Reasons to play guitar

While I'm waiting for my laundry I was messing around on YouTube.

Art evokes feeling. The Blues are played with a deep, deep, deep feeling.

"The Blues had a baby and they called it Rock n Roll."

With Jimi's song Voodoo Chile, something was channeled from deep in the soul to create the crossroads of Blues and Rock. SRV's version makes it his own, while yet paying homage to those who came before him.

Some of the heaviest stuff out there.

In the context of its time, Hendrix's was the simply out of this world. Even after repeated listenings there are little things that catch the ears and makes me say "Yeah"! People are still scratching their head sometimes trying to figure out how he did some of the things he did.






I didn't want the uninitiated to think SRV was a copy cat so I choose this song because it rips in so many ways. Talk about tone! Man! Talk about emotion in the notes! I can always feel something in my gut when I hear him play. Man oh man oh man! That's why I wanted to play guitar! Please tell me that you couldn't help but watch the whole video.

DOUG

Tour of Missouri

Here's some photos from last week's Tour of Missouri. My personal impressions were that it was a succssful race. Missouri folks were happy to have us there and all in all it was well organized. Unless the organizers face any sponorship problems I forsee that the race will be back next year. For me it was a fun race. We have a great staff and the morale of everyone from staff to riders was very positive. Being the last race of the season you could tell there was some tired folks but the atmosphere was friendly and relaxed. It was a good way to end the road season. Many of the faces we will not see until next year.

Whoa! The last entry was quite a comment fest. As Chris D. can see I have several fans of my work and good looks/charm.
Thanks to you comment posters for sticking up for me. Take that Chris! AH, it's all in good fun. Here's to you Chris Davidson - Chief Bartender of the caravan.


Mechanic Fernando from Navigators. He keeps a neat and tidy truck.

Mechanic "Blackhands" Eric. Keeps it working like a swiss watch.

DFL-Cyclingnews Mechanic. I don't know this guy but he is a mechanic. Teams from overseas have to work out of rental trucks. With all of the teams spliced into one or two water sources it always a gamble how the water pressure will be out of your hose. I let him splice into my hose which killed my water pressure. We had to offset each other so we weren't rinsing at the same time.

Mechanic Chris. Entertaining his fans and making things shiny.


Tecos is a huge team in Mexico and were here for the race. Eric and I couldn't stop saying Tecos all week. It just rolls off your tongue. I think it means or references "owl."

One day a lady walked by and commented that Rachel has the best job.

Missouri fans checking out our bikes.


"You can tell by the way he walks, he's a cycling star, no time to talk."


Hey! After a few hours of trying I figured out how to post videos! Check out this video from the last day of the Tour of Missouri in the final sprint. It shows how fast these guys go in a sprint and unfortunately in this one how these guys put themselves on the line each time they race. I heard Brad got up and walked away but I don't know the extent of any injuries. He's probably pretty sore.


...and his bike flipped into the peloton but caused no other crashes. Amazing how fast this all happens and it doesn't faze us! This is way better than NASCAR!

Cheers,
DOUG

Ironman Wisconsin

Last week was Ironman Wisconsin. Every year I say what a great place Madison is and this year was no different. I won't bore you too much. You could go back to last year's rave reviews. Although I didn't get to stay around for race day, as I had to drive to Kansas City for the Tour of Missouri with Colavita/Sutter Home, I hear it was great weather. The Trek TTX's were dialed in so I'm confident the TIMEX athletes had no worries. Ironman's are funny though. Everything has to come together to have a race win. Even though my hunch of Dave Harju winning didn't pan out, I'm sure he gave it his best shot just like all the TIMEX team athletes do. It was nice to see several of them since I haven't been to most of the IM's this season yet.




Mark Andrews from Trek Bicycles came by to drop off a new TTX frame for us. The new model is about 390 grams lighter than the current model due to different carbon and some weight saving cut-outs. This particular one will be built up for Hawaii for one of our big guns.




Okay, I probably shouldn't be showing this picture. Shane or Kenny got a guess as to what this is? That's all I'm saying about it!


Hey Ben, are you jealous. People that work with the Ironman circus are some of the best people I've met. Gina from ART can loosen up those tight muscles.

I've mentioned before how my pal Chris Davidson will heckle me about updating the blog. Well, here I am sitting in the lobby of a Hilton in Kansas City, MO updating the blog and C. D. is sitting on the couch next to me. It's a strange world sometimes.

Tomorrow starts the Tour of Missouri. Six days of racing that will keep me busy so I thought I'd get this update in. Thanks for reading.

Cheers,
DJB