Alberto Contador may be suspiciously good, but this has been a clean Tour de France this year. So instead of making fun of stupid dopers (Bert is clearly stupid, but only possibly a doper), I thought I'd make a pubic-service post. Here's a list of all the TdF team and what types of companies actually sponsor them. Who knew Quick-Step was in the flooring business?

The teams are also listed in order of their team classification (combined time of their top 3 riders). That means that Borat & Co (Kazakhstan governement and a conglomeration of Kazakh companies) is beating the crap out of the likes of an Italian sheet metal company and a Dutch bank. Yeah, it's just weird like that. And next year we'll get to see Radio Shack in the mix.

ASTANA: Borat & Co.
GARMIN - SLIPSTREAM: GPS devices and a guy with huge sideburns
AG2R LA MONDIALE: French interprofessional insurance and supplementary retirement fund group, and a French-based group for supplementary pension and estate planning insurance.
TEAM SAXO BANK: Online trading and investment company
LIQUIGAS: Italian liquid gas provider
COFIDIS LE CREDIT EN LIGNE: Money lender
EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI: Basque telecom company with Basque government funding (like Borat & Co.)
FRANCAISE DES JEUX: French national lottery
TEAM KATUSHA: Russian natural gas and holding companies (Russian mob)
TEAM MILRAM: German milk (hence why they look like cows)
AGRITUBEL: Metal tubes for farming
CAISSE D’EPARGNE: French banking group (for a Spanish team)
BBOX BOUYGUES TELECOM: French mobile phone company
SILENCE - LOTTO: Belgian national lottery and a Belgian pharma company.
CERVELO TEST TEAM: Canadian bike company with a fake Italian name.
TEAM COLUMBIA - HTC: Winter jackets and mobile phones
RABOBANK: Dutch financial services provider
QUICK STEP: Laminate & Parquet flooring
LAMPRE - N.G.C: Italian sheet metal
SKIL-SHIMANO: small power tools, cycling components and fishing tackle

Minnesota is delicious

Minnesota is delicious. And not just because we're next to Wisconsin (which we all know is made of cheese). I've been here a week visiting the fam and it's almost time to head back to PA. As always, there's never enough time with family and friends, and there's never enough time to drink all the new-to-me beers. Alas. I do my best.

Here's a quick write-up of a kick-ass, one-off beer I had this week at Town Hall Brewery. This brewpub is easily one of the best in the world and does amazing things with hops.


Golden Leaf Pale Ale
Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery
American Pale Ale

A / 4.3
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | drink: 4.5

On-tap at Town Hall. $3.75 for a late night happy hour pint. Damn these guys know their hops. This Columbus dry-hopped pale ale kicks ass. It's got big biting hops, nice and rough, while the body is still very drinkable. The flavor is a mix of earthy and grapefruit hops and they pair perfectly. It's part garden, part citrus punch. There's also a slightly fruity, trademark Town Hall note that I only taste in their beers. House flavor I suppose. I could ask for a little more flavor from this beer, but it's still one of the best pale ales I've had in a long time.

Blogging another blog, and the Brewer's Art Green Peppercorn Tripel

The last two days I've done the liveblog Tour de France coverage for Bicycling.com. Both times I wrote about 2500 words over 3 hours, which is pretty good for me, but pales in comparison to the usual contributor, Joe Lindsey.

Today's Tour coverage garnered 55 comments. I don't think I've ever had a post here get 5, but that's fine. This is the place for me to write about beer and cycling stuff nobody is paying me to write about. If 200 people see the page, 20 read it and 2 think about commenting but don't, that's enough of an audience for me.

To celebrate my blogging with a larger audience, I split of bottle of the Brewer's Art Green Peppercorn Tripel with a friend. This richly-flavored take on a classic Belgian style was perfect for the humid summer evening we were having. If you're ever in Maryland, look this beer up.

Brewer's Art Green Peppercorn Tripel
Brewer's Art
Tripel | 9.20% ABV



A- / 4.1
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | drink: 4.5

Picked up a bottle at State Line in Maryland and split it with a friend. Poured a hazy gold with a tall white head that left lacing. Throughout the aroma and flavor, the peppercorn is obvious, but it never dominates the beer. Instead it does a great job of adding something a little different. This beer is otherwise a very smooth and subtle triple that reminds me of La fin du Monde for the gentle spices and occasional burst of sweet bread a light fruit flavors. Definitely try this beer if you can find it.

(The picture is good enough that I feel compelled to remind any readers that it's not mine, I'm just borrowing it from shyzaboy)

Riding like a Belgian

I took a vacation day recently to spend 8 hours on my bike, or at least near it and enjoying a beer.



I went out with local mechanic extraordinaire, Taylor, and stopped for lunch at the Phoenixville Iron Hill Brewery. Before my Belgian meatballs came out, we had an order of frites with spicy mayo and a round of the house witbier. Later on, I enjoyed an even tastier tripel.

Witbier
Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant
Witbier

B+ / 3.85
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | drink: 4

I biked into town on a hot day and ordered the wit first thing. Came out in a tall pilsner sort of glass with an orange slice which I quickly removed. While the beer was very drinkable, like a good wit, the flavor felt a little fuller and lacked the small subtle spice flavors of a great wit. Instead it was a simpler sweet vanilla wheat with pepper and orange spice. Certainly not bad, but not my favorite wit.

Belgian Tripel
Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant
Tripel
A- / 4.1
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | drink: 4.5

I ordered a goblet with my meal of Belgian meatballs and though the meatballs were lackluster, this beer kicked ass. It appeared a clear gold with a short head. I suppose I really liked it because it so closely mimicked Maredsous 10 (a fav of mine). It's not the driest tripel, but there's a delicious orange and spice yeast profile with hint of pepper, vanilla, and apricot. Very tasty. Try this beer.