Medical Bulletin

As mentioned in an earlier post, I had to take a decision after my Tour on whether or not to take the hefty cost for my herniated discs surgery.

This would have to be done at a German clinic and would be a non-invasive procedure in three places.

After that, I would walk out pain-free, at least as far as my back issue was concerned.

I would then have to go through the same loops and hoops to see if my similar neck issue could be fixed as well…

Because it sounded to good to be true, I got a second opinion from a German neurosurgeon working at a Dutch clinic.

He told me he was familiar with the procedure as a quick way to make – a lot – of money.

However, having studied the MRI imagery, he told me that my back was basically in such a bad shape that it would, in fact, be a waste of money to go for it.

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Tour de France 2023 – Update II

Tour de France LogoNew Tour de France 2023 update.

The pros already moved on from only two Pyrenees stages which brought more spectacle than many expected.

As I have no less than 15 stages – provided I do not blow myself up like I did during my Tour of 2021 – I will have a lot more climbs to chose from.

But the more I look at/study the map on climbfinder, the more I realize that those are not enough to squeeze every one of them in.

In my – base camp – area, there are plenty hardly worth a second look, but the list of those I consider a “must” is just too long…

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Émonda Surprise

Earlier this week, I got a call from my favourite LBS (Jean Habets) that my Émonda had finally arrived.

However, they told me they were so busy that I could forget about it being ready for a test ride this weekend.

When they called me again on Friday, I assumed they wanted to talk about a few details regarding prepping the Émonda, but they actually caught me by surprise, saying it was ready for pick up.

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RIP Gino Mäder

When I wrote my Tour de France update and created the Hochsauerland 2023 picture gallery, I hadn’t yet heard of the tragic news of Gino Mäder’s passing.

I, like many more, had hopes he would recover from his horror crash during the Albula descent during stage 5 of the Tour de Suisse.

But looking at the pictures from the crash site, the fact that he was actually dead and had to be resuscitated for 25 (!) minutes, were already bad omens.

A picture similar to the one after Wouter Weylandt’s death and one I had hoped to never see again…

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First World Problems

How a world-wide shitstorm creates first world problems for an overly privileged white guy…

As you may have read – but probably have not – I was allowed to buy a Trek Émonda (SL 7) late last year and a Giant Revolt (Advanced 1) early this year.

The former was a trade-in for my Trek Domane, the latter came with the new tires for my Canyon SpeedMax

This array of bikes – not to mention the additional one on my Tacx Neo 2T – is enough to prove my point about being privileged and make many of you weep.

It’s the “world is on fire” and shitstorm part of my opening sentence, that is creating somewhat of a “First World Problems” challenge in actually getting what you were allowed to buy…

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