You don't get day's like this too often in early February. Birds chirping in the early morning, sunny skies, and temperatures approaching forty degrees at 8:30 and a high in upper 50's or 60.

Six of us showed up to ride with one newbie. He got a rude awakening to a team ride. When the rode tilted up, he went back, pretty quickly. We would wait each time but halfway through the ride he said he knew the roads and we could just go ahead. I never like to leave someone behind but we did so.

Joe had two flats one after another so he must have had something in his tire but we never saw anything. In the end, the actual ride was about 46 miles plus the 12 or so miles that I rode to Kirkwood and I had close to 60 miles. My legs were stiff this evening with the effort of a hard days ride. I should have Thursday or Friday.

News Item of the Day: Frank Vandenbroucke (MrBookmaker.com-Sportstech) has decided to skip the Belgian spring classics due to a lack of condition. VDB, who injured his foot and was sentenced to 200 hours of community service at the start of winter, made the announcement last Thursday, saying that, "It has been too long since I have trained, it makes no sense to force it. I will not be there for the opening weekend of the Belgian season. But the season has just started. There are still some very nice races in May and June."

Viewpoint: Any wagers on whether Vandenbroucke will be on another team next year? What a goof.