It was a time of drought and scorched lawns. Biking was big -- I purchased a (used) mountain bike and began riding the trails and gravel roads in addition to my typical road cycling. I am shaky, but improving, on the trails. On the road, no century this year. Looks like the long ride will be 62 miles. Of course, I remain one of the five people in North america who follows the Tour de France every year -- see below.
But generally things are still good. My complaints, such as they are, aren't just First World complaints, they are upper middle class complaints. That's what I am; what sort of complaints were you expecting?
I notice that, not only haven't I been writing, I also haven't been reading. Over a month with no book going-on of any sort. That is worrisome.
Also, I find myself getting dizzy when I stand up. That is more worrisome.
Yes, everything is good.
[Tech] Phone Follies
[Travel] The Mitten Views The Fingers
[Sports] Tour de Familiar
Monday, August 06, 2018
[Tech] Phone Follies
My phone died. This statement ranks along with “I lost my wallet” and “My sump pump failed” for an indicator that you have a painful, and possibly expensive, few days ahead. So yes, just beyond warranty, my Google Fi sourced Nexus 5x failed. Unrecoverable even after chats with Google’s support team. That puts a man to a decision.
First did I want to continue with the Fi service? Answer: Not really. Fi has some good features, namely a low price that doesn’t really make you buy a set amount of data. You pay up front for a GB/month, then you are charged for over but also credited a certain amount if you don’t use it all. It also moves seamlessly from cell to wi-fi even for calls and texts. And, I am told, it has seamless transition across national boundaries so you don't have to worry about buy international minutes or extreme roaming charges.
But, for me, it’s use of either the Sprint or T-Mobile network based on signal strength was a problem. First, it didn't always switch between the two when it should. I bought a little app that could force it to switch and I often found that I would be sitting there with no bars and have to force a switch to the other service to get a signal. Worse, in a problem that is likely specific to me, I seem to spend my time in places with dicey signals on both those services. A road trip to Northern Michigan could leave me signaless for quite some time, interrupting streaming. And it turns out that at the building I work I would often arrive to no signal at all in the morning only to have it back up to four bars by the end of the work day. Not a big deal because I obviously had wifi there, but it was more evidence of flakiness.
The answer was to switch back to Verizon, it is really the only reliable signal in my circle of operation. The cool thing is you can go with their cheap virtual network Total Wireless. Virtuals use the same towers and have the same coverage as their parents so service is identical, unless the network gets overloaded and they need to de-prioritize signals, and you also lose your roaming agreements. That should be fine I reasoned and it looked like I could get 4 gig data pretty close to the price of Fi. That was when the comedy began.
My first plan is to buy an unlocked high-end Samsung Galaxy S -- mostly for the fabulous camera. I find the lowest price at Walmart and proceed to order one online to pick up after work. Once there I go to the pick-up kiosk, but they have no record of my order. I show them the print out -- they call the manager. Manager says sorry can’t find the order, I say fine, just cancel the online order and I’ll buy one from your current stock. “I can’t cancel that. You’ll have to do it on your phone.” “(deadpan) The phone I am trying to buy?” “Oh, then you’ll have to do it on the website.” Not willing to take the risk of getting double-charged for an expensive phone and having to sort that out, I leave phoneless, cancel the order on the website, and vow never to go back to Walmart.
Next day and I have changed my mind: I don’t need a high end phone, like I’m some kind of billionaire. I settle on a Moto G6 which is about a 1/4 of the price of the Samsung, but still miles ahead of my old Nexus 5x in capability. So now at Target, I pick up the phone and a $1 sim card (which even says “Verizon compatible” on it.) I am now ready to migrate my number to the new phone.
Bless Fi in that they make it very easy for anyone to leave them. You click a couple of buttons on a Google website and it passes you the information you need for your new carrier -- the key being an internal account number. That is, unless the carrier is Total Wireless. It turns out that whatever software Total Wireless uses doesn't know about Fi and doesn't recognize Fi account numbers. No amount of cajoling and sending documentation can convince them that the Fi account number was legitimate. They offer to activate the phone but under a new number. Unacceptable. Frustrated and angry I resign myself to signing up for some ridiculously expensive plan from Verizon proper.
This part actually works out well for me. Verizon is running a promotion where you get 6 GB of data for the price of 3. So for under $50/month I sign up for 6GB. That’s about $20 more than I was paying Fi, but in exchange I get a strong signal and I don’t have to worry about streaming or navigation pushing my data to an extra charge.
Feeling better, I work out all the details with the online rep. She lets me know I’ll be getting a sim in a couple of days. Cool, but could I speed up the process by just stopping by my local Verizon store and getting a sim on the way home? “Sure!” she says the way a salesman always says yes.
First I decide to try the Total Wireless sim I had from my previous attempt since it said “Verizon Compatible” on it. Narrator: It was not Verizon Compatible.
Second thing I do is go the Verizon store down the street and see if they’ll give me a sim. They cannot find a record of me despite the print out of the sales receipt I have from the online sale. They conclude that it’s because they are a franchisee or something, not an actual company store. So they give me directions to the nearest company store.
I drive to the company store where I talk to a confused rep who, with effort, understands what I am trying to accomplish but can’t fathom why I wouldn’t want to wait for the sim they sent. But he sells me sim for a $1 anyway, telling me he’s not confident it will work because of “where I am in the process”. At least he’s honest.
And he’s right, it doesn’t work. I have wasted a couple of days and experienced ongoing frustration by trying to do things as quickly as possible. I end up waiting for “the process” to complete.
In the end I got my sim a couple of days later and was able to get the phone set up. Google actually made that pretty easy. All the photos and contacts transferred transparently. It even tried to reinstall my apps, but for some reason it installed the apps that were on my beat up old tablet not my previous phone, so I had a little work to do there.
Still, the whole fiasco was instructive. It is very easy to see how Amazon is crushing retailers, even those as big as Walmart. The only reason to go brick-and-mortar is because you need a human to make an allowance for what you want. You need an exception that requires special judgement or knowledge. If you are content to follow a process, the human just becomes a button pusher and Amazon’s robots can push buttons a lot better and faster. Literally everyone I encountered in retails stores during this comedy couldn’t step outside the process. Walmart couldn’t cancel and order they lost and found themselves out of my phone purchase. Total Wireless reps had no ability to handle a new situation that their system didn’t support. Verizon can’t fathom that someone might want to stop at one of the multiple Verizon stores they pass on the way home to pick up a sim (and save them the shipping), rather than wait a couple of days for snail mail. If all your brick-and-mortar investment produces is a pack of button pushers, Amazon’s robots will destroy you. They are going to continue to eat your lunch, wear your clothes, and steal your girlfriend.
Naturally, a week later, during Prime Day, the next model up Moto phone was on sale for what I paid for mine. Amazon giveth and Amazon taketh away.
First did I want to continue with the Fi service? Answer: Not really. Fi has some good features, namely a low price that doesn’t really make you buy a set amount of data. You pay up front for a GB/month, then you are charged for over but also credited a certain amount if you don’t use it all. It also moves seamlessly from cell to wi-fi even for calls and texts. And, I am told, it has seamless transition across national boundaries so you don't have to worry about buy international minutes or extreme roaming charges.
But, for me, it’s use of either the Sprint or T-Mobile network based on signal strength was a problem. First, it didn't always switch between the two when it should. I bought a little app that could force it to switch and I often found that I would be sitting there with no bars and have to force a switch to the other service to get a signal. Worse, in a problem that is likely specific to me, I seem to spend my time in places with dicey signals on both those services. A road trip to Northern Michigan could leave me signaless for quite some time, interrupting streaming. And it turns out that at the building I work I would often arrive to no signal at all in the morning only to have it back up to four bars by the end of the work day. Not a big deal because I obviously had wifi there, but it was more evidence of flakiness.
The answer was to switch back to Verizon, it is really the only reliable signal in my circle of operation. The cool thing is you can go with their cheap virtual network Total Wireless. Virtuals use the same towers and have the same coverage as their parents so service is identical, unless the network gets overloaded and they need to de-prioritize signals, and you also lose your roaming agreements. That should be fine I reasoned and it looked like I could get 4 gig data pretty close to the price of Fi. That was when the comedy began.
My first plan is to buy an unlocked high-end Samsung Galaxy S -- mostly for the fabulous camera. I find the lowest price at Walmart and proceed to order one online to pick up after work. Once there I go to the pick-up kiosk, but they have no record of my order. I show them the print out -- they call the manager. Manager says sorry can’t find the order, I say fine, just cancel the online order and I’ll buy one from your current stock. “I can’t cancel that. You’ll have to do it on your phone.” “(deadpan) The phone I am trying to buy?” “Oh, then you’ll have to do it on the website.” Not willing to take the risk of getting double-charged for an expensive phone and having to sort that out, I leave phoneless, cancel the order on the website, and vow never to go back to Walmart.
Next day and I have changed my mind: I don’t need a high end phone, like I’m some kind of billionaire. I settle on a Moto G6 which is about a 1/4 of the price of the Samsung, but still miles ahead of my old Nexus 5x in capability. So now at Target, I pick up the phone and a $1 sim card (which even says “Verizon compatible” on it.) I am now ready to migrate my number to the new phone.
Bless Fi in that they make it very easy for anyone to leave them. You click a couple of buttons on a Google website and it passes you the information you need for your new carrier -- the key being an internal account number. That is, unless the carrier is Total Wireless. It turns out that whatever software Total Wireless uses doesn't know about Fi and doesn't recognize Fi account numbers. No amount of cajoling and sending documentation can convince them that the Fi account number was legitimate. They offer to activate the phone but under a new number. Unacceptable. Frustrated and angry I resign myself to signing up for some ridiculously expensive plan from Verizon proper.
This part actually works out well for me. Verizon is running a promotion where you get 6 GB of data for the price of 3. So for under $50/month I sign up for 6GB. That’s about $20 more than I was paying Fi, but in exchange I get a strong signal and I don’t have to worry about streaming or navigation pushing my data to an extra charge.
Feeling better, I work out all the details with the online rep. She lets me know I’ll be getting a sim in a couple of days. Cool, but could I speed up the process by just stopping by my local Verizon store and getting a sim on the way home? “Sure!” she says the way a salesman always says yes.
First I decide to try the Total Wireless sim I had from my previous attempt since it said “Verizon Compatible” on it. Narrator: It was not Verizon Compatible.
Second thing I do is go the Verizon store down the street and see if they’ll give me a sim. They cannot find a record of me despite the print out of the sales receipt I have from the online sale. They conclude that it’s because they are a franchisee or something, not an actual company store. So they give me directions to the nearest company store.
I drive to the company store where I talk to a confused rep who, with effort, understands what I am trying to accomplish but can’t fathom why I wouldn’t want to wait for the sim they sent. But he sells me sim for a $1 anyway, telling me he’s not confident it will work because of “where I am in the process”. At least he’s honest.
And he’s right, it doesn’t work. I have wasted a couple of days and experienced ongoing frustration by trying to do things as quickly as possible. I end up waiting for “the process” to complete.
In the end I got my sim a couple of days later and was able to get the phone set up. Google actually made that pretty easy. All the photos and contacts transferred transparently. It even tried to reinstall my apps, but for some reason it installed the apps that were on my beat up old tablet not my previous phone, so I had a little work to do there.
Still, the whole fiasco was instructive. It is very easy to see how Amazon is crushing retailers, even those as big as Walmart. The only reason to go brick-and-mortar is because you need a human to make an allowance for what you want. You need an exception that requires special judgement or knowledge. If you are content to follow a process, the human just becomes a button pusher and Amazon’s robots can push buttons a lot better and faster. Literally everyone I encountered in retails stores during this comedy couldn’t step outside the process. Walmart couldn’t cancel and order they lost and found themselves out of my phone purchase. Total Wireless reps had no ability to handle a new situation that their system didn’t support. Verizon can’t fathom that someone might want to stop at one of the multiple Verizon stores they pass on the way home to pick up a sim (and save them the shipping), rather than wait a couple of days for snail mail. If all your brick-and-mortar investment produces is a pack of button pushers, Amazon’s robots will destroy you. They are going to continue to eat your lunch, wear your clothes, and steal your girlfriend.
Naturally, a week later, during Prime Day, the next model up Moto phone was on sale for what I paid for mine. Amazon giveth and Amazon taketh away.
[Travel] The Mitten Views the Fingers
I kept referring to the Finger Lakes region as Upstate until I was told it was absolutely not Upstate. To me anything west of the Hudson was Upstate, but I gather Upstate proper is toward the Adirondacks, or at least something north from Albany. The Finger Lakes is the Finger Lakes.
My impression of the Finger Lakes region of New York is that it is very similar to what we in Michigan call Up North. It's as green as green can be. Two lane roads wind among the lakes taking you from small town to small town. Most recreation involves lake activities of some sort, if even just a picnic in a lakeside park. Roadside stands and farmers markets offer local edibles. Deer scurry about, giving drivers heart attacks. There are festivals every weekend for any excuse you can find. Bicyclists troll the highways and trails. Village cafes and antique shops are humming. Brewery and winery (and increasingly, distillery) tours are overbooked. It's all just a way to value our beautiful summers which always seem so fleeting. I guess you'd call it Lake Culture.
New York is, however, a good deal more hilly. Using Ithaca as a base of operations, this becomes clear. Wandering Ithaca will build up your quads. Many sidewalk stretches are a steep as a mountain trail out west.
Ithaca is a college town, so as a veteran of Ann Arbor life it was very familiar to me. Surrounding the university -- or universities in this case: Cornell and Ithaca College -- there is the standard region of run down houses that have been converted into multi-unit rentals. Step further out and you get the upper middle class housing of the admins and professors and such. If you're at the real high-end you are on a lake or a river. More than one resident said the typical story is that someone comes to Cornell for school and just stays in town -- I know that story well.
Another thing Ithaca and Ann Arbor have in common is parks and general greenery. I think folks from standard big city suburbs would be surprised at how thickly treed and lushly verdant these places are. And then there is the predominance of parks -- city park, county parks, state parks -- usually situated around rivers of lakes. Maybe Park Culture would be a better euphemism.
But whereas Ann Arbor's geography provides nothing more than rolling hills, Ithaca is borderline mountainous with lovely deep gorges for scenery -- hence their tagline: Ithaca is Gorges. The result is that you get all the recreational capabilities of my home base, but also waterfalls. Ithaca Falls, right in town, is postcard perfect. The lakes are peppered with state parks, several of them have waterfalls (overview), a couple of them even swimmable -- not the falls themselves but the pools at the bottom. The main swimmable one is at Robert Treman State Park. On a hot Saturday it is as crowded as any public beach, but a good deal more scenic. The water is cold but refreshing. Congrats to the NY State Park system for rolling with the desire to swim, rather than ban any activity in the service of preserving nature. They even have a diving board set up. This is actually a big plus over my home, which I don't really have a counter for.
Although most of the falls are situated in close proximity to parking, there are also hikes you can take through the parks -- mostly short, a mile or so, but very steep and usually offering good views. The paths are paved or at least hard packed -- I was able to do them in sandals.
There are also wineries nearby. Dozens of them. This is a big grape growing region and wine tours are the order of the day. Again comparing: we have a number of wineries in Michigan, mostly Up North, but I don't think they quite have the reputation of the NYS wines. (Michigan is stronger in breweries.) Michigan wineries occasionally have B&Bs attached to them so you can actually stay at the winery, whereas I saw no such thing in NY. The wineries range from quite lovely with great views to a dark room with plastic tables. If you are so inclined I highly recommend doing this as part of packaged tour rather than trolling them on your own. You'll get better service and more swag, but more importantly, you won't have to drive. Honestly, after tastings at three wineries and you're a DUI waiting to happen. And a sloshed tour group can be good entertainment in itself.
Ithaca and Watkins Glen are the key towns in the area, situated at the bottom tip of lakes Cayuga and Seneca, respectively. Ithaca is a little more cosmopolitan because of the universities -- more dining options and so forth -- Watkins Glen a little more homey. Another, smaller town that has gained a bit of notoriety is Skaneateles -- which in the tongue of the locals comes out sounding like "Skinny-Atlas." It is situated at the top end of Lake Skaneateles and is famous because that is where the Clintons settled when Hillary decided she was going to make New York her home state for her senate run.
It's not surprising. Skaneateles is the Kennebunkport or Martha's Vineyard of New York. Unmistakably wealthy, yet conspicuously understated and self-consciously folksy. The short main street is loaded with homespun boutiques and antique shops. There are a couple of nice restaurants where you no doubt can get a carefully prepared entree (possibly deconstructed comfort food, or something with avocado) and a glass of wine from a fashionable winery. Then there is a Doug's Fish Fry which serves as the stylishly kitsch, street-food eatery that "everybody goes to."
I'm being snide towards the hipster elite vibe of Skaneateles, but I would live there. It's lovely, and well taken care of. There are lake activities, including little cruise boats that run tours. I bet the infrastructure is second to none. Like I said, it's essentially a high-end New England preppy town transplanted to mid-NY, which is a very nice thing. It's crowded, though. On the weekends everyone in the area comes into town to stroll and shop. Who can blame them?
Lastly, I have to offer a strong recommendation for Inn on Columbia in Ithaca. A non-traditional B&B, there are a couple of separate residences filled with interesting design and decor. The owners collect old cars and motorcycles which are sprinkled about the property. But the real plus is breakfast. Everything fresh made. Some of the best egg dishes I have ever had. It is in (hilly) walking distance to everything of interest in Ithaca. Couple all that with the most genial hosts imaginable and it's a real winner.
Needless to say I like the Finger Lakes region. It is best done with a car and a skeleton plan for exploration, then let the chips fall. It is supports a lifestyle familiar to me, but with enough variation to make it interesting. If it was half of the nine hour drive to get there I'd probably spend a lot of time in the Finger Lakes. As it stands for me, Up North is closer and the lakes are Greater. If you aren't from a similar area, it's a good place to experience Lake Culture or Park Culture or a place where summers are a gift that doesn't last. You may become a regular.
My impression of the Finger Lakes region of New York is that it is very similar to what we in Michigan call Up North. It's as green as green can be. Two lane roads wind among the lakes taking you from small town to small town. Most recreation involves lake activities of some sort, if even just a picnic in a lakeside park. Roadside stands and farmers markets offer local edibles. Deer scurry about, giving drivers heart attacks. There are festivals every weekend for any excuse you can find. Bicyclists troll the highways and trails. Village cafes and antique shops are humming. Brewery and winery (and increasingly, distillery) tours are overbooked. It's all just a way to value our beautiful summers which always seem so fleeting. I guess you'd call it Lake Culture.
New York is, however, a good deal more hilly. Using Ithaca as a base of operations, this becomes clear. Wandering Ithaca will build up your quads. Many sidewalk stretches are a steep as a mountain trail out west.
Ithaca is a college town, so as a veteran of Ann Arbor life it was very familiar to me. Surrounding the university -- or universities in this case: Cornell and Ithaca College -- there is the standard region of run down houses that have been converted into multi-unit rentals. Step further out and you get the upper middle class housing of the admins and professors and such. If you're at the real high-end you are on a lake or a river. More than one resident said the typical story is that someone comes to Cornell for school and just stays in town -- I know that story well.
Another thing Ithaca and Ann Arbor have in common is parks and general greenery. I think folks from standard big city suburbs would be surprised at how thickly treed and lushly verdant these places are. And then there is the predominance of parks -- city park, county parks, state parks -- usually situated around rivers of lakes. Maybe Park Culture would be a better euphemism.
But whereas Ann Arbor's geography provides nothing more than rolling hills, Ithaca is borderline mountainous with lovely deep gorges for scenery -- hence their tagline: Ithaca is Gorges. The result is that you get all the recreational capabilities of my home base, but also waterfalls. Ithaca Falls, right in town, is postcard perfect. The lakes are peppered with state parks, several of them have waterfalls (overview), a couple of them even swimmable -- not the falls themselves but the pools at the bottom. The main swimmable one is at Robert Treman State Park. On a hot Saturday it is as crowded as any public beach, but a good deal more scenic. The water is cold but refreshing. Congrats to the NY State Park system for rolling with the desire to swim, rather than ban any activity in the service of preserving nature. They even have a diving board set up. This is actually a big plus over my home, which I don't really have a counter for.
Although most of the falls are situated in close proximity to parking, there are also hikes you can take through the parks -- mostly short, a mile or so, but very steep and usually offering good views. The paths are paved or at least hard packed -- I was able to do them in sandals.
There are also wineries nearby. Dozens of them. This is a big grape growing region and wine tours are the order of the day. Again comparing: we have a number of wineries in Michigan, mostly Up North, but I don't think they quite have the reputation of the NYS wines. (Michigan is stronger in breweries.) Michigan wineries occasionally have B&Bs attached to them so you can actually stay at the winery, whereas I saw no such thing in NY. The wineries range from quite lovely with great views to a dark room with plastic tables. If you are so inclined I highly recommend doing this as part of packaged tour rather than trolling them on your own. You'll get better service and more swag, but more importantly, you won't have to drive. Honestly, after tastings at three wineries and you're a DUI waiting to happen. And a sloshed tour group can be good entertainment in itself.
Ithaca and Watkins Glen are the key towns in the area, situated at the bottom tip of lakes Cayuga and Seneca, respectively. Ithaca is a little more cosmopolitan because of the universities -- more dining options and so forth -- Watkins Glen a little more homey. Another, smaller town that has gained a bit of notoriety is Skaneateles -- which in the tongue of the locals comes out sounding like "Skinny-Atlas." It is situated at the top end of Lake Skaneateles and is famous because that is where the Clintons settled when Hillary decided she was going to make New York her home state for her senate run.
It's not surprising. Skaneateles is the Kennebunkport or Martha's Vineyard of New York. Unmistakably wealthy, yet conspicuously understated and self-consciously folksy. The short main street is loaded with homespun boutiques and antique shops. There are a couple of nice restaurants where you no doubt can get a carefully prepared entree (possibly deconstructed comfort food, or something with avocado) and a glass of wine from a fashionable winery. Then there is a Doug's Fish Fry which serves as the stylishly kitsch, street-food eatery that "everybody goes to."
I'm being snide towards the hipster elite vibe of Skaneateles, but I would live there. It's lovely, and well taken care of. There are lake activities, including little cruise boats that run tours. I bet the infrastructure is second to none. Like I said, it's essentially a high-end New England preppy town transplanted to mid-NY, which is a very nice thing. It's crowded, though. On the weekends everyone in the area comes into town to stroll and shop. Who can blame them?
Lastly, I have to offer a strong recommendation for Inn on Columbia in Ithaca. A non-traditional B&B, there are a couple of separate residences filled with interesting design and decor. The owners collect old cars and motorcycles which are sprinkled about the property. But the real plus is breakfast. Everything fresh made. Some of the best egg dishes I have ever had. It is in (hilly) walking distance to everything of interest in Ithaca. Couple all that with the most genial hosts imaginable and it's a real winner.
Needless to say I like the Finger Lakes region. It is best done with a car and a skeleton plan for exploration, then let the chips fall. It is supports a lifestyle familiar to me, but with enough variation to make it interesting. If it was half of the nine hour drive to get there I'd probably spend a lot of time in the Finger Lakes. As it stands for me, Up North is closer and the lakes are Greater. If you aren't from a similar area, it's a good place to experience Lake Culture or Park Culture or a place where summers are a gift that doesn't last. You may become a regular.
[Sports] Tour de Familiar
Poor Chris Froome. Nobody likes him. A four time champ and the chief guy on the strongest team, he was the overdog to begin with. He was brushed by scandal, and I do mean brushed. He tested high for an asthma medication which he has been prescribed (he does have asthma), so it's not like he was mainlining EPO. But still, in an age when riders target the TdF by skipping the major races earlier in the season so as not to wear themselves out, with his eligibility uncertain he took on the big early-season race, the Giro d'Italia (the Italian tour), and won it, wearing himself out in the process. Only then he was cleared of the charges and lined up with his team for the TdF, amidst the sancitmonious boos of the crowd. His fatigue showed. Although he was in the hunt most of the way, and finished third, a couple of deadly mountain stages made it clear he was not where he needed to be. Much speculation was that he was mentally exhausted from his fight against the ban, but in reality it was more likely physical. I have once in my life ridden 100 miles at half the pace these guys do, and it took me a few days to recover. These guys do it at twice my pace day after day. Granted they are about half my weight and less than half my age but, with all due respect to ultra-marathoners, channel swimmers, ironman triathletes, and such, the 21-days-with-only-two-rest-days aspect of this race makes these guys the most amazing endurance athletes on the planet.
Of course, in what is a clear commentary on one of the problems with the Tour, with Froome not able to win, his team, Team Sky, simply trotted out the next guy in line and won handily with him instead -- that would be Geraint Thomas. Team Sky has all the money. Their stable of riders is so deep that -- in one of the worst cases of bad timing -- last year's second banana Mikel Landa left rather than be second banana again so Team Sky just went to the next guy in line and never lost a step leaving Landa and his new team in the dust. In fact, the Team Sky's second banana from two years ago, Richie Porte, also left to be a first banana on a new team and was a favorite until he crashed out.
Predictability in sports is a problem. If you can predict the outcome with high probability it lessens the fan experience and discourages viewing. Sponsors don't like that. It's unclear how to resolve this problem other than to hope one year, one of these second bananas that strikes out on his own, comes through.
Another thing is the PED scandals still loom large over this sport. Froome got booed despite being cleared. Then, there is the highest of the high profile culprits, Lance Armstrong, still floating around the periphery. He's now doing a podcast where he often discusses cycling. He is working really had to rehabilitate his persona. To his credit, he doesn't dodge blame anymore. He seems to have accepted his guilt and that it will follow him forever. I don't know if it's good or bad that he's still around the sport, whether he is helping put the scandals in context or he is just reminding everyone of sad situation. I do know that watching Geraint Thomas win handily, with enough juice at the end to handily crush any challenge from other riders, the first thought that went through my head was, "Are there Vegas odds on him getting busted for EPO?"
The TV coverage needs a lot of work. The announcers are OK -- a couple of them get confused about things or say silly stuff, but they have enough personality to keep things lively. But you often get haphazard camera work, since it's all done from vehicles trying to maneuver through the crowd of cyclists without interfering with the race. An enlightened coverage package would plant forward and rear facing cameras on all the bikes with live streaming -- this is not remotely beyond the technical expertise of a production crew. If they were really smart, they'd have drone coverage too.
Still, the Tour is beautiful. The French countryside is amazing. And even if the big prize is foreordained, there are the other competitions, the sprints, the mountains, the stage victories, to keep things interesting. Also, for me, the attraction is that I can relate to everything that happens. I can see who making what choice as to heavy or light gear. I know how much easier it is to draft. I know what it's like to climb past the point of pain. And I know what it's like to crack. In my own small way, of course. I suppose that's part of the attraction for me -- I can go out and do a 40 mile ride on a Saturday, them catch up with the prime time replay in the evening, feeling a distant kinship.
A distant kinship to a 23-year-old, 135-lb Belgian in spandex. Very distant.
Of course, in what is a clear commentary on one of the problems with the Tour, with Froome not able to win, his team, Team Sky, simply trotted out the next guy in line and won handily with him instead -- that would be Geraint Thomas. Team Sky has all the money. Their stable of riders is so deep that -- in one of the worst cases of bad timing -- last year's second banana Mikel Landa left rather than be second banana again so Team Sky just went to the next guy in line and never lost a step leaving Landa and his new team in the dust. In fact, the Team Sky's second banana from two years ago, Richie Porte, also left to be a first banana on a new team and was a favorite until he crashed out.
Predictability in sports is a problem. If you can predict the outcome with high probability it lessens the fan experience and discourages viewing. Sponsors don't like that. It's unclear how to resolve this problem other than to hope one year, one of these second bananas that strikes out on his own, comes through.
Another thing is the PED scandals still loom large over this sport. Froome got booed despite being cleared. Then, there is the highest of the high profile culprits, Lance Armstrong, still floating around the periphery. He's now doing a podcast where he often discusses cycling. He is working really had to rehabilitate his persona. To his credit, he doesn't dodge blame anymore. He seems to have accepted his guilt and that it will follow him forever. I don't know if it's good or bad that he's still around the sport, whether he is helping put the scandals in context or he is just reminding everyone of sad situation. I do know that watching Geraint Thomas win handily, with enough juice at the end to handily crush any challenge from other riders, the first thought that went through my head was, "Are there Vegas odds on him getting busted for EPO?"
The TV coverage needs a lot of work. The announcers are OK -- a couple of them get confused about things or say silly stuff, but they have enough personality to keep things lively. But you often get haphazard camera work, since it's all done from vehicles trying to maneuver through the crowd of cyclists without interfering with the race. An enlightened coverage package would plant forward and rear facing cameras on all the bikes with live streaming -- this is not remotely beyond the technical expertise of a production crew. If they were really smart, they'd have drone coverage too.
Still, the Tour is beautiful. The French countryside is amazing. And even if the big prize is foreordained, there are the other competitions, the sprints, the mountains, the stage victories, to keep things interesting. Also, for me, the attraction is that I can relate to everything that happens. I can see who making what choice as to heavy or light gear. I know how much easier it is to draft. I know what it's like to climb past the point of pain. And I know what it's like to crack. In my own small way, of course. I suppose that's part of the attraction for me -- I can go out and do a 40 mile ride on a Saturday, them catch up with the prime time replay in the evening, feeling a distant kinship.
A distant kinship to a 23-year-old, 135-lb Belgian in spandex. Very distant.
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