What I have been reading lately #42

A Dog In a Hat: An American Bike Racer's Story of Mud, Drugs, Blood, Betrayal, and Beauty in Belgium by Joe Parkin

Joe Parkin raced bicycles in Europe (mostly Belgium) in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This book talks about his experience. There are actually fewer stories about performance-enhancing drugs than I had expected and more stories about outright cheating. For example, I did not know that in small kermis races it is (or, at least, was) common for riders in the final stages of the race to makes deals with and offer money to other riders to be allowed to win. Also, it is (or, at least, was) common for riders to be helped and pushed along by team officials riding in nearby cars when no one was around to see.

Burma Chronicles by Guy Delisle

Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea by Guy Delisle

Guy Delisle is a French-Canadian animator. He spent a few months working in North Korea for a French animation studio and then wrote a comic book about it. Later on, he went with his wife and child to Burma while his wife was working for Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders). He wrote a book about that as well.

Picture of the Day - Gattuso rides a bicycle

LOS ANGELES 19 LUGLIO: GATTUSO IN BICICLETTA

AC Milan were recently in Los Angeles to play a friendly against the LA Galaxy.

The most hated man in all of Toronto?/Olympic Update #2

Igor Kenk (pictured below) may be the most hated man in all of Toronto, Canada. For years he has operated a bike shop in Toronto, but this summer police discovered that he was the mastermind of a massive bicycle-theft operation - they uncovered more than 2,000 bikes hidden in various storage facilities and garages throughout the city.

Here is one of the many garages in which Igor Kenk and his henchmen hid their stolen bicycles.

Here are some Toronto police officers taking a coffee break during their investigation.

By the way, Maris Strombergs of Latvia did win the gold medal as expected in the men's BMX competition yesterday. The woman who won, Anne-Caroline Chausson, is from France. Her closest competitor, Shanaze Reade from the UK, wiped out near the end.

Olympics Update #1

The men's and women's finals of the BMX competitions were rained out yesterday and have been rescheduled for today. The number one male rider in the world is Maris Strombergs, from Latvia. I don't know anything about women's BMX.

In other news, the women's softball gold medal went to Japan in a shocking upset of the seemingly invincible US team. The US team had won 22 straight games going back to 2000, and they had already beaten Japan in these Olympic games. Softball (along with baseball) was recently voted out of the Olympics and can't possibly return until 2016.

The Japanese players celebrate.

The US players left their shoes at home plate.

This guy totally stole the wheel off this woman's bicycle

Watch below as the man completely rips this woman off:

And no one even lifted a finger to help her. What is this country coming to?

French Open - Women's Final

The French Open champion was Ana Ivanovic, who is Serbian. She defeated Dinara Safina, who is from Russia. The announcers made much of Ivanovic's abnormally flexible shoulders and the fact that she had to practice tennis in an empty swimming pool while growing up in "war-torn Belgrade." At the trophy presentation following the match, Ivanovic kept talking about how she rode her bicycle to tennis practice (presumably in the empty swimming pool...) Safina referred to Ivanovic's family and coaches as "annoying", but it appeared that she was trying to be funny. She also insisted that God likes the number three.

Tomorrow will be the inevitable Federer - Nadal showdown.