Lance, Say It Ain’t So
Our local bicycle shop, Maplewood Bicycles, made the national news this morning. The local NPR affiliate, KWMU, had a story aired on the nationally syndicated business show, Marketplace. This story set the stage for the durable goods statistics announcement, later in the day. Mike Mosblech, a Manager at Maplewood Bicycle was interviewed in the article. Mosblech spoke of bicycle shortages due to the recession. “No one wants to be caught holding the bag.” The definition of a durable good is a product that is designed to last five years. I wonder in some of my bike buddies know this. Some of them buy a new bicycle every year. You know who you are. 😉
The big news today was Lance Armstrong’s no-contest plea to the doping charges that have been leveled against him. Has he just grown tired of these charges that have dogged him since his return to cycling from his bout with cancer, like he claims? Or, has he finally been cornered? I’ll let the reader decide for themselves. I’ve always been a fan and remain so still. This will void his seven Tour de France wins, but if you look at who was number two through those years, almost to a man they were also found guilty of doping. Lance’s Livestrong Foundation will likely suffer. This is a shame since it has raised a half-billion to fight cancer. Nike has announced that it will stand by its man, so then will I. Sports heroes are men and women and just like everyone else, they have their faults. If Lance was a cheat then so was everyone else. The question still remains, was he the better cyclist, or just a better cheat.
Anne and I had a Friday night date night tonight. Dinner at California Pizza Kitchen and then a show. We ate and watched at the Galleria. We saw “Premium Rush”, which opened tonight. “Premium Rush” is Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s NYC bicycle messenger movie that I’ve been waiting for all summer and it was worth the wait. In messenger parlance, a rush order is worth twice the price, a premium rush order is worth four times the going rate. This movie rounds out the trifecta of today’s two-wheel news. It rates more than just a paragraph in this post. You’ll be hearing more about it soon. Until then, don’t walk, don’t even run, but ride as fast as you can (safely) to your local neighborhood theater to see this movie.