I Need More Cowbell baby!

Russian Vladimir Gusev shows the Swiss cow bell he received after he won the 71st Tour de Suisse UCI protour cycling race 7th stage, 125.7km between Ulrichen and Grimselpass, 22 June 2007 in Crans-Montana. Russian rider Vladimir Efimkin remains the overall leader. AFP PHOTO / FABRICE COFFRINI

For those of you not finding the obvious humor in the title of this post...educate yourself.

Love on the rocks?

I remember a time, not that long ago, when the American Pro Tour powerhouse, Discovery Channel Cycling Team, signed a young American climbing sensation named Tom Danielson. Tom's first Pro Tour experience with then, Fassa Bortollo left his climbing and stage racing skills underutilized. Signing with Discovery was sure to be Tom's "big break" and the realization of his destiny for greatness.

For this, Tom seemed overly greatful and so happy to be riding with his dream team along side of his cycling idol, Lance Armstrong. Initally touted as a possible replacement for Lance, Tom enjoyed success with the Disco boys, but fast forward a couple years after a quick exit from the Dauphiné with stomach problems and yet another missed opportunity to start the famed Tour de France...do we now find this love fest on the rocks?

I read the latest entry by Kristin Danielson (Tom's wife) on Tommy D's website today. I'm not sure if Mrs. D is voiceing her husband's sentiment or if she is just annoyed with how she perceives her hubby is being treated, but it makes one wonder if riding for Discovery has lost its shine. You can link to the post yourself, but here's a snippet of what I'm talking about:

"Tom was finally able to persuade (why should he have to try and persuade) his team that he will get faster solutions in his hometown of Durango. I can see why a European team can’t understand why he needs to come back to the U.S. but why fight the fact that it has been two weeks and he has no answers? He has a return ticket for Tuesday and has been informed that he is required to race in the Qinghai Lake race in China only a couple of weeks away. What?? Don’t they understand that he is sick and needs to get healthy again? I hope that it IS that simple and he will be racing in a couple of weeks."

Yep, I'm pretty sure I'm picking up a little frustration with Team Discovery. It'd be interesting to hear Johan's take on the whole situation, or even Tom's for that matter.

I might be frustrated too if I was supposed to be the next great American-Grand Tour-rider and I was getting ready to NOT ride ANOTHER Tour de France at 29 years old. I guess we'll just have to see how the whole thing pans out...should be interesting though.

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Out For A Ride

Over a year in the making, and three code frameworks later, Out For A Ride is finally ready for public consumption. Tell all your friends!

***Keep in mind that this is ALPHA, the designers/programmers haven't even made it to BETA yet, so there will be tons more features coming in the future.

This is a site that I've been helping to test over the past few months. Created by Stephen Hallgren aka "Teevio", a designer/cyclist from the Boston area. Out For A Ride is a great place to log your rides, your routes, what gear you ride with, what bikes you ride on as well as plenty of ability to chat, leave comments and basically socialize online with like-minded cyclists.

Still in it's infancy, Out For A Ride will only continue to grow. This is your opportunity to get in on the ground floor and be one of its early members. Out For A Ride was only made public today and already is attracting cyclists from all over the country.

Out For A Ride would be the perfect place for all of the 5count readers out there to see what, where and how much we all are riding. For those of you who decide to check it out and see what Out For A Ride is, leave a comment here and let the rest of us know what your "Out For A Ride screen name" is. If you're curious, you can check out what I've ridden the past couple of weeks by looking up "PMESS".

Hope to see you there!