"Mecca is under attack !"

Trail closures, land closures, government interaction, on and on and on ! When will this all end fellow tribe members, when we have no where left to ride ? Or when we finally make our stand ? I live in southern Utah, and up until now it had seemed that we had escaped all this crap, no longer, mecca is now under attack ! I have received an email from the "Utah Shared Access Alliance" and its is a disturbing proposal from the, Southern Utah wilderness Ass-ociation calling for congress to close 9,400,000 acres of current BLM lands to, and i quote, TO ALL MOUNTAIN BIKES AND MOTORIZED VEHICLES ! Enough is enough, its time to let our voice be heard, not with useless words or plea's, or lobbying the fat slobs that run our country, with all respect to IMBA (which i am a member of) its not working guys ! To all mountain bikers who care where they will ride tomorrow and the day after that, i am proposing a "National Poach a Trail Day" its the only way to save whats left. Imagine if 1000 hardcores showed up at the Grand Canyon and poached the mule trail, and at the very same time millions poached a recently closed trail of their choice, and made it known. This may seem excesive to some, but whats happening to OUR lands is not ? I urge my friend Jimmy Mac and Mountain Bike Action to print this letter ASAP, along with the attatched email i received, thanks for the time, and may the bike gods help us...

sincerly, kevin talbot....






September 21, 2009

Dear Dave,


We have attached below a copy of the Blue Ribbon Coalition's (BRC) Alert regarding the upcoming committee hearings and SUWA's wilderness bill. BRC is located in Idaho and is a strong advocate for the off-road community on land use issues. BRC has a national presence and works on issues all over the country. USA-ALL focuses solely on Utah land use issues. BRC is a strong partner and ally of USA-ALL and we encourage you to act on their suggestions.

BLUERIBBON COALITION ACTION ALERT!


House Subcommittee to Hear SUWA's Wilderness Bill

Action Requested

Dear BRC Action Alert Subscriber,

The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) last week announced that on October 1, 2009, their massive Utah Wilderness bill, known as the America's Red Rock Wilderness Act, will be heard in the U.S. House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee. According to SUWA, the bill would designate 9.4 million acres of land managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Utah as Wilderness.

In their announcement, they write: "This visionary wilderness proposal was first introduced as legislation in Congress in 1989 by former Utah Congressman Wayne Owens." Visionary my eye. After Clinton traveled to Arizona to announce a massive 2 million acre National Monument in Utah, Utah's voters showed Owens the door. When he left, SUWA's bill stood at 5.7 million acres, an increase from a previous proposal of 4.1 million acres.

According to a Congressional Research Service report, 5.7 million BLM acres is nearly 3 times the BLM wilderness recommendations and 75% more than the BLM's Wilderness study acreage. The 5.7 million acres amounted to 26% of all BLM lands in Utah, and 11% of the entire state.

In 1995, not even the radicals at SUWA "visioned" that 14 years later their 5.7 million acre bill would balloon to 9.4 million acres. That's over 45% of all BLM lands in Utah off limits to all mountain bike and motorized recreation.
Utah's political representatives need to know that the majority of Utahans oppose this. And they need to hear it from you. Today please.

Rep. Rob Bishop: 202-225-0453
Rep. Jim Matheson: 202-225-3011
Rep. Jason Chaffetz: 202-225-7751

Be polite. None of Utah's Representatives or Senators support SUWA's madness. If you call now, you can make SUWA's bill like toxic waste, so that none of Utah's representatives will ever come near it. Ever.


As always, please call or email if you have questions or need help.

Brian Hawthorne
Public Lands Policy Director
BlueRibbon Coalition
208-237-1008 ext 102
__________________________________________

I would add that if you are a member of USA-ALL and or BRC that you mention that in all communications with your Congressman.

Sincerely,


Michael Swenson
Utah Shared Access Alliance

"Hardware, we love it, we love it"

k, i only have this one picture so it will have to do for now...another podium for the alemap, what a badass ! girl is gonna have to get a trophy case soon me thinks.. for those lizards that dont know, duathlon is a run then bike then run again race, and im gonna be honest here, pam would kill me at this discipline, i only run if cops are chasing me, and cops havent chased me for a long time now, i could probably make a little time up on the bike portion but, she would destroy me on the runs, not the easiest thing for me to admit.. now heres the real kicker (seams like there is always one of those when pam is the subject, i love that) she drove right from this race that she took third in and played a competitive soccer game, AND THEY WON FOR GODS SAKE ! i really hit the jackpot, shes the fuckin BOMB !!! as soon as more pics become available i will get them on, bye lizards....

"My Angel with the badass streak !!!"

im sitting here nerve racked to the bone fellow loopy lizards, see pam is racing a duathlon this morning in victoria bc canada, and im here, 2200 miles away, that part blows, however im totally ga ga for her competitive streak, wooow, what a kick ass chick... told ya didnt i !!!...
this is a race earlier in the year, she races in the 30-39 open cat, which means she races every one thats not a pro, same as me, i like that, the badass angel scored a second this day, not to bad eh ? well consider this little tid bit, she was late for the start and had to play catch up the whole way, i told you, this girl rocks ! look at those guns, wooooow...
im guessing this is her main competition , yea the skinny little girl that looks eerily like a guy, what do you think lizards, gender test maybe ? come on, its a joke, i know i will catch a little shit for that one, but when have i ever shyed away from a little shit ?
i told her to rip their legs off today, among some other things, sorry cant give away all the lizard secrets, and i believe she is hungry to step on the top of the podium today, especially after the last race, i like that, shes got a good chance im thinking....
im just really lucky to have had the opportunity to get to know this woman, seriously, shes unlike anyone ive ever met, cant wait to see her again, and im really stoked to find out where this will lead.. have a great day lizards, and go pam ! you should be on the second run by now, shit im nervous......

"Round 2, Bryce Canyon National Park"....

the entrance to bryce, funny thing, when we purchased the pass to get through zion we told the park ranger that were going to bryce, and i swear before the bike gods that he told us that pass would get us into any park for the next seven days, now i didnt hallucinate this, thats what he said to us, nope.. we had to pay another $25 to get into bryce, obviously it was worth it, but we didnt see shit in zion, we rolled through to get here and it was late and dark when we rolled back, fuckin government, they just get ya every way they can dont they !!!
this one is for the pallozas in cali, a shameless promo picture, ive never even been to dons bikes in rialto before..love you guys....
this is a feature you come on to when you are coming out of the hoodoos (love that word) on the navajo trail, we thought they looked like classes, i found out that its called "thors hammers" i see it now...
when you go to sunset point go counter clock wise on the navajo loop trail and this is what you go into, there must be 20 switch backs to get to the bottom, all i could think about was how cool it would be to poach this mutha, well that and acid flash backs...
this is looking up from the bottom, not to far from here you will run into "THE TREE", it was so cool going into the canyon, i want to go back and find some other bitchin places to hike, this was an unforgetable day, zion, thunder mountain and bryce, it was almost too much for the brain, the next day we would ride gooseberry and do something ive wanted to do for awhile but have kept to myself, until the pam that is, the timing was perfect... more to come lizards....

"Acid flash back, definitely, acid flash back"

i probably will add another post with some more pictures, i just took about 30 minutes trying to choose five for this one, see i havent found out how to add the http codes or whatever, if you will remember i was going to put some advertising on and do all that fancy stuff, well im still as puter dumb as i was i just type faster than 9 words a minute now.. anyway, i have to share more than 5 pictures, pam took some really cool ones, good job cunucky !!a so like i said, acid flash back.. no shit lizards, when i walked out to the edge that day and looked over this scene, it was all my brain could handle, hold on, im getting ahead of myself.. we had just loaded up the bikes, drank the celebratory corona, and left red canyon, we were on our way to bryce, now this was especially exciting for me cuz i knew what was coming but, it had been 25 years since i had been, i didnt even remember the little town outside the park, so when i saw for the first time in that long my jaw literally fell open, fuckin bryce, woow.....excellent.....

this is probably my favorite picture, well damn thats hard to do, nail down one very favorite picture, the trip was such a gas the whole way through and pam took such great pictures (see and you were afraid they wouldnt turn out ) that i will have to say this is one of my favorites, we were over at the first stop,"sunset point" i think, and we could see across the canyon to this other lookout so when we were finished at sunset point we went and found this place, its called,"inspiration point". anyway, this is such a great pic of pam, look at those guns, shit, did i tell you guys shes really fit ?
this is one of the bitchin pictures she took, i cant believe this place, i would spend hours here if possible, the whole time i was here i felt loopy, well, maybe it was part the canadian goddess tagging along, but honestly bryce canyon national park is some kinda otherworldly shit going on, blew my mind....
i dont know, i think we look pretty good together, i admit, shes way prettier than me, and much fitter, but i bet she couldnt lift me that way, shes just little. cant say enough about pam, any words just wouldnt do justice. shes smart and funny and strong and gorgeous and soulful and spirited and canadian, canadian? i know, a lizard and a cunuck, aint it cool....
this is "THE TREE" and it is one of the coolest living things i ever came across. ive been to the redwood forest in cali, and i gave general sherman a big ol' hug about 12 years ago, but this guy, woah, it just comes out of no where and goes up almost 150 feet im guessing, you just cant understand unless you see it for your self, if you go to bryce and hike the "navajo loop" trail you will understand. now how is this for a connection, its almost two weeks since pam left for victoria and i was in a barnes and nobile book store and found a post card of "THE TREE", im sending it to pam....

" The Canadian, and Thunder mountain, what a combo "...

so here we were, at one of the places the gods speak to the tribe, we are forever drawn back to this quiet ribbon on red dirt, to hear our tires sing the song of the single track, to view the other worldly scape, i always feel like im poaching a trail when i ride here, i just can never believe they built this trail for all of us to go to another place, another world, if only for a short amount of time, and now i had a very special guest, a canadian, no less, an angel to boot, what is it with the canadian women,? i have always heard they were different in ways, but really never put much into it, my texas lizard mia and i have discussed this, and we think that maybe they dont have to grow up with some of the weird shit the girls in the states go through, maybe they get to be comfortable as women, i dont know, i dont care, they rock !!!
this is the first section that you come to on the trail that you get some idea of whats to come, its a great photo op, so we took a few, this one was my fav, the trail was interesting this day, when we made the climb up the bike path to the trail head we got drenched by a fairly heavy rain Storm, in fact truth be known i was already to stop and hide under some trees for a minute, but the canadian who gets rained on a lot im guessing said, "no lets keep going" so i did, and by the time we arrived at the trail head we were dry and it was all good, the red dirt was calling...
the trail was in kinda lousy shape from all the horse traffic, looked like we were the only ones to have rode it in a few days at least, but that didnt bother pam so i didnt care, have to admit that the number of accidents ive cleaned up riding with girls the last couple of years were going through my head, but it seemed pam was doing ok, still its hard to shake the visions of jen falling last year and breaking her arm, or jamie going down really hard and shattering her collar bone then needing surgery, so i was a bit nervous to say the least...
i found this little dude when we had stopped at the overlook, almost stepped on the poor guy, it was lucky i saw him running in front of me, isnt he little ? thats my thumb hes on, pam seemed to think he was pretty cool, i agreed, hes so little...
now needless to say, after all my worrying about pam falling, she did, and it was kind of a bad one, she came rolling down to where i was waiting and shes dripping blood all over, shit it looked bad for a minute so i got into my bag and my first aid, as i cleaned it up a bit all looked well, no stitches needed, but it was a good donation and we all know those are required from time to time, i wrapped her arm up and she shook it off like nothing, we still had a couple of miles to go to the truck, yet for some reason i stopped being so concerned about her wrecking, it was obvious this girl could handle her self, i even figured after an hour or so on gooseberry i was pretty sure she would get it, so now back at the truck it was time to move on, funny thing is as soon as we came out of the trail pam said,"lets go do it again", fuckin soldier, i love it !!!

"Utaaaaaahhhh, what a place !!!"

all i can say about the way utah stood up for this girl is,"EPIC MAN".. the place shined like a diamond in the rough, kinda like me, yea, we wish huh lizards ? wooohooo!!! so we got up and i made some out in the bush coffee, and we headed down the mountain to get a bike and start the drive, unfortunately we would spend a lot of time in the truck this day, but it was well worth it, i think pam would agree.... this is the entrance to zion national park, good pic pam, you nailed some on this trip, we got to go through to the east entrance, to get to state road 89, i soo wanted to spend some time in zion, MY GOD is it bbbbeautiful, but we had to get places today, i was thinking that we might be able to hit the overlook trail on the way back, not, it was 9 or 10 pm when we came back through...
this is checker board mesa, and this is the first ever picture of "ALEMAP" and me, isnt she a doll ? we had really hit it off well in just a few hours, literally, as you can see in this picture pam has started to feel better about things, not that she ever felt bad per say, but ask her and im sure she'll tell you those first 4 and a half minutes standing in the united states were very nerve racking. at this point though it was becoming extremely evident that this was a great idea, and i was really fuckin happy that i was getting this opportunity to spend this time with this kickass canadian chick, and did i mention how fit ? WOOAAHH......
the angel, i found it ironic that this angel like girl was taking pictures of an angel all along the way, she even took a pic of it on top of gooseberry, it was something one of her friends gave her....
"THUNDER MOUNTAIN"
this is the parking lot at the entrance to red canyon, from here you can use this paved bike path to get to the top of the trail head, its a nice ride through some trees and into the red dirt, you even get a taste of some of the hoodoos, i love that word, hoodoos. so it was on now, we were about to ride one of the most visual trails maybe on planet earth, no shit, those that have been will confirm, the lure of the holy red dirt calls to us, we cannot resist its curiuos charms, damn, maybe i should go to thunder mountain this weekend !!!

"OMG, theres an Angel in my truck !"

so the day had arived, i still couldnt fathom that this super pretty chick was coming to see me from another freakin country, it was in my eyes a monumental effort, caution to the wind, trusting me completely without ever meeting face to face, coming to a place she had never been, its just something that doesnt happen every day, and has never happened to me... this is a picture taken before pam left the airport in victoria, these are her friends susan and leasa, they were worried about their friend, i think they were more worried than pam, although that would change when she landed in las vegas and i wasnt there to greet her. i was even early to the airport,walked into terminal #1 and causually made my way around looking for info on her flight, it didnt take long that i realized i might be in the wrong place. there was one flight coming from canada but it was us air and she was coming in on air canada so i went to the us air counter and asked if they could help me. it took the lady all of two minutes to find the flight pam was on and sure as shit i was in the wrong terminal. (for further info to all lizards picking up international flights in vegas, teminal #2 man #2 ! )
i was only a couple minutes late , but when i walked up to her with my canadian flag it was obvious that she was a little shaken, and when i reached for a hug the poor girl was trembling, i felt so bad, but i didnt let it get to me, cuz i knew confidence would ease her nerves. so we hopped in the truck and off we went, i tried to get out of sin city toot sweet but we needed to get some beers and some wine for i live in utah and, well you all know, ya get it before you come here. she was really quiet at this time so i kept trying to make conversation, again to help her relax, it was such a rush, and i couldnt get over how beautiful she was, sure i had looked at her pics over and over, but they did no justice to her and especially her fitness, this girl is fit lizards, guns and cuts, wooaahh, all my friends know how i feel about that shit !!
out on the road she started to loosen up a bit and we began talking about the next 4 days, it was so cool to know what lay ahead and be so confident in the fact that i was about to blow this girls mind with mountain biking and camping on the goose, riding at thunder mountain, going through zion and hiking at bryce, this was to be a bomb ass trip, yet, i still had no idea...
we hit st george and needed fire wood and i had to pick up the skull and my bike, so we stopped by the house and did what i needed and then off to the goose, it was starting to get dark which bummed me a little cuz you know how cool it is going out to gooseberry, the views are mind boggling, although i knew it may lead to a bit more of the mystery when she woke up in the morning...
so the journey had begun, the goose was as inviting as it had ever been, the full moon was out and it was so damn comfortable that night, like it had been made just for us, i felt so alive that night i just couldnt get over how excited i was for this adventure, i couldnt sleep for shit, i wanted to spend every second with her, sleeping seemed like such a waste of time. so this that and the other thing and i finally did get some zzz's but i was to stoked to get on the bikes at thunder mountain that it was light sleep at best. so there we were, it was now reality, the angel was in my arms...

Hey Lizard land, meet "THE ALEMAP".....

some time around may i think, i was goofing on facebook and found a fans page for the BC bike race, you know that crazy cool stage race they hold in and around vancover canada ? well i looked through the fans a little bit and ran accross this picture of a very pretty girl from victoria BC canada. the pic was so very angelic, i just felt compelled to shoot her a friends request, well it was less than 48 hours later that she accepted that request, and i had no idea....
it wasnt long that we began writing back and forth, it was fun and cool and she had this energy about her that was so alluring, and i will be honest, it didnt hurt that in all her pictures she was just GORGEOUS, all the good times she was having with her friends, going to whistler and shit, come on, yet, i still had no idea....
she gave me her phone number and i was heading to salt lake to ride the wasatch with " the zaun" and i called one night while there. i just fell for her voice, so alive and sweet, and the accent, it just seemed i had run into somebody really worth knowing, yet, i had no idea....
so we started calling from time to time and writing almost every day and we started talking about how cool it would be if we werent so far apart, it is afterall over 2000 miles to victoria from st george, and it seems like only a few days after that she just decided that she wanted to fly to utah. it sounded great but i was a little nervous about it my fellow lizards, as you all know my situation is not the most impressive one, especially if one was wanting to look good for a girl, she didnt care, she wanted us to meet and she wanted to see utah from the lizard eyes, yet, i had no idea....
so a date was set, plane tickets were purchased, by her no less, and it was official, pamela spence was on her way to the states. after a little thought i made our plans to show her what i could in the short amount of time she would be here, and as the day drew closer it just seemed like this was going to be a great time, we dug each other over the phone and we wrote things that were fun and sometimes sexy and it just felt cool, yet, i had no idea....more to come !!!

the boys were back in town, the cali boys that is, kj, krisp, and the kid. they rolled into brian head about 10 am friday morn, maximus followed about an hour later, zaun and i made it to the top on thursday and went for a short one across the top to cedar breaks national monument, had a safety meeting and started trying to breathe at over 10,000 feet, we would be camping the next 5 nights at 9800 and riding above 11,000 over and over again, it promised to be a time lizard fans, oh and that one hater you, where ya been ? havent heard from you for awhile !!! left to right: krisper, kj, subway, waitin, the zaun, cardiac kid, and the one and only maximus, i am standing at 11,310 feet every one is at the 307 level, told you i would climb higher than all you pussies, ha , what now ?

when we got to the top that first day we were all breathing a little hard but it looked like we would lose the zauner, hey face down , is that chicken on your sidis, oh wait, turned out he was ok , the chicken thing was another time, sorry bud, hate to bring that memory back for ya ....

so day one was the climb up the paved road from town to the dirt road to the peak, then descend the 300 feet to the trail heads, back up a little climb and across the top of the surrounding world, to the junction of sidney peaks trail, dark hollow, and louder ponds. we went down louder for a mostly down hill trail that rocks, its about a 2200 foot loss in about 8 miles and comes out at sidney valley road, thats where we climbed back to the over look where maximus rock climbs some times and sidney peaks trail comes out, this is also where the forks of bunker creek start, i really cant suggest a better fork to descend, they both kick ass, probably the left fork is easier to climb back, but i think its a bit longer, which makes it a little funner to rail down i suppose, i dont know, you decide then tell me...

at any rate when you get to the bottom of either bunker fork you gotta climb back to 11,307 feet and you are now down around 8000, now most people set up shuttles for this ride, i call weak ass ! this climb it amazing, it will make you believe in a power greater that yourself, yes, the BIKE GODS, its so fuckin steep sometimes i dont think i will ever get that taste of my handle bars out of my mouth, krispers garmin read 27 % a number of times, woah !!

there was this cool rock out at the overlook that we sessioned a little bit, its about a 400 foot plunge on the right side. the view from here is crazy, you can see nevada, arizona and on a clear day almost colorado ( not coloraudo ), and its a straight shot to delano (not delauno )peak to the north in the tushars, yes , home of the tour the beaver, hehehehehe....

ah the road back, this was somewhere on the way back to the peak, we had planned on descending dark hollow when returning to the top but a few guys were a bit spent so some went back and me ,kj , zaun, krisper,and the kid took color country/marathon around the peak and down through the bike park...

it was a good efin day , i even dreamed of descending bunker left that night, i love it when bikes consume me to the point that i dream about them at night.....

"Brian Head, the god of single track"

this is the peak at brian head utah, more to come !

"THE GOD OF THUNDER"

thats thor hushvod, he won the stage today, hes a bad mammajamma, a raping and pillaging viking from norway, thats how he sprints, pillaging the peloton, hehe i like that, i like thor hes been winning sprint races for a while now, badass white boy !....

does anyone remember this ? it was the tour a few years ago, the stage was a flat day and ended in a sprint, thor was starting to make a move to the front coming up the inside next to the barriers with about 750 meters to go, there was a spectator holding i big laminated sign out and thor was going soo fast that he hit it a gashed his arm, cool huh ? (he was ok)

so nothing happened to the overall standings today, that will take place in the morning my friends ( and that other one of you ) do we think lance can do it in the mountains tomorrow lizard fans ? i wouldnt put it past him, hmmm.......

" Tour the Beaver, no really !"

those are the tushar mountains in south western utah, the tallest peak you see there is delano, ( not delauno for gods sake )its 12,175 feet above sea level, there are three other peaks 12,000 or better and three more 10,000 or better, they are freakin beautiful lizard fans ( and that other one of you ) when you head north on I-15 from st george utah you come to a town called beaver utah, the home of the "BEAVER, BEAVERS", im serious, thats the name of the high school team there, cool huh ? BEAVERS, teehheeheee...

thats about 15 miles in and about 3000 feet up, this was a really cool road ride, the forest was amazing, i saw deer three different times, theres a beautiful river flowing from the 12,000 foot peaks, it was just a fuckin bitchin ride today, it was a stroke of luck to do it, my dad needed help up on the mountain, see my mom was born and raised in beaver and they have a trailer parked on property by kents lake in the canyon, i know about these mountains for a long time, i just never rode my bike here before. tell you what, this canyon and this forest and these mountains stack up against anything in the state and this ride is now on my top 5 hill climbs, and im a mount evans topper, lest we forget....

so what we did was, my old man dropped me outside of town by the interstate and i used the run up into then through town to the canyon as the warm up, as you head east into the canyon you pass the horse race track and the golf course, the road just meanders through the country side past some houses and into the trees, the river runs right by the road most of the time so you can hear the water a lot which i found very spiritual today.

so you just climb very gradually for exactly 8 miles, i know this because i saw the mile marker, and them it swings up for about a half mile, then is swings up again, this time its hovering around 9 or 10 % for a couple of miles. then you get a chance to recover for about a mile, i think i even went down just a bit, then you come to the switch backs up the cliffs, thats where this pic was taken, i was suffering bad here, rubbing the wheel on the frame at times, im still fat damnit !!

from there its a series of 10 to 15 % grades with flats and even a bit of down again, when you get to the top you have gone from town 20 miles and 4200 feet of gain, the road has a lot of character, its always changing its mind on whether or not its going too punish you or give you a chance to breathe, thats delano peak in the back ground, remember, from the freeway ?

speaking of breathing, its been a minute since i have been to altitude, as you can see i was pretty fuckin happy to reach the top, more altitude is on the horizon though, i will be going to salt lake to rail the wasatch for a couple days with the zaun at 10,000 +, and at the end of the month the cali characters will be headed this way to banzi the brian head at 11,000 +, damn i love bikes, whos with me ???

p.s. thanx 4 the pics pop !

"Tenths of a second i get the other thing i dont"

it was a hell of a race, this discipline is soo cool, i think its one of the things that are cool about roadies, these guys were in such major amounts of pain when they crossed the line, it just makes me shake my head at they effort the aliens are able to put out, makes me feel like a slug....
astana won the race, which was no surprise, anyone that thought they wouldnt win just doesnt get it, i think the time was 19 seconds or some thing for the win, but here is what i dont get....

astana had to beat saxo bank by 40 seconds to get armstrong into the yellow jersey, now i watched the race live and when they crossed the line it was a tie and it was claimed that saxo bank survived by tenths of a second to keep cancellara in the lead, so i just caught the last part of the rebroadcast and it read on the tv at one time that astana must get a time under 46:29:46 to get lance the jersey, astans finished at 46:29:32 ??? im no math major but thats faster than 46:29:46 right :32, :46. i dont get it !!!

like i said this is a stupid cool event i think, being a mountain biker at heart i give roadies a hard time once in a while, well ok , most of the time, but these guys are such monsters on the bike i just gotta take my baggies off to them, wooh did i just say that ? never mind, strike that last part.

they took this race away from the tour for 4 years, mostly because the teams with americans were kicking the shit out of every one i believe, its fitting that the year they bring it back that the americans put it on them again, way to go astana, now save it for the mountains lance cause contador will be in it to win it...