And I'm NOT kidding this time. Sven is moving to Landbouwkrediet-Töissteiner as of January 1, 2009. Per Sven's new team:
On a press conference today in the building of our main sponsor Landbouwkrediet, it has been officially announced that cyclo-cross rider Sven Nys will join our team in 2009. He will wear our green jersey for the first time in his home grand prix in Baal on New Year's day. We wish Sven, who is the reigning Belgian champion and the number one on the world ranking of cyclo-cross, a lot of success!
Sven'll be on his trusted C50 still as his new team are also a Colnago sponsored crew. Isn't that convenient.

It appears that the good people of New Belgium Brewery amongst a slew of other co-sponsors are throwing themselves a short track series on Tuesday nights starting in May. $5 bucks!! There is a God. And there is a reason I drink 1554 and Abby Ales religiously.

Note the goat heads, so don't be rolling your Dugast Rhino 45's. Also, bring your A-game cause Kerkove's gonna want to own this!

New Belgium Brewery loves cyclists and we love their beer. Maybe too much.

Yesterday was my first post-data gathering visit to Dr. Dave. Progress!!! I am a sore mo-fo this AM. Like a freight train hit me. But in sincerity, not 'pain', but rather a balanced 'soreness' like you feel from a deep workout.

Dr. Dave got me settled in at lunchtime yesterday and we began with strengthening exercises and tests. These sessions are like mini workouts! He gets my legs in various positions and has me push back against the force he is laying in on me with. Left side = weak/ right side = strong. He's going all out with his body weight, and I am going full guns against him. Again, full on work out.

He then got me into position and did some adjustments. My God. I did not know I had bone/cartilage where the settling and re-positioning came back into line after his adjustments. Think of an itch you need to scratch but could never get to. Dr. Dave nailed it. We then proceed to do his well known laser therapy followed by some final strengthening exercises and tests to gauge the impact of the treatments. Immediately the power is coming back!! It is amazing. That left leg felt like it had another 30% 'depth' to push back on. Like a light switch. After I was finished, I basically hi-fived with Ivan Stevic as I got off the table and he jumped on for his treatment. Sorry about the sweat, Ivan.

So, more treatments to come but the time Dr. Dave spends with me on telling me EXACTLY where I am at, what's going on and how step by step he's going to correct the problem is amazing. He wants me back to peak performance ASAP...which means getting the treatments clustered together to ensure he and I see results. His goal is to get me OUT of his office for good in lieu of making it a need to have permanently....although an adjustment now and then will be good. Everyone needs a Dr. Dave in their corner.

Wow. FMB got a HUGE win carrying Tommeke's ginormous carcass over the pave and on into the velodrome yesterday. All you gear-hounds already saw all this I'm certain on CyclingNews but is a great story of a small company.

The tires are like buttah and I can attest after Michel was gracious enough to let us use a set of custom FMB's racing in Belgium this year.

Good news! So as previously reported, the karma boomerang has flown back to Dave in all the best ways. He put it out there, and so it is true: he got it back.

Dave's ML7 was found by Boulder Sherrif's and brought to U-Bikes where immediately they knew who's it was due to "seeing something on mud and cowbells or MTBR." Let's just pretend it's the former and make me happy today.

Rock on Dave. Hopefully, that guy stepped in a pile of it today or something.

Check it. My boy Richard throwing down on March. His brethren are out there on the roadies getting wasted in Kermesses but Richard is showing us the man that he is in the dirt.

Mud and cowbells Richard. You go boy.

Holy Joy. The joy that only a wife can give to you. That was today. She and I, fat tires and in-the-woods communion. Sitter with the boys to give us that oh-so-needed grin session. Just like when we first met and we rolled in epic rain showers together railing trails we shouldn't have been on trying to mak e a B-line back to our car.

Laughing.

It's coming folks. I sense the change because the initial domino has been flipped. I flipped it. How can I do this? Because the one I love tells me the cage door is open. So many men have to suffer for the need to keep on keeping on for their situation. Blindly. Soullessly. My lady used her own Kung Fu power to kick the cage door open and set me...us free.

Laughing.

So Bliss. I apologize. I want you back as a reader. I'm so close to ending my crappy rants of boo-hoo-woe-is-me-isms. You are my benchmark and litmus test and I heard you as you sat in the back of BCS. It spoke to me. And I know how you, my peeps want me. How I want me.

Laughing.

So close. On top of it. Back doesn't hurt. Mind is freeing. Energy lifting. Spring coming. Kids laughing.

Big daddy's back. Big daddy is coming back, laughing.

Fat tires have drugs in them. Do you know this?

Simply put, motivational emails like this from my boy Boups:
I am who I am due to the absolute luck I have on this earth with peeps like Boups surrounding me. I am the luckiest guy on earth.

Thanks for the book too, Boups. Everyone needs a Boups. Or two.
All the love kid. You rule.

Tons to tell sports fans. A day of 'awakening'.

So as previously blogged, I'd been having this awful left leg pain. Sort of centered in the ass but down the hammy and into the shin. Listening to friends, I went and saw Dr. Dave Boynton at North Boulder Chiropractic. Long story short: the guy is awesome. On my first visit, we did some bench marking tests on stregnth and some data gathering. No corrections, just getting to the cause through data gathering.

Today, as he suggested, I did a light recovery spin in the AM before my next lunchtime appointment. The leg wasn't too troublesome. It never is when going easy. Today would be another day of more advanced data gathering in my hour long visit at lunch.

I showed up and he's prepared for me. We go into lab-like room and I strip down and he proceeds with the first series of tests to look at what's firing and what's not. Dr. Dave affixed a number of electrodes to me and I proceeded to do some movements to look at how the muscles were firing. Amazing. Absolutely imbalanced. One 1/2 of my back firing madly, the other virtually NOTHING. Dr. Dave continued with more tests to look at temperature readings and other like tests to look at balance of the muscles to ensure there is a discrepancy in their work load. Again. all tests showed again that one 1/2 the back is working overtime, the other 1/2 as if it were dead.

The the 'test of truth': The X Ray. Dr. Dave takes a bunch of pictures and low and behold, there in all it's digitized beauty is obvious sources of my problems:
See that red line? My spine should be following that fairly exactly. So, now you can see how hard my muscles in my back are compensating to pull and keep corrected. There is likely a nerve being pushed on due to all this which is wreaking havoc on my left leg and Dr. Dave is going to get me sorted out over the next few visits. The curve is likely due to a number of things but exacerbated by my crash in the first week of last season. That followed up within 2 weeks with another spectacular beauty crash.

So, now I know. And I THANK Dr. Dave for all his attention. He is the 'Muscle Whisperer.'

Hmm. Since the bomb went off between Trek and Greg Lemond, there seems to be an immense level of activity with respect to Lance's 'training' activities during his seven year reign as king of Le Grand Boucle. As an example, this site, InvestigateLance.org has surfaced bringing to light some interesting topics on Lance's cleanliness during that time. So, It should be looked at and you as a cycling fan and a fan of clean sport should formulate your own opinions on the subject.