I do feel that I think the last couple of years this year included has done better at cracking down on the "BAD" people in cycling and are really trying to clean up the sport.

THE good part of the tour:
Discovery Channel cycle team had a great showing! Placing three riders in the top ten.
Taking the Yellow Jersey (Tour winner) The white Jersey (Best young rider) The Team title
and two stage wins! Not taking away from the Lance era but I think this was by far the best Discovery Team EVER! Goerge Hincappie has lead the Yellow Jersey eight times to a tour victory. That is amazing! Levi Liepheimer has been a great biker for a while but I think his team had not been so strong. He comes over to Discovery which is a Strong team and he gets third place in the GC (general classification)!

Kudos to Tom Boonen on winning the green jersey (points leader). He had an awesome race and of course he is very outspoken about doping and even stated that there should be a lifetime ban for Vino for his doping.

I was bummed that Thor Husvold only won one stage. From what I understand he had been battling a bug during the tour. He came to stage 20 and finishing 2nd and 5th in the points I believe.

All in all I will still watch cycling. I love the dynamics and I truly believe there are clean good cyclist out there!!

ROLL ON.............

The Tour Goes Scan-da-hovian

I got dressed this morning not really thinking about my attire. I pulled on my navy blue shorts and red polo shirt as it is golf night tonight. I then thought about how I would not be able to adorn my usual Footjoy hat as it is orange and would not be cool with the red and navy. So I dug out the old navy blue Epcot hat with the Norway flag and put my ball marker on the bill.

So I get to work and I'm watching the Tour De France flash updates on my computer. The usual break aways happen, then they are reeled in by the pelaton and then the sprinters get into position. Lots of battling that goes on when this happens. Today it was Norway's Thor Hushvold, the big Scandinavian sprinter, that won the stage. I was VERY HAPPY! Could it be that Thor won from eating all that lefsa and lutafish over the past year or was it because my choice of attire is the colors of the Norwegian flag and of course my Norway hat..........I guess we will never know!!

CONGRATS THOR!!!!

RESPECT

Today is a sad day. Our city is burying one of its sons. He was killed by small arms fire in Iraq. His funeral is this morning at the local arena.

Driving to work I noticed a lot of the flags flying high and not at half staff as the governor ordered. I took it upon myself to call seven local businesses around the arena to lower their flags in honor of Staff Sgt (Green Beret) Robb Rolfing. I did not know this young man or any of his family but out of respect and the ultimate sacrifice he and his family have given to this country, I felt it was my duty to call these businesses and tell them to lower their flag in his honor. It seemed like a lot of the businesses were surprised by my request to lower their flag and I even got transferred four times at one hotel chain (Sheraton) in order to leave a message on the managers voice mail! I guess no one could take this on themselves and do the RIGHT thing especially since they are right next door to the arena.

Have we become so numb that the death of a soldier is no big deal anymore? COME ON PEOPLE! Even though some of us do not agree with what is going on over in Iraq, we are still obligated to treat our soldiers with respect. They put their life on the line every second of every day so that we remain a free country. How many of you can say that? I know that fighting for our country is not for everyone, not even me, but we need to treat every soldier with RESPECT and lower a flag in their honor when they have paid the ultimate price for us.

Peace...........