The Holy Week
This week is the Holy Week for cycling in Flanders, with Sunday, our Easter: De Ronde van Vlaanderen (the tour of Flanders). Hallelujah!
I’ve listened to the pundits on podcasts and on Belgian TV. I’ve read the interviews. The likely scenario is simple and easy to predict: a duel between Mathieu and Tadej. Yet, we are all secretly hoping for a surprise element. A strong early break away? Mads? Filippo? And with some luck, Wout.
The women’s race will be equally exciting: a lot of strong riders of different teams are present: Longo Borghini, Vos, Reusser, Kopecky. The previous female races this year have been boring. That page is turned heading into Flanders. Team SDWorx also has an ace up their sleeve with Wiebes.
My prediction: Van der Poel and Kopecky.
April 4, 2025
cycling
Everybody Loves Raymond, the Growler
Last Saturday, I tackled the Everybody Loves Raymond: The Growler route, a 60-mile gravel ride with 6,000 feet of climbing in Raymond, California.
Only Ray Romano serving up the tacos at the end the ride in Raymond, CA, could have made this ride better.
The weather was perfect. The route featured rolling hills, mostly gravel with a few asphalt sections. Challenging 12 precent grades and long 3-mile climbs tested my limits, while fast descents and a few chunky technical sections kept things interesting. The event was well-organized with friendly rest stops serving up shots of whisky or pickle juice.
An unforgettable experience! (Perhaps next year, we’ll tackle the 90-mile Kegger).
March 30, 2025
cycling
On Incentives
Show me the incentive, I will show you the outcome. - Charlie Munger
Show me your calendar and I will show you your priorities. - Shaan Puri
The behavior that gets rewarded gets repeated. - Unknown
People will do what they are incentivized to do. Period.- Naval Ravikant
March 29, 2025
Spring Sprung in San Remo
Milan-San Remo, La primavera, spring in Italian.
Traditionally, this is a long and boring 174 miles cycling race with a short climax in the last 10 miles, on the slopes of the Poggio.
Those reaching the top of the Poggio with 10 seconds gap, have a winning chance to survive the descent and final kilometers in the streets of San Remo.
Today’s race was different and much more entertaining. It was the most exciting Milan-San Remo in years.
The fireworks started on La Cipressa with an attack by the UAE team: Tim Wellens, Jhonatan Narvaez, and finally Tadej Pogacar himself. Only Mathieu van der Poel and Filippo Ganna could follow Pogacar.
In his aggressive riding style, Pogacar unleashed a barrage of attacks on the final climb, the Poggio. Yet, he could not shake Mathieu. And at the end “big M” even countered. Ganna wasn’t far behind. It was a beautiful spectacle! The three would eventually sprint for the victory on the via Roma: 1. Mathieu, 2. Filippo, 3. Tadej.
What did I like about today’s race?
- The traditional script was torn up.
- Mathieu can give Pogacar a run for his money. It went back and forth. We’ll see different tactics in the future, including for the sprint. The outcome is not predictable. The coming races will be very interesting.
- The race is more than a battle between 2 super-cyclists. Mille Grazie Filippo.
March 22, 2025
cycling
Siri Is Cooked; Chat Needs a Catchy Name.
Many podcasts recently have been covering the delay in the release of a better Siri or a magical Apple Intelligence.
Apple’s Siri-ous Problem - Hardfork
Has Apple Lost its Mojo? - Prof G Markets
I didn’t need to listen to a podcast, to wonder about the shift in how I interface with technology these days.
I didn’t need podcast pundits to tell me something’s shifted in how I interface with technology. These days, I find myself consulting Chat(GPT) or Gemini over doing a Google search. I talk more with Chat than with Siri — a technological relationship shift that happened almost without me noticing.
Siri
Siri Is for Simple Voice Commands to a Small Set of Applications
Siri, if it can decipher my accent, functions as a voice interface for various Apple applications.
Hey Siri, remind me when I get home, to prepare my gym bag for tomorrow.
Hey Siri, play me the Cure’s recent album.
It excels at these simple tasks, acting as a vocal doorway to your Reminders or Music app. But let’s be honest — it’s hardly seamless. It’s buggy and frustrating. Voice recognition technology has improved dramatically in recent years, making Siri’s current performance feel especially painful.
ChatGPT
Chat Brings a Partner in Crime
The Chat(GPT) voice interface shines in rich and dynamic conversations, while providing detailed outputs.
I will be rambling of a few things on my agenda today. I will call out some action items along the way. Please take note. At the end, I will ask you for a summary of the action items. Please provide them in a markdown format as follows: checkbox, #task, item.
Chat handles this prompt brilliantly. I can then copy/paste the output into my Obsidian todo list.
Chat’s Missing Link
The obvious missing piece is integration with native apps like Reminders. The last part of my prompt could have been:
… Please add them automatically into my Reminders application.
Chat currently lacks the ability to execute tasks on my computer or iPhone: e.g., make a phone call, add something to an iOS application, open up the map.
Oh, and it lacks a nice name.
Hey Scarlett or Hey Samantha, ;)
March 16, 2025
Strade Bianche 2025
This year’s Strade Bianche can be summarized in two bullet points:
- Tadej went looking for berries in the ditch, way too early in the season. Luckily his crash didn’t ruin his season, nor his chances to win this race. He “only” suffered a few scratches all over his body, a cut on his hand, and a ruined rainbow jersey kit.
- All it took was one attack on the Colle Pinzuto gravel sector to drop Tom Pidcock for the victory. Viva il re, Tadej!
With Tadej Pogacar in the peloton, professional men cycling has become boring.
He’s just too strong! - Wilfried Peeters (That quote was a decade ago in reference to Fabian Cancellara. It definitely applies now to Pogacar.)
If you want to see some excitement this year, look for Tadej and Mathieu in de Ronde van Vlaanderen, and when Tadej isn’t participating.
I doubt that Jonas Vinegaard and team Visma-Lease-a-bike can challenge the almighty UAE team and Tadej in the Tour de France. Also for Remco Evenepoel, the difference is big, with the new cannibal, a reference used for Tadej, to the goat, Eddy Merckx.
March 9, 2025
cycling
Australian Madman
In the world of cycling, there are all kinds of riders, each with their own special brand of suffering.
The cyclocrossers? They’re mud-slinging lunatics who treat an hour of high-intensity pain like a fun afternoon romp. The track racers? Imagine a caffeinated greyhound sprinting inside a wooden fishbowl—that’s them. Spring classic riders? These maniacs eat cobblestones for breakfast and consider freezing rain “ideal racing conditions.” Gravel racers? They’re the rock stars of cycling, riding on dirt and looking effortlessly cool while doing it (mullet preferred). The creme de la creme of the professional peloton are the skinny and tiny jockeys competing for the pink, yellow, or red GC jerseys of the grand tours, with Tadej as the leader of the pack.
And then, there is Lachlan Morton, graveler, king of rock, and and Australia’s cycling equivalent of Crocodile Dundee on two wheels.
The Great Southern Country, a documentary of Lachlan Morton’s Around Australia Record, showcases just how outrageously mad he really is. Four consecutive Tour de Frances? No problem. 400-600 kilometers per day? Light work. 12-16 hours on the bike, every. single. day. for 30 days? Absolutely bonkers.
If you ever think riding a stationary bike in the gym for an hour is tough and boring, just throw this on in the background and prepare to feel very, very soft.
March 9, 2025
cycling
Cycling Through Grit: Reflections on ‘Return of the King’
I just watched, while cycling on the trainer in the gym, Return of the King, the full 2024 season, a documentary series about Ted King.
Ted King used to be a professional cyclist, who last rode for the Cannondale-Garmin ProTeam in 2006. Fast forward a few years, a family with two kids, and other responsibilities. The series documents his journey as a gravel racer.
It’s a simple yet powerful story about the toughness of cycling and the determination it takes. Watching it was a great reminder that success isn’t just about winning, but about the journey and the grit. If you’re into cycling, this one’s worth a watch.
March 5, 2025
cycling
Fafo
Today, I learned a new term: FAFO, Fuck Around, Find Out. Actions have consequences.
The term recently came up in US politics. Interestingly, it was used on both sides of the isle. Seems lots of fucking around going there in Washington.
March 5, 2025
Safari, Not for Work
TL;DR - If you are using Google Workplace applications, then Safari isn’t for you. Duh!
My experiment to switch to Safari as my default browser at work failed.
The impetus for my experiment was two-fold:
- I couldn’t figure out a problem with Google Docs font size in a specific Google Chrome Profile.
- Google Chrome reader mode is crap. I love Safari’s Reader mode.
I switched to Safari, set up two profiles (Personal, Work), and imported my bookmarks.
The first issue I ran into is that you cannot separate bookmarks per profile. That’s not a big deal as you can organize the bookmarks into two folders: Personal and Work. Yet, your favorites aren’t by profile.
There are a number of other nits such as a list-view of the open tabs. However there will always be differences in look and feel. It is just a matter of getting used to it.
I missed search-keywords. I use them frequently to search directly in Jira or in Google Drive.
The bigger issues why I cannot use Safari at work relate to Google Workplace. This is not a surprise, though I expected better from Google. There are a number of issues:
- I frequently needed to reload Google Docs as it got stuck.
- Some features are not supported in Safari, e.g., paste from Markdown.
- Google Meet backgrounds aren’t supported in Safari.
- Some Google Cloud features don’t work in Safari.
I kept running into one after another. If you are using Google Workplace, then Safari is not for you. Duh.
March 3, 2025