Cycling At 1.4 GHz

The components.

Cyber Monday was good to me. My new toy arrived today: an HP Chromebox. It’s a stripped-down personal computer with a wireless keyboard, a wireless mouse, and an HDMI output. Basically, it’s a web browser for my living room TV. For just $149.99, I could not resist.

The purchase was motivated almost completely by my love for cycling. I don’t watch a lot of television, but I do watch a lot of bike racing on the Internet. That has meant hundreds of hours in the home office—where I spend too much time already—staring at a 22-inch monitor. Now I can watch bike racing on a much larger screen and in greater comfort.

Up and running!

If you are familiar only with the cycling coverage from American TV networks, then you might be surprised by the quantity and quality of live webcasts. Some of my favorite events are available only on the Internet, but even televised races can be better online. Tour Tracker is a great alternative for races like the Tour of California, the Tour of Utah and the USA Pro Challenge, providing many additional hours of coverage, tons of on-screen information to augment the commentary, and (usually) video that continues during commercial breaks.

Today I can only play around with YouTube videos of completed races, but this weekend there will be live cyclocross to enjoy!