Just when you weren’t paying much attention, Russell Crowe went and became a wine aficionado.
You’ve got to try pinot noir from Otago, New Zealand,” Crowe says [...] And if you want a sauvignon blanc, get a New Zealand sauvignon blanc Marlborough or something from the colder areas of Australia, like the State of Victoria. If you want a chardonnay, then it’s probably better to be exploring the South Australian chardonnays. Definitely shiraz and cab-sauv when it comes to Australia, but pinot is New Zealand.
The Tour de France might be shortened:
The UCI world cycling federation announced a complete review of its sport Saturday, including a possible shortening of the three-week Tour de France.
At the end of a doping-tainted season, UCI president Pat McQuaid said an independent team of academics would lead a yearlong audit of the sport.
The major tours in France, Italy and Spain have always objected to shortening their schedules, even though critics contend the long and intense season may drive cyclists toward doping.
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And, over in Paris, La Coquette will be passing on the left
The husband and wife team that run Vélo et Chocolat are lovely, it turns out. And less Bike Natzi-ish than I’m making them sound. They let you test all the different models along the very pretty canal de lÂOurcq, and they make really tasty hot chocolate and banana cake.
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How Stuff Works has a great little blurb about comparing the fuel efficiency of a human to an engine.
A gallon of gasoline (about 4 liters) contains about 31,000 calories. If a person could drink gasoline, then a person could ride about 912 miles on a gallon of gas (about 360 km per liter). Considering that a normal car gets about 30 miles per gallon, that’s pretty impressive!
To be fair, keep in mind that a car generally weighs a ton or more, while a bicycle weighs only 30 pounds. Cars also travel a lot faster than 15 mph. But it is still an interesting comparison. Note also that people cannot drink gasoline. However, people can drink vegetable oil, which contains nearly the same number of calories per gallon (if you look at How Fats Work you can see that fat contains long hydrogen/carbon chains just like gasoline does).
The people riding in a race like the Tour de France are riding more like 25 mph. Because air resistance rises very quickly with speed, they are burning about three times more calories — something like 100 calories per mile. In a 100-mile stage of the tour, a racer might burn something like 8,000 to 10,000 calories in one day! So they are getting only about 300 miles per gallon. The only way toreplace those calories is to eat a lot of food (see How Dieting Works for details).
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