Monday, October 09, 2006

Italy trip

Thanks to the urging of the 5count masses (all 3 of you) I have finally assembled some photos from my trip to Italy. With the help of my "web-guru" Brent Ferraro, there is now a slick little slide show available on 5count.com. I have broken the trip into ten folders, each one containing photos from a specific part of Italy. The ten folders result in over 300 images for your veiwing pleasure, so take your time and peruse them at your leisure.

Below is a screen shot of what you'll find when you arrive at 5count.com.



Here is a quick idiots guide to navigating the slide show:
(1) Click on a rectangle to take yourself to the corresponding folder.
(2) There are eight locations on screen one and two more on screen two. Click "next screen" to navigate to screen two.
(3) Once in a folder, the automated slide show starts automaticly (thus the term - automated). To pause the automation and go through the images at your own speed, click the pause button in the lower-right hand corner of the window. To restart the slide show, simply click on the play button that appeared in the same location.
(4) To scroll through the images on your own, click the "+" or the "-" buttons at either end of the thumbnails at the bottom of the window.
(5) To only view the images that interest you, and skip the ones that don't, you're able to view a slightly larger thumbnail simply by hovering your cursor over one of the thumbnails at the bottom. Click on the disired thumb and go directly to that image. * by doing this, the automation of the slidshow will be automaticly paused if it hadn't been paused already.
(5) While an image is displayed in the main window, a caption of the image is available by hovering your cursor over the image (no clicking required). Many hours of research were finding the names of the things I photographed, so hover over those images and you might learn something.
(6) To return to the main menu click on the little box icon located at the lower-left corner of the window

For those of you itching to see photos of Alp D'Huez or my summit of the Passo di Stelvio, you'll have to wait a bit longer, my travel companion still has the cycling-related images in his posesssion...I'll keep you posted.

In the meantime enjoy the pics, let me know what you think, stay tuned!

5count

Friday, September 15, 2006

Hang in there

It has been brought to my attention that the 5count readers are jones'ing for some info on my Italy trip. Hang in there it's on the way. Check out this panorama of Lake Como while you wait (The DMB shot is probably gettin old huh?)



View from the patio of the B&B we stayed at while in Bellagio, Italy!

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

DMB tonight


Thanks to Jack DiGiovanna from the Team Florida list serve, I was able to get a couple of tickets to tonights Dave Matthews Band concert at the Ford Amphitheatre in Tampa. This is going to be the sixth or seventh time seeing the good ol' DMB live in action. Should be fun!

Friday, July 28, 2006

Thursday, July 27, 2006

In other news...not drug related



On a day with such bad cycling news, here's something cool. I've recently booked a room at a Bed & Breakfast for the "Bellagio portion" of my upcoming trip to Italy. The place is called Il Perlo and it's directly on the route up to the Madonna di Ghisallo chapel. I'll be there for two days before heading over to Bormio to climb the Passo di Stelvio and the Gavio. And we recently switched our plans up slightly in order to fit in a drive up to France so we can climb Alp D'Huez!

In a related issue...
I'll need to borrow a 10-speed Shimano Cassette with a 27 on it.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Holy S***


USA's Floyd Landis celebrates as he crosses the finish line of the 200.5 km seventeenth stage of the 93rd Tour de France cycling race from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Morzine, 20 July 2006. AFP PHOTO / PASCAL GUYOT


Floyd Landis is one Bad A** Mother F*****!!!
Quite possibly the best TdF stage since the 2003 Tour de France (stage 15), where Lance crashed, pulled out of his pedal, and still went on to win the stage to Luz-Ardiden.

Friday, July 14, 2006

TgF Stage 11...the short version

Long stage, 5 climbs, one HC climb and 4 cat.1 climbs...oh yeah, and it's hot!
Iban Mayo had an even worse day than the previous stage, yelled at camera man for recording his failure for the world to see, withdrew from the race...sorry sucka
Disco boys were all dropped eventually...only the Ace hung in long enough to still have a shot at a high GC finish. The rest of the boys will have to go for stage wins in order to salvage their first "post-Lance" tour...booo, hisss
Cyril Dessel fell only 8 seconds short of holding onto his yellow jersey for the Quatorze Julliet. Not a bad showing on such a hard day, he was a heck-of-a-lot closer than anyone thought he'd be...close, but no cigar.
Michael Boogard rode like a man possesed in support of his team leader, Dennis Menchov...oh, and he has big teeth!
Thomas Voeckler got to within 20 seconds of bridging up to the break, but he hit the wall and ended up finishing in 78th place, 33:47 off of the winning time...keep holding onto the memories of your time in yellow 2-years ago.
David De La Fuente (Saunier Duval) was the most aggresive rider in stage 11. He managed to ride himself into the polka-dot jersey and as a result of his great ride, he got a contract extension as well...cha-ching!
Floyd Landis became only the fifth American to don the maillot jaune as he finished third on the stage in an impressive display of poise and power...looks like the "man to beat" to me
Levi Leipheimer found his form once again as he avenged his poor TT performance with a 2nd place finish in stage 11. He wanted the stage win soo bad, but will have to settle with knowing that he's still one bad mutha (now sitting in 13th on GC)...if only his TT wasn't ridden at the speed of ketchup!
Dennis Menchov had better hope for the TT of his life on July 22nd if he wants to overtake Floyd and stand on the top step in Paris. Either way, this Russian has just let the world know that he's a serious contender!...nice ride, but Floyd's just too much for you!

In Fantasy world...
The 5count Fantasy team is still sittin pretty in the overall standings. The points earned soo far may be enough to keep us in the top 12, thus earning us some free cycling schwagg!

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Another Stage win for 5count

Check out the Fantasy Cycling Game homepage...there's a little write-up about how yesterday's stage went, and how 5count won the stage.

We've accumulated almost a thousand points thus far, putting us solidly in third place overall. Hopefully we've earned enough points to hold off the teams with GC guys on their rosters as we now move to the mountainous stages of the Tour.

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

A Classic...

Some of you may have already seen this little gem, but for those of you who haven't, it's a classic.

Friday, July 07, 2006

5count's Fantasy TdF team...

One of our 5count fantasy teams has won the past two stages of the its fantasy cycling league and as a result has moved into the number two spot on GC (out of ~200 teams).

You can read the blurb that the promoters of the game sent out this morning by clicking here.

If this keeps up, we here at 5count might be looking at actually winning some free schwagg! Stay tuned.

Thursday, July 06, 2006

And what's the deal with Eki's HR???

As I was watching stage 4 of the Tour de France yesterday on OLN, I was noticing the heart rate of Discovery rider, Viatcheslav Ekimov. OLN was broadcasting Eki's SRM info during the stage and it was shockingly low compared to others in the field.

While the peloton was in hot pursuit of the break near the end of the stage...strung out...single file...flying down the road, Eki was chillin' with a HR of 108 bpm! 108! My heart rate is 122 while still rolling out of my driveway at 4.5 mph! Other guys were nearing their max HR and Eki, who is like one-hundred and thirty-seven years old, was just loafing along at just over 50% of his max.

Was this correct or did the SRM transmitter have a glitch? If it was correct, I think Eki should've been countering just as Egoi was brought back to the field...with his TT'ing ability and his aparently low HR, he could've easily solo'd to a stage win...right?

P.S. One of 5count's registered fantasy TdF teams just moved up to 4th overall (out of ~200 teams) after finishing 2nd in stage 4! How do you like that Rowdy? (see Rowdy's Mom's comment here)

Cat 4 Danger...

It aint easy being a Cat 4 bike racer. Check out this clip from the Joe Martin Stage Race in Fayetteville, Ark.
...I can so relate to how these guys feel (see: Jacksonville Road Race)

Monday, July 03, 2006

TdF Fireworks


Only two stages into this year's TdF and there has already been fireworks (and I'm not talking about the doping allegations).
• George missed the Mellow Johnny by less than a second in the prologue.
• George sneaks a 2 second time bonus in the final kilometers of stage one making him only the 4th American to wear the Yellow Jersey in the TdF
• Thor Hushovd gets his arm sliced by a fan during the stage one sprint...loses yellow jersey.
• Thor fights for bonus points and regains the overall lead after stage two.
• Robbie McEwan out-sprints all the fast men to take the Maillot Vert in stage two.
• one of 5counts fantasy teams has moved into 8th place overall after stage 2, Rowdy is in 6th overall...but it's a long tour and the sprinters won't be scoring many points when the road tilts upward.
• Jan has gained fifteen pounds during a weiner-schnitzel binge and won't come out of his room claiming, "I'm der Kaiser, you don't mess vit der Kaiser!"

Thursday, June 29, 2006

The Results are in...kinda Ironic, huh?


The results from the 5count Tour de France poll are in. The question was, "Who do you think will win the 2006 Tour de France?" Many of you voted, some probably voted many times and now the results are in.

As you can see from the above graph, the majority of you feel as though Ivan Basso (CSC) has the best chance of winning the '06 Tour de France. Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) was also up there as a contender, but a majority of those votes were probably cast by the same family...we won't name names here but their name rhymes with Fruschlegel. The rest of the numbers came out like this: The irony is apparent...almost 2/3 of all the votes cast are for guys who are now suspended from competing in the TdF. THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!!!
1 Ivan Basso - 410 votes
2 Jan Ullrich - 370 votes
3 None of these - 160 votes
4 Floyd Landis - 120 votes
5 Alejandro Valverde - 100 votes
6 George Hincapie - 30 votes
7 Alexander Vinokourov - 30 votes
8 Levi Leipheimer - 10 votes

* the number of votes have been multiplied by ten in order to compensate for the embarrassing lack of poll voting

5count's new Podium predictions
1st - Landis
2nd - Valverde
3rd - Popovych
4th - Menchov
5th - Leipheimer
* Hincapie, Cadel Evans, Cunego, Sastre, Simoni and DiLuca could all do something special too?

A New Poll...
Please weigh in on our new poll located in the left column of this site.
Thanks,
5count

Win a Ridley frameset...

You too can ride the same brand of frame that pros like Chris Horner, Robbie McEwan and Cadel Evans ride. The Grand Prize for the overall winner of a new fantasy cycling site is a Ridley Damocles Davitimon-Lotto Frameset.

I know what you're thinking..."I don't have time to follow up on a fantasy cycling team"
But this one is easy. I've done fantasy cycling leagues before, and where as they are fun, they can also be time consuming. This new site only takes about 5 minutes, just log in, create a team name, pick 9 dudes and yer done! Best part is...it's FREE! This league is obviously for the TdF, so you only have 1 more day to sign up.

So sign up and let me know what your team name is...5count will keep tabs on all the teams that are "owned" by 5count viewers and we can see who of us really knows our pro cycling. If there is enough interest and enough people sign up in time...5count will even sponsor a prize for the overall winner.

Editors note: in order to qualify for prize, 5count must recieve an email or a comment post letting us know your team name by July 2nd, 2006

Click here to start your fantasy team for the TdF.