Ryan & Amanda Keefer's Personal Site: Cycling, Family, Tech, Music, Software & Game Reviews, etc.
// July 23rd, 2009 // No Comments » // Cycling, Sports Stuff
It’s official. Like I said earlier, I wish it were another American company, but kudos to Radio Shack for sponsoring a pro American team. Look forward to see them next season.
// July 23rd, 2009 // No Comments » // Cycling, Sports Stuff
So I’ll be behind any Lance Armstrong / Johan Bruyneel professional squad, but Radio Shack as the main sponsor? Really? I really hope this turns out to be false. They should go the Columbia HTC route and get backed by Nike and Apple. But that’s just my wishful thinking.
Regardless, it’s great to see another American team possibly in the pro peloton and while Radio Shack isn’t a company I frequent or like at all, it’s great to have a big American company back a pro team. I’ll be interested to see who else sponsors the team. I think it’s a given that Nike, Trek and Livestrong will be in the mix.
Whatever the mix of sponsors ends up (please not Radio Shack!), the Keefer family will be pulling for them in 2010 and beyond!
// July 19th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Cycling, Sports Stuff
Man, there’s so much going on with this year’s Tour de France and I cannot remember ever watching, reading or enjoying so much of every day’s stages ever — not even close.
Sure, part of it is Armstrong coming back this season, but it’s been just utterly enthralling for me this year, with a lot of guys making it uber interesting — Cavendish, Contador, and Hincapie to name just a few.
With Astana, Garmin Slipstream, Cervelo Test Team, AG2R, Columbia HTC and a bunch of others really mixing it up, I look forward to the Versus and VeloNews coverage daily and there’s already been so much action, excitement and drama, and the pro peloton hasn’t even hit the Alps yet! Tomorrow being a rest day is a real bummer, but the rest of the week will rock!
// July 15th, 2009 // No Comments » // Cycling, Sports Stuff
Interesting take on why Lance Armstrong is staring down his 8th Tour de France later here in July. I hope the author’s right, but there are a lot of stages in between now and Paris. Regardless, the Keefer household is pulling for Lance, and really Astana as a whole.
// July 6th, 2009 // No Comments » // Cycling, Sports Stuff
Man, what a surprisingly interesting (and windy) third day of the Tour de France this morning! Columbia HTC’s whole-team break was quite the site. It was also immediately apparent of the combination of good fortune and good positioning that Lance Armstrong and a fellow Astana teammate were able to go with the Columbia squad in the windy late race breakaway.
Three stages in and some Americans are already making things interesting, including two great Tour veterans in George Hincapie and Lance Armstrong. Can’t wait for the team time trial in the am. I’ll be streaming that whole stage, just like I did this morning.
// June 23rd, 2009 // No Comments » // Cycling, Sports Stuff
Man, it almost seems like things would have gone better, or at least gotten that much more interesting for the team and the pro peloton had Astana’s Kazakh sponsors not come through with their financial backing in the eleventh hour.
Instead of the Astana squad, we would have seen team Livestrong-Nike in the 2009 Tour de France, with 2007 Tour de France winner Alberto Contador, Benjamin Noval, Sergio Paulinho, and Contador’s preferred mechanic and soigneur from Astana all moving to Garmin-Slipstream had Astana defaulted on their contractual obligations.
Will/has all this been distracting for the Astana squad, not to mention the number of high-level riders on the squad. It should be an interesting Tour de France this year!
// June 2nd, 2009 // No Comments » // HDTV Bits, Local (Raleigh Durham), Sports Stuff
It looks like now that the Canes are out of the Stanley Cup (and the Penguins are struggling in the finals), the RBC Center is upgrading its central hanging, meaning it’s getting four updated high definition screens. There must be a lull in the scheduled events at the arena. It is early in the summer concert season.
Follow the progress and process here and view the RBC Center’s live webcam.
// May 27th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // General Posts, Local (Raleigh Durham), Sports Stuff
Well, the Stanley Cup playoffs are officially over for me, with the Canes getting swept and eliminated in short order against Pittsburgh.
The RBC Center took little time before melting down the ice, and clearing it away. I first checked the RBC Center’s webcam around 11am this morning, and the ice was still fully intact, and the Olympias (RBC doesn’t use the Zamboni brand) were actually running. I’m not sure what that was about — possibly they were spraying the ice with warm water to assist in melting it.
Regardless, the ice is all gone now, leaving a concrete floor for the Sesame Street Live crew to setup on. It looks like that’s well underway— curtain is up, and there’s been some action/assembly going on on the floor.
Only a couple months till football starts up, then next season’s hockey starts up and finally basketball. We’ve hit that lull in sporting events I care about.
// May 15th, 2009 // No Comments » // Sports Stuff
So despite a great win last night in overtime against the Boston Bruins, the Carolina Hurricanes still aren’t getting their national respect. It seems NBC doesn’t think the Eastern Finals between the Canes and Penguins is worth national coverage, even for a game or two. Instead, the games will all be on Versus. Oh well, at least we’ll still get high definition coverage, and it’s a step up from the Fox Sports coverage we’ve had to suffer through thus far for most of the Canes’ post-season run. Game 1 against Pittsburgh will be Monday night. Go Canes!
// May 15th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Cycling, Sports Stuff
If you’ve been watching the 2009 Giro d’Italia stage 7 live feed this over at Universal Sports this morning at all, you might have noticed the Astana jerseys seem to be lacking a little something – the majority of their sponsors. It may be tough to see the new sponsor-light jerseys for most of the seventh stage , as the temperature has dropped and rain threatens (just like my bike commute in this morning), most are wearing jackets.
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