I’ll start…
A picture is worth a thousand words.
Here’s one, but it has some history to it. The rider is Dave Zabriskie. Cycling fans on the board should recognize the name. He was born and raised in Salt Lake. I knew him a bit when he was a Jr rider (18 and younger). I also had chances to chat with him a bit as he progressed to Espoir (now U23, under 23 years old, but older than Jr) and the National Team. Mrs. CCU and I ran into him in Austin at the Ride for the Roses Criterium, he was racing for USPS team, his 1st year there.
But my favorite story was when he was still a Jr on the Nat team. He was in Utah training, and came out to the State TT championship, summer of 99 or 2000, don’t recall year. I was racing my way back towards the start/finish line. I could hear a whumph, whumph, whumph sound coming up from behind me. I didn’t pay too close of attention, I just knew I was being over taken. The next thing I know Zabriskie is passing me like I was going the other direction. It was amazing to see just how fast he was in person. I had ZERO chance of keeping him in sight he was so fast.
He was a freak of nature doing time trials. He could get himself into the narrowest position, and hold it as long as he needed to do so. Sadly he did get caught up in the USPS doping (thanks Lance, who I have also met). I don’t think Dave needed to dope to do well as a time trialist, he had that much natural talent. Another discussion for another day.
Here’s a pic that a local photographer took at the Tour after Zabriskie had moved on from USPS. It’s cool to me because I’m always reminded that Dave was and probably still is a really good person. As a Jr he was always fun to be around, and used the bike as a way to get ahead in life.
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Mill Creek canyon has become the de facto way to come into possible conflict with somebody often driving a very large, smoke spewing pickup truck, way too fast and on the right hand shoulder as well.
Whats up with that?
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From the Magna earthquake. It was interesting how many of the buildings, like the old Steelworker’s Union Hall just lost facia bricks. Needless to say, many of the buildings are still needing their facias and structures repaired.
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Pretty interesting. You’d’ve thought with the structure more of the building would have had issues, yet not even broken windows seen. Very interesting indeed.
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I took this pic with my phone in Notre Dame the year before it caught fire. Loved how the camera picked up the shine of various light beams
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Was that literally the day he was hit by the car while descending? If so, I was in the canyon that day, and passed by him while ascending just below Elbow Fork. I was also passed by another guy while ascending - probably you, huh?
He is a nice guy - my son was a young budding cyclist at the time, and has a Zabriskie signed CSC Jersey like the one in the photo.
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Dave is a really nice guy. If you go to Contender they should still have signed memorabilia by him, Levi Leipheimer, Marty Jemison, and I think Burke Swindlehurst. All are very down to earth real people. Sadly Levi and Dave got caught up in the doping of the era. I met Tyler Hamilton at Tour of Utah, and have chatted with Frankie Andreu at races here on the East Coast. Both guys are really good, nice people.
Hmm, seems I’ve met a large portion of the US riders from the USPS team from the early 2000s. Aside from Armstrong, all were approachable and easy to chat with, and enjoyed talking about bikes and what the races and courses were like, or just about life in general with a couple of them.
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Mrs CCU is trying to learn how to do photos through her telescope. It’s harder than it looks I guess. That is a really cool moon photo.
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Even when I was racing well and many pounds lighter I was never great going up the mountains. Rolling hills and related I was decent, but mountains were just too much for me to do well in. I did love going up those mountains both on the road and on MTBs. Down was fun too, but up was more so to me.
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Here are photos I took at the National Cathedral (Washington, DC) in January a few years back. Apparently a few weeks before and after the winter solstice is a great time to visit, as the angle of the sun in the afternoon is perfect to create these dazzling patterns from the stained glass on the columns and walls.
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Even before moving here, it had been a long time since I had ridden Millcreek, too many unleashed dogs for my tastes.
Your crash reminds me of one I had bombing down LCC. I hit a crack in a sweeping left hander at ~50mph (I think). My tire blew out, and I slid like you did but on my left side. Broken pedal was only real damage to my bike. I do remember asking the folks who stopped to check on me how my bike was. I did get a ride home, and ultimately a trip to the ER cause I couldn’t stand the pain trying to clean myself up. I think anyone who’s been a serious cyclist has stories like ours, with dogs and crashes.
I hear that Emigration is getting some serious work done on it. I hear about that from Marek Shon of Utah Crit Series. I hope that goes quickly, Emigration was one of my favorite climbs, especially on the way to and from Big Mountain.
I didn’t mean to highjack the thread with bike talk. I’m sorry Steggys. Everyone else who’s posted pics I’ve thoroughly enjoyed them. I really like the pics of the inside of Notre Dame and the National Cathedral. The lighting was incredible.
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Still the best picture ever.
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