While killing time at work today I was looking at some Tour of Flanders websites and preparing my picks for Sunday's race. Along the way I found info about the "cyclotouring" event that is held the day before the race. I've know for a few years they have this event but never investigated any of the details.

Unlike L'Etape du Tour, this doesn't appear to be a "race" where you are timed. Without going back and looking I think there is a 75k ride that does a number of the bergs. Then there is a 140k ride that does all the climbs and there is also the option of doing the whole 260ish km's.

I've had the bug to ride Italy sometime soon, but now I want to do this event too. Roubaix has a similar ride so you could conceivably do both events in a week. Seems like a kick-ass time to me. What does it cost to do this ride??? Fifteen euros! Eighteen or nineteen bucks. Less than a 40 minute crit. The only downside I see is trying to climb those hills with the 15,000 others that do the ride but darn I would like to try it.

I guess the roads are tough as these poor saps show us. Or these guys. Just stay on the bike guys.

Photo of the Day:

Tuesday night we had our last Spinning class of the winter. With Daylight Savings Time starting this weekend, the Tuesday Night Worlds start up next week. The class was it's usual self. The excitement came when a group of us went to Kayak's in Brentwood afterward. We were treated a theological argument between an agnostic religion hater and an evangelical (my impression) wanting to spread the word to the aforementioned agnostic.

This is a conversation that I avoid, especially with a strongly committed person. I would rather save my time and beat my head against a wall. That's all you end up doing anyway, in a figurative way.

The exchange got heated at times but remained civil and lasted the entire time. There were holes in both people's arguments but it was humorous to listen to as the two of them tried valiantly to change the others mind.

In a completely unrelated note, I was sitting on the porcelain throne at work early this morning. I glanced over at the toilet paper dispenser and saw an extra roll sitting atop the dispenser. This roll was still in its paper wrapper so I unconsciously read the label. I forget the brand of paper but below the name was the description facial quality bathroom tissue" That, I presume, is supposed to imply that the paper has a certain softness. Is there really a "facial quality" standard? Does the government perform tests to guarantee its quality? Either way I can't help but be distressed at the mental image toilet paper on the face.

Photo of the Day: This morning's sunrise

Marco, Giuseppe and I did the usual Maeystown route again Sunday. There was no lolly-gagging. After a little warmup, we got down to business and laid down some hurt. After a little break in the middle, we went again. Good long, hard pulls all the way down.

On the return trip we chilled until clearing the three railroad crossings then ramped it up again. I can't think of a real break until reaching 255. The legs burned, the heart pumped and it was good. The rest of the way back to Columbia was a more comfortable tempo.

Back in the parking lot, I went back to the car to get an Enervitene powder pack and discovered I didnt close my car door when we left. It wasn't wide open but it wasn't latched either. I'm such a goof at times. I talked Giuseppe into doing an extra loop over to Millstadt now that I knew how to get out of Columbia, unlike a couple weeks ago when I failed miserably. How far is Millstadt he asked. Not sure, I said. It looks like 6 or 7 miles each way.

Off we went. My legs were heavy but thats okay because I didn't want to go hard anyway. As we rode, it seemed like that 6 miles was taking longer than 6 miles should but we made it to Millstadt without much trouble. Picking the right roads on the way back was a little tricky but not so bad until we got to Gilmore Lake and EE. We were about to make a right turn on Gilmore Lake but then I second guessed which way to turn. Always trust your intuition. A couple miles down the road we stopped and decided that this didn't seem like the right way to go. On the way back we saw an older guy in his yard and asked directions. Sure enough, we had turn wrong.

The rest of the way went okay except for a little detour in Columbia because of road construction. Back in the parking lot, the computer showed 90 miles. Oops. That 12 or 14 mile Millstadt loop turned into 25 miles! It looked shorter on the map. Anyway, we were plenty happy to be finished and hungry. We went in to Subway and 4 of Mike's 9:15 ride were eating. They wondered where we were since we left before them. Just riding ourselves into the ground.

Post ride weight after eating a 6-inch sub: 148.3

Photo of the Day: Flats suck

We improvised a little again for the JeffCo ride Saturday and hit some roads I'd never done before. Miller was a good downhill. Then a mile on Hwy M. Not my favorite section of road. Then Heads Creek which a pretty nice road that twists and rolls and ends with a pretty nasty rise. Then after a mile on 21 we went down Schenk, another nice road. Not exceptional pavement but good.

As with any JeffCo ride there were a good number of hills but I think it was less than Joe and Mark suspected. My riding was okay but spending most of the week off the bike probably wasn't helpful. My climbing right now is not where I would like. Yesterday I felt like a can of Pla-doh going up the hills. Very sluggish, no jump. There were a few times when I had a decent rhythm but for the most part I felt uncomfortable.

With the exception of going to Spinning Tuesday I have been a slug all week. I almost got on the trainer last night but the wheel I use for the trainer had a flat. Lacking any desire I said "screw it". I shouldn't say that I have been a total slug. I have taken the time to do some work on my core muscles. While it has only been a couple days I do think my stomach and back feel stronger.

Photo of the Day: Maeystown next to the "The Sweet Shoppe"

Photo of the Day: Riding in this bleak terrain all winter will make you mentally tougher, if nothing else.

Forgot to mention that on Sunday Giuseppe gave me the prime from the Master's race. Included was a computer, a hat, a pair of socks and a T-shirt. An extra large T-shirt I might add. The perfect size for a skinny 150lb guy. It's all good though.

Photo of the Day:
One of the new pedestrian bridges over the beautiful River Des Peres

This morning was a cool, cloudy upper 30's with a difficult breeze. Three riders don't provide for a lot of protection. We kept a stiff pace from early on, with the occasional break. I went into the ride without much enthusiasm but rode strongly. Giuseppe had a rough day. He's not one to be ridden off a wheel but it happened several times today. Trent hung tough but got dropped a few times too. I'm not sure what to make of me riding away from others. I'm not the kind to do that on flat roads. It must have been the wind.

Today was a good workout and my legs are feeling the effects right now. By the way, I will welcome another warm weekend.
Ride time: 3.5 hrs including a break in Maeystown.

Dan Hondo of Gerolsteiner got his 2 year doping suspension overturned by a Swiss court. Frankly, I don't care about all the legal wrangling. I tend to think he probably did dope but after seeing his picture on Velonews today I began to wonder. Most likely he tested positive for something in his hair product. Lay off the mousse Danny. With that intro here is todays...

Photo of the Day:

Friday night I got to bed before 11pm in the hopes of getting an extremely rare 8 hrs of sleep instead of my usual 6. That plan worked for less than 2hrs. I had slipped into a sound sleep when work called. One of our backup processes was not working. I crawled out of bed, turned on the computer and logged in to work. I couldn't figure out why the backup stopped running but I edited the procedure and had the operator start the new procedure. It started working properly, thank goodness, and I tried to resume my sleep but you never fall right back to sleep after being up for over an hour. A little after 6am my body's alarm clock went off and it was another night of maybe 5.5 hrs of sleep. My sinuses also picked Friday night to open the floodgates and drain into my lungs. I was hacking and coughing all morning.

Enough of the "woe is me". It was Saturday and I was doing two races. I took a warmup lap before the 4/5's raced and suddenly my front derailleur wasn't shifting properly and instead was always rubbing the chain. Maplewood had a little maintenance area set up and dude did some nice work adjusting both my front and rear derailleurs. He did good.

There was a good Masters turnout. Somewhere in the low 30's if my quick counting was accurate. The obvious people to watch were Russ and Ethan. Sure enough sometime after 10 minutes Russ and a Mack(?) rider pulled away. Ethan did go after them, which surprised me a little. Maybe he was saving himself for the big race. He got in the next break of a few riders, though. There just wasn't enough horsepower in the remaining guys to bring those guys back. There were a good number of CBC and VeloForce guys in the race and they controlled things well. It seemed only Brian(?) from the Chupacabra and I were the only ones to go to the front except those other two teams. On the last lap I took a chance and attacked at the base of the hill. I went up pretty well but didn't open a gap and the big attacks came up top. I was wasted and tacked on to the back of the pack for the remainder of the lap.

Giuseppe called tonight and said I won a prime during the race and that he picked it up for me. I'm not sure when I won that prime but I'm not going to argue.

Bad stuff: Attacking up the hill was a bonehead move. I knew where the attacks would come and I still did it.
Good stuff: Got the first crit under the belt. Did a fair amount of work. Dressed properly for the temps

My legs were tight for the start of the 3/4's. About 10 minutes in, they loosened up some there was still some fatigue for the whole race. Along the way I had a couple decent attacks. Nothing extraordinary but it added a little aggression to the race. As a team I thought everyone rode pretty aggressively. What we seemed to lack were counter-attacks. Jose rode strong all race and got sixth. Aaron rode aggressively and may have pulled out a top 10. I think I finished around 20th, give or take a place or two.

Bad stuff: My high speed cornering could use some work. My recovery from efforts needs some work.
Good stuff: I did pretty well for a second race. I showed some aggression. Felt pretty strong at the end.

Milan-San Remo followup: My selections did well. Pippo Pozzato won. I was THIS close to including him in my picks. Close doesn't count though. Of my 16 selections, 12 riders (6 from each team) finished in the lead group of 33 and 8 of the top 20. Not too shabby. I nabbed 6th, 8th, 11th, 13th, 15th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 24th, 27th, 28th and 32nd. I'm happiest with my selection of Murilo Fischer. He was a bit of a wildcard and he came through.

Photo of the Day:
I didn't have much time for pictures at the race today so here is one of Christophe and Robertober as we pre-rode the course last week.

Time for another test of the legs. From the looks of things the weather will be similar to Froze Toes a few weeks ago. It would have been nice to have last weekend's 70 degree weather. My plan is to do Master's and 3/4's. I'm riding okay and have done fairly well in the past at Sylvan so let's see what develops. There is definitely some good competition pre-registered in the Masters. Then it will be interesting how much that takes out of me for the 3/4's. I'd like to make a good showing there so I have to decide how hard I want to work in the Masters.

The first of the Spring Classics, Milan-San Remo, takes place Saturday. All the "experts" are tabbing Petacchi and Boonen as the victors. I suppose I could make the same daring predictions but that's too easy. So, while slaving away at work, I put together a couple 8-man "teams" of outsiders and previous non-winners (except for one) capable of upsetting the Petacchi/Boonen apple cart. I'm not predicting any of these will win but they are likely to be among the front runners and if you are there at the finale then anything is possible.

The first team I created is Mirko Celestino (might be hindered by working for Petacchi), Philippe Gilbert, Erik Dekker, Oscar Freire (the most likely winner among my picks since he is the best sprinter), Andreas Klier, Marcus Zberg, Allan Davis and Murilo Fischer.

As I kept digging for potential good finishers I came up with a second team of Thor Hushovd, Roger Hammond, Max Van Heeswijk, Igor Astarloa, Alejandro Valverde, Leon Van Bon, Allesandro Ballan and Miguel Perdiguero.

Photo of the Day:

I had the pleasure of having to attend a last hour staff meeting today so I got out of work about 1.5 hrs late. It's overtime so that's not so bad. However, right now I don't much feel like riding but with Sylvan is in a couple days I imagine I will muster up the desire in an hour to ride for a while.

Photo of the Day: Jet Fighter at Jefferson Barracks

The NCAA tourney starts today. I've watched very little college basketball this year. Most of the games I did see were Missouri games and they could
only loosely be described as basketball. I did, however, see one half of a Memphis game. They have a nice record and an extremely entertaining team. The game I saw they were an up tempo team and very athletic team. Fun to watch. With that expert analysis I am picking and/or rooting for them to win the tournament.

Did the usual Tuesday night Spinning stuff last night. All was well. I worked. I sweat.

Photo of the Day:

Stonework in Sylvan Springs

As mentioned last week, I had been scouring maps of MO trying to figure out what a 2007 Tour of MO might look like.

In my amateur J.M. Leblanc mind there are certain goals you try to achieve with a Tour route. Among those goals are

1) A route that utilizes much of the state

2) Start/Finish towns capable of being hosts (hotels, motels, restaurants, etc)

3) Limited transfer times between finishing and starting towns

4) Varied terrain


So, where would you start a Tour of MO? Anywhere works I suppose but three cities seem logical to me. Jefferson City because it is the state capitol plus St Louis and KC because they are the largest cities. Starting at either side of the state and moving toward the other side is easier than trying to start in the middle (Jeff City) and still utilizing the big cities on either side. Nonetheless, I mocked up three completely different routes. Each route with a different starting city.

After coming up with my 3 routes, STLbiking.com had an update today saying that the initial plans call for week-long KC to STL route that would also include Columbia, Jeff City, Springfield, Branson and maybe Rolla. That description matches rather closely what I had envisioned. Since those are the rumors, here is what I had created last week for a KC to STL Tour of MO. About all I left out was Branson. I considered Branson but it didn't fit well into my routes.

Without further adieu, here is my route for next years Tour. I will try and provide more detail in a day or two.

Stage 1 - Kansas City to Sedalia
Stage 2 - Sedalia to Columbia
Stage 3 - Jefferson City TT
Stage 4 - Lake of the Ozarks to Springfield
Stage 5 - Springfield to Waynesville/Fort Leonard Wood
Stage 6 - Rolla to Park Hills
Stage 7 - Park Hills to St Louis

I had a ride report for Saturday mostly complete when my computer went spastic and would only "think" about doing work but never do anything.

In short I started toward Sylvan Springs at 9am. The roads were still damp from the nights rain but the temps were most comfortable although it was breezy. There have been other warm days this year but they never seemed to be on the weekends so this was the first exposed skin ride of the year. I rode around Sylvan for a little while and felt sluggish. Ran across TK and he followed on his MTB for a few laps. He left and I got bored so I did a lap in JB and took a few pictures. On the way back, I passed Robertober. He turned around and we headed back over to Sylvan. We rode a few laps and Christophe Cleeland finally showed up around 10am. So much for his 8am arrival. Sometime after that Fullerini and Arn Jonsson. Along the way I cranked out a couple nice efforts up the hill. Then it was back over to JB for 3(?) laps before everyone was ready to leave. The others were all heading toward south city and Affton so I tagged along for some extra miles. Ultimately I ended up going along River Des Peres, into Webster and then south again on Sappington. Turned into 3.5 hrs and by the end I was beat. Not expecting that much riding I had taken no food and was dragging my booty home into the wind. By 3pm I had to close my eyes for an hour. Post ride weight was 147.7 and my whiteness had a gained a pinkish hue.

Sunday was another warm day. Cloudy and very humid. Only Fullerini and I showed up at 8 in Columbia. We did a basic Maeystown ride taking Levee and 156 south and then B and Levee back. There was a moderate headwind going south but we were a steady 20-22 mph. It doesn't sound terribly fast but into the wind it caused a good burn. After turning onto 156 I flatted. Somebody flipped the wind switch while I changed the tube because when we started again, the wind felt 10mph faster. Instead of 20+mph it was 17-18mph and we working harder. Even at that, Giuseppe had to dip in behind me for a little draft toward the end of Rte 156.

When we stopped in Maeystown, the thing I noticed most was how wet I was. We gave a good effort all the way down. No drafting, no lollygagging. Just good work into a headwind.

As we were about to leave, Giuseppe had a flat that needed fixing. The trip back was better but we didnt have as much of a tailwind as expected. There was still a good amount of crosswind and the last couple sections going south along the golf course and on Bluff Rd added a bit more hurt.

Back at the cars I debated whether to head over to Millstadt. I've been wanting to check out the riding in that direction but never get over there. I was weary but decided to go. Going alone I wouldn't have any pressure to push myself too hard. I looked at my written directions and headed out. I got on Main St and started looking for Cherry St. I kept going and going and never came across Cherry. Finally I got to Kunz, a road I was going to return on and figured I missed Cherry somehow. Back north I headed but still couldn't find Cherry. I improvised and went down to Palmer and Quarry roads. I was getting nowhere fast when I saw Rueck Rd which I knew would lead back up to Main St. At this point I was frustrated and just headed back to the car before getting lost. My excursion to nowhere added another 6+ miles.

Post ride weight: 146.5 I was bonked and sore all evening. Even today I was fatigued but am feeling better tonight.

Now that Floyd Landis is off to a rocking start to the season by winning the T of CA and leading Paris-Nice isn't about time that he do something about those sad little whiskers that are impersonating a mustache and goatee? And so I'm perfectly clear, when I say "do something" I mean shave it off. Cyclists, otherwise called bikers by the general public, have a hard enough time getting respect. Now one of America's top riders can't even grow a respectable patch of manly facial hair. He's just a another lycra-wearing girly man.

In other news, you may have missed the press release announcing that I have named myself the Race Director of next year's Tour of MO. I have been busy pouring over state maps and creating a route. Next year's route will be unveiled in the near future. The buzz about the announcement is building every day and soon someone may actually care.

I guess it's time to hop on the trainer for a while.

Spinning last night. I felt strong. Or maybe I was only a resistance pussy. Whatever the case I was really happy with my pedal stroke. Very smooth last night for some reason and utilizing most of the pedals rotation. A very nice feeling when it all comes together.

Now it's time for a few comments on current events.

First thought. My favorite egomaniac won the first stage of Tirreno-Adriatico today. Why? I think it's his gosh darn gold helmet. Obviously the helmet creates a glare and disorients his opposition. Need proof... Look at him winning today. Voila! He must spend his nights polishing that baby.



Second thought. I know he has had a difficult few years but when did Eddie Van Halen become older looking that Ozzy Osborne. Yikes!



Lastly, it annoys the hell out of me when people refer to the lycra clothing on our lower torso and legs as biker shorts. Aaarghh! We are not bikers. We are bicyclists or cyclists. You want to see a biker? Turn on Biker Build Off or American Chopper, etc.

News Item of the Day: The Secret Service does a hell of a job but do they have some jokers among their ranks? Everyone knows about Air Force One and some people are aware that the presidential helicopter is known as Marine One but this was completely new to me.

I was reading a news article in the P-D this morning about President Bush returning home from Pakistan. The end of the news item had this paragraph "By about 8:30 am, Bush was home and changing into his cycling gear. About 20 minutes later, the motorcade rolled to the Secret Service facility where Bush rides Mountain Bike One."

Mountain Bike One??? They must be kidding.

Two hours on the trainer today as Roberto Heras barely beat me up El Angliru in the 2002 Vuelta. The time went by quickly for trainer time and I felt rather good afterward. Pushed the bigger gears when the peloton went uphill and lesser gears on the flats. A good solid day of training and it was far drier than outside.

A good group of nine for Saturday's ride. Messrs Hill, Strothman, Maciekowicz, Fuller, Bullard, Hawley, Hofmeister and Wermuth joined in. I wanted to do a little different ride. We went the usual way to High Ridge via the Col de Parc Vallee and the Col du Haute Arete. Thanks to giving bad direction on my part we did an extra loop climbed the Haute Arete a second time.

After getting straightened out, we went more westerly instead of south into JeffCo. Down Antire then up Col de Jacques Weber, through Eureka and up Mont Alt. From there I had planned on Old State and St Paul but while I waited for Glen the others went on and rode the Col du Bois.

Jay led us through Lake Chesterfield subdivisions out to Old State. From there it was down Pierside to Kiefer Creek, New Ballwin, Big Bend, Sulphur Spring and Vance into Valley Park before ending the ride with Mont Marshall. The highlight of the ride was making a brilliant move and smoking Joe Hill in a city limit sprint. I will stop there so that it sounds impressive. After all, half of bragging is not telling the whole story so you look good.

At the top of Marshall we came across Jose and David going the other direction. This was about 12:30. Jose asks me what the best way is to get from Covered Bridge to Six Flags. Seems like a late start to do that long of a ride. My guess is he'd get down to Covered Bridge about 2:15. Eureka about 4:15, Six Flags about 4:30. Then he'd still have to get back to the Galleria. That's a pretty long day and later in the day than I'd care to ride.

The actual route for us was about 48 miles. Tack on my commute and I had about 61.

Last night's class seemed tough. It was a bunch of efforts from 20 sec to 1 minute often with short recovery. Pretty good workout.

Not sure where my mind was yesterday. I stopped at Schnucks on the way to work and used the self-checkout. Total cost was 15.55. I inserted a $20 bill. Cling, cling, cling, out came the change. I grabbed it, picked up the bags and headed to the car. About noon I realized I picked up ONLY the coins and left four $1 bills wherever they come out of the machine. Brilliant move.

Then at Spinning last night I sat around for a few minutes, cooling off. When I was ready to leave I grabbed my shoes and bottle and left. I was about to get out of the car at home and began looking around for where I put my jersey and the towel that it was wrapped up in. Sure enough, I left it at Spinning and had to leave home earlier than usual this morning so I could stop by and look for where it was. Sure enough, it was sitting on the floor like no one had touched it.

Today was a little better but I gave the clerk in the cafeteria $24.30 instead of $4.30. She was nice enough to give my Andy Jackson back. I'm in a subconsciously generous mood. Hang around me enough and you are bound to make some easy money.