Here’s another of my favourite topics. Getting things done. Things to do before you die as it were.

Now I’m not saying that this video is a prime example of what you should try and certainly comes with the warning “don’t try this at home”, however, I think the video tells a great story.

A little background. Travis Pastrana is one crazy guy! He’s been at the forefront of motocross and freestyle motocross for over a decade and has pushed the boundaries in ways not imaginable when he arrived on the scene.

His ability to take what others thought impossible and achieve it has been astounding. More to the point, he has become a pioneer. Like so many things in this world, once someone acheives something that was peviously impossible, others believe they can do it too and before long, Joe average can even give it a go.

This is something that I thought was crazy at first, but for a guy that has already pushed the envelope and has the scars to proove it, it’s not that far from what you should expect. Some people say he could have died. Yes, true. But the plane could have crashed on take off and killed him too… do you get the point.

Anyway, without further ado…

Twelve short months ago, Cadel Evans was a handful of seconds behind Alberto Contador going into the final time trial of the Tour de France. Today, he is a handful of seconds behind Carlos Sastre going into the same stage.

Last year, Cadel had ridden a brilliant tour without major incident.

This year, he has also ridden a brilliant tour, though with a crash scare early in the tour where Cadel feared hae may have even broken his colar bone.

Cadel Evans stands in fourth place overall in the tour and just over a minute and a half behind the leader, though no one is really thinking of Kohl and Schleck, the men in between, as a major threat.

The Aussie is one of the best time trialists in the tour and has already taken over a minute off Sastre in the first time trial which was about half the length of tonights stage. Everyone knows he will take time off Sastre again. How much.

I heard two commentators discussing bike technology the other day and heard a very powerful comment. David McKenzie, former Aussie cyclist was posed the question of how much difference the bikes and the technology would make and he said that at this elite level, virtually every rider is the same ability with the same machinery. The difference is all mental.

So true. Who is mentally stronger to win the tour?

By the way, just to make sure I don’t get suprised by the winner, keep your eye on Denis Menchov who is only a minute behind Cadel and definitely not completely out of it either.

Go Cadel.

Go Aussie.

For a man who has had almost no support from this team this year going head to head with a man who has had easilly the strongest team this year, it’s fitting it comes down to an individual event.

Cadel Evans. Australia’s first Tour de France champion!… has a nice ring to it.

I remember a time that I thought I was at the depths of dispair. I thought that I’d hit rock bottom.

Then someone said to me something I will never forget. They said:

“Imagine you have just put all your problems in life into a shopping trolley. See the shopping trolley in front of you. Feel yourself pushing the trolley.

Now imagine you are at the local K-mart, Big W or Target store and you are pushing your trolley around there.

Notice all the other people around you. What are they wearing? What do they look like? What do they smell like?

Imagine all the other people around you are also pushing their own trolley and notice they also have all their life’s problems in thier trolley too.

You can’t tell what their problems are, you can just see that they are in there.

Now, do you want to swap trolley with anyone? Seriously? You don’t know what’s in there.

The happy person may have terminal cancer.

Another person in living in fear for their life after a bitter divorce.

Someone else is living with the pain of having accidently driven over their child with their car in their own driveway.

Again, do you want to swap?”

All of a sudden, my problems didn’t seem like problems anymore. If they still do to you, imagine you are pushing your trolley, though there are people from all over the world pushing their trolley as well.

For most of us, it’s enough to jolt us to feel greatful by thinking about those around us immediately.

The person who accidently drove over their child… true story. This made them greatful too.

The person with cancer. Same.

You see, someone is always in a worse position than you.

We just have to be greatful for what we DO have.

I know I’ve said it before, but what a test of the human body the Tour de France is.

I don’t really care if you aren’t that interested in the bike race, I am. Regardless of whether or not an Aussie was in a great position to win the whole thing, I’d still be up late every night catching all the action.

So here’s where we stand after Stage 16 of this amazing race.

Team CSC and Frank Schleck hold onto just a few precious seconds and the yellow jersey and by all accounts, this is a well deserved lead at this stage.

Team CSC has easilly been the most dominant of the tour this year and they continue to get stronger. The pace dished out by nearly all the team members has been too much for the main field and day after day they isolate their main rivals on the big climbs.

Although the whole team has put in an amazing effort, special mention goes to the German Jens Voigt, who has been nothing short of a machine this tour. His relentless pace making at the front has broken so many pre race favourites it’s not funny and all this in absolute sacrifice for his more fancied team mates, Frank Schleck and Carlos Sastre.

So why doesn’t Jens Voigt just win the whole thing if he’s that good? Great question. Though in cycling, it’s a team sport and you can rarely win team sports without great team mates willing to sacrifice themselves. Voigt is that great team mate.

As an Aussie, I’ve had plenty to cheer about this tour as well.

Firstly, the amazing ride by Simon Gerrans to win stage 15 with a mountain top finish when he looked all but gone with a few kilometres to go. What a ride.

Most importantly, Cadel Evans’ chances of winning this thing are very very real indeed. No matter how good team CSC is, I thought that if they were going to attack Evans, it should have been last night over the highest mountain pass road in Europe. They could not. Evans marked them superbly.

Better still, Evans headed the charge on the descent and even managed to drop Menchov off the back and gain a valuable 30 seconds or so on who would seem to me to be Evans biggest rival in the time trial coming up in a few days.

But looking forward to tonights stage, arguably the most famous finish in the Tour de France, L’Alpe-d’Huez. This is an unbelievable finish, stright up the side of a mountain with countless switchbacks and a gradient any cyclist would tremble at the prospect of.

What makes this a truly amazing stage though, is the fact that the riders have to go over two “beyond category” climbs to even get to the base of the last climb! For the riders, sheer pain. For us fans, sheer excitement.

So going into this stage, a few things are clear. If a CSC rider is to win, they need at least a couple of minutes on Cadel Evans. If Menchov is to win, he will need at least a minute and a half to two minutes. If Kohl is to win, he needs maybe 3 to 5 minutes.

All possible scenarios. Though the prospect of shaking Cadel Evans off their back wheel and gaining this sort of time is slim at best I think.

If his opponents are indeed to gain this time, they need to firstly isolate Evans on the second climb of the day. Possible, however Evans’ number one team mate Popovytch seems to have ridden into some form with a great result last night, finishing with the winner.

Then they need to either drop Evans early, or get him to crack. If he gets dropped early, they may be able to grind out a time gap. If Evans cracks, even within 3 or so kms from the top, it’s not unlikely they could grab a few minutes off him even in that short space.

Bottom line, Evans just needs to mark the wheels of Schleck, Sastre, Menchov and Kohl. If he does that, the time trial will most likely decide he is the winner in Paris as he is definately superior in the solo ride against the clock.

Do CSC have the amunition to keep firing?

Is Evans colar bone ok after his early crash?

Does Menchov have the legs for a big attack?

Is Kohl capable of stealing the tour from all of them?

All I can say is bring it on! Go Cadel!