Zach is a graduate of the Le Cordon Bleu Hospitality and Restaurant Program at Western Culinary Institute in Portland, Oregon. Before culinary school, Zach was a renowned high-school debater and extemporaneous speaker at Jackson Hole High School in Jackson, Wyoming, competing in two NFL National Tournaments. After a failed entry into college life at Lewis and Clark College, a reversion to the resort life of his youth led him into the kitchen.

Bigalke has worked at such various restaurants as Serratto, a top-ten fine-dining Italian establishment in Portland, Eagle Ridge Resort and Spa in Galena, Illinois, and Brooks Lake Lodge on Togwotee Pass, Wyoming. His love of fine ingredients and bold presentations currently see him working at the University of Oregon's catering department. He plans to dive back into the college life in the 2008 fall term.

Bigalke is also a freelance writer. You can find his works here at Helium, at his blog at http://blog.myspace.com/bigalkez , and at his personal website at http://bigalke.ourprofile.org ... if you would like to personally contact him, please feel free to email comments about any of my article topics to bigalkez@yahoo.com ... Zach welcomes topic suggestions and potential collaborative ideas...keep writing, and let the word prevail. The pen is indeed mightier than the sword (and its memories shall indeed survive longer)!

My passion is ...

... are various - writing, cycling, cooking, sports, political analysis, great stories, fine wines, spirited debate, etc.

I know too much about ...

... random sports trivia

My parents always told me ...

... that a good work ethic could take a person anywhere.

My childhood ambition ...

... changed too often to remember.

Why I write ...

... to get whatever insanely pertinent thoughts I might have out there for the world to decipher.

My first job ...

... was as a dishwasher, opening Jackson Lake Lodge for the first time at fourteen.

My best moment ...

... was the day I married my wife, Melanie.

Sports & Recreation > Sports & Recreation (Other) Sports analysis: 2008 Tour de France, stage nine

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95th Tour de France

Stage 9 - Toulouse to Bagneres-de-Bigorre - 224.0 km (139.0 mi)

13 July 2008

The young guns have shown up at the 2008 Tour de France ready to assert their ascent to the top of the sport. One day after fresh-faced sprinter Mark Cavendish swooped across the line in Toulouse to become the first multiple-sprint winner of this year's race, another young rider completed a daring solo breakaway to take his second stage of the Tour. 24-year-old Riccardo Ricco, already a podium finisher at the Giro d'Italia, used the first-category Col d'Aspin to take his second ca...

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