Lots going on out there which I'll post on shortly. But first here are a few tidbits from my email inbox, which has become surprisingly active lately, and not all notifications that I have yet again won the Irish lottery:
- Link du jour: over at Break Away from Cancer they've posted an audio chat with George Hincapie. Hink is leading a charity ride (which you can do too if you'll be in Palo Alto this coming Sunday). But he also talks about the upcoming year and his new team. I may have an audio file to embed here later, but you can hear it all at the Breakaway link.
- I howled into the darkness at the lack of links to Etoile de Besseges... and sure enough, they arrived in my inbox. Try Cyclinglinks, a comprehensive Dutch site; or the Belgian CyclingNews, where you can find anything as long as your Flemish is passable. H/T to Dutch Cycling and emailer John.
- I've been kept up to date on Magnus Bäckstedt's progress by Martin McCrossan, whose company does communications for various cyclists and/or teams. The primary benefit is that I've gotten copies of Megan Bäckstedt's photos of her husband on the trainer -- the same pictures which are showing up in various places, including one of Jens' comments here last week. But having originals allows me to take a closer look at Maggy in action. Let's break it down!
Here's the newly-operated shoulder, tastefully tattooed and sewn back together:
Here's his "good" arm, sporting some fresh road rash and an early-season farmer's tan:
Name that power trainer!
Is this the look of a man who will be held out of Paris-Roubaix? I don't think so:
Strangely enough, I don't see any iPod earplugs. I guess if the kid(s) is/are not home or sleeping, maybe he can just blast the stereo. In any event, I can't imagine doing hard-core, lengthy training sessions indoors sans music. Maggy, if you see this, feel free to let us know what tunes keep the pedals turning, and perhaps we can suggest a few items as well?
- One last item, not from my inbox but I've run out of other places to put it -- don't miss CyclingNews' thorough retelling of the downfall of German Cycling. Important, if depressing.