Stage 7 turkey

It has been a pretty quiet stage here today in the tour of turkey. After the past 5 consecutive difficult days everybody in the bunch was pretty keen for an easy day. Garmin and lampre had a brief show of strength to try and split up the peleton but unfortunately there was not enough wind and they abandond the raid and attempt to retake the leaders jersey. I surprizingly felt pretty good today after my blow up yesterday so was pleased i was able to recover from such a difficult stage. Looking ahead to tomorrows stage it should be more of the same with a bunch sprint but as i have seen in the previous days things can change pretty quick so will certainly need to be alert. Looking forward to a good days racing to end a great week traveling along the turkish coast on a bicycle.



Cjw

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Stage 6 turkey

After the highs of stage 5 everything came crashing down yesterday. Along with the race leader thomas peterson i cracked big time on the final major climb of the tour under the pressure of attacks from the french fdj team. I had been optimistic about my chances on the climb of defending my position but early in the stage i was feeling like the energy levels where not quite right and although i tried to force down the carbs for fuel as soon as it was time to push i was in serious difficulty and by the top of the climb i was only seeing white and grey and no colour so the classic signs of a serious blow up. I recovered a little along with peterson the race leader and along with my very trusty and faithful team mate francesco belloti and another garmin rider we tried to bridge to the lead group which was now 30 riders so was always going to be difficult to peg back firstly without tom and i offering much fire power and with the 3rd 4th and 5th riders on gc all dropping us on the climb they had bridged to the days main breakaway of 20riders and they had alot of horse power. We pushed hard all for the final 40km but in the end lost 2min and tom and i slipped to 4th and 5th respectively. I have to complement the other riders for seeing us in difficulty and tightening the rachet and they certainly showed they were much stronger and smarter than us on the day. So my first opportunity to defend a gc position did not really go according to plan but we all have bad days on the bike and unfortunately for me i had mine when i really needed to be the strongest i have ever been. Knowing i have not done the work required to be in that condition gives me some confidence that i will certainly gain good condition as was the only target i had for the race but still i am dissapointed and realise that perhaps my relaxed attitude toward the race perhaps finally caught me out yesterday. Nutrition and eating enough and the right things is usually a good aspect of my preperation and racing so i need to go back and have a good look at this and try and ensure next time i find myself in a good situation in a race i dont waste that opportunity. Still two days to go and no doubt there is still more fireworks to come so will keep the head down and see what i can do.

Cjw

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Stage 5 turkey

Today was another interesting day at the tour of turkey. After yesterdays difficult stage i was hoping that we would have a tired peleton and potentially an opportunity to spend some time in a breakaway to work on my flat land training. Fortunately for me a break formed on the first climb which was 15km long and at the top 10 of us had a gap of 2min. In the group was garmins thomas peterson, myself, one astana, team type 1 and an fdj rider who were high on gc. Therefore peterson was the virtual leader with me second. The next obstacle was to get the riders whom were 45min down after yesterdays stage to work with us for the next 200km. This is where i found my seat racing experience from rowing coming in handy. Like today, in the seat racing you have many different people with diferent motive and everybody is keen to get them selves the best outcome. I figured the only way to ensure co operation was promise that peterson and i would not contest the final sprint and work for the others as we were only interested on the gc and time. In all honesty had we contested it we would not have won most likely as there were some fast finishes in the group but certainly taking 2 riders out of the equation seemed to satisfy the other guys and we worked perfectly together all day. It is a bit like in a crew in a rowing race riding in the break, you need to encourage each other, stick together when its tuff and when you start to get the advantage on the peleton everybody enjoys the adrenaline of winning the days battle to survive to the finish. It was really a great day and group to ride for and we all seemed to co operate very well so was a great experience for me to have this with so many different teams, nationalities and objectives and at the end everybody seemed happy with the days racing, guys get beaten and we all accept that but the nicest part for me was the comraderie in our group for the entire 6hrs and in the end we enjoyed a 12min advantage on the peleton. Tom is 1st on gc with me second at 27sec and only 2sec behind me is the russian efimpkin whom is very strong so i will have my work cut out to control him. Anyway as i said before i am here to train so will try and practice my ability to defend my position on gc. Fingers crossed for a good next few days.

Cjw

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Stage 4 turkey

Todays stage was a real tuffy. My role for the day was to be in the main breakaway as on paper it looked to be the most difficult stage of the race and a chance a small group would arrive at the finish. A small group of 40riders made up the front group in the finish but what happened the 210km before was certainly a real exciting race.

With 3 climbs in the first 20km and in driving rain the bunch splitting to pieces was a certainty. I simply tried to stay as close to the front as possible for the first two short climbs and decents and save as much energy as possible for the longer 3rd climb. On this climb astana forced a pretty tuff pace so sat in behind thinking that behind the group was shrinking, sure enough at the top the group was about 50 strong and this was the peleton for the next 180km. Following the climb attacks went continuously for the next 80km untill finally i broke free with 7 other riders to form a breakaway. At one point we got out to two min but with the rain wind and hard bumby rds we could not break the bunch chasing and were gobbled up 20km from the finish setting up the bunch sprint. Here i led out my team mate francesco belloti whom also made the front group and although he finished 13th which propelled him to 4th on gc he was later penalised 20sec for taking a drink energy gel inside 20km to go so in the end was not as great a day for our team as i could have been. He should have just asked me for a gel as every 5km while i was in the break our director sportif kept handing me gels and food from the car encouraging me to eat more due to the hard stage and as a result i had about 15gels in my pocket by the finish!

All in all i was happy with my performance, i had an objective and got most of the way to accomplishing it. Unfortunately i dont feel as powerfull as i would like on the flat rds in comparison to the long climbs but i guess this is a reflection on my limited racing thus for this season, this should all change over the coming weeks as i race, recover and i hope get stronger and hopfully can start to feel how i want to feel in the races. I will get there.

Tomorrow is another long one so i hope it is as hard as it was today, i seem to enjoy these days more than the regulation sprint days as they are a bit more exciting and you need to stay on your toes. All in all an exciting day in turkey

Cjw

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Stage 3 tour of turkey

Today started in a bit of an unique way for me with a swimm at the beach. Our hotel was right on the beach so i thought why not sample the turkish water. It certainly woke me up, i doubt the temperature was much north of 15degrees but was certainly good for the recovery of my legs and they felt great for the start of the race. As for the race it was a much more straight forward stage, a small group got away after just 30km and the group was happy to have an easy day after yesterdays blow out. The race was expected to split up on the final small climb just 10km from the finish and it was true to form. A flurry of attacks were fired by the climbers and the group got smaller and smaller. I just followed the moves and made sure not significant group got away without me in it. By the top there was a group of about 20 of us but with still 5km to the finish and such a fast decent another 40 or so rejoinded us on the way down. When we hit the final 3km in the town of marmaris we were greeted with a technical brick surface series of corners and curves so i not wanting to take any risks just stayed safe at the back of the group. Unfortunately my relaxed approach to the crazy finish cost me 6sec from the winner as a gap was let go in the final few hundred meters and unfortunately i was on the wrong side of it. Anyways luckily my team mate and gc leader for the race francesco belloti was on the good side of it so one of us is toward the top of the gc. The next few days look much more selective so i will certainly make sure i am a little more aggressive in the finale's. Good news for the day was my great mate and fellow tasmanian wez sulzberger was 3rd, the tight twisty finish with a small group perfectly suited to the 2007 world u23 silver medalist so i am very pleased for him. He also takes over the lead in the "tassie cup" so i have my work cut out for me. You certainly need to be in good shape to contend for the tassie cup these days, hopfully in the not to distant future the depth of talent of riders from the apple isle means we are filling up podium at races all over europe.

Anyway was almost a good day, good little reminder not to ever relax in these type of finales, unfortunately i still seem to make the odd stupid mistake but they seem to be becoming less frequent so thats good news and a positive for me. Looking forward to the very difficult on paper atleast stage tomorrow and seeing what transpires.

Cjw

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Stage 2 turkey

Today off course was anzac day so was a special feeling to be an aussie in turkey for such a historic day. It is impossible not to be moved by the bravery of our troops in all the world wars allowing us to enjoy the freedom and opportunities we have today. In honor of this i was determined to be appart of the action today, it was a very hard start with wind, rough rds and roleing hills so i saw the opportunity to enter the breakaway. Unfortunately many had the same idea and after 6 of us enjoyed a 1min lead we were joint by another 10 and 16 of us set of after about 30km of racing. With a few major sprint teams not represented in the break they were chasing us hard and we were going full tilt to try and break them, we did not and eventually a group of around 50 formed with all the top sprinters and the remainder of the peleton splitered over 4 groups trailing behind. With lotto, lampre, and garmin at full force in the break they continued to drive the pace, i was on my limit simply trying to hold the wheel let along help force the pace. It remained like this for the next 50km and although at one point our lead got out to 1min a furious and tenacious chase by the spider tech team from canada and by all reports pretty much single handedly driven by svein tuft brought our group back and at that point the group now contained about 80 dudes and a cease fire was called allowing the remaining 3 groups splintered back down the rd to also rejoin and we had 100km of easy roleing to prepare for a group sprint. Certainly had tuft not pulled with the stregth of about 30men our group would have been long gone but he is a seriously incredibly strong dude and i hope his team brought him a beer or two tonight for that effort to neautralise the split. For the 1st 1hr and 30min of racing i had averaged 180heart rate and with at least half of that not doing any work on the front it certainly gave me a good reminder of how to suffer in races after 4 weeks training at home, i was in a serious amount of discomfort!! Anyway from my perspective that was actually the exciting part of the race and it actually had no impact on the final outcome of the day although i did find it a little easier to stay at the front and out of trouble in the sprint so may have indicated that the bunch was carrying a bit of fatique from the first 2hrs racing. It was certainly very contrasting half's of the race with the being unbelievable painfull and the second a gentle role along the turkish coastline which was fortunate for me as it gave me the opportunity to re charge my batteries for the 4 difficult days ahead.

I am really enjoying racing here as the roads are quite dead and slow and rough in places and it reminds me of training in tassy. I was explaining to my massure that to achieve the same speed in training in tasmania as you do in italy you have to put our atleast 10% more power which is what make tassie perhaps the best place in the world to train. So for me i feel pretty comfortable litterly bumping along the turkish coastline.

So that was anzac day for me in turkey, i did have a crack at getting involved in the stage but was not to be for me today, certainly along with all the other aussie's in the bunch today we were pretty proud to be here and remember those brave men that gave there life's for our great country, Absolute hero's.

Cjw

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Tour of turkey stage 1

This week i am racing the tour of turkey. The objective this week is simply to get some racing rythm into my system before the tour of california. Personally i could not think of anywhere better to train than down the south coast of turkey with each stage following the sea and from what i have hear some very impressive and beautiful sights. It wont be all relax as we have 2 very good sprinter on our team this week and i will be doing what i can to help fight the other sprinters in the race for the stage victories. Later in the race on paper stages 3, 4 and 6 appear to be more selective and if i feel good will see if i can finish further toward the front than the back.



Today was the first stage and took place in istanbul. Just 120km was on the menu this morning for a bit of a warm up for the peleton. It was a unique stage in that it began in europe and ended in asia and hense crossing two continents. The stage began with a flat fast run out of the european side of istanbul. After 10km we crossed Bosforus bridge which seperates europe and asia and completed 8 laps of a 12km circuit on asian soil to decide the race won by a young italian sensation spring giardini from the farnise neri team. Our boys jacabo and elia were in the fight for the sprint win so as the race goes on will certainly come more to the fore. For me it was a nice little warm up and did not suffer to bad so i hope a good sign that the work done with liquigas cannondale team trainer paolo slongo over the past few months is going to plan. Certainly looking forward to the longer and more difficult days which i enjoy a little more. Having enjoyed some of istanbuls finest cuisine its down the coast we head for the next 7 days, i have been told that the hotels are pretty top notch and some right on the beach so looking forward to the week ahead.



Cjw

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Our team director and elvis look a like, stefano zanatta, dont step on my blue swayed shoes!

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The Dodeca channel, 24 hours a day

Introduction

No, that isn’t me droning on and on about the marvelousness of Dodeca, but instead an exciting YouTube channel that is 100% Dodeca.  It’s almost as entertaining as television, and infinitely more educational.  

This is pretty exciting stuff – you don’t need to sign up for a webinar, they’ve rehearsed it enough so that there are no demo SNAFUs, and you can rewind (how quaint my VCR-era-soon-to-be-completely-outdated terminology is) the video to illustrate a point again and again.

Tim posts updates to the threads in his Twitter account (you are all subscribers, yes?) or YouTube’s own subscription functionality can be used.  Or you could just obsessively go to the page every day and see if there’s something new.  

What’s out there

As of today, here are the videos:
Introduction to Dodeca
Installing Dodeca
The Sample Application
Creating a new Dodeca Application
Creating an Essbase Excel view
Workbook Scripts
Exporting Metadata to a Local Zip File

The list is ever-expanding, so more cool content is coming everyone’s way.

So go watch it, already

Videos of how to do all of this stuff is exciting.  Sometimes a picture, or a video, is worth a thousand words.  And as Dodeca is the most all-around awesome reporting tool for Essbase there ever was, I know you’ll all be out there today.  See, YouTube is for work, too.  :)

Show it to your fellow geeks, show it to your family, but most importantly, show the Introduction to Dodeca episode to your Essbase reporting economic decision maker.  Actually, for that, call Tim and get him to turn on his patented Geek Idol marketing charm.  Works every time.

Commuting By The Numbers

Spring cleaning of my office last week turned up an interesting 2011 report card issued by the Connecticut DOT: a two-page summary of statistics that says a lot about the state of railroading in the “land of steady habits.”

RIDERSHIP:           Passengers are slowly coming back to Metro-North: 36.67 million a year on the New Haven line in 2010, down slightly from 37.13 million in 2009.  A similar trend was seen on Shore Line East (the state-owned, Amtrak-operated line from New Haven to New London), which saw 557,000 riders in 2010, a sizable dip from the 593,000 riders in 2009.  The explanation for the declines after so many years of growth… the economy.  But with jobs returning and gas prices soaring, 2011 promises to be another record for both lines.

BENEFITS:             Each rail passenger is estimated to remove 0.83 vehicles from our roads, so more folks on the train means less pollution in the air.  By CDOT’s estimates, almost 50 million gallons of fuel were saved by rail passengers in 2008 (the latest stats available).  And those trips saved a billion miles of auto travel, almost a half million tons of greenhouse gases thanks to reduced emissions and added up to a dollar savings of $500 million for rail commuters.

WHO / WHERE?:        Folks can’t take advantage of the train if they don’t live nearby.  But using the national standard for accessibility of 2.5 miles from a boarding station, 31% of the state’s population lives “near” a station.  That’s a potential ridership pool of 1.1 million people.  As for their destinations, 30% of residents have jobs located within 2.5 miles of rail stations.

Developers’ new push for T.O.D. (transit oriented development) will improve these numbers, building condos and offices closer to mass transit.  Stamford is a great example.

FIX FIRST:             Most commuters pay no attention to the millions of dollars spent annually to keep our railroads in a state of good repair.  Sure, they appreciate the handful of new M8 cars in service, but what about the tracks, bridges and overhead wires that make it possible for them to run?

CDOT is replacing 178 miles of catenary, replacing or rehabilitating 21 bridges, thousands of concrete ties and miles of welded rail.  In addition, millions in Federal stimulus funds have been spent to fix up our stations.

COMMUTING  COST:       Though we have some of the highest commuter rail fares in the US, Metro-North tickets still cover only 69.5% of the cost of each ride.  (The difference is made up in subsidies, including money raised through the gasoline tax.)  But that’s nothing compared to Shore Line East where fares cover only 8.9% of the cost of each ride.  Metro-North subsidies (except on the branch lines to New Canaan, Danbury and Waterbury) are borne two-thirds by Connecticut and one-third by New York.  On Shore Line East the 81% fare subsidy is paid 100% by the state of Connecticut.

To close that gap we need to increase ridership (almost a certainty), lower costs (not likely) or raise fares (already planned).  Metro-North fares will increase 1.5% on January 1^st 2012 and an additional 1% each New Year’s day for the following six years.

So there you have them:  the facts (and a few opinions) about where we stand on the future of commuter rail in Connecticut.

Motorpace matteo

Motor pace is a very important part of training regime as cyclists. I figure you may aswell travel in style. My chief motor pace extraordinare is matteo gavioli whom on the bike shop in the small town of gavirate that i spend my time while training in italy. He and his bmw R1100 set a perfect pace and wind block for me to get keep the race rythm flowing in my pins. The best part about matteo's bmw is the colour, it conveniently matches my liquigas cannondale team kit so we certainly look the part. Matteo is a proud smoker so in the summer when he can jet about in his open face bikkie helmet and hard rock cafe t shirt he puff away while i work away behind. Being the professional he is however he only smokes when the wind is in a favourable direction as to not choke me! It is certainly a sight to be hold. His favourite game is slowing down as we see the recreational cyclists around the lake and just as they think they will get a ride behind me accelerates nice and quick so they cant quick get and and destroys my legs in the process trying to keep up with him, luckily for me this sharp accelerated suffering provides good adaptation for the races so fun game for all! Matteo is a great friend and really looks after me here in italy, whatever i need, he knows somone to get it and i am real lucky to have him in my corner. His love for fine quisine has certainly opened my eyes to a level of italian food beyond explanation with words, simply incredible and to top it all off his wife stella is a master chef herself so i certainly owe them a great deal of gratitude for making my time in italy much more enlightening and enjoyable.



In this sport you seem to call upon alot of people for help with a wide range of things, massage, motor pace, bike maintenance, travel arrangments, heaps and heaps of things and without guys like matteo our lives as cyclists would be alot more difficult so a big big thankyou to matteo and his wife stella for looking out for me.



Cjw

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My new golf putter with name on it!

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Today i spent 7hrs on my bicycle. My usual training partner, mr basso, was unable to attend the outing with me so it was a nice day of solitude, no ipod just me and the hills and lakes around northern italy. Well one hill. I rode to the alpi nigia which is a 12km climb averageing 10% which starts just accross the border along lago magorie in switzerland. You cross the border back into italy at the top and descend back down the opposite side. The climb is solid but the decent is just nasty. 30km long and has an additional 3km of climbing on the way down if that makes sense. Its down up down up down up up nose bleed steep down! Just relentless. At an easy tempo it takes 50min to climb and the same to decend which makes it quite a unique and challenging circuit which i completed 2 times. As you can see by the photo having the backdrop of lago magorie all day is not such a bad thing to take you mind of the suffering. Pretty spectacular place

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Yeah, yeah 11.1.2.1 is here, so what?

Introduction

Given the excitement around this release (geeks get enthused by some pretty odd things), you’d think an Oracle-red lightning bolt would shoot down from the heavens when I type that and smite me mightily like Thor’s hammer right on the noggin.  BONG!  Ouch, that hurt.  But I have an excuse for writing that.

I have the problem all (most) EPM implementers face – ask us to build an Essbase database, write a calc script, craft an MDX formula, proof of concept a Planning app – that we can do with aplomb and flair.  We do that for a living; we better be good at it.

But install a package that requires more than double-clicking on setup.exe and we (or at least I) go all wobbly.  I have spent countless and fruitless hours trying to get development environments to work since System 9.  Oh, eventually I mostly get them running but we are sometimes talking months (say hello System 9.0.1 and Oracle Fusion EPM 11.1.13 and 11.1.2) to get to a working state.  It is my no-longer-secret shame.  I suck at installations.  There, I have said it and I feel much better.

The problem is, I want to experience the joy that is 11.1.2.1.  Alas, my successful installation will likely occur sometime around the general release of 11.1.2.2.  What to do?

There is an answer to my (and your) problem

The answer’s name is John Booth.  He has very generously provided an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Amazon Machine Image (AMI) with the basics of 11.1.2.1 installed on it FOR FREE.

That means, with an AWS account, you (and I) can run 11.1.2.1 without installing anything.  Oh joy, oh rapture.  Maybe I can even have a life.  Maybe.  Maybe you can, too.

You can stop reading right now and go to his blog here to try out his EPM Test Drive to get all of the details.  Or keep on reading to see how someone even as technically lame as yr. obdnt. srvnt. can run 11.1.2.1 with practically no effort at all.

Sign up for Amazon Web Services

You must have an Amazon Web Services account.  Go here to start the process.  Once you have that, follow these steps to 11.1.2.1 nirvana.

Amazon has put together a nice tutorial.  I recommend that you go through it, following the Windows path as the 11.1.2.1 EPM Test Drive AMI is on Windows.  Even if you’re a Linux bigot, Go Team Windows!

Don’t be overwhelmed by all of the steps.  There is a bit of a learning curve but it isn’t that bad.

Launching 11.1.2.1 in the cloud

1)      Assuming you’ve signed up and run through the tutorial, find your IP address at http://www.whatsmyip.org/  You are going to need this to define your security access to the 11.1.2.1 image.

2)      Log onto Amazon Web Services at http://aws.amazon.com

3)      Username = youremailaddress.com, password = whateveritis.

4)      Make sure you have Adobe Flash 10.2 installed.  The below message only pops up if you don’t have Flash 10.2 installed.

5)      Click on the EC2, the Security Group, and finally the Create Security Group link.  You are going to need your IP address from step #1

6)      Name the group and give a description.  I am going to pretend my name is Alice and that she/I live in Philly, PA.  We will not talk about my identity crisis.
7)      In the bottom half of the screen, select RDP as a connection protocol:

You need only enter your will need your IP address with a /32 switch.  Then click on Add Rule.

8)      Change the IP address to:  youripaddress:32, e.g., 98.111.148.105/32 and then click on Save.  You will see the following as confirmation:

9)      Then click on Apply Rule Changes.

10)      Now click on the AMIs link.

11)   Select All Images, type in ami-b0669bd9 ami-de2bd4b7, and then click on Refresh.  The AMI should appear.

12)    Right click on the AMI and select Launch Instance

13)   Select m2.xlarge aka Extra Large and then Continue.  Don’t worry about the Availability Zone.  The power is almost yours.

14)   Take the default on the Advanced Instance Options.

15)   Take the default on Tags, or put in a value if you like.  It doesn’t really matter unless you managing multiple instances.

16)   If you haven’t already created a key pair, do so now.  Make sure that you keep that in a secure place as it is part of your authentication into AWS.  In this case I created one called “AmazonCloud”.

17)   Leave the security group at default and click on Continue.

18)   You will get a chance to review your selection.  Once you’re satisfied, click on Launch.

19)   You will receive a confirmation message.  Click on the View your instances on the Instances page link.

20)   You will see a list of running instances.  Now you play the waiting game as you are now subject to a delay equivalent to powering up a real server in your data center. 

21)   Once you’ve waited 10 to 15 minutes, right click on the AMI line, and select Connect.

22)   You will get information on how to connect to the instance.  Don’t be discouraged if you can’t; remember, it’s a virtual server oh-so-slowly booting off the drive.  You can either download the shortcut to your hard drive, or copy the public DNS to the clipboard.  Either way, you’re going to be running the Terminal Services client, aka, Remote Desktop, to connect to the server.

23)   If you click on the Download shortcut file link, save it to your Windows desktop for sanity’s sake.

NB – This is in FireFox; Internet Explorer’s dialog box looks a little different.


24)   Double click on the icon to see if it’s really running or not.

25)   You will get this scary-looking error message.  Ignore it, it’s much worse than it looks and click on Connect.

26)   Happy, happy, joy, joy.  You have now connected.

 
27)   Once started, check out how much power you have. 

28)   Go ahead, start EPM 11.1.21 by double-clicking on the Workspace shortcut .  Admit it, you’ve been waiting all day for this.  Now play, play, play or more seriously (and boringly – see, I just invented a word, my 11.1.2.1 exuberance knows no linguistic bounds) learn, learn, learn.

29)   When your brain cannot take any more, use the Start menu to Shut Down the server.  Remember, if the instance is running, you are getting charged by the hour.

30)   Your 11.1.2.1 instance is now stopped.  Any work that you have done is stored on the stopped hard drive.  If you are well and truly done with the instance of the virtual machine, right click on that Stopped AMI and select Terminate.  This will delete the AMI and its drives.  You lose all work.  If you want to keep the drive in the state you left it, leave it a Stopped state or make your own AMI from it and then Terminate the instance.  So long as the instance exists, even in a Stopped state, you are being charged, albeit a small amount.

31)    That’s it.  Have you sent John an note of appreciation yet?  :)

The best way to thank John is to come see our presentation at Kaleidoscope

You’ll have to tolerate me, as well.  Seriously, I come at this from an implementation perspective, John from an infrastructure perspective.  It’s the best of both worlds.

Think of us as Martin and Lewis.  Just call me Jerry; Dino’s the infrastructure guy.  Have a gander of us entertaining your spiritual ancestors at their convention.

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My training partner today, luigi and his reliable rig jerry!

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The elderly

In australia when our elderly citizens get on in age they have there licence revoked, here in italy they dont take away there licences instead they give them smaller cars assuming that the chaos they cause will be smaller also!! unfortunately even a smart car is bigger than a bike and i seem to often be taking evasive action to avoid the elder patrons of the rd here. Sure is a special place

Who's In Charge of Our Transportation Future?

Is anyone guiding our state’s transportation future?  One wonders.

Three months into the Malloy administration, we still don’t have a Commissioner at the Department of Transportation.  Yet, the Governor is pushing legislation to eliminate the Transportation Strategy Board just a decade after its creation.

It’s clear that we are far from solving our transportation mess, so it’s disconcerting that no individual or advisory board seems to be in charge.

We’ve had five Commissioners at the DOT since Jodi Rell became Governor, the most recent leaving last July under the cloud of an alleged scandal.  So why the lack of a firm hand on the tiller of this 3,400-employee, $725 million capital budget agency?

Well, first, who would want the job?  The CDOT has careened from scandal to cost-overrun, from investigation to calls for reorganization.  It’s the agency we love to hate.  So it’s no surprise that Governor Malloy’s national search for a new Commissioner has turned up empty so far.

The last Commissioner, Joseph Marie, came to Connecticut after a national search and made tremendous progress at rebuilding morale in the agency.  His candor was refreshing.  His experience on the rail side (having just designed and built Phoenix’s light rail system) was hailed as a turning point in the agency previously dominated by highways veterans.  His deputy Commissioner, Jeff Parker, was similarly well versed and widely respected.

But when Marie was forced to resign amid unproven allegations of sexual improprieties… without so much as formal charges or investigations… Parker took over only to leave last month, impatient at the new Governor’s inability to give him the full title or replace him. 

Why then, with the CDOT in limbo, does Governor Malloy want to eliminate the Transportation Strategy Board?  At least that body had the mandate of taking a longer-term view of a 20-year plan for rail and road, airports and ports.

Created in 2001, the TSB was complemented by regional advisory TIA’s, or Transportation Investment Areas, including “The Coastal Corridor TIA” (on which I have served since its creation).  With input from the TIAs, the TSB issued its first recommendations in 2003 in a comprehensive report prioritizing long overdue investment in transportation, including ordering new rail cars for Metro-North.

There were updates in 2007 and 2011 as the body explored the links between transportation and economic development.

The first TSB Chairman, Oz Griebel, went on to run for Governor.  His successor, businessman Kevin Kelleher, missed many meetings and didn’t seem engaged in the TSB’s ongoing work.  A third Chairman, Bruce Alexander from Yale turned the TSB into a debating club, achieving little.

On one important policy issue, tolls on our highways, the TSB did a terrible job.  Unable to come to any consensus on this crucial traffic mitigation and funding source, they did what everyone previously has done with transportation:  they called for another study.  But the resulting report was so jumbled, offering nine different alternatives, that choosing among them was impossible and political suicide.

It didn’t help that then-governor Rell had rejected any tolling idea even as the million dollar report was being written.  Neither did a series of public hearings held by the TSB around the state when the report was issued.  The agency sought public comment without any explanation of the study or its proposals.

At the hearing in Norwalk only a handful of TSB members were present (with Chairman Kelleher again absent) to listen as 50 uninformed residents spouted the same old objections to tolling.  What a waste.

The tolling issue has not gone away.  Nor have questions about how we will fund mass transit with an ever-dwindling gasoline tax.  We still don’t know if Bradley Airport should be sold or continue to be run by the state… or when we’ll replace the crumbling Stamford rail station garage.  How about delays on the M8 cars due to the Japanese quake?  New highway spending, repair on hundreds of decrepit  bridges, so-called ‘high speed rail’ from New Haven to Springfield, development of our ports, overdue expansion of rail station parking… none of these issues seem closer to being addressed without leadership.

So as the TSB is legislated into oblivion and the Commissioner’s office at the CDOT continues to be occupied by Acting and Interim-titled placeholders, just who is watching over our state’s transportation future?

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Mcflurry, italian style

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Cruisy Time

This past week has flown by, it seems like a lot longer than 7 days ago we were wrapping up catalyuna. The final stage was like all the others, pretty stressful. Rain and a crash 10km in split the peleton and with Basso in the second group I resumed my place on the front and helped the other teams in the same situation close the gap. This was neutralised pretty quick and we enjoyed a nice gentle role into the finish circuits in the down town of barcellona. We were smack bang in the centre, infact we did laps up and down the cities iconic la rumbla. Jess and I enjoyed a few days there in 2006 and it was the highlight of our holiday so although I did not get to have as good a look around as last time was cool to see it again. Last time I was particularly intrigued by the fact you could by an alligator, snake, and a monkey for a home pet at the markets there. Crazy place. The circuits were pretty crazy, they were 5 x 5km with a lot of corners. I assumed my position to what I though was safely mid field and where I could see and ensure I was ready to help my team mates where required. It occurred to while on the circuits that I was not having to fight for the wheel which is a rarity in the final 15km. Having not looked backed through fear of crashing into something I was unaware that the peleton had shrunk considerably from 150+ to 80 riders and I was roleing around with my Team mate Slyvester Smyd in the final 2 positions in the bunch. Anyway it meant after a pretty stressfull week I could enjoy a more relaxed finale to the tour and finished safely in the front group and surprisingly did not feel that tired. This was a good indication to me that the extra work done in training was paying off and the races were not taking so much out of as in previous years. Before I knew it I was in the airport downing a quiet beer and some tappas, could not leave spain without enjoying this speciality. The plane trip home was a bit of a whos who of the cycling world, I was perched next to my team mate Basso, also onboard was Cadel Evans, Michele Scarponi and Nicolas Roche, between those four there was enough horse power to power the airbus jet aircraft we were traveling on. All in all was a good educational week and nice to get my first small tour done in Europe for the season before heading home to get another good block of training done.
I recovered very quickly from catalyuna and after 2 days was keen to get back into it. With 4 weeks till my next race however common sense prevailed and a took a couple of extra easy days on the bike pretty much just cruising around with basso which was nice to do some riding without the stresses of specific training and racing. I also ordered my new golf clubs which I am super excited about arriving this week. I am going to need all the help I can get to keep my 10 handicap this season but I am sure my new titilist golf clubs with atleast give me no excuses on the equipment department. Cycling and golf certainly don’t seem to complement each other, i.e the only time I have to play is when I have easy days so walking around for 4hrs aint really resting but I am just addicted. Also I think its nice to have something else to focus on appart from the bike in a competitive sense, playing golf means my focus changes and I don’t dwell on the difficult times I have on the bike so i will keep enjoying my golf. On Thursday we had another round of climbing testing with our superstar team trainer Paolo Slongo where the sensations I was feeling in the race and post race were confirmed with a nice improvement in my condition. Back to work on Friday with 5hrs on the tt bike and yesterday I did 7hrs nice and relaxed exploring my favourite climbs in the varese region. I nice rest day today watching the moto Gp and a very exciting tour of flanders on the tele and I am ready to get back to work tomorrow.

Cjw

I put my body through a bit of a challenge yesterday, both on and off the bike! Both were very enjoyable.

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