Mayo Positive for EPO July 30, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Weblog , add a commentI am officially disgusted with professional cycling. Today’s news is that Spanish rider Iban Mayo tested positive for EPO during the final week of the Tour de France. Doping allegations and suspicions have devastated the 2007 Tour, which ended Sunday, withn three riders, including former overall leader Michael Rasmussen, and two teams were expelled during the three-week race.Mayo’s Saunier Duval team was told of the results of the July 24 test by cycling’s governing body and “immediately suspended” Mayo, according to a statement posted on the team’s Web site. A second test is needed to confirm the initial positive result for Mayo, who finished 16th in cycling’s biggest event.
Let’s kick them out of cycling for two years and take away their annual pay.
Coaching Legend Bill Walsh Dead at 75 July 30, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Breaking News, DifferenceMakers , add a comment
One of my heroes died today. I am sad to see that Bill Walsh, the groundbreaking football coach who won three Super Bowls and perfected “the West Coast offense” during a Hall of Fame career with the San Francisco 49ers, has died. He was 75. Walsh died early Monday following a long battle with leukemia, according to Stanford University, where he served as coach and athletic director. This was a man of high integrity who used his position to develop players and coaches. As Walsh overhauled the 49ers from 2-14 in ‘79 into a Super Bowl champion in only three seasons, a remarkable succession of young coaches was spawned from the 49ers’ burgeoning dynasty. Listen to the names. Mike Holmgren. Mike White. Ray Rhodes. Sam Wyche. Bruce Coslet. George Seifert. Dennis Green. All of them were direct hires of Walsh and all of them became NFL head coaches. Most of them went on to develop another generation of coaches. Today, 14 of the NFL’s 32 head coaches are either direct descendants, or second- and-third generation disciples, of Walsh’s investment of time, talent and resources into his coaches.
He will be missed.
Check out our First YouTube Video: Baptism 2007 July 26, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Chicago, Sunday Services, Church, Inside Park, Missional, DifferenceMakers , add a commentPark is now officially a YouTube broadcaster! Check out the musical slideshow of the awesome baptisms of 71 people on the beaches of Lake Michigan in the shadow the the awesome Chicago skyline from Sunday, July 22nd.
I Share His Feelings July 25, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Tour De France , add a commentThe Summit (CO) Daily New (Devon O’Neil) sums up my feelings on the Tour de Farce:
In parting, just to take stock: We’ve got an entire sport (cycling) teetering on collapse yet again, we’ve got a superstar NFL quarterback charged with killing animals for money, we’ve got an NBA referee facing a game-fixing probe, and the greatest record in sports is about to be broken by a steroids user.
Thank heavens for college softball (I would substitute college football).
HT: Trust but Verify
Tour de Farce: Rasmussen Out — What the Heck is Going On? July 25, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Tour De France , add a commentTour de Farce leader Michael Rasmussen was removed from the race by his team after winning Wednesday’s stage, the biggest blow yet in cycling’s doping-tainted premier event. “Michael Rasmussen has been sent home for violating (the team’s) internal rules,” Rabobank team spokesman Jacob Bergsma told The Associated Press by phone.The expulsion, which Bergsma said was ordered by the Dutch team sponsor, was linked to “incorrect” information that Rasmussen gave to the team’s sports director over his whereabouts last month. Rasmussen missed random drug tests May 8 and June 28. The 33-year-old rider, who won Wednesday’s stage, had looked set to win the race, which ends Sunday in Paris. But Tour officials had questioned why he was allowed to take the start on July 7 in London, England.
“We cannot say that Rasmussen cheated, but his flippancy and his lies on his whereabouts had become unbearable,” Tour director Christian Prudhomme told the AP. The leader of cycling’s governing body applauded the decision. “My immediate reaction is, why didn’t they do this at the end of June, when they had the same information,” Pat McQuaid said. “The team decided to pull him out; that’s their prerogative. I can only applaud that. It’s a zero-tolerance policy, and it’s a lesson for the future.”
With Rasmussen out, Spanish rider Alberto Contador of the Discovery Channel team moved into the race lead. “It’s in no way a celebration on our end. It’s the third piece of bad news,” said Discovery Channel spokesman P.J. Rabice. “It reflects badly on our sport.” After the Tour’s upbeat start in London, when millions of spectators lined the streets, bad news - nearly all of it related to doping - quickly claimed the spotlight.
On Tuesday, star cyclist Alexandre Vinokourov was sent home after testing positive for a banned blood transfusion, and his team pulled out of the race. Wednesday, it happened again when the Cofidis squad confirmed its rider Cristian Moreni of Italy had failed a doping test, prompted the withdrawal of the entire squad. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the 104-year-old Tour ever had lost its leader in such fashion so close to the finish. “In the very old history of the Tour de France, I don’t know, but the recent past - never,” said Tour spokesman Philippe Sudres.
Get 20 Million Minutes Sent by Email July 25, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Weblog, Technology , add a comment
Are you flying around all week at work and would rather have any new posts from 20 Million Minutes sent directly to you by email or RSS? After a number of requests, we have now added both of those options to the 20 Million Minutes blog! All of our feeds have been migrated to Feedburner, which provides better options for you.
EMAIL:You can get an email sent to you whenever there is a new post. Just click here to go the the Feedburner feed and put in your email to get 20 Million Minutes delivered by email. Then, whenever a post is made to this blog, you will receive an email, right to your desktop once a day. It is that simple!
RSS FEEDS:
For those of you who are more tech-savvy, and are using a newsreader program to aggregate your information feeds, you can add this manually to your RSS news reader with the following URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/stevelavey or click here to go to the feed page and just click on the graphic of your new reader for easy, one-touch adding of this feed to any of the popular newsreaders (yahoo, google, newsgator, etc).
Can It Happen Again? Say It Ain’t So! July 24, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Tour De France, Breaking News , add a commentWhat a debacle AGAIN! After he bonked then showed the world he could grit his teeth, and win a tough mountain stage, Alexander Vinokourov was found guilty of blood doping. This disgusts me….I really thought this would be a clean ride this year but again my legs are whacked out from beneath me.
In a scene eerily parallelling last year’s Tour winner Floyd Landis‘ remarkable “bonk one day then win the next“, Alexander Vinokourov was found guilty of blood doping and immediately sacked by his team, who also pulled out of the Tour de France. “The doping test carried on Alexander Vinokourov after last Saturday’s time trial in Albi has returned positive,” the Swiss team backed by Kazakh companies said. “There is the presence of a double population of haematids (blood corpuscles), which implies there has been a blood transfusion with homological (the same type of) blood.” “Tour organisers have asked Astana Cycling Team to leave the race, which has been accepted spontaneously.”
Vinokourov has asked for the B sample to be tested. “I cannot comment on this until the result of the B sample’s analysis,” International Cycling Union (UCI) president Pat McQuaid told Reuters over the phone. Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme said the cheats should now be worried. “I told the riders before the start that this was a fantastic opportunity for renewal,” he said at a news conference.”That has failed. But the cheats must understand that they are playing Russian roulette. We are utterly determined”. Vuelta champion Vinokourov was one of the pre-race favorites for this year’s Tour but injured his knees in a crash during the first week of the race.
The 33-year-old then blew any hopes of victory when he bonked and finished almost half an hour down on stage winner Alberto Contador and overall leader Michael Rasmussen on Sunday. Vinokourov, who won Monday’s 15th stage, was 23rd in the overall standings, 28 minutes and 21 seconds behind yellow jersey holder Rasmussen of Denmark. The biggest loser of all of this blood doping? Andreas Kloeden, who was Astana’s best placed rider in the standings. The German, second in 2004 and third last year, was fifth overall, 5:34 down on the leader.
Still Waiting on Landis Ruling from Last Year
Last year’s Tour de France winner Floyd Landis is still awaiting a ruling from a United States arbitration panel after testing positive for testosterone during the 2006 race. The American has protested his innocence but if the decision goes against him, he could become the first Tour winner to be stripped of his title. Check out all the latest Floyd Landis updates at Trust but Verify.
Shades of Landis: Vino Rocks! July 23, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Weblog , 1 comment so farIn a scene reminsicent of Floyd Landis last year when he bonked, then experienced the “Greatest One Day Ride in the History of the Tour de France“, Alexander Vinokourov of Astana clinched his second victory of this year’s Tour de France with panache when he won the 196-km 15th stage from Foix on Monday.
This, after Vino bonked yesterday and finishing more than 30 minutes behind the leaders. The Astana rider, who lost all hope of winning the race when he cracked and crashed on Sunday’s 14th stage, went solo 15 km from the summit of the Col de Peyresourde to beat Luxembourg’s Kim Kirchen of the T-Mobile team.
World Class Barbecue July 23, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Weblog , add a commentJoe Riccardi, Emily Luikart, Megan Kosar, Alisha Rylander, Laura Shunta, and their team organized a world-class barbecue that would make all of Texas proud! For our annual Baptism celebration, we had beef barbecue and pulled pork from the hottest new barbecue joint in the city, Smoque, located at 3800 N Pulaski in the great city of Chicago.
There were probably 700 people at the barbecue, enjoying good friends, good community and good food, and sharing in the joy of the 71 folks who were baptized earlier in the day. Here are some more photos:
Baptism Sunday — What a Day! July 22, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Chicago, Inside Park, Missional , add a commentEach year, on the third Sunday in July, we gather at 7 am at North Avenue beach in Chicago to hold our annual baptism service. This year, there were 71 people who were baptized in Lake Michigan in front of their friends, family and the Park Community Church family.
It is so cool to have our baptism service in the shadow of the skyline of this world-class, global city. What a great day to hear the stories of people’s live who have been transformed by Jesus Christ working in their lives! … To hear how their lives were before Christ and the impact that Christ has had on their lives…..and to remind myself of how much Christ has transformed my life in the 23 years since I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior. This day rocks!
Here is the setup in Solheim Center, the site of our Baptism celebration service for about 1,000 people
Cheney is President! July 21, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Breaking News, DifferenceMakers , add a commentAt this very moment, Dick Cheney is the President of the United States of America!
Sound a little crazy? It isn’t. For only the third time in modern history, the Vice President has assumed presidential powers as President Bush invoked the Constitution’s presidential disability clause. will have a colonoscopy Saturday and temporarily hand Presidential powers to Vice President Dick Cheney, the White House said. Press secretary Tony Snow told reporters Friday that Bush will have a colonoscopy procedure looking for signs of cancer at his Camp David, Md., mountaintop retreat. In transferring power while under anesthesia, Bush is electing to implement Section 3 of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, making Cheney acting president until Bush indicates he is prepared to reassume his authority.
President Reagan was the first to invoke the Constitution’s 25th Amendment since its adoption in 1967 as a means of dealing with presidential disability and succession, and President Bush invoked it in 2002 for a colonoscopy where he was sedated for a 1/2 hour.
Isn’t the working of our constitution really cool?
McEwen Wins…Will He Continue? July 8, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Tour De France , add a comment
Wow! Does Robbie McEwen have a gear that no one else has? Robbie produced a stunning come-from-the-back-of-the-peleton finish to win yesterday’s first stage of the Tour de France. McEwen once again produced his trademark burst of power to finish a bike length ahead of Norwegian Thor Hushovd at the end of a dramatic 203km of racing from London.
McEwen, 35, looked to be out of contention when he had to stop for repairs after a crash as the race approached Canterbury towards the end of the 203km stage from London. With 12 miles to go, McEwen was forced to brake because of riders ahead. He was hit from behind by a cyclist and sent sprawling to the road. “The fall itself was on a small road,” the Australian continued. “They [the other riders] were braking in font of me and almost stopping. I also went hard on my brakes. I had almost stopped but whoever was behind me wasn’t paying attention and just ran straight into the back of me. It flipped me over the handlebars. I tried to keep flipping over to land on my feet or maybe my back but my hand was the first thing to hit the ground and then my knee. Straight off, he feared that he might have to stop. “I initially thought that I had broken my wrist, as I couldn’t move it and it was very sore. I will have to go and get it looked at by the doctor.” Pressing on despite a sore right wrist and cuts on his right knee, McEwen was at the back of the peleton with 7 km to go but was escorted by his Predictor Lotto teammates back up into the leaders group for the final all-out sprint.
Will He Continue?
However the crash has left the 34-year-old Predictor-Lotto star nursing a sore wrist - and with major doubts for the coming days. “When it happens you’re not really thinking too much about it, you get back on your bike you don’t feel anything,” said McEwen, whose team-mates battled to bring him back into the race for the finale. “But now I’m starting to feel the pain, in my hand, my wrist and my knee. “It was a great day for me, but now I’m starting to get a bit worried for the rest of the Tour.”
As the 2007 TdF starts, let’s not forget about our friend, Floyd Landis, who will be here in Chicago at Borders at 830 N Michigan Ave on Tueday evening at 7pm to sign his book. As always, stay up with all the Floyd Landis progress at the Trust But Verify blog — they have the best info anywhere on the matter.
Differencemakers: Golf to God July 7, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Sunday Services, Methods & Strategies, Missional, The Cultural Conversation, DifferenceMakers , add a comment
I love golf and am excited about a successful ministry founded by a professional golfer that is using golf to help others find Jesus on the fairways. This ministry is called “In His Grip” Golf Association, a ministry that teaches churches how to use golf as a way to share the Gospel. Founder Scott Lehman said he got the idea for In His Grip from driving by golf courses on Sunday mornings and seeing men teeing off instead of going to church.
“A lot of Sundays, you go by the golf course and they’re really packed,” Lehman said. “We felt like there was an opportunity to take our faith to the fairways and just meet them (golfers) where they’re at and introduce them to the church and ultimately to Jesus Christ.”
In His Grip holds training workshops for churches and shows them how to host golf tournaments to reach out to men who aren’t active church-goers. Scott said “Golf courses are ideal places to share the Gospel because it takes hours to play a round, and it’s easy to talk while walking along fairways and riding in golf carts”. In His Grip held its first tournament nearly 10 years ago and has hosted about 150 tournaments across the country. Lehman, 46, a golf teaching professional, holds training sessions for churches in different regions of the country. “Our vision is to reach every golfer in every nation,” Lehman said. “Right now we’re seeing a big trend of churches looking to meet people outside the four walls of the church, and this is a strategy to help them do that.”
I love this ministry that is going out to reach those who would not otherwise attend church! They even have a Golfer’s Bible printed that intersperses throughout the biblical text thirty-two full-color pages of inspirational messages teed up to reach the golfer’s heart, plus thirty-two more pages of devotions at the back of this special edition. Check it out!
Sliding into Vacation July 1, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Family , add a comment
Wisconsin Dells, Here We Come!
I am off with the whole family for some quick R&R in the Wisconsin Dells. Got a great deal at Wilderness Resort and looking forward to a couple of mid-day naps with my IPod going (and dreaming about getting one of the precious IPhones)!
Katie turns 8 this week and this will give us a head start on celebrating her “birthday week” (we have a whole week of celebration in our family — one day seems to be to short to celebrate your birthday, don’t you agree?)
Summer seems to be rushing by and this will be a good stress reducer for me. Maybe I will go in for one of those “Man-spa” treatments — whaddya think!
