A lovely bike ride through hell

You couldn't ask for a much better mid-November day than we had Sunday. Sunny skies, temperatures in the low 60's and racing in wine country. That was about the extent of the goodness. What was left was unfiltered, hellish pain.

We raced on the grounds of Mt Pleasant Winery. It was a very nice setting for a race situated on the bluff and overlooking Missouri River valley down below with a great atmosphere of cheering fans. But, being on top of the hillside meant the race course was also on the hillside. It seemed that ninety percent of the course was either uphill, an off camber turn or what could loosely be described as a straight that was off camber. And, for good measure, the lowest portion of the course had a couple short sections of peanut butter thick mud to slow you down a little bit more before the big hill.

Ah, yes. The BIG hill. If there is one thing we often lack in our local cross races it is a run-up. A hill that requires to get off your bike, throw it on your shoulder or push it alongside. This lack of run-ups showed as almost everyone was suffering. As tortuous as the climb was, I managed to do okay "running" up. That is, if you consider little baby steps at 2 mph to be running. But, compared to the folks going 1.5 mph, I was flying. Still, there were a handful of people strong enough, or with proper gearing to ride up. Kudos to them.

Now that I think about, maybe I could use that Computrainer Climber that simulates 36% gradients.

Swifter, Higher, Stronger

Any trip to a website devoted to cycling news will present you with a vast array of cycling related advertisements. Dozens of products are available that will turn you into the next Eddy Merckx. All you have to do is pop the pills to increase oxygen in your blood by gulping down a drink with amino acids. Throw the training video into the DVD player and then jump onto your two-wheeled carbon wonder machine, or this other carbon wonder machine, or this third one. Never mind that all three bikes are all built in the same Korean factory by a 14 yr old master fabricator named, Li Xiao. You will go fasssttttt!!!!... if you buy their product.

Once in a while, however, an advertisement truly stands out. Sometimes it might be a clever saying or a cool photograph or the ever popular hot woman clad in varying quantities of lycra.

Recently, a RacerMate Computrainer ad has caught my eye. And not just for the fact that their model looks suspiciously like local, Cat 4 pro legend turned tri-guy, Dave Garthe.

Now, by all accounts, Computrainer is a fine product. I honestly have never heard anyone say that their Computrainer is heaping pile of dung. I do have to wonder about their latest product, however.

This new training device is the Computrainer Climber. The "Climber" is a clever product that takes the drudgery of riding a trainer and adds the difficulty of riding up a hill/mountain while eliminating the pesky, enjoyable part of going downhill.

Genius!!! The marketing guys are surely grumbling in their cubicles over that decision.

Call me crazy, but on those rare occasions when I felt particularly masochistic and could not ride an actual hill, I didn't drop 2000 smackers Computrainer Climber. I put one or two concrete blocks under my front wheel, cranked up the resitance on trainer and slayed myself for a while. It was a hoot. And, approximately $1990 dollars cheaper.

Back to the issue at hand. The computrainer ad uses a photo of the Dave Garthe lookalike hammering away on his "Climber" while not actually climbing anywhere. What really caught my attention was the angle of the bike. Just look at it.

I was mesmerized by the angle and had to find out more. According to the RacerMate website, the "Climber" can be adjusted from 2.5 degrees to 20 degrees. Wow, twenty degrees. That should get me prepared for climbing the worst section of the Koppenberg, right?

I hate to break the news to the good folks at RacerMate but those cool stage profiles that Paul Sherwen describes during the Tour de France. Those are not drawn to scale. The Col do Galibier is not really THAT steep.

The problem is 20 degrees does not equal 20% grade. With few exceptions, the toughest climbs in France max out at about 12% for short periods. That is approximately 7 degrees. Twenty degrees is approximately 36% grade. Who designed this thing, Tim Taylor of Tool Time?

More power... more degrees... grrr grrr grrr

Maybe those French pussies can only handle 7 degrees of angle but this is America, dammit! Yeah, I will climb the Galibier after the training on the "Climber". Except, I refuse to bother with those annoying switchbacks. Back and forth... back and forth... what a waste of time. I will ride straight up the 'friggin mountain.

To quote John Lennon...

Nobody told me there'd be days like these.

Sunday seemed like a good day for a cross race. The temperatures had cooled off to something more typical of mid-November. My legs, for the first time in three weekends, did not feel completely wasted from the weight lifting that I started a couple weeks ago. Everything was looking up a for a competitive race.

Our typically benign cyclocross weather was threatening to be be unpleasant. A band of showers had been running just north of town all day but looked as though no precipitation would roll through the area until later in the day. The skies were gray and gloomy. The humidity was high and causing the smokestacks of industries along the river to spew thick plumes of billowing smoke. It would at least look like 'cross weather, even if the the course would likely remain dry. That's what I thought.

I pulled the bike out of the car to take a recon lap and pass Marco who was already on the course. As we pass, he says "It's crazy". What? The last time we raced at this park, the course was somewhat challenging but nothing that I would consider crazy. I hopped on the course about mid-way through a lap and was immediately greeted by a quick left, down, right turn and up followed by a paved walking path. It was a fun little dipsy-do but nothing crazy.

Then came the barrier followed by a looong stretch of unevenly spaced stairs up a gradual hill. The stairs would force everyone to ride on approximately a foot and a half of soft ground on either side of the stairs.

Get the top of the climb and the fun was not over. Then, twist your way down a somewhat narrow descent. I can handle that. Unfortunately, this dirt path through the woods doesn't get much sunlight. Even though the previous week had been fairly dry and most of the course on solid ground, there were two stretches on this path with mud bogs several inches deep. Grind, grunt, pedal, steer right, pedal, correct your steering, grunt, steer the other direction, grind. The mud was actually quite fun, but challenging.

Survive the mud and you get to climb up another hill for another 100+ feet to the top of the course before diving down the road toward the finish line followed by our more traditional, winding cross course design with a bonus double sandpit. It was a crazy course. Let's race.

I didn't take a great start spot simply because I was not completely sure how I would feel and did not want to interfere too much with the front runners. My mid-pack starting spot was fine. My start was average and I lost a few places but began to work my past a few people. The sand pits were no problem, through the dipsy-do, over the barrier and start up the long hill. So far, so good. I was still mid-pack but near Miguel and Cristophe so I was with folks of similar ability.

Halfway up the hill, my chain drops between the cassette and my spokes. I tugged and pulled and fiddled around. Meanwhile, riders kept cruising right by me. I finally extricated the chain, jumped on the saddle and got on my way... for 50 feet.

The chain again dropped between the cassette and spokes. Awww... c'mon!!!! Off the bike and proceed with yanking, wiggling and any number of other maneuvers. After another 30 seconds of playing around I get under way and I find myself firmly in last place. The nearest rider is not even in sight.

I reach the top of the hill and start my descent. At that point I can hear the horns and bells and screaming as the leaders are already passing through the start/finish area. Good grief! I slogged my way through the mud in hopeless solitude. In some respects I was almost glad not to be going through this section with 50 other people. On the other hand, I had more than a few thoughts of resignation. Why beat myself up for another 45 minutes of mud and heartache?

But, the race was young. I tried to think positively and looked at this as a chance to see how many people I could catch. And, catch people I did. Slowly, steadily. I was not to be confused with Sven Nys catching Niels Albert earlier in the day at Gavere, but I was making progress.

Then, on the last lap, I flew over the barrier and rode up, along the stairs, for the last time. Sure enough, my chain drops into the spokes for a third freakin' time. I must have fought with the darn thing for well over a minute this time. It was just not coming loose. Completely frustrated, I decided to just run with the bike. I ran to the top and down through the first mud section when it dawned on my that running really sucks and running with a bike sucks even more. I fought with the chain again for at least another 30 seconds before finally getting it free. By this time all my hard work throughout the race was wasted. Virtually everyone I managed to pass during the race, streamed right past me again.

Maybe I should have quit the race on the first lap. The result would almost been the same. No, I am happy to have kept racing. My legs felt better than previous races and I got to work on a few things like shouldering the bike and riding through the mud. I still need to improve on pulling chains out of wheels, though. Finished 48th of 50 finishers.

Nobody told me there'd be days like these.

The first week of November has given ...

The first week of November has given us spectacular weather. It's almost as if we are getting paid back for the equally awful October that left us waterlogged and had the majority of the population grumbling.

 

Yesterday was sunny and reached 78 degrees. I'm not going to complain about the nice weather but I prefer 'cross races that are a little bit cooler. Yesterday's race was the last of the Pride Inc series up in Alton and located at Gordon Moore Park. I know little about Alton other than the River Road, the Casino and the Alton Giant, Robert Wadlow. Now I know about Gordon Moore Park and it is a terrific location for cross. Rolling to hilly terrain provided more than enough challenges to wear you out by the end of the race. Plus, spectators could see virtually entire course in front of them as the sat on the hillside by the start/finish line. I thought the course designers laid out a very nice course that had a little bit of everything. There were a few flat sections, a couple off-camber turns, some 180 turns snaking up a hillside and one reasonably steep and long hill that really was a grind to get up. Folks with a double chainring setup may have had it easier but my single ring left me debating at times whether it would be quicker to just run the hill. Thats good though. In my view a course should have at least one spot where the rider has to decide whether they will one thing or another. Should I ride the hill or run it? Should I take this line through the turn or that other line?

 

If there was any weakspot with the course, it was the placement of the barrier. The barrier, which is taller than the UCI limit, was placed at the top of the tough hill I mentioned earlier. It seems it would have served a better purpose elsewhere on the course. The hill was plenty tough already and basically served as a natural barrier. A rider was already creeping up the hill and, in some cases, running at that point. The barrier did little at that point. Putting the barrier in another location would have provided a little more variety. Regardless, it was a great, warm day of racing.

Suspended

The UCI announced today the suspension of Fuji-Servetto's Alberto Fernandez de la Puebla Ramos for having a name that is longer than thirty characters long.

Second place

From today's Velonews...

"I'm tired of being the bloke who finishes second in the Tour de France" said Cadel Evans
-----------
Personally, I thought Evans' 30th place finish this year took care of that unfortunate situation.

Crossword

Today's crossword puzzle in the Post-Dispatch is tricky. 41 Down has the clue "Tour de France need"

I can't decide if the answer is CERA or PEDS.

Thoughts of the 2010 L'Etape

Rumors of upcoming Tour de France always pique my curiosity. I like the speculation and have a certain admiration for the amount of digging people do to try and determine the routes ahead of time. Plus, it is a good excuse for me to pull up maps and look at what is being proposed, particularly the mountain stages.

An interesting subplot, to me, is what stage is chosen for L’Etape du Tour. If I had not competed in the "race" before, I doubt that the L’Etape choice would interest me. But, having done the ’05 edition and ridden quite a few other passes in France, I am often familiar with the area chosen and tend to visualize the terrain, the towns and remember how I felt going over those same roads.

The L’Etape rumors took several different forms in the weeks before the recent announcement. First, I heard rumors of a stage from Revel to Luchon. I dismissed those rumors right away. The stage would have been too long for a Tour stage and didn’t have enough climbing in my opinion.

Then, the speculation was a stage from Luchon to the top of the Col d’Aubisque and also included the Peyresourde, Aspin, Tourmalet and Soulor. That had more than enough climbing but was a little short (~150km) for a L’Etape. That rumored stage then morphed into a finish in Pau. That made for a strong stage. The strikes against that being the L’Etape stage is the start in Luchon, a relatively small town. Also, it would have been inconvenient for the riders to get from the finish back to the start

Finally, in the final days before the announcement, rumors settled on a start in Pau and a finish atop the Tourmalet after climbing the Marie-Blanque and the Tourmalet/Soulor combo. The start and finish would be closer together for the competitors and Pau is plenty big enough to handle a start. It all made sense.

Unfortunately, that rumor was wrong. Very close, but still wrong. Instead of climbing the Aubisque, the course climbs the Soulor from the north. Personally, I like the Aubisque option but the Soulor makes sense. The Marie-Blanque and Aubisque were both used in the ’05 L’Etape so maybe they didn’t want such similar courses only four years apart

Approximately the first 50 km from Pau will be rolling to flat terrain before reaching the base of the Col de Marie-Blanque. Then the fun begins.

Riding the early slopes of the Col de Marie-Blanque

Coming from Pau, the Col de Marie-Blanque will begin with a left hand turn. The Marie-Blanque is not hard climb... to start. It is one of the worst types of climbs, in my view. It is concave. The grade is an easy 3-4% to start for 2km. Dont get lulled into a false sense of security, though. The next 3 km are a harder, but still manageable, 5-6% as it softens you up. Then, the mountain bites back. The next 4 km average a tough 11%. Any momentum you had goes away and you start to grind out each pedal stroke. There is no scenery to distract you. All you have are trees on either side of a somewhat narrow two lane road. As I recall, the road does not have many turns either. You are left pedaling upward, wanting to see the next km marker alongside the road.

This is a cheese making region and if you ride it on a normal day you are quite likely to see cows roaming the hillsides. In fact, at the top of the Marie-Blanque there is a sign saying that the road is the Route de Fromage (Route of Cheese)

Looking back down the climb of the Marie-Blanque

Looking east toward the start of the descent

Unlike the western ascent, the descent of the Marie-Blanque is rather twisty and wooded for the a few kilometers. Back in ’05, the road was a little uneven in places but I found it to be an enjoyable descent. The top of the eastern descent is gradual for several kilometers. It does get steeper for a short while before reaching the Plateau de Benou. This is a good sized plateau where we had one of our feed zones back in ’05. Given it’s location, I doubt it will be used as a feed zone next year.

After the plateau, the descent becomes much steeper than the first half with several hairpins and views of,first, the town of Bilheres and finally Bielle.

The town of Bilheres

The town of Bielle at the base of the Marie-Blanque


At the base of the climb when you will turn left on the route D934 and head north toward Louvie-Juzon, then east to the town of Asson and south again toward what is listed as the start of the Col du Soulor at Arthez d’Asson. Arthez may technically be the start of the Soulor because the road starts to go upward but you have about 10km of slight grades averaging about 2%.

My experience with the Soulor was as a descent to Asson. At the time, it seemed like a very long descent with a lot of small bends. Much longer than the 12km that makes up the heart of the climb. The road may have seemed longer because I had a bunch of people willing to take many more risks through all of the blind curves that never seemed to end.

Climbing up the Soulor will probably provide a much different experience. After reaching the town of Ferrieres, the real climbing begins. As I descended the road seemed rather steep. Looking at profiles of the mountain would seem to confirm that. Grades are consistently 7-9%. Those are not crushing percentages pretty comparable to Alpe d’Huez. It just doesn’t have the 10% grade at the very bottom like the Alpe. The Soulor should provide a good test.

If you are on a bad day, I would think you will start to realize it by the time you crest the Soulor. You will be two-thirds of the way through the race and have two good climbs in your legs. If you are starting to struggle at this point, going the even tougher Tourmalet is going to be very unpleasant.

The good news is twentry kilometers of descent to the town of Argeles-Gazost and another 20 km of basically flat road to Luz-Saint-Saveur for your legs to suddenly turn to the good. The Tourmalet is no lightweight. My only experience was climbing from the east and descending the route of L'Etape.


What I remember most of the descent were that it, too, was quite long at eighteen kilometers. Second, the pavement was very uneven near the top. To make things even more sketchy, the worst pavement was in the turns. This, of course, shouldn't be a problem when climbing the mountain up at a snail's pace. The last thing I remember is that the road was steepest at the top. That's not good news for the competitors. The final kilometer at ten and a half percent is a serious sting in the tail that will feel like five kilometers for more than a few riders that day.

The finish atop the Tourmalet is a worthy ending and should fill the finishers with a sense of accomplishment and many years of memories.

Katie Compton seemed liked a nice person when I got chat with her briefly in KC last year. Clearly she is very down to earth for a four time national champion, and nearly world champion.

Katie Compton (Planet Bike-Stevens) made it three for three on Sunday in the final round of the Cincinnati UCI3 Cyclocross Festival, while Jeremy Powers (Cyclocrossworld.com-Cannondale) used a tight corner just before the finishing
straight to get the better of Ryan Trebon (Kona).

The women’s race followed the script that had been written over the previous two rounds. Sue Butler (Monavie-Cannondale) got the hole shot, while Compton, who did not reconnoiter the course beforehand, was content to do her inspection during the race before riding off to another dominating win.

It was an uneventful ride for the U.S. champion, other than haggling with hecklers about their choice of a beer hand-up (a canned Pilsner). When a bottle of microbrew was produced the following lap, she obligingly hit the brakes, took the hand-up and chugged a good portion before dismounting for the barriers.

“At first I wasn’t going to, since this is a UCI race and we’re not supposed to take feeds,” she said with a smile. “But I had yelled back at them, ‘How about a microbrew?’ the lap before. So when they actually had one, I felt kind of obligated.”

The Tour of CA route announcement was supposed to take place Tuesday Oct 6th. However, the announcement has been pushed back a couple weeks to work out final details.

This seems like a good time to comment on the interview Cyclingnews did with Andrew Messick, president of AEG. The Tour of CA race organizer.

Cyclingnews: Andrew, we have to talk about date change from February to May. Can you explain why you’ve done this and how it came about?

Andrew Messick: It takes us out of what’s generally perceived as the pre-season of cycling and puts us in a time position that's in-line with the middle of the season. From our perspective it allows us to showcase more of the Tour of California and ride into the mountains that we couldn’t get to before.
The reality is that, historically, the period from Paris-Nice to the end of the Tour de France has been perceived as the main European racing season and we’ve been out of that. (I know what you are trying to say Andrew but, uh, you are not in Europe) That’s something that we’re working our way through (I hear California has applied for entry in the European Union) and we’re optimistic that we’re going to continue to get the kind of riders and the kind of teams that we want. (more on this later) We’re also hopeful that having an important race outside of Europe at that time will be good for us and the sport of cycling.

CN: When you sat down and looked at the calendar and said ‘we’re going to move the date’ was the month of May always the optimum period for you?

Andrew Messick: We looked at the old spot for the Tour of Georgia, the beginning of May and mid-to-late May. The April spot meant competing with the Classics. The kinds of rider we want to attract are guys that take those races seriously (You want classics type riders yet you are continually striving to add more mountains to the race. Interesting. Perhaps Messick means the hilly Classics like Liege but, in the last 10 years, the top riders in these races are closer to stage race riders) and we didn’t want to compete with those races. Having to compete against the Giro is not a trivial thing. (you got that right) It’s a great race and has a lot of history.

CN: But you do see it as competition?

Andrew Messick: We hope and expect that there are enough riders for both of us. We’re going to be on Eurosport and so are they, so we’ll both have television exposure and the same goes with television networks in the US. We don’t think we’re really competing, but there’s clearly going to be some impact. Broadly speaking the Giro will have fewer Americans and our race will have fewer Italians. But we’re optimistic that we’ll have a field of riders that will be competitive as last year. (you are crossing your fingers)

CN: You mention television rights. How important is that that kind of exposure for the race?

Andrew Messick: I think part of cycling’s great strength is that it possesses enormous history, but that needs to be worked through. We’re respectful of the history and heritage, but at the same time we’re mindful that the sport that has fans and athletes from every country. Historically, in the European calendar, ever single race of substance takes place in one of five western European countries. For cycling to be truly global it can’t be that way.
There need to be important international races and there needs to be an important American race. Conceptually, everyone agrees with that. The question is how do you do it? The Tour down Under has a good position, (Apparently it is not a good position since, as you noted about your race, it is not between Paris-Nice and Le Tour) but there isn’t a slot for North America. Rightly or wrongly, (That would be wrongly. How could it rightly?) for US fans the season ends with the Tour and we feel that we need to be part of the lead up. It doesn’t make sense for us to be in August or September. (But, if you were after the Tour the season would not end with the Tour for US "fans")

CN: But you take the risk of, lets say, a team like Saxo Bank wanting to build up for the Tour by doing the Giro, then a few teams follow suit and you have squads that aren’t as strong as 2009. Therefore no Schlecks, Cancellara and so on…

Andrew Messick: We hope that doest happen, but it is a risk. Saxo Bank has had good experience at our race. They ride American bikes and we think, therefore, that they have other reasons to be in North America. (They have a reason to be in CA, but that doesn't diminish the risk of Saxo sending a weaker team) A three week race in May isn’t for everyone who is preparing for the Tour.

CN: It seemed to be the case this year. For example, Menchov, Sastre, Leipheimer, Armstrong and a few more…

Andrew Messick: That was exceptional, but I expect the American teams to field strong squads and that our sponsor Rabobank will do too. Historically they, along with Quickstep and Liquigas, have fielded strong teams. Vincezo Nibali had a great race with us. He didn’t do the Giro and had a fantastic Tour de France.

CN: How much work had to be done with the International Cycling Union (UCI) to find the new date?

Andrew Messick: It was our good fortune that Pat McQuaid came to visit the race this year after four days of rain. He had an opportunity to talk to everyone, including the riders and teams, and I think he realised that California is a great state, but it really does rain a lot in February and that’s not what we want to showcase. So we worked hard with the UCI to find a solution. [The Volta a] Catalunya wanted to move to March so it created space. With that we're also talking about becoming part of the ProTour in 2011, which will be another big step for us and will help the UCI globalise the sport.

CN: If the race hadn’t moved would it have survived?

Andrew Messick: I’m glad I didn’t have to find that out. I really don’t know. Our owner and my bosses have pretty keen sense for long term value and their view is ‘how can we grow the race when it’s always raining?’ It’s a good question.

CN: It doesn’t’ just come down to weather though, does it? It rains at the Classics. It rains in Belgium.
Andrew Messick: It does, but in the eyes of the world you don’t go to California in the winter to get rained on. So part of what we sell is California is sunshine and warm weather. (So you are selling a false bill of goods) The weather was really bad this year. We had three stages where it never stopped raining and was never above 40 degrees. The athletes don’t have fun and we want the Boonens and the Schlecks of the peloton to say it’s a great race.

CN: By taking a spot that’s close to the Tour of Georgia, do you almost resign that race to the grave?

Andrew Messick: I think the future of Georgia has little to do with us and has more to do with the state of Georgia. It was a great race, great for cycling in the United States. It was a better showcase for domestic riders than ours is. We have a stronger international scene. We hope they come back though.

The following was part of an article at Cyclingnews this morning.

At this point in time, 14 out of the top 17 teams are ProTour squads. In order of ranking, these are Astana, Caisse d’Epargne, Columbia – HTC, Saxo Bank, Liquigas, Quick Step, Silence-Lotto, Rabobank, Team Katusha, Garmin Slipstream, Euskaltel-Euskadi, Lampre-NGC, Française des Jeux and Ag2r La Mondiale.

Professional Continental teams Cervélo TeatTeam, Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni-Androni Giocattoli and Acqua & Sapone – Caffe Mokambo are sixth, 14th and 17th respectively, while ProTour squad Milram is a mere seven points behind Acqua & Sapone – Caffe Mokambo in 18th.

I have two comments.

1) Cervélo TeatTeam??? Is that Cervelo's pro womens team?
2) Can there be a longer team name than Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni-Androni Giocattoli?

Messageboard Dorks of the Day: 
 
 
Any of the fools who proclaimed that it was tacky for Cancellara to soft-pedal for a hundred meters or so and celebrate his obvious time trial victory at the World Championships.

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Insert movie times and more without leaving Hotmail®. See how.

So much to comment on with cyclocross starting up and Worlds going on and the UCI making news.

1) Driscoll apparently put on a good show at CrossVegas and held on for the win. That’s all well and good but what I like is Jonathan Page stirring the pot with a choice quote "There was just a bunch of lamos sitting on and not doing anything," Well done, Jonathan The ‘crossers were doing a good bit of talking last year and Page is stepping up his game. This is good news with the injury to notorious talker Bart Wellens.

2) I like Katie Compton but uglynationalchampionjersey-itis has struck her. Why Katie, why? Light blue stripes? Stars on a red background? I just dont understand.


3) Speaking of jerseys. The US National team continues to make progress toward a respectable design. There is still work to be done but there has been a steady improvement in quality over the past 3-4 years.




4) The UCI has been making news while the Worlds are starting up. The first item was inclusion of a trade team Team Time Trial to be included in the World Championship schedule. An awful decision by the UCI. Leave the trade teams out of the World Championships. Better yet, don’t even bother including the Team Time Trial. There is no need for it at Worlds. Personally, I think it is a desperate attempt by the UCI to save face and replace the miserable failure that was the ProTour Team Time Trial event that was held in Eindhoven.

5) As bad as the team time trial idea is, the UCI hit the next announcement out of the park. The banning of race radios is heavenly. I thought the Tour de France’s aborted plan of banning the radios at two stages of this years race was going to be the death knell of the no radio movement. The teams put on a completely boring stage and got the second day of no radios cancelled by the organizers. Thankfully, the UCI has not only stuck their principles and maintained the ban in Under-23 races but will phase in the banning of radios in all races. The radio has been one of, if not the worst innovation in cycling over the last 15 years. It has killed creativity and dulled the racing sense of riders. This change cannot be implemented soon enough.

The 'cross I have to bear

The road season has come and gone. Spring turned into Summer. And now, Summer bows to Autumn. Time for cyclocross.

Last weekend was the official start of the “local” cyclocross season but I was under the weather and decided to wait until this past weekend before starting my season. That was not such a bad decision since it allowed me to actually ride ‘cross bike twice before racing. Never have I gone into a CX season with so little practice.

An hour of riding around a busy school grounds is not ideal practice but it was apparently enough. The years of racing have burned the basics into my brain and muscle memory. Dismounts and remounts went smoothly, albeit at something less than race pace. Good enough in my book. Let’s race.

I arrived in Hermann about two hours before race time. Plenty of time to get my race number since I was pre-registered. At least I thought I was pre-registered. There was no record of me anywhere so I got a lesser start spot. Not that starting one row further back would make that much difference.

More decisive is the position I chose within my starting row. The course started with about 150 feet of grass before a 180 degree left hand turn. Like a fool, I parked myself on the far left starting spot. Sheer genius to put myself in a spot where I will be having to make a tighter, slower turn in addition to having the guys further out diving inward through the turn. Sure enough. I begin to exit the turn, my front wheel touches the rear wheel of another rider and I nearly go down but manage to unclip in time to catch myself.

I may as well have started in the very back because that’s where I ended up as we trundled up the stairs. Poor starts have become my modus operandi so I have become accustomed to biding my time and plowing my through part of the field. The is some enjoyment in this because you are passing people and feel a certain sense of accomplishment but I would not mind mixing it up with the front runners occasionally.

The course was surprisingly flat. The stair section was shortened from past races and only one portion of riding across across a hillside. The main difficulties were the middle portion of the course filled with turns. The first eight turns were 90 degrees and could be taken with rather good speed. Those were followed by a series of much tighter turns of approximately 180 degrees. While these were more difficult, you were not going to be passed in this section either, unless you totally screwed up. Stay upright and you were good.

Ultimately, I passed ten guys and went back-and-forth with a couple guys. An eleventh man was lolly-gagging at the end, thinking he was safe in his position. I had someone on my tail going through the final turns so I could not afford to relax as we entered the pavement section. My chaser apparently gave up at that point but I was unaware. My late efforts almost caught an eleventh man who lolly-gagging at the end, thinking he was safe in his position. Only at the last 5-10 seconds did he realize I was charging hard and accelerate enough to hold his spot.

Final placing 17th of 27 starters. An okay performance with little preparation. A race to build on.

Something new that I hope to do at the end of every race is take a post race photo before doing anything else. No clean-up. No change of clothes. Just a basic photo in the vein of Timm Koelln’s work. For the record, I make no claims of being anything close to Koelln. My first attempt did not go smoothly as I could not figure out the shutter timer on the camera in my tired, sweaty condition. I was left with extending my arms and shooting blankly.

The Tour of Missouri rolls into town this weekend and kicks off on Monday. Sure, there seven ProTour teams entered, Green and Polka Dot jersey winners from the Tour and the fastest sprinter in the world taking part in this years race but lets deal with the important matter.

Last week was the US Road and Time Trial championships and both riders, Hincapie and Zabriskie, will be in MO. That means one thing. The chance to show off some god awful national champion jersey.

Some countries have a cycling tradition and their national jerseys have likewise become tradition. Belgium, France, Switzerland and Italy are fine examples. These jerseys are beautiful in their simplicity and show a certain pride in their country by somewhat faithful recreation of the national flag. It helps that they have basic flags.

Filippo Pozzato felt the wrath this year when he dared to mess with the Italian tricolore. The Italian Cycling Federation demanded a change.


With lots of stars and stripes, the US flag is a little more tricky to represent on a jersey. Restraint is needed. Unfortunately, USA Cycling seems to give creative license to the rider(s) on their jersey design. Sometimes the results are acceptable. Other times they can be hideous. Hincapie has shown some restraint in the past so I am hopeful that George continues to his ways.


Zabriskie, on the other hand, can be a little out of control.


This past year's jersey was non-traditional but I could live with it.


Leipheimer's jersey was something out of the 70's disco era. Bad


And leave it to Rock Racing's Michael Ball to utterly destroy Hamilton's championship jersey


I am hoping for the best.

Compression

A little over a week I took the plunge and bought a pair of the compression tights that are a bit of a rage these days among cyclists. The claim is that they help with blood flow and aid in flushing out toxins after training and racing. A few teammates have them and professed the benefits. Curiosity got the best of me and decided to give them a try.

My first impression is that I thought they would be tighter. They fit snugly, but not overly tight. I would say they are only slightly tighter than a typically cycling short. My other immediate thought was “Why do they even bother having a drawstring to tie the waistband?” They are not going to slide off your waist.

Each time I used the tights they have been worn for extended periods. If I rode in the evening, they stayed on the rest of the night and I took them off in the morning. If I rode in the morning, they were probably taken off before going to bed.

I have had the tights for a little over a week now. There have been eight rides during this time with the majority of the rides being relatively short (2+ hrs) but very intense. Since I have no way of knowing for sure whether the claimed physiological effects are really taking place, I can just go judge the way I feel after wearing them and try to compare to how I felt when not wearing them. After the hard rides that I have had the past week or so, my legs do seem to feel less fatigued the next day. Is it my imagination? Bad memory? Maybe, but I don’t think so. My thighs and calves will feel rather good. But my ankles and feet, the parts of the leg that the compression tight does not cover, still feel somewhat more fatigued. I’m actually tempted to get some socks now to help out in the foot area, too.