Christmas shopping through 5count!

Need a Christmas gift idea for your favorite cycling friend? Order a 5count original. Go to the 5count apparel store and get the "Big Trunk" T-shirt in one of 3 different styles. If you like the design, but don't see it on a type of shirt you want, let us know and we'll try to accomodate your request. No minimum order required, act now supplies are limited!!!

Paging Anthony Musalo

Moose, all the email addresses I have for you are bunk. If you see this, email me! If anyone else reading this has a current and valid email for the Moose, let me know what it is.

How bout that HFH t-shirt???

For those of you that opted to purchase the Horse Farm Hundred t-shirt at this past weekends "Gainesville Cycling Festival", I hope you are enjoying my t-shirt contest's winning entry. Thats right, the horsey/bike chain logo came from your's truly. If you are in need of a design for your next event, drop me a line...Daddy needs a new bike ($$$)!

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

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!

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!

Landis' statement...

Hear what Floyd said:
click here

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.

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.

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!

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.

A Classic...

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

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.

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)