Iron Maiden live @ Marquee 1980

This video is dedicated to all Badwater competitors starting their 135-mile race soon.

Why? Because there's nothing hotter on earth than Death Valley in July, except fully packed Marquee Club in July, with Iron Maiden performing there. I attended one of the shows, and it was so hot I had to pour a pint of ice-cold lager on my head!

My Iron Maiden song list suggestion:

• Running Free
• Run To The Hills
• Flight of Icarus
• Die With Your Boots On
• The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner
• Can I Play with Madness
• Be Quick Or Be Dead
• Man On The Edge
• Different World
• These Colours Don't Run
• Brighter Than A Thousand Suns
• The Longest Day

Chrissie Wellington sets Ironman world record 8:31:59

Chrissie Wellington smashed women's Ironman triathlon world record in Challenge Roth today with 8:31:59. British 'iron maiden' swam 3.8K in 50:28, ran through T1 in 2:10, biked 180K in 4:40:28, went through T2 in 1:23, and finished with a 2:57:32 marathon.

Ironman women's world record has improved considerably in a year or so. During the past 15 years, it remained unbroken until last summer:

• Paula Newby-Fraser, 8:50:24, Ironman Europe (Roth), 1994
• Sandra Wallenhorst, 8:47:26, Ironman Austria, 2008
• Yvonne Van Vlerken, 8:45:48, Challenge Roth, 2008
• Chrissie Wellington, 8:31:59, Challenge Roth, 2009.

Without a doubt Roth provides one of the fastest Ironman courses, with the swim in a pool-like canal, the bike through nice country roads and the run on excellent dirt paths. Also the enthusiastic audience and professional race organization play a big part in the success of the event. I've done it three times, and really enjoyed myself. Now that the main sponsor Quelle is in trouble, let's hope the event will be able to continue in the future.

Congrats Chrissie!

Lance: world's greatest book?

John Wilcockson knows the sport of cycling, for example he has reported the Tour 40 times. You can read his stories from the ongoing Tour at http://www.velonews.com/john-wilcockson.

Quite conveniently John's new book is out too - modestly named Lance - The Making of The World's Greatest Champion (US) or Lance Armstrong - The World's Greatest Champion (UK).

Like Lance, the book rarely disappoints. On almost every one of the 370 pages I discovered some interesting things I've never heard before. The book also comes with 16 additional pages of rare photos.

Lance has recently regretted that in this book he states last year's Tour was a joke. That's understandable now, when he is on the road riding with those guys. However I think he had a point, as I didn't follow Tours without Lance at all. Not because all the other cyclists are a joke, but because they are nowhere near as inspiring or interesting as Lance.

Highly recommended for all endurance athletes. A must read for Lance fans. In fact, almost anyone should be able to enjoy and possibly benefit from reading this. Go get it!

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/cycling/2009-06-30-wilcockson-q-and-a_N.htm

Astana rules the Tour but no yellow

After Stage 4 TTT Astana has 5 guys in top seven, all within 51 seconds from the leader Fabian Cancellara. Lance Armstrong missed the yellow jersey only by 0.2 seconds.

[Edit: the reason that caused Lance to fail grabbing the lead position has ben identified. They were afraid it might be a virus, but it turned out to be something way more serious than that:

Ben on Lance's TT Bike Before Stage 4 -- powered by http://www.livestrong.com

Ben Stiller.]

They still have a long way to ride. This is going to get interesting.

Finland's IronMinister in Frankfurt

Finland's Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Stubb is now an IronMinister. He finished Ironman Frankfurt with the very respectable time of 10:35:45 on Sunday. Especially considering that he blogged about injuring his back a week before the race, when moving a heavy box. Fortunately a fysiotherapist was able to fix it. Congratulations!

Tiina Boman was the best Finn on Sunday, finishing 5th in pro women with 9:34:23. That's not bad, but not quite fast enough to reach her goal of placing in top 3.

Timo Bracht of Germany was the overall winner with a new amazing course record 7:59:16.