Spanish civil wars

It's not many who will care nowadays ... but, la Vuelta begins as September does.

holee pumpkin patch, charly brown, it's almost time for the leaves to turn and the lap cards to be flipped on another year.

it do pass, don't it.

The Discovery Troupe is lacking in money-bags come 2008 ... and there are a number of fellers involved in the Spanish Tour still looking for security and maybe a bigger hand to swat negotiations with.

The real boy on the bubble is poor TommyD. Count Brajkovic is already touted as a grand tour contender with his lust for power and waifer thin climbing prowess. And STick Devolder is too talented a classics rider for teams not to be setting claws in each other for a chance to gobble him up with a fat contract. But Danielson?

Pressure is a strange force of nature ... it can forge coal into diamonds, or smother a life quiet and forgotten.

Tom Danielson has been regarded as a huge talent for a number of years now. He's shown small steps of improvement and significant setbacks in health and performances under pressure. Some have said he lacks the killer instinct, some have said he lacks support at the crucial moment, and some haven't given two shits either way.

But ... I have a soft spot of admiration for him. Maybe it's because his wife's about as sweet and chill as a glass of southern iced tea. Maybe it's because he's always been the underdog, always been questioned. Maybe it's just because he's got that silly-ass grin on his face most the time and it makes you think he's enjoyed a toke once or twice in his life.


Regardless, this Vuelta is the end-game for TommyD. It's a race that will decide his future as a professional bike racer. If he throws off the shackles of expectation and pressure and performs with the freedom and abandon that his body and his fans have desired for years ... he will rocket himself into stardom and secure another European adventure next season. If he rides anonymously and untested ... then, he should come home to the States and sign with a domestic team. There is no dishonor in that ... the US racing scene right now is as bristling with talent, if not dollars, as it ever has. EVER.

Would it be a step-back? To some, yes. But, in racing in the States ~ he would have home back on his side ... and i think that might be all the guy needs.
- - -

About the same time those Spanish are flyin ... back here we'll be having the US PRO Road and TT Champyships.

Of course, I'm hoping that BJM takes the TT jersey ... but, this year it's going to be a fist full of big-ring swinging wide for the title in Greenville ~ so who can predict what will happen.

Last year we were witness to one of the most amazing displays of bravado since David called Golaith's stone-less. Bajadali was the MAN up against those burglers Hincapie and Leipheimer in the Road Race.

When it was patently obvious that those two were working together, Bajadali threw everything at the both of them ... killing it like any good samurai should ... risking everything for the win.

It was an amazing display of pride and guts and ... balls.

I was a fan of jellybelly before because of Candy's chops ~ but, from that day forward, i was a fan because of Baj's stones. He could have chosen to play the conservative card and race for 2nd, knowing full well that in the final few kilometers they would have 1-2'd him to death.

But instead, he hit them hard and repeatedly in an all-out effort to take the glory from them. And in my mind, he did.

that's admirable.

stubborn, but admirable.
- - -

Anyway, tomorrow morning i go in for the knife work. I'll be off-line until Thursday because of the overnight slumber-party with the sickos.

yay-frickin-ay.

talk ya'll later.
~m