"All I need is a mechanic and a car!”

It comes as no secret to anyone that I am a huge Jens Voigt fan. And why shouldn't we all, the guy's got a huge motor, a huge passion for riding hard, a huge joy for being on the bike and hugely friendly. So it's with a bit of sadness that he won't be riding "his" race this week in the Critérium International. But he still made his mark -

Just 2 days and three stages long the Critérium International is fondly referred to as the “mini Tour de France” - although "micro TdF" might be more accurate. Jens has won the two-day race five times putting him in classy company, tying record held by Emile Idée and Raymond Poulidor, but as VeloNews reported it, "the 38-year-old won’t be going back this year — with Ghent-Wevelgem and Volta a Catalunya coinciding with the two-day race window of Critérium International on March 26-27, Voigt’s Saxo Bank squad is stretched too thin to send a minimum of six riders to the French race."

In classic Jens style we get the Quote of the Week:

“Can’t I just start alone? I don’t need a team. All I need is a mechanic and a car!” he told VeloNews. “I can take the jersey on the first day, then I can just hide in the bunch, then you do a time trial. You don’t need anybody else.”

Update:Voigt wins Catalonia stage in breakaway

Of Baseball Bats and Bikes

At first glance those two articles of sporting life wouldn't appear to have much in common, but then the colorful Chris Horner steps up to the mic, "and the next morning I felt like I was beaten up by a baseball bat.” Referring to his crash in Mondays Paris Nice race. Gosh, wasn't just a few days ago I was scribbling a few thoughts about Horner and crashing? Hmmm?

And baseball bats - yes, I feel your pain, or did a couple weeks ago anyway. That's a perfect description for how my ribs and lung felt on the left side.

This morning was the follow up with the pulmonary specialist - and for the most part there are no baseball bats in my future (I hope). X-ray of the lungs was pretty clean except... don't you always hate that! "Yes, except what", I asked. Well there is this little 21mm blob that hasn't cleared quite yet, and "we just want to keep an eye on that and make certain it's nothing, like an infection or cancer." Oh, okay.

WHAT!?

Ya, why is it that when ever anyone mentions that word - cancer - like a 8.2 quake in Chile our personal planet shifts on its axis a wee bit? I guess that's a legit reaction. Especially when your brother just died of lung cancer and complications - although we live universally different lives - period. But, the doc just wants to know it's gone so I'll pedal my arse back in there in three more weeks for a bit more x-ray exposure and see if the little blob was a blip or something to deal with. His, the doc's, feeling - it's a blip and will be gone. And I firmly believe that - I'm not going anywhere folks.

In the meantime, I'm back to workout sessions and return to the bike - as much as the lungs can support. No racing quite yet - so missing the entire Banana series sadly. Next target Kings Valley Road Race on April 10th - a full month to get in enough shape to do a bit more research on the Laterne Rouge - hopefully, hang in the bunch for the 56 miles.

And Congrats Jens!
Speaking of crashes - our favorite oldster just took the yellow jersey this afternoon in the Paris Nice race. Stage 2 finished in a small break getting over the punchy 1km climb and there was our boy Jens Voigt - back from last years horrific crash (that was a hellava lot of baseball bats all at once!) in the Tour de France and looking as fit and exuberant and the best 38 year old ever to ride a bike (. Watching him (it's live via the net every morning via steephill tv) take the podium and smile as happy as a kid on his birthday with a new bike was awesome. He had this post-race quip: A happy Voigt pointed out after taking the yellow jersey from Lars Boom (Rabobank). “If there’s a white jersey for younger riders, I think there should be a jersey for riders over 35. Call it the maillot gris.” (from VeloNews)

Jens Factor Training Guide

Winter sucks, we have a love/hate relationship with the trainer, but mostly hate. We all wish we were Pros so we could be prepping for the upcoming season on some island in the tropical Atlantic or even the dry desert of Arizona, and if only our season opener could be in sunbathed South Australia instead of some icy circuit of chip-sealed backroad. Well combing the New Year internet offerings over the past few days I think I have arrived at a combination of resources to make the trainer schlogs a bit more exciting and help keep things focused on the future, i.e. riding without booties and base-layers.

First - about that trainer - forget the rollers, and cyclopian-whatevers - introducing Smart Cycle Extreme! Yip, time to put childhood fun back into your ride, even on the trainer. For those that never heard of the Smart Cycle Extreme, this “stationary bike” (their quotes not mine) is made by Fisher Price, and is designed for children - but don't let that fool you - they mean "children at heart", and isn't that any of us grown adults that spend thousands of dollars on a bicycle and thousands more traveling to places and races? Anyway, according to the adverts "With the Smart Cycle Extreme your [inner] child can stay in shape, learn with the creative games they have available, and possibly become the next Lance Armstrong. Available are different cartridges with different game types and characters, allowing your child to learn different tools in life." What's best is their patented "Physical Learning Arcade System". This is no spinning mindlessly to some hack cycling coach software - this is stuff you can use. Sold separately (of course) are titles like Software Thomas & Friends™ - you can race against a train! Or practice real life traffic training outside the bikelane with Software Hot Wheels™. You can find the Smart Cycle Extreme at any of those big box chain stores, anywhere they don't have a bike rack out front and the parking lot is at least the size of a velodrome.

Now you've got your Smart Cycle Extreme home and unpacked, thrown on the old kit, downed a GU and ready to work on your post holiday power to weight ratio - you need Pro inspiration. They guys at Cyclocosm have come to the rescue - The Jens Factor Inspirational Training Chart:

CLICK Larger Jens Factor Chart

Just download a larger version of the chart, print it off, and presto! you're ready to ride... on the trainer. As Cyclocosm explains, "Jens Factor, as defined by this chart, is just that—an integer value you can factor into your training data to properly reflect the increased benefits of staring down winter weather. Jens Voigt, a veteran rouleur known to take particular glee in miserable conditions, is its obvious namesake."

And if you burn through the SCE software, over stimulated on all that learning, or had enough of the 13-hour version of TdF 2009, then then maybe listening to the word of the man himself, as he describes dishing out pain on the Col du Tourmalet and the glee at dropping the likes of Valverde and Cunego can be just the inspiration you need to stay put on that trainer and avoid the crappy weather outdoors.

Happy training everyone!

Reality - A decade to remember, to forget

Reality. Clearly the defining word of the decade - wait, hold your cringe, I'm not going to sing or dance or cast myself off in a balloon. At first had had no interest in writing some recap of 2009 and then I started thinking, the reality is a decade ago I couldn't have done this, a decade ago this reality didn't exist, and a decade ago I didn't really know enough about pedaling, pedestrian or pro, to comment.

Looking back at the "otts", our first decade in the new millennium, it would be easy to ring up a series of cycling highlights, to mention a few:

• Lance Armstrong's incredible run a top the TdF charts and equally amazing run from every doping scandal that plagued the rest of the peloton,
  
• birth of the "blue train" which cemented the realization that there is only one future way to achieve lasting superiority in the grand tours.
  
• Stuart O'Grady's Paris-Roubaix snatched from the jaws of the contenders playing pave-chess.
  
• And there was Gilberto Simoni embarrassingly being doped by his gandmother's home-made candy? (or this version: He ate coca candies bought by his Aunt while in South America.)
• we also saw 10 days of how a jersey of yellow can transform a simple bicycle race into a passion play and forever change the life of its accidental protagonist. Thomas Voeckler did just that...

In 2004 the non-factor Frenchman escaped with five other riders during stage 5, in a calculated move not-to-defend Voeckler was "given" the yellow jersey. What Johan Bruyneel and world did not calculate was his tenacity at defended his jersey for ten days. Inspired with golden winds on his shoulders, and intense media attention all around him, Voeckler rode like a pro possessed. He survived the certain death in the Pyrenees, by 8 seconds. Voeckler finally surrendered the jersey to Armstrong on stage 15 in the French Alps. Five years later, almost to the stage, Voeckler won his first ever Tour stage. The little-boy-love of cycling that spread across his face as he crossed the line in stage 5 that day epitomized the joy seen around the world in the Millenium's first decade worth of charity rides, local races, birthday new bikes and Kids out for a Saturday ride - we love our bikes. Thanks Thomas!!

We also saw one of the great solo break-away performances of the past few decades on stage 17 of the 2007 Tour - regardless your feeling about Floyd Landis' final outcome no amount of 'overnight' drugs could produce the monster ride he delivered that day (psst - the French still can't explain why 9 other before and after tests are all normal?). For all of us who can't remember seeing the Coppi's and Merckx's peloton shattering breaks that stage into Morzine felt vintage.

But, there are a few other bits worth considering as we launch forward "where no man has gone before".
Okay - so here we go...

Comeback of the Decade has to be Lance Armstrong, not the second-coming, but the overcoming of 14 tumors, a 20% chance of survival, THEN going on to win seven straight Tour de Frances (ok - only 6 this decade). After going through cancer this past decade with several friends and family, not everyone pulling off the miracle comeback - what LA did blows me away. Regarding the cycling - from the beginning in 1999's Le Passage du Gois to the cross-country downhill into Gap in 2003 to passing Ullrich in the opening Prologue in 2005 - it was all frigg'n amazing.

Most Frustrating was George Hincapie's inability to capture the slippery pave trophy. I mean c'mon, how many guys finally have two teammates in a final selection, with 10 sectors of cobbles to go, and have the bloody handle bars snap off in your hands - only to leave George looking like the hapless coyote in a ridiculous episode of the Road Runner. The Paris-Roubaix curse is even more painful when one hears George despair, "I wake up every morning thinking of winning it." By decade's end we all were reconciling ourselves to the old saying "it's not about having luck, but not having bad luck" when it comes to the Hell of the North. PS - the 2001 P-R sucked as well, sorry George.

In the category of Great Moments Missed I would nominate Jens Voigt's indefatigable performance in the 2005 La Flèche Wallonne. In a decade of memorable breaks this one went essentially unseen, but is worth the price of the World Cycling DVD so it can be watched again and again. Voigt in a break is nothing unusual, and we have been treated to many, but this ride is epic! Jens holds the charging Liguigas peloton off. Not just off, but OFF. Kilometer after kilometer sweep under Jens' wheels and they can't catch him. Phil and Paul go from commentators, to skeptics, to bewilderment, to finally cheerleaders. A K and a half from the base of the ridiculously steep Huy he succumbs - but damn, what any of us would do to ride like the wind and scare the shit out of the peloton like that! Buy the DVD!! It's 15 bucks of endlessly repeatable pleasure.

Cycling is unique, for the most part, in its old world credo to Great Sportmanship. When a rider dies on the roads we have seen the entire peloton ride at "half mast" all day - a rolling tribute - not just some fleeting minute of silence before the national anthem. While agreed sprinters play "argy-bargy, bumper cars" in the final straights, and one never knew when Robbie McEwen was going to head-butt you into the barriers, Jens refusing to take the line on Garate on stage 19 in the 2006 Giro d'Italia, despite DS Bjarne Riis going ballistic in his ear. Why? Because Jens had sat-on the little Spanish rider's wheel the last 5K up the climb and that's "just not right", shows the kinda sportsmanship and honor this sport holds. Thanks for making us proud, yet again, Jens!

And remember Jan Ullrich reaching back for LA's hand on Stage 14 in 2001 atop Luz Ardiden. Armstrong was ahead by a few feet as they approached the line, and then he did something he rarely did... he backed off the gas, sat down and soft pedaled the last couple meters. It insured Ullrich finish ahead of him by half a bike length, which put him in third place for the day and garnered him the 8 sec. time bonus. Those eight ticks clenched Jan's 2nd place in Paris.

Questionable Sportsmanship is a tough one considering the abominable move by Theo Bos in the Tour of Turkey (irony?) to grab race leader Daryl Imprey in the final straight-away of stage 8 and fling him into the barrier - therefore I instead award the No Brainer Jerk-Ass Award.

Back to the QS Award, there I have to go with Discovery Channel Team tactics through the persona of George Hincapie. It's mid-decade, 2005, Stage 15 of the Tour de France, the Queen Stage, logically Discovery puts a man in the break-of-the-day - George - and he is told to sit on, in case race leader Armstrong needs him - fare enough. Then on the way to the forum George isn't needed, so go for it, from (for the way it should be done - see Jens above)

It's a TEAM sport as German fans don't get. Once again Jens Voigt takes the award for doing his job as part of a team in the 2004 Tour (yes, I'm a homer), from CyclingNews at the time:

After being called "Judas" and other names by German fans on Alpe d'Huez yesterday, CSC's super workhorse Jens Voigt has defended himself strongly. Voigt was heavily criticised by the Germans after he played a key role in chasing down T-Mobile's Jan Ullrich during stage 15, following the orders of his team director Bjarne Riis who wanted to protect Ivan Basso's second place. Despite the fact that Voigt and Ullrich ride for different teams and Voigt was merely obeying instructions, the partisan German fans did not see it that way and hurled abuse at him yesterday.

"I was sworn at on the road for being a traitor," said Voigt to DPA. "That was open hostility. I would have got off and yelled at them. National politics or war have no place here. It should only be about sport. I've always tried to simply live my life. The uncalled for criticism really hurt me. "

Voigt said that his riding in Stage 15 was purely for his captain Ivan Basso. "Of course it broke my heart to ride behind Jan. I would rather see Jan win the Tour than Lance. But that is my job. If I didn't ride behind, the Tour would already be finished for me and I would be sitting on an aeroplane on the way back home, because I hadn't fulfilled my contract."

Voigt also criticised the commentators on German TV channel ARD, who he believed prompted the outcry. "That was certainly the trigger for the witch hunt," he said. "ARD and T-Mobile, that's a little narrow. It's the first time that I have been sworn at by fans. That's why I'm so sour."

The German also explained that he gave Andreas Klöden water with 7 km to go in Stage 15, and noted that he had worked completely for Ullrich in the Olympics in 2000. "And I will also die in Athens for him," he noted.

PS - Stage 10 in 2008 says TEAM as well

Fleet-a-Foot Award goes to the unsung heroes behind all the podium winners. A crash in the final kilometer nearly denied Denis Menchov the Giro d'Italia, the victory was saved by the fast acting Vincent Hendricks. The Rabobank mechanic jumped from the team car while it was still moving, and had a spare bike from the roof before Menchov had risen from the slick cobbles. The final margin over Danilo di Luca (and a wee bit of CERA as we later found out) was a scant 41 sec. Hendricks said shruggingly with a smile, "I did my job"

Just-n-Time Award has to go to Cadel Evans. After nearly a decade of attackless riding the likes of which Tour penalty patriarch Henri Degrange would have invented a new time penalty for, Cadel finally realized he was running out of road as well as decade so finally put in an attack - holy shit, it worked - results: new jersey, new team, new decade, new attitude. "Good on ya mate"

But a small handful of events may have "slipped off the back" as Paul Sherwin might say. These are my Humble Heroes. Number one was as recent as this past summer, in the 2009 version of the Grand Boucle. For 11 stages Dutchman Kenny van Hummel (#199 above) electrified the blog-o-sphere and a handful of headlines with his refusal to fail. His suffrage was heroic and followed in the pedal strokes of the greatest Lanterne Rouge in history, who also graced this inaugural millennial decade, Belgian Wim Vansevenant. By a mere 10 minutes Wim missed capturing the rouge four consecutive times, his trio of lanterns from 2006 to 2008 however remains a mark unequaled in 97 romps to the Champs.

Number two goes to Dr. Bob Breedlove who died tragically in the 2005 RAAM. His patented words of departure were, "Just Another Day In Paradise" when riding off, graced with a smile. He finished the grueling non-human event four times solo, twice tandem. He rode with style, passion and a gentle smile - the way we all should remember to ride every time we saddle-up, clip-in and pedal-off.

And third, but not least, is Brian Benson, a local Portland hero who selflessly organizes the annual bike-give-away from the Community Cycling Center. Every year-end holiday season upwards of a thousand little bikes roll out of the donated Emanuel Hospital atrium attached to smiles and excited feet. Many of these kids would never know "Just Another Day In Paradise" if not for Brian and the volunteers.

Dope, Dopers and Being Dooped. And finally, can we please lift our sights, and move on already! Despite what many would like to think this was not the "decade of the dopers". Any casual student of Le Tour, the pulsing heart of pro racing for it's only century, cheating is not new, cheaters have always been. Founder and maniacal director Henri Degrange even suggested in his own L'Auto newspaper in 1924, defending the Tour under attack by critics, that taking drugs might not be objectionable to complete a race.

And finally, Happy New Year everyone, thanks to everyone who reads, comments, and shares my thoughts with others - and remember if you have the joy of riding your bike you are living better than most people on Earth - smile, be safe, and enjoy the ride -

"Just Another Decade In Paradise"

Taking it all too seriously

The last couple of weeks on the bike have been nutso - all getting way too serious. I realized that this morning. Maybe that's the price you pay towards the end of your first year of racing; hours in the saddle, too much time at threshold (kinda like hanging at 13,000+ ft too long), screwed up diet (i.e. elephantine amounts of GU and Heed) and then all that lactic acid seeps up, up into your brain, where it feeds cyclodragons, that rear their 53-toothed heads and lash out. Maybe that's why its best to do this racing thing when you are 17 or 22. I mean at that ripe old age most of the people around you are just as screwed up as you are so probably don't notice whatta total dumbshit you are being or don't really give-a-shit because they are equally in the mental dumper too. At the Masters 45+ age taking yourself that seriously and starting to let it enter all the other aspects of your life - relationships, friendships, health - is just frigg'n stupid. Ah, but recognizing it? Not so easy with cyclodragon roaring about breathing fire and torching everyone you care about.

That doesn't mean I love racing less or need to be less competitive - just need to look at the Jens Voigt socks more often and say to myself, "Vroom Vroom Vroom" and smile.

I don't regularly quote others blogs, after all the idea of a blog to some degree is to write your own crap, not spread everyone else's, but I bumped into "Jim" of The Unholy Rouleur when I was trying to understand the upcoming cross season from the eyes of crossers - and to make sense of Judd's bubbling-over-5-year-old-excitement about the first cross crusade race of the season Oct 4 here in Pdx. I'm trying to make sense of it because I'm planning on giving it a whack and see what all this mud and beer is about - and maybe just that - mud and beer - and that's why it's so fun? Anyway, the the following struck me for multiple reasons, but the most important was it reminded me the past couple weeks were starting to get "wayyyyy to serious" and with the upcoming Everest Challenge it was time to regain my sanity before I go to California and annihilate myself on some slope of the high Sierras.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Crash Like a Child

"Beppo said something really interesting to me riding back from 'cross practice today: "Cross is nice and different because it's about the only thing you can do on a bike where you're riding along and you crash and then you sit there laughing."

That's true. There's something nice and child-like about cross. We take to it in innocence, like a 5 year-old wants to race everywhere. You don't need to have a reason for it, you just do it. It's fun to do it. So you act like a kid and that's just what you do.

I'm thinking about this today because maybe we cyclists are about to dick up cross like we've dicked up mountain biking and dicked up road riding and maybe track and just riding to work.

At times, we take ourselves wayyyy too seriously. "

Click on the title if you want to read the rest - it's a nice reminder to stay connected to the fun-factor in what we do. Maybe even draw on my French lessons and read it outloud so the words stick with you a little longer and seed themselves under that bike helmet for a later date when they need to be called upon.

Climbing back - up a Rocky Point

Sometime hills are the best way, the only way to return to where you began. Throughout history hills have been there, pinnacles from which we see the world more clearly, personally, biblically, politically, metaphorically, they teach us how to humble ourselves and we are once again reminded that climbing always gets us out of the valley we're in.

Maybe it's that hills force us to pump some extra blood between heart and head and with it a few extra bubble of oxygen to clear the coconut? I can't be certain, just know that while I don't always feel great going up, once up there things do get better.

After riding myself into a mental valley at Cascade Cycling Classic, I took a few days and then refound my joy, on a hill, a stretch of 7-9% that doesn't care where you came from. I also have refocused my goals on a hill, the Wy East Rd climb; a snaking one-lane passage up through the forests of Mt Hood, between 4 and 6,000 feet, this year's Oregon State Hillclimb (TT) Championship, to get back to where I began - a love for riding up... up... up.

The closest thing I have to practice on, without driving an hour to Mt. Hood, is 15miles from my porch, Rocky Point Road. A lovely little 1,300' climb over 3.15 miles with pitches in the double digits.

The roll out was easy between 32-35kmh west on Hwy 30. Morning traffic going out is pretty light and the shoulders wide enough to not make the delivery trucks much an issue. It's the perfect half hour warm up my legs need.

The climb starts a 1/4 mile after the Dept of Transportation Weigh Station well marked across the highway. Gear down and get ready - Rocky comes at you right out of the gate!

Some climbs invite you in, then slap you around a bit, give you a few flat bits to catch your breath and then let you slip over the top, Rocky Point will have none of that. Coming off Hwy 30 you turn left and immediately a long ramp of 9-11% glares at you, then disappears into the trees 600m in the distance - if you haven't unclipped to reconsider start flicking that rear derailleur and take a few deep breaths. It's right here where you decide are you here to climb or creep? Over the years I have done both.

Regardless your decision the calves are always my first to complain; they have just come off the big-ring on Hwy 30 and don't like the instant high rev spinning. My breathing is next and the lungs consort with the calves in a debate of a 'reasonable speed'. Today is all about the August 16th Championship and I politely ignore them both.

At the end of that launch ramp the road begins a snaking slither through the big leaf maples. Its easy to imagine a serpent creating this road - on its way downhill of course! Any creature, even with a reduced reptilian brain would have chosen a gentler gradient and more switchbacks. Not this one. Rocky bends gently left then gently right, repeating it at 8-9% for the next several hundred meters. I settle in to a climbing rhythm and keep looking up the road - hearing Paul Sherwin say, "it's never a good sign when the non-climbers start looking at their gears." I'm a climber damn it! I fix my focus straight up the road.

The 1 mile marker is just ahead, I know it too well, I play this 'I will not look at the computer' game with myself until I cross the marker - 5:39 - damn it! I'm way off - I need to be down around five. Once again I hear Mr Sherwin doing play-by-play in my head, "he always come good on his rendezvous" , ya, but that's Armstrong, and I'm no Pro. Clearly. I'm just a 53 year whacko who thinks he can climb. Ya know, compared to most of the guys I ride with I can - they would love to see this - sweat streaming in an uninterrupted rivulet from my chin, constantly rising up out of the saddle to keep the momentum going, and when all else fails looking down at my sock (NOT my gears), my Jens Voigt 'Vorrom, vroom, vroom" socks, remind myself I am having fun and ask 'what would Jens do?' - attack - so I hesitate, then tell myself don't hesitate, again out of the saddle and up the revs.

The Wall
Rocky relents a bit through these trees, over a mile and a half into the climb, my computer flickers 8%, then 9, then 8 again; I keep reminding myself to reach with my knees. A thing I read somewhere, if you are struggling to keep the 'spin' on a climb pretend you are reaching for the handlebars with your knees. C'mon knees - reach, reach.

Ahead the road curves left and then right, the gradient actually ducks under 6%, but it's a lie, around that right is The Wall. I know it; the curse of an intimate affair with this curvaceous slope. It's a beautiful little 100 meters of, as my friend Todd calls it, "witch-slapping nasty". If you were racing this is where you would attack. If you had Contador's legs you would dance away; you'd be inclined on its 15% to take flight for the top. If not, this is where you vainly flick the right shifter to the sound of silence. Sorry sunshine, get out of the saddle and push on the pedals. If your spin has spun, then choke on your pride and 'Paperboy' it. Today I keep the knees reaching and lock my stare on the crest of The Wall. Over the top it's almost flat - 7+%.

The metronome in my head pushes up the tempo... 'reach, reach, reach'... 5:39, 5:39, 5:39... time to make up.

The 2 mile marker pokes out of the shrubbery on the right and 11:23 ticks past... 'reach, reach, reach'...

Outta the saddle, drop a gear, push it from here, most of its shy of 7%, then 6, 5, outta the saddle again. No more shade. Push. There's a motivational monologue raging in my head. I don't feel my calves, my lungs, my anything. Past the 3 mile marker - crap, pushing so hard I forgot to look. Sweat runs into my right eye - live with it - push.

A hundred meters...

One last outta the saddle

18:08

MAP

Jens Voigt - Alive and Well

As you know Jens Voigt took a terrible spill in the Tour - he is alive and well - recovering and has posted this Jens video message (warning - he IS pretty banged up)

"Vroom, vroom, vroom" - Get Well Jens

"Vroom, vroom, vroom" he said, as he threw a leg over the top tube and pedaled off to the start line of the Tour of California's Stage 1 in Sausalito. Jens Voigt had just finished off a energy bar, sitting lazily in a folding beach chair, as if that's where he was staying for the rest of the day, at the back of the CSC (now Saxo Bank) team motor home. When Jenn and I walked up minutes earlier to say hello the action was all over at the Discovery Team bus and what few fans had trickled across the parking lot to CSC were focused on American riders Bobby Julich and Dave Zabriski. Still it was Jens that we were delighted to see. Jens is our cycling hero of endless breakaway attempt, failed and triumphant. This "animator" of the peloton is the rider I have channeled on endless rides and races. He is part old school and new.

At this year's Tour of California, while other high profiled riders were focused and disconnected from the eager American tifosi, Jens was on the trainer before the Prologue surrounded this time by a large crowd and someone shouted, "No more mister nice guy Jens", in reference to a Jens quote from years prior. Everyone laughed and Jens smiled and said, "Nooo, this year there are too many assholes, it's time for someone to be a nice guy." The laughter grew louder. Minutes later he shot through the finish just 15 seconds back of teammate Cancellara in the Prologue.

After that vroom, vroom, vroom moment in 2006 I realized more than ever what this magical thing called riding the bike is all about. Jens thank you for that precious, insightful, life-changing moment. I ride my bike with greater joy and childhood excitement because of that Jens-ism.

Every time I come to the start line in a race I say to myself - "Vroom, vroom, vroom". Every time Jenn and I jump on the tandem we smile and whisper "Vroom, vroom, vroom" to one another. It's become our Jens mantra. Our Madonna di Ghisallo blessing.

Yesterday in Stage 16 from Martigny—Bourg-Saint-Maurice Jens went down, violently, viciously, the kinda crash that hurts to watch even more if you have ridden and seen your front wheel flip and disappear before you like the rabbit in some strange magic act - How did it happen? Where did it go? Why me? Why now? you have no time to get answers to anything. You're down and sliding and maybe unconsciously praying. Jens remained unconscious and for a collective frozen moment all of us that love this German rider so much, who believe he IS the best pro cycling can be, we were shocked into tears of disbelief.

Jens is recovering in a Grenoble hospital. Today they said he was sitting up watching the Schleck brothers launch their attacks on the Romme and Colombiere. Said Andy "We heard great news this morning that Jens (Voigt) was going to be OK, so we wanted to attack in his honor." Paying 'their honor' jumped them up the GC into 2nd and 3rd overall and I'm certain Jens was smiling through that broken cheek and litinany of lacerations, smiling at the pain they were dishing out - the way he loves to ride. Jens is going to be okay - but some surgery and recovering will come before the next pedal turn - although I can see them wheeling him into surgery and the nurse saying, "what was that?" It was Jens mumbling "Vroom, vroom, vroom"

Get well Jens - we miss you - and can't imagine Paris or any other finish line without you.

"Vroom, vroom, vroom" I'll think of you through every pedal stroke this weekend.

(Note: For those of you who might not know Jens Voigt — he is arguably the toughest of strongmen of the pro peloton, known for his long, often successful solo breakaways, yet another of which, at age 36, attacking with 36 km to go, he pulled off to win a stage in this year's Giro, dropping the likes of world champ Paolo Bettini and Italian superstar Daniele Bennati. He’s also unfailingly cheerful and friendly off the bike, perhaps the most well-liked member of the peloton. For more about Jens read Bonnie D. Ford's wonderful article on ESPN.com Jens Voigt is the conscience of cycling )