With Rasmussen getting kicked out of the Tour de France today, we’re only a “few more” expulsions away from Frenchman and Red Lantern-holder Jérôme Pineau from winning.

What other surprises are in store in the coming days? Now, Discovery teammates Alberto Contador and Levi Leipheimer are 1 and 3 respectively in the overall standings, with Aussie Cadel Evans sandwiched between them in second place.

Although I get the Versus channel here at my house, I haven’t been watching the live coverage of the Tour. After today’s revelations that our second-favorite Kazakh, Alexandre Vinokourov, has been thrown out of the Tour (along with the rest of his team) for homologous blood doping following his Stage 13 time trial win, I wondering why I should even bother. I’ve always been a fan of Vino’s constant attacking and blowing up in the past. Now, I know there might have been a method to his amazing recuperative powers. There’s a cloud of suspicion hovering over the current race leader too, Michael Rasmussen, and that does not appear to be blowing away anytime soon.

All of the riders prior to the Tour signed a legal agreement saying they are not doping, and that — if caught — they would forfeit their salary and be banned from cycling. I guess several riders thought they could get away from it. On the eve of the Tour, Vino gave an interview with CyclingNews and said, “At the age of 33, for me, it’s this year or never.” Like Michael Vick’s reputation and career in the NFL, Vino and Astana is shot. That’s too bad, as no one will be around for Borat to cheer for.

I went for a recovery ride this afternoon, a short 1+ hour spin to Foothill Expressway. When I got my bike out of the garage, I noticed the front tire pressure was quite low. The back seemed fine — after all, I had just changed the tube a few days prior while on the Death Ride — so I just pumped the front to my normal 100 psi. Off I went on my ride, intentionally taking it easy since I’m still a bit sore from the weekend.

On the way back, I felt the bike handling to be a bit too squirrely. At first, I thought it was my front tire, but it turns out, my rear tire was going flat again! This was no slow leak, either, this was a wobbly, you-must-fix-this-now, type of leak. I don’t recall running over anything that could have caused the flat, and I’m pretty sure that I installed the tube correctly on the Death Ride. If I hadn’t, that downhill stretch from Carson could have been very dangerous.

While replacing the tube along Homestead Avenue, I remembered that Felix had purchased solid tires for his communting bike a few months ago. Later on in the evening, I went to read his experience with AirFree Tires, which turned out to be fairly positive. There are dissenting opinions, but I figure I’ll trust a friend’s opinion over a stranger. At $50/pair, the Daytona TT AirFree tires are actually cheaper than the pair of Michelin Pro Race tires on my bike. They most likely will not have the same performance as tubulars, but who am I going to be racing against anytime soon?

I’ll provide an update once I get the tires. In the meantime, I hope I don’t get anymore flats, as I’m out of tubes at the moment!

When Jorge asked me to sign up with him for the 2007 Death Ride, I said yes without really thinking what I was getting myself into. It was only after signing up did I think to look on Felix’s website to see if he had done the race. Sure enough, Felix had conquered the Death Ride in 2002. As I read his ride story, I discovered to my horror what was in store on July 14, 2007: 129 miles and 15,000 to 16,000 feet of climbing over five passes in the California Alps near South Lake Tahoe.

Training Goals

I knew I was in big trouble when I mentally counted out my cycling palmares. With only one century under my belt and maybe a handful of rides where I topped 6,000 feet of climbing, I had a lot of work to do. We got our tickets in March, giving us a scant four months to train. Jorge and Richard are hard-core athletes, so they took to the task of training with gusto. As for me, I employed a variety of successful excuses to limit my bike training, most notably work and the comforts of my Aeron chair.

When I actually did ride, I did not feel anywhere near my peak. What’s worse was the feeling that I had riding with Jorge and Richard — and later Stephen and Gilad — on several of our training rides. I felt fat, slow, and weak as they pulled away from me up the slopes of Mt. Hamilton, King’s Mountain, and Highway 9. My quads and knees were aching and cramping 30 miles in on an “easy” 70-mile ride from San Mateo to Cupertino. I kept telling Rae, “What have I done to myself?”

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I’m exhausted right now having completed all five passes during the Death Ride. I didn’t think that I would be able to do this, and it was the hardest physical thing I’ve ever done. 129 miles and 15,000 feet of climbing. Oh my god, I’m tired!

I started the ride at 4:30 am and reached the top of Carson Pass at 6:00 pm. My legs were so sore and raw after only the first pass, but somehow I managed to fight through the pain and complete each of the passes. The hardest was the frontside of Ebbets, but it was also the most fun descending. Carson Pass was also tough, seeing that it came at the tail end of the ride. I had a slow leak in my rear tire somewhere between Woodsford to Pickett Junction to 3/4 of the way up Carson. No wonder the climb felt so bad!

At any rate, I’ll have a full recap with photos and text in the coming days. Right now, I really need to sleep.

Going to bed early since I have to wake up at 3:15 am to get an early start tomorrow for the Death Ride. Turtle Rock Park, the starting location is about 45 minutes away from our rental home. I want to start riding around 4:30 am to give me a chance at finishing 5 passes.

We scouted out Ebbets Pass and it looks really scary. I am definitely not looking forward to climbing that beast. In between the passes there are a lot of rolling hills and climbs. Those have a tendency to suck away your strength even before you get to the next pass!

Wish me luck; I’m going to need it!

We’re off to Vacaville, where we’ll be meeting Stephen, Jorge, Richard, and Gilad for dinner at this Japanese buffet restaurant. One last night of gorging before the race on Saturday. Then it’s off to South Lake Tahoe to our house for the weekend.

We’ll probably do a slow ride on Friday to stretch out the legs. As I told Jorge, this will be a very slow ride! I need to conserve as much energy as possible!

Remember to check out my Flickr stream for photos through the weekend.

So, the moment of truth has arrived. The Death Ride is this weekend, and we’re leaving for South Lake Tahoe tonight. On Saturday, Jorge, Richard, Stephen, Gilad, and I are about to embark on a 129 mile, 15,000 feet journey through the California Alps. Monitor, Ebbets, and Carson Passes will beckon and laugh at us (mostly me) as we slowly climb their slopes. For me, this is not a race of speed, it’s a race of survival!

Last week, I got a tune-up of my bike from Summit Bicycles in Los Gatos. The rear wheel spins a lot better, though there still is a busted bearing somewhere in the rear hub. I took the bike out for a short spin on Monday, and while barely noticeable, riding did feel a little easier than during the Giro di Peninsula. Every little bit counts, and I’m going to need it if I plan to finish 3-4 passes Saturday. If I go really slow, I might even be able to complete all five passes, but I’m not really counting on that.

I’ll be taking my iPhone with me, and — coverage permitting — I will be live blogging the ride with photos and text on my Flickr site.

Taken at the iPhoneDevCamp happening right now at Adobe Systems Townhall in San Francisco.

More photos in my iPhoneDevCamp photo set.

Day One of iPhoneDevCamp is in the books. There were over 275 people present for the opening ceremonies. Raven and the gang did a great job organizing the event in such a short time. The venue at Adobe is top-notch, and the mix of iPhone users and developers made for an eclectic evening. Tomorrow is when the real work begins, and I’ll be assisting Raven and his team during the weekend. Though I could code, I’ll probably be more effective helping groups and documenting.

I’ll be driving up with the Nicholas, the developer of Telekinesis tomorrow. We’ll no doubt be talking about how to improve the product to be more reliable and useful for iPhone and Mac users and developers.

Got to get to bed now. It’ll be an early start for Day Two of iPhoneDevCamp. Until tomorrow, enjoy some photos from Day One:

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