Tsukuba Eight Hours Endurance Race Photos

Allsports has released today 20549 photos from the Tsukuba endurance race. Who has the time to look through approximately 400 web pages and check all the photos. Well, I checked the first 31 web pages (I admit, during work) and could find some photos of Alain and me. Then I gave up. No wonder that the Japanese economy is in a down spiral. The amount of time checking Allsport photos during work will take a heavy impact on office labour productivity. This is potentially more dangerous than Minesweeper and Solitaire in the Nineties. The clever folks from Allsports have disabled PrintScreen copy, so now you can not just copy and paste the pics as you see them on the web page. The even more clever folks from TCC have advised the usage of Quick Screen Capture to come around this nasty problem. So here we have two examples from Allsports. First we see Alain in his chic AG2R shirt as he is battling it out for the top position during the early phases of the race. Then you see me, taking it easy after we have fallen back to 50th position during the later stages of the race. As usual I look awful fat on the bike. I thought that I could dampen the impact of this by buying a Cervelo frame with large members, but to no avail. Also, as we know now, we made a big mistake when designing the Positivo Espresso jerseys. For some reason, our design is enhancing potential body problem areas so all of us look double fatty in the jerseys as we normally are. Even Marek will look like Bud Spencer (right, not middle). For some mysterious reason this effect does not work on Tom's daughter.

Here are some more photos from Tsukuba taken by Alain. This one shows four members of our three rider strong team; Alain is taking position at the start. Then I gave him a big push so that he gains momentum at the start. Actually I pushed him so hard, that three seconds later he has completed the first lap and appears on the left side of the photo. I like my super-dynamic pushing style. Actually I look much more dynamic than riding on a bike. Perhaps here is where the future lies.
Some small buggers try to use the big draft I am creating. Of course I flew away before they could hang on.
See, I am basically gone.
But the shape of my body really gives me to think. See, I stopped smoking in May 2007 and as usual after stopping I rapidly gained weight, in particular during the Christmas season. I am now down again to 98 kg, which is still much to high to survive the forthcoming races in Shuzenji, Gunma and Shiobara. My leg power and heart is OK, but there is just too much weight to be shifted upwards. With this power and 15kg less, I should have no problems.
So I will try to loose some more weight for the Shuzenji race on 9/14 and later for the 72 km of CSC Gunma. So by the end of the year I will keep up with Tom and compete for the Toge baka records in earnest. Be warned, Tom!