"This Is As Good As Cycling Gets"
I know most of you don’t understand cycling, but yesterday’s performance by Floyd Landis was the most amazing day of cycling I’ve ever seen, and possibly ever in the history of the Tour de France. What he did just doesn’t happen. I’m trying to come up with an analogy, it’s like pitching a perfect game in game 7 of the World Series, and striking out all 27 batters, after getting shelled in game 4.

This was impossible. He had bonked the day before, lost around 10 minutes to the top riders, and lost the overall leader’s yellow jersey. You can’t make up more than a minute or two on the top riders in one stage when you’re a contender. You can’t break away from the top riders when you’re a contender. You can’t stay away from the top riders over 5 mountain climbs in the Alps over 130 kilometers on your own.

Floyd did. A kamikaze/berserker breakaway with nothing to lose, stomping it up the mountains and descending like a madman down them. None of us who have watched the Tour since the days of Greg LeMond in the 1980s have ever seen a top rider do this – no one has done something like this since Eddy Merckx, the greatest cyclist ever, did so in the late 1960s. I was on the edge of the couch for 4 hours – I couldn’t believe what I was watching.

Even more unbelievable, Landis has been suffering from osteonecrosis in his hip for the last 2 years since a crash in 2004. He can’t walk without severe pain, he can’t run at all, but thankfully for him pedaling a bicycle doesn’t put pressure on his dying bones. He will likely have to have hip replacement surgery sometime soon after the Tour, and that will most probably end his professional cycling career (although yesterday showed that counting him out is not such a good idea).

He hasn’t won yet. He is within a minute of the overall lead, and there is a time trial on Saturday where he should gain 2 or 3 minutes on the other general classification leaders because he is a stronger time trialer than Oscar Perreiro and Carlos Sastre, the riders still ahead of him in the GC. He is in prime position for an amazing Tour victory.

Yesterday was why I love cycling. The strategy, the courage, the pain, the heart, the undying self-belief. I’ll be talking about this one for the rest of my life. Go Floyd!
- posted by Liebs @ 10:05 PM 0 comments

 
Lily Allen – Alright, Still
Wow. The debut CD from Lily Allen is an absolute pop masterpiece. Smart, fun, tender, sharp, witty – it’s a mishmash of so many influences, and it all comes together brilliantly. Lyrically she’s phenomenal, but good Lord, do not get on this chick’s bad side, or else you’ll be eviscerated and humiliated on her next record. There’s not a clunker to be found, just quality from beginning to end. I don’t really want to describe it much further, because I’d spoil the surprises you’ll discover listening to this album. And this is yet another example both of why girls from middle America are boring beyond belief and why I miss London very much. Go get you some Lily.


Update: The nominees for the 2006 Mercury Prize were released today, and Lily Allen was not on the list. A rather unanimous WTF? has been the reply across the UK. Scritti Politti? For real, you're not taking the piss? Boo.
- posted by Liebs @ 9:43 PM 0 comments

 
Me And Isabelle Been Working Hard
Latest additions to the arsenal: "Trouble" by Ray LaMontagne (who’s great, despite touring with Guster this summer), and "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea" by Neutral Milk Hotel.

Yes I have no life, but fuck off, I like it that way at the moment.
- posted by Liebs @ 11:10 PM 0 comments

 
Ohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohplease
C’mon Klinsi, you stepped down today as coach of the German national team, I know you want to coach the US national team! Live in SoCal with no worries. We won’t second guess your every move – in fact, we’ll worship you as the soccer god you are. And you’ll take us to that next level. Do it, Herr Klinsmann, do it!
- posted by Liebs @ 8:15 PM 0 comments

 
Well, I Am Sweet Like Sugar
Total number of independent mosquito bites on my legs today after spending time out in the backyard at Family Man’s lovely, low-key 4th of July cookout yesterday: 32

Scratchtastic! Please send Cortaid.
- posted by Liebs @ 4:58 PM 0 comments