Monday's weekly procrastination guide

Okay, it's already Tuesday, but there is still time to procrastinate this week, so here are some suggestions. I'll try to make this a regular feature in which I'll share with you some of the internet goodies I've come across or remembered recently.

Apple
Apple is, of course, always good for some inspiration. True, today's launch was a little bit less than inspiring, but other things are in the works. You may, for example, not have heard about the hPDA Shuffle yet, so check it out:



And then there is always the hot new iPhone that everyone is still drooling over. As you probably know, Apple is teaming up with AT&T/Cingular as their network provider. AT&T/Cingular is itself in a state of flux that is a little hard to comprehend, but a nice post at Presentation Zen aims to clarify what is going on. The post also includes a good list of links regarding the iPhone.

TED
If you have not yet had a chance to look at the annual TED Conference, I would encourage you to do so. They have made many of their best presentation available via direct download or podcast. There are really some extraordinary gems in there, some of which I will post about later. For an introduction on what it is all about, check out this CBS News Special.

Food
Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma, which is a book I can heartily recommend, just published an article in the New York Times last weekend, which is a bit long, but a very interesting read. I hope a lot of what he is writing about seems obvious to you. That would be good.

Earth's future is in your hands
The BBC let's you play politics, in "a game where you are president of the European Nations. You must tackle climate change and stay popular enough with the voters to remain in office." It's not easy. Go on over and take the Climate Challenge. Hours of fun.

Weathering the storm with KLM

I was scheduled to fly back to the U.S. last Thursday, but the big storm that swept most of Europe delayed my return by a day, and I was stuck in Amsterdam for a night.

The flight out of Bremen was delayed by an hour, and by the time we finally reached Amsterdam, the winds were so strong that our little Fokker 50 was no longer up to the challenge of landing, and the pilot broke off the landing attempt at the last minute. After some deliberation with air traffic control and many more minutes of flying, we finally landed in Eindhoven, but not before half the passengers had thrown up the tasty cheese sandwiches we had eaten earlier. It was a really rough flight.

From Eindhoven we took a bus to Amsterdam, which we reached at about 10pm, ten hours behind schedule. Even the bus ride was fairly rough, and we passed several trucks that had been blown over by the wind and were lying by the side of the highway.

Nobody was available to greet us in Amsterdam, so I went to the KLM ticket counter, where I was told to go away because there were no more flights to the U.S. that night, and I was therefore not a high-priority case. They were trying to get as many people onto flights that day as possible, so no time for me. That's probably why the ticket counter was so heavily staffed. I was to call the reservation number and find myself a hotel, which I was to pay for myself because KLM has no control over the weather. All this from a very unpleasant guy with a very unpleasant attitude.

So I tried to call the reservations number—all the hotels were long booked anyway, so I did not even bother trying to find a place to stay the night—but after wasting five euros on hold (not even a toll free number!), I decided to go back to the ticket counter, the fascist was gone, and I just got in line. Finally one of the agents re-booked me onto the first flight to MSP on Friday morning.

The rest of the night I spent having dinner at Burger King (the only food place still open) and a couple of beers at a pub. With that in my belly, I tried to find a bench to sleep for a few hours. It turns out, though, that the benches in Schipol Airport are not benches at all, but rather single seats that are separated by armrests, which makes them pretty much useless for sleeping, so by 5am I had had enough and tried to check in.

From there things picked up a bit. At first my e-ticket was not working, so I had to wait in line for about 1/2 hour, then spend another half hour with a very lovely ticket agent, who couldn't get the e-ticket to work and finally walked across the airport with me to get a paper ticket. So much for 21st century technology. Well, it all worked out in the end, though, and I got to go through the passport control and have a nice, long breakfast before boarding the flight home without further incidents.

The flight back was fine, the entertainment systems in the new Airbus A330's are really quite nice, and because many travelers apparently had not yet made it to Amsterdam, the flight was almost empty. It took a little longer than usual because we still had over 200 mph headwinds for a while, but as a result we went farther north than usual, and got a nice look at Greenland and its disappearing glaciers.

In the end I made it safely to Minneapolis and the weather was certainly not KLM's fault. But they could have tried to be nice instead of adding insult to injury; they simply chose not to. They could have allowed me to change my flights in Bremen (which I tried) without asking for a rebooking fee. They could have fully staffed their ticket counters. They could have never hired the rude fascist. They could have had phones for people to call their reservation system. They could have provided some snacks and drink, even just water. They could have tried to help people find a place to stay for the night. They could have had fully functioning e-tickets. All of this would have been easy and inexpensive for them, but instead they simply blocked off and only pointed to the rules that said they were not responsible for any of this. Which they weren't. But they didn't have to be bastards about it.

I think next time I will fly Lufthansa.

43. Bremer 6-Tage-Rennen, Post Mortem II

As promised, here is some more coverage of the Bremen Sixdays. Here I have posted the last two laps before each of the last six sprints of the final all-deciding chase of the sixdays. Notice how the wins go back and forth and nothing is decided until the final, final sprint. If you have ridden the track yourself, you will be able to tell that this did not happen entirely by chance. . .

But it makes for a great show, and the last two videos convey some of the amazing atmosphere in the hall, the audience clearly loved it.

50 laps to go:


40 laps to go:


30 laps to go:


20 laps to go:


10 laps to go:


Final sprint:


Victory lap:


Zabel/Risi ride to the final awards ceremony in the new Ford Focus CC:

43. Bremer 6-Tage-Rennen, Post Mortem

The venerable Bob Williams is already back at the National Sports Center, but had an interesting encounter this morning on his flight from Bremen to Amsterdam, about which he just sent me a long report. Here it is.

So OK.
Kurt and I got out at the airport. He came in with me while I checked in for my flight and then we were going to get a cup of coffee before I had to board. Who should be standing at the next check in desk ............... short guy ........ expressionless ........... Right! Marco Villa! We said hello, told him what a good race he rode and wished him luck. We had coffee and I went down to the gate. Guess who was there? Yup. I said a few words as we got on the bus to the plane. We got on the plane and as luck would have it, the poor sucker had to sit next to me! Hah! I talked with him for an hour!

Here's some of what I learned.

He's 37 and hopes he will be selected for the 2008 Olympics. If so he will ride the 2008/ 9 winter season. If not then it will probably be 07/08 for his last season.
He's married with two kids, 5yrs and 20mos. He was going to go home for a day to spend it with the family before driving out to Stuttgart on Thurs. AM. I asked him about the gearing used at the Six. He said he and most were still on 52X16. I mentioned that Zabel said he was on 53X16 and he said that is probable. Intimating that Zabel doesn't have the spin of the specialists and so uses a slightly bigger gear. He said some of the guys will go up to a 49X15 from time to time.

I told him that I understood that the Bremen track was a bit hard to ride in that the corners are so tight. He agreed. He compared the tracks and said Gent, Munich, Zurich were really good fast tracks. Dortmund was pretty bumpy, Stuttgart was too long.

He talked a bit about the Galvez crash. He was the next man behind it....by about 10 meters. He said the two riders collided when Bartko attacked and Defauw moved up to chase and didn't see Galvez moving up from the rear. It was a very normal crash in his estimation. The problem was the handlebars hooked and that caused the bikes to veer straight up the track and into the balustrade. It was indeed a freak accident. He said it hasn't bothered him too much. He then went on to tell me how in Rotterdam (I think) he crashed and went over the rail into the seats! Since then they put the nets up in places like Bremen to prevent a fall from the top. He thinks the padding on the rail may be of some help.

I asked him about the other riders, who was going well and who was not. He mentioned that some of the guys that are not going all that well now used to be very fast when they started but just didn't have the commitment to train on the road (road race) over the summer and each year they got a bit slower and or weaker. I won't name names but you probably know which ones we talked about. He talked about his own summer training and he said he doesn't do as much road racing as he used to but he still does a lot of criteriums and longer road events in the second half of the summer to help him prepare for the winter. He has finished two Giros in the past and said he really noticed a change in his body and its performance after completing a three week race like that for the first time. He said it taught him that he could go further and faster even when he felt totally exhausted and by doing so accustomed his body to that kind of stress. That has come in very valuable in the Sixes where others start to really struggle. He says Risi is on another planet as far as riders go. He has a natural talent for the track that one just can't match regardless of all the training one does. He also though Keisse was the same and said he is really very good. Zabel as well is very strong and very competent especially since he can't focus on the track like the specialists. He admits that he himself is not as fast as he once was but feels he can still be competitive.
The races like the Olympics and Worlds are different in that so many of the guys are not riding the sixes but instead are peaking for those events and can afford to work on power with bigger gears etc. to make the speed of those races very hard indeed. He feels he can do the same but he must find some time to fit in the extra power workouts between the Six contracts.

All and all a very pleasant hour was spent talking about the pro Six scene. Marco was very willing to talk and friendly even though still fairly expressionless. He gave me his email and I wished him good luck and said I would be seeing him next year in Gent and that I would be watching his results. He smiled and shook my hand and we parted ways to our respective connecting flights in Amsterdam. What a cool guy!

WHAT A TRIP!!!

BW

43. Bremer 6-Tage-Rennen, Day 6

The 43rd Bremen Sixdays are official over. 131,500 people came to watch the show.

The grand finale
Tonight was a night dedicated to hard racing. Klaus and Klaus were gone, and there were more people in the stands than anywhere else. Bob, Kurt, my mother, and I went to watch the furious finale. In the end it was as close as it could have been, the final decision was only made in the very last sprint. Here are the results. Of course, there was never any real doubt that Zabel/Risi were going to win. In fact, my father remembers a Bremen Sixdays in which the final chase was technically over, but Kappes was still in second place, so Sercu simply decided to let the race continue, and continue it did until Kappes was first and won the event. Creative accounting, if you will.

For a moment, however, it looked as though the plans might have been foiled because Andreas Beikirch took a tumble, and with him went Erik Zabel and Andreas Kappes. Beikirch was done, but Zabel and Kappes were able to continue, and the blazingly fast chase continued. These guys were really going all out, even if the outcome was clearly pre-determined. That was one of the hardest hours of racing I have ever seen. Over the last 60 laps points were given every ten laps: 10, 8, 6, 2. The riders managed to sprint in a way that the leader board was re-shuffled with every sprint. Amazing. Of course, the last night was not just the riders' last hurrah, but ours as well, and we made the best of it. Here goes.

The Radio Bremen Girls insisted on having their picture taken with me.

The little drunk guy was also having a great time.

Afterparty
Bob, Kurt, and I went to the infield after the races were over and talked to a pair of carpenters, who were already busy tearing down the whole thing. It takes them two days to build the track, and one day to tear it down. The whole thing is basically disposable (except for the aluminum trusses) and built from 36mm x 36mm Siberian pine, the same wood used in L.A. I will report more about the details of construction in a follow-up post, so stay tuned.

At 52 degrees, the Bremen track is even steeper than ours.

When we were down on the track, we also got a glimpse of the riders' quarters, which were hidden under the stage. It's not too comfortable, but has everything they need during their longs nights of racing.

The riders' cots, now deserted, are normally hidden from public view.

Trophies
Kurt must be one of the most efficient trophy hunters I have ever met. His experience goes back to the superband circuit, where rumor has it he tuned guitars for the likes of Brian Adams and Guns 'N Roses. He never worked with Bonnie Tyler, though. Perhaps she was too big for him.

As I had already mentioned, Kurt managed to have dinner with Zabel on Sunday night. Now Zabel remembered him and gave him his jersey after the races. He did not have to be asked or reminded, he came out of the tunnel with the jersey in hand and gave it right to Kurt. I would say that is pretty large of a superstar.

Erik Zabel gave Kurt his jersey, complete with signature and crash marks.

But Kurt would not be Kurt if that was enough for him. While Bob and I were busy with the carpenters, Kurt snuck into the now empty riders' quarters and like the pro that he is rummaged through the garbage that was left behind. He scored all kinds of paraphernalia, most notable among which were Andreas Kappes's shorts, which he must have taken off after his crash and left behind because they were torn.

When Bob and I were finished with the carpenters, Kurt, true to form, asked if he could have a piece of the track. One of the carpenters, with German efficiency, got out a chainsaw, and seconds later Kurt was in possession of the 40 meter mark. Nicely done, Kurt. You would be my hero, but you never worked with Bonnie Tyler.

Don't try this in Blaine.

Dancing with the stars
After the races were finished, we hung out for a while and managed to get some nice pictures with some of my favorite riders. As I have already said, Erik Zabel is my all-time favorite rider. Bruno Risi is a living sixday legend. Robert Bartko is the best pursuiter in the world. And Franco Marvulli was voted "Best in Show" by our female companions. So where do I fit in?

I am bigger than Erik Zabel.

I am bigger than Bruno Risi.

I am bigger than Robert Bartko.

And I am bigger than Franco Marvulli (by weight).

Leaving Bremen
Tomorrow morning I will fly back to Minneapolis. I have a few more things to post, but video transfer is very slow with the connection here, so you can, for now, look forward to video clips of the six final sprints of the Bremen Sixdays, as well as coverage of some victory celebrations. Until then.

Reporting (almost) live from Bremen, B & B.