Pot Belge

Here, my fellow bloggies, is the long awaited reveal of the Brown Bear Racer in full racing regalia. 15.7lbs of goodness. What's that? A new workbench?

They're not Dugasts, but they're damn close.
Ahh, unidirectional carbon. There's boron in there.
A more detailed post with specs will follow.

Milano-Sanremo

Milan-San Remo is upon us once again. The first "monument" of the cycling season, and the longest race of the year at 300 kilometers. A breakaway ususally forms on the slopes of the Passo del Turchino, which is roughly the half way point. The break is usually brought back on the Cipressa, leaving only the short Poggio left for the sprinters to muscle over.

Back in the day a breakaway would always survive, but in the modern day, a bunch sprint is inevitable. Pick the sprinter du jour, and there's a strong possibility he'll win MSR. With Boonen and Bettini not at 100%, and Zabel and Petacchi over the hill and aging fast, the next generation of sprinters like Bennati, Schumacher, and dare I say, Haedo will challenge for the win.

My money is on Stefan Schumacher with Baden Cooke as my dark horse. Watch out for a big attack on the Poggio by the likes of Ballan, Schleck, Flecha, and Cancellara. Watch it on Versus 5-7pm eastern on Sunday, right after Bill Dance Outdoors.

Jealous Guy

Over on Bobby Anal's blog there is talk of bands covering other band's songs. Here I submit the greatest ever cover song. Enjoy.

The Belgian Beer Post!

Hells yeah boyz, Belgian beer is where its at--rich, fruity, aromatic, malty, crazy high alcohol content, and delicious! Dubbel, triple, quadrupel, Belgian darks, all oh so good, and oh so complex. That might be because I'm home alone and buzzing slightly from an Ommegang. And the monk brewed Trappist ales are the best.

So, lets see, I've had all 3 of the Chimays, both Westmalles, and all the Trappistes Rocheforts (6, 8, and 10.) The quadrupel (10) is by far the best beer I've ever drank (ate?) And if you know this guy well enough, you know he's had his fair share of beers. Beer Advocate rates it the #7 beer in the world. The only beers with higher scores are a few IPAs, Imperial Stouts, and 2 Trappist ales from the Westvleteren Abbey. Westvleterens are rare. How rare? Think Ferrari Enzo rare, or sub 4 minute high school mile rare. That rare. Find me some and I'll be your friend.

I won't go into tasting notes on these beers--I'm too much of a novice connoisseur (does that make sense?) to fully articulate the spendor of these beers. All I can do is recommend you go out and try them. Pour them into a big red wine glass and enjoy. Fancy beers are fun because the best beers in the world only cost about $10 a bottle compared to spending 100 times that much for the world's best wines.

Hold Me Closer Tony Danza

Alright guys, here's the identity theft post. It's really not that exciting. I tried to use my debit card last week for some groceries at Whole Foods, but my card kept getting declined. I immediately thought someone got a hold of my card number, and stole all my money. I checked my account online, and I had plenty of money in my account, so I thought something was wrong with my card. I tried the card again, with the same result, so I checked my account more closely, and noticed 3 fraudulent transactions totaling around $700. Visa or US Bank, or whoever saw that something not right was going on, and suspended the card number. US Bank is sending a new card and some paperwork to sign saying the charges are not mine.

Today, while getting Team Kit stuff ready for Champion Systems, I checked on my credit card, and that had been suspended also. So I called Capital One, and apparently some dude in the UK made something like 6 transactions totaling $8,000 to Westminster something or other. Capital One is also sending a new card and paper work.

I'm not sure how my card numbers got out. I started selling some stuff on Ebay the day before all this happened, and they have both my debit and credit card numbers, but I'd imagine Ebay has some pretty sweet security features, so who knows.

There it is.

Check back for a post on these.

Also, check out the Brown Bear site for ordering info!!

Just a Summary...More to Come!

Hi turd burglars. Long time no post. Sorry about that. Lots of things to blog about recently...Riding outside in the 50 degree sunshine, Trappist ales, a blizzard, tubular gluing, a new project, the Tour of California, and indentity theft. Yup, I was the victim of identity theft. It's late, and I'm stressed out from being finacially raped, so I'll leave it at that. But have no fear loyal blog readers, for all is taken care of, and no additional out of pocket expenses are required of the author. I'll blog in detail about all these things later.

Business in the Front...

...Party in the back!