NorthGeek

Everyone rides bikes in Amsterdam

Check out this short little ditty of a film on Kona COG, a blog style site by Washington State’s bike manufacturer Kona. You see, Everybody rides bikes in Amsterdam. It’s beautiful. It’s part of the culture. So ride bikes more!

Inside view of the Tour de France on Twitter

Today, the affable and longtime pro and facilitator in Lance’s 7 victories George Hincapie almost took home his second Yellow Jersey, as leader in the Tour.

But some shenanigans on the part of some competing teams resulted in him missing it by 5 seconds. The viewers were full of uncertainty and disbelief as the results came in. It came upon Twitter and some Twittering riders to clear things up. Thanks be to Twitter! Here are some of the comments. Apparently, thankfully, they don’t seem to hold back opinion on Twitter:

dutoit08: @johanbruyneel What did Garmin respond when everyone asked them why they were riding so hard?
johanbruyneel: @dutoit08 – they said they wanted to avoid a split in the group like the other day when Bradley Wiggins lost 15 seconds… Huh?

johanbruyneel: Bummed, really bummed about George Hincapie not getting yellow. Won’t elaborate on the strategies but what Garmin did was just BS. Sorry!

lancearmstrong: St14 done. Sounds like there’s quite a bit of confusion over this one… Noone, and I mean noone, wanted George in yellow more than me.
lancearmstrong: Our team rode a moderate tempo to put him in the jersey by at least 2 mins. Ag2r said they would not defend then they started to ride.
lancearmstrong: Until 10km to go he was solidly in yellow until GARMIN put on the gas and made sure it didn’t happen.
lancearmstrong: And I reiterate. @ghincapie deserves to be yellow tonight. He deserves more than that. Look to who pulled the last 50k to see who to blame..

billmackiernan: @lancearmstrong it’s ok for garmin to chase he didn’t help anyone at garmin win 7 tours
lancearmstrong: @billmackiernan exactly, that’s why we were riding medium to let the gap get as big as possible…

bfogelstrom: @lancearmstrong There was a lot of confusion on TV for sure. Thanks for setting the record straight. George was pissed!
lancearmstrong: @bfogelstrom And george should be pissed. Very pissed. He can talk to his teammates who were n the bunch w/ us then perhaps it will be clear

dzabriskie: Pawns in their game…

BritneyGears: @lancearmstrong Don’t add insult to injury by blaming Garmin. Astana set the pace. That was heartbreaking to watch.
lancearmstrong: @BritneyGears you’re clueless

bbelshaw: Phil reported that you told the team to chase the break…i guess he was just making shit up, huh
lancearmstrong: @bbelshaw told astana 2 chase? Not true @ all. My vision was george would have YJ by 2 mins. Was reality til ag2r and garmin started 2 pull.

lancearmstrong: Last thing. There were 13 guys in the breakaway. We had 2 guys riding “tempo”. That is not chasing by any stretch of the imagination.

matkearns: @lancearmstrong. Not sure why you guys pulled so hard today?
lancearmstrong: @matkearns why we pulled so hard? When we started it was 6:00. When we stopped it was 8:40. Those are the facts…

Garmin Slipstream director Jonathan Vaughters responded on Twitter:
Vaughters: That had nothing to do with George or Columbia. Wiggo almost lost 15 seconds the other day due to a split. We can’t have that happen again.

The greatest rock climber of all time?

Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzky, Lance Armstrong, Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali.

These are, without a doubt, some of the greatest athletes of all time. You’ve seen them, and you may even play the sport they’ve (for all intensive purposes) mastered, so you can appreciate their mastery.

Consider Chris Sharma. Still at only 28 years of age, he is a master. His sport: rock climbing. He has garnered so much respect by his peers, but even if you have never tried rock climbing, seeing what he is capable of is breathtaking. He dances up rock faces, beyond vertical and without any hint of something to hold, with fluidity and ease.

Here he is attempting the first ascent of a route in Squamish, BC, Canada’s own climbing mecca. One watch, and you will see why he’s considered among the best ever… even if you know nothing about the sport. He’s got the right approach and respect for what he does, without risking his life, while pushing the bounds of what a human can do:

How to follow the Tour de France online

Today is the first rest day of the incomparable sports spectacle that is the Tour de France. If you haven’t already been watching this epic battle on the roads of France (and neighboring countries), between the colourful members of the peloton, and within the Astana team of race favourites Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador, now is your chance to get on the wagon leading up to the finish in Paris on July 26th.

Don’t have TV? Or want to know the best online resources across video sites, social media, and photography? Here is a list of the standout sources for live and on-the-ground coverage of this year’s magnificent Tour.

Streaming Video:
There’s nothing like the sights & sounds of the race. Watch the excellent US coverage of the Tour from Versus on Veetle.

Aggregator of news & videos:
SteepHill.TV is the best place to go for an up-to-date collection of news bits, videos, and streaming video links. If the Veetle stream goes down, try another one here, or even check out other international coverage, eg. Eurosport.

Cyclingfans.com also has a collection of news, video streams, and short video clips (as prompted by commenter Janet, below).

Text based ticker coverage:
VeloNews has a great live text feed, perfect for your mornings at work.

Twitter accounts:
Some of the racers are actively using Twitter, eg. @LanceArmstrong @LeviLeipheimer @bradwiggins @markrenshaw1 @ghincapie @mickrogers @ChristianVDV @andy_schleck @TheDPate . This is a great way to get an inside look into the riders and teams. These are the riders to follow, and Mashable has a list of other cycling Twitterers to follow.

However, you can also get some great on-the-ground coverage from @JulietMacur

and @TdFblog

Twitter search (the online forum of 2009):
Be sure to follow the Twitter group, aka search stream.

Maps:
Check out the interactive map of the Tour on Versus and stage maps on LeTour.fr’s route descriptions.

Bonus — bikes:
Check out their hot rides: the bikes of the 2009 Tour from Bicycling Magazine

Evian RollerBabies!

Maybe the funniest and cutest video you’ll see all day…

Mario Lemieux Throws a Stanley Cup Party. Again.

Apparently the Pittsburgh Penguins finally beat the Detroit Red Wings and won the Stanley Cup last, and it seems the Stanley Cup went swimming in Mario Lemieux’s pool at a victory party in his Siwickley, PA home over the weekend.

And apparently, his previous Stanley Cup victory parties have been legendary. In 1992, after the Penguins first Cup win, defenseman Phil Bourque, wearing only his underwear, threw the Cup into the pool where it sank straight to the bottom.

More pictures on Flickr

Also, you may have seen Crosby hoisting the Cup into the team bus leaving Detroit and through the sunroof as it drove away:

What is heli-skiing really like? P.O.V. footage and great editing!

My friends Phil, Joe, Mike and Ricky went on a little heli-ski vacation this past winter, and shot their adventures on two HD camcorders, one of which was helmet-mounted. Wow, a helmet cam in Western Canada’s waist-deep pow, can’t get any better than that! Great job on the video, Little Dog!!

You are climbing Everest right now

This really could not be possible 5 years ago.

Follow Ed Viesturs and Peter Whittaker make their summit push for Everest right now on their blog, Youtube, and Twitter (@FirstAscent).

Here’s their most recent video update:

Here is their previous climb to Camp 4 (the highest and summit bid camp) which was met with wind, cloud, snow, and so a postponement:

Go Ed and Peter and the rest of the team! We’re enjoying following you.

JV opens racing school near Montreal

Great news for all aspiring wheel jockeys (and owners of Puma Speedcat racing sneakers and bulk quantities of “wet look” hair product) in La Belle Province: Jacques Villeneuve is opening a new racing school near, of all places, Mirabel Airport – also known as the Jacques Villeneuve of international airports. It’s sadly poetic: for those who aren’t familiar with Mirabel, it was once a promising 1970’s government project, on which high hopes were placed for it to become a highly-regarded, state-of-the-art international hub (remember those ridiculous stilt buses? Who thought those were a good idea??), putting Montreal on the map. Now, 30 years later, Mirabel rests in the airport bush leagues, serving as an airport for charter and cargo flights and, now, JV’s early-retirement project. How the mighty have fallen.

I’m looking forward to dropping in on one of JV’s “how to make excuses in a post-race interview” seminars – those things always sell out. Also, does this mean he will delay the release of his double-live album? I hope not.

Is making money important anymore?

Nike's New Jordan Line of Championship (Loser) Shoes

I came across this article (thanks to Ariel Helwani of JarryPark.com) that talks about Nike’s new line of Jordan-brand shoes that come in the colors of teams that Jordan demolished during his 6 NBA Championship runs with the Chicago Bulls.

Maybe you can help me figure this out… If I’m a Bulls or a Jordan fan (or both), why would I want to buy, let alone wear, shoes in Phoenix Suns team colors? Or, better yet, if I’m a Suns fan, why do I want to wear shoes that are inspired by the ass-whooping handed to my favorite team by Air Jordan and the legendary Bulls?

This just makes me think: does Nike care to make money, or are they just trying to get mega-blogs like NorthGeek writing about them? Who is going to buy these shoes?!

OK, fine. I’m from Montreal and don’t have a definitive favorite NBA team, so maybe I’ll buy a pair – if they’re comfy and less than $300.