Since I recovered well last week from my injuries, I gave another attempt at the covered bridge ride Saturday. Mark H and Mark G showed up as well. We started by heading to High Ridge. G wound up in front on the last stretch of Hillsboro-Valley Park. Being nice guys, we just sat on his wheel and waited for the almost inevitable sprint up the last hill. I was not going to go unless H had a go. A couple hundred feet to go and I saw him moving up on my right, out of the saddle. He had half a bike on me before I got up to speed. We were pretty even at the top. Being the vindictive sort, I was going to make H suffer a bit. Seeing that no cars were coming, we blew through the stop, turned left but I kept the pace high. Mark grunted but hung tough. Then up the smaller hill and I heard gasping. Over the hill and I get out of saddle for another little effort. He did well to stay close, but it hurt. I should have shifted a little bigger. I felt spun out on the flatter sections. Meanwhile G unexpectedly had gotten ambushed by us and came limping into the gas station ready to turn around. He didn't want to hold us up. As if we were going to attack every hill like that. Not a chance. We convinced him to push on and did reasonably well the rest of the way despite a little bit of struggles on the hills.

I rode fairly well. The legs felt stronger than last week and I did some good things on the hills. Last week I only kept a tempo up the hills. But this week, when Mark was sitting on my wheel, I was able to occasionally raise tempo, open up a gap, and keep that pace for a while.

More encouraging than anything was that I was pain free for the whole 75+ miles. Total elapsed time was 5:15 with 15 minutes of waiting at Meramec in the morning, 3 stops equalling probably another 15 minutes and then another post-ride stop to chat and then wait for the train to go by. About 15 minutes wasted were wasted then as well.

News Item of the Day: Although he is enjoying good support from Quick.Step in the Tour de Suisse, Michael Rogers will ride his next season in the pro peloton in the colours of T-Mobile. The official announcement is due only after September 1, 2005 - the beginning of the transfer period - but Belgian paper Het Nieuwsblad had the story already today.

"It's a pity," said Quick.Step's manager Patrick Lefévère. "But it's a reality. He's leaving us." Although Lefévère did not say whether he knew if Rogers was signing with T-Mobile, he said, "When I heard the price from his manager Paul De Geyter, I said 'Good luck'. The problem is that boys of his level get paid for what they are expected to achieve, not on the basis of what they've achieved in the past. But he will not be substituted for another big Tour hope. We simply cannot pay for that."

Viewpoint: Good god Michael. Do not go to the Magenta Hole of Death. See you in 2 or 3 yrs after your career is in tatters.

And, theUgly TT Helmet of the Week award goes to....