Forest Park went pretty well today. The day didn't start well. For the second time in three years I forgot to bring shorts to this race. Not sure what the mental hangup is. This time I realized my mistake at Elm Ave instead of Hampton Ave., like last time. I got back to Forest Park at noon. Still enough time to not be rushed but there was no wamup after meeting with a few guys to discuss strategy.

Basically, I went out and tried to do the same as Saturday. Work hard, get in breaks, start breaks. Whatever it be. The bigger, stronger fields today made my just tougher and not quite as successful but I thought I rode pretty strong and did some good things. Like last week, the final laps slowed so I made a push with a lap and a half. It wasn't a killer but it lasted the length of the backstretch before guys started coming around. One thing I was happy with is that I still had some kick for the final lap and finished in the low 20's I would guess.

Aaron got 2nd and did pretty well in the overall I think. So that's good. The team rode well today. Ted was a horse, Matt, Aaron and Jose were good at getting in dangerous looking breaks, Fullerini did well just to show up after yesterdays crash and he still went to the front a few times. All in all, it was a satisfying weekend.

I'm a little sore right now.

I didn't know what to expect Saturday. On one hand I've placed a few times at Carondelet. But, on the other, help setting up a course at 6am usually doesn't help your performance. Add to that, having to squeeze in a trip to work, to get a remote site up and running again and I wasn't even sure that there would be a race.

The call to go in to work came while I was driving the pace car for the juniors with 3.5 laps to go. The race ended and I hopped in my car for at 8:52 for the half hour drive work. What I went in to do went smoothly. Some unrelated issues had me tied up for a while. At 11:25 I was back in the car and headed back down south to Carondelet when the traffic slowed to a stop at W. Florissant. Fearing the worst, I got the highway and went on city streets that I don't know in the hopes of getting around problem. The first street I recognized that had an exit to 70 was Grand so I went east and hoped that I would be past the accident. The plan worked and I arrived back at the park at noon.

After the pre-race preparation like getting dressed, slathering on some warming balm, shooting up with EPO, etc it was 12:15. That gave a half hour before the start. Not so bad.

The roads were still wet but the rain had stopped. Always a good thing. For the first 15 minutes or so I took it easy let the race settle in. What I noticed from riding the caboose for the first number of laps was the people going off the front were 'Chesters and Mesa and Doggies and a couple other solo riders. We didn't seem to be represented and were instead responding to attacks. Time to stir the cocktail a little. From then on, it was attack and cover attacks when I could. I was off with a Mesa for a few laps but then somebody from the sidelines yelled at him to stop working. He listens well and he drifted back to the pack. I pushed on solo for another lap and half but that futile. Matt got in a break then and did some good work. Later I started a nice 3-man break with Allan and another Mesa. This worked well. We all shared the load and stayed away for what seemed like a long time but my brain wasn't in condition to be counting laps. I don't think we ever had a huge gap. Jon Gohl on the PA kept saying 5 second gap but who knows how accurate that was. We finally got caught shortly before the final five laps.

Those laps turned seemed to be turning into a parade as everyone got ready for the final lap. I figured I would commit cycling suicide in the hopes of helping someone out and attacked again up the hill as we approached two laps to go. Nolan Froese got up to me with one to go. I was wasted and just tried to stay close to the pack. As the pack got near the final turn, there was a touch of wheels and Nolan, who had just been caught, went down. Fullerini was the unlucky one to be behind him and did an endo. He messed himself up some. The way he held his I thought it was his collarbone again. He started moving his arm better after a while but he still hurt the back of his shoulder somehow and was going to have it checked. He dinged his knee up too and will be sore for a few days.

We got 3 of the top 10 but no real high placing. Still we got to split some money. Never will complain about that.

It's Tuesday, it's cloudy and it is 48 freakin' degrees and I refuse to race tonight. Could I race tonight? Yes. Do I want to race tonight? Obviously not. I raced and trained all damn winter in freezing temperatures. Now that it is the end of April I feel I have earned the right to say "No more cold weather racing/riding!" If I wanted to wanted to do training races in sub 50 temperatures at this time of year I would live in Minnesota some other northern location.

And by the way, Valverde kicked some butt again Sunday in Liege. He was the beneficiary of some great work by Rodriguez leading up to the finale but he was untouchable in the sprint. Not even close. The same thing when OLN showed the finish of Fleche. Two guys tried to attack on either side from just behind him. He saw them coming up alongside, he accelerated and they got no better than dead-even with him before he got up to speed and walked away with the win. The guy is big time.

Columbia IL this morning with Joe, Glen, Trent and Jamie. Basic stuff as we stayed on the flats all day. Trent and Jamie peeled off just before Maeystown to make the baseball game. Then, Joe proposed going down to Prairie just before the turn. We were soft pedaling for a few minutes and a group of 7 or 8 tri's rolled up from behind as we made the turn. They rolled a few meters ahead while we continued to chill. Up one of the early rises, Joe lifted the pace and we went by rather quickly. He gave a good sized pull, then Glen who was probably at his limit and took a short pull. We had one tri sitting on our line as I took over. My pull must have broken both Glen and the Tri. As I pulled off and Joe came through no one else was in sight.

We stopped at the store in Prairie to refuel and all the others must have turned around at some point. They never made it to Prairie and we didn't see them on the way back except for 4 or 5 that were still hanging around back in the parking lot in Columbia. Glen was gone already. Sorry 'bout that Glen.

Distance: 125km Good hard ride.

Saturday we made another attempt at last week's ride. This time without getting lost. We succeeded. It's not surprising we made the wrong turn last week because there is no street sign showing Hwy BB going to the right. BB was a nice road. One small hill at the start put some fear into us that the road would be tough but instead it was very slight downhill the whole way. A nice road. Then it was Regina Rd which I expected to be a tough hilly road but it turned out very manageable. Some small bumps in the road but nothing hard. The road surface typical chip and seal but there was no loose gravel. Chip and seal roads always seem slow compared to a freshly asphalted road.

Mark struggled all day with a phantom shifting problem. He seemed to be having an off day too. Before High Ridge, he was going to go on his own but I got him to keep going. Finally, as we approached High Ridge on the way back, he told us to go on ahead. Joe was wanting to ride more since it was such a nice day. We did a Rock Creek, Old Lemay, Lions Den and Binning loop. After doing the loop, I peeled off onto Hilltop and headed home. There were things like grass cutting that needed to be done. Despite cutting this ride a little shorter I still had 76 miles. That was plenty

On the way home, I was cruising down a slight hill on Dutch Bottom. Up ahead I saw a White Toyota RAV4 in a driveway on the left with a couple cops standing nearby. I glanced over as I went by and the cop yells something at me. I replied "What?" and he repeated "27 mph!". I smiled and waved. If I had known they had a sneaky radar set up I would have tried to get a really good speed rating. On second thought, maybe that wouldn't have been a good thing to try.

Tuesday Nite Worlds were settled quickly. About 2 laps in, the winning break was established. Too early for me to be doing that after just eating and getting a 3/4 lap warmup. Looked like a group of Doggies, Clones, Mesas, Mr Hill and maybe a couple others. Most of the race I had a low level stomach cramp and tried to keep it under control without doing too much crazy stuff. I did go to the front a couple times to try and lift the pace but they were rather futile efforts. In the finale, I got 7th among the pack. Not bad but I have to believe there wasn't a whole lot of effort being put forth.

Today I did a quick ride on the Bottoms after dinner. A little TT out to 21 and then ATT sprints all the way to the soccer fields. Then I turned around and did a shorter set back to Lower Meramec Park. After a little cool down I rode back on Wells, a side trip into Suson and then back home through the subdivisions. Did the hills back home in 53x19. Didn't ride them hard but tried to focus on out of the saddle technique. I've been feeling out of sorts in the hills and this actually created some positive feelings.

I should have had the camera along for the ride. The late afternoon sun was bathing the land in a beautiful light. The river, some horses, etc all looked very good

My man Valverde came up big in Fleche Wallone today. Everyone has been gloating over Boonen all season and with good reason but this kid has got big talent. If he can just improve on his TT, he is a serious threat in the Tour future.

The saddle adjustment from a couple weeks ago got another adjustment today. After work, I went back from whence I came but not as far as before. The previous move had some benefits but there was a detrimental effect on longer rides and sustained efforts. Maybe this next move will strike a happy medium.

Yesterday's Amstel Gold was a good, attacking race. Graham Watson doesn't need any plugs for the quality of his work but I was struck by 2 or 3 of his photos right at the time that Schleck was about to make and was making his winning move. Bettini looks whipped in one photo and in another, a T-Mobile rider (Kessler?, Klier?) has his face twisted in absolute agony as Schleck rides away.

These guys are 10 levels above anything that we do locally. Still, it is always good to be reminded that they are human and suffer just as much as we do. They feel the same pain, the same burn of the legs, the ache of gasping lungs. But if you fight through the difficulty, results can happen.

I'm pretty sure I was dehydrated yesterday. Looking back I didn't drink a lot. Maybe 2 bottles. After getting home though I drank a lot and then drank some more. Never did pee a lot. I was pretty salty after the ride too so my body was all out of whack. This morning, I felt better but still a little tired. At noon, I figured it would be good to get out for a little ride.

There wasn't a lot of steam in the engine. Rode in and out of Suson a couple times and then did semi-hard effort on the Bottoms out to 21 but in reality, the legs had nothing. The strong winds didn't help my psyche any. The whole time I'm questioning why the hell I do this. It sucks, it hurts, its no fun bla bla bla.

After half an hour I stopped at a small little park on the Bottoms and sat down on the banks of the Meramec. For twenty minutes I sat there watching the river flow by, letting the sun pour over me. And you know what? That god-awful wind was perfect for sitting there watching the river and pondering life.

Five of us headed SW through High Ridge, House Springs and Byrnesville Rd. Everything was good until the town of Cedar Hill when I somehow missed Hwy BB going south. What I thought was Hwy BB was instead still Cedar Hill Rd and we were confused, or at least I was, with exactly how we got there.

Jose had a map from somewhere that he was carrying but it was not real good. He was confident about where we were and knew how to get us back on track. That was fine except he had no idea of the route I had planned. He did know where we were and got us to a place that was recognizable except we were quickly back on Byrnesville, heading back to House Springs instead of going further south. It was decided to go over John McKeever and into Eureka. What was going to be a relatively flat ride, by JeffCo standards, instead turned into a Eureka ride including McKeever, Alt and Woods.

By the end, I was whooped. Today was a great day of riding. Warm, but not stifling. However, today's 83 miles hurt. And it still hurts. My legs are tired and stiff

Worthless stat of the day. Max speed 70kmh

Quick little workout this evening. Five 220m SLS sprints followed by a rapid-fire ATT sprint followed by a couple climbs up Hagemann. Crossed 21 and rode back on the rollers of Keller.

I seemed to have some trouble breathing. I could breathe okay, perhaps I should say I was slow in catching my breath again after an effort. It was warm, 88 degrees. Maybe I just haven't acclimated to the heat yet.

Tuesday's race proved to be difficult. The wind was strong and the front guys drilled it from the gun. People were lined out in the gutter and hoping for any kind of draft. That seemed to go for 3, maybe 4 laps, before the race finally settled into a more reasonable pace. That didn't keep me from almost bringing some of dinner about 12 minutes in.

Eventually I moved forward in the pack and saw a dangerous looking break forming about 60ft up the road. I went for it and caught on to the tail end as we went around the first turn. I read the break right and we quickly had a big gap. The temptation was to just sit on and try to enjoy being in a winning break but I put in a couple pulls. The second happened at the bottom of the hill. When it started I knew I was going to be in trouble at the top. Looking back, it would have been better to back off the pace but I tried to keep it relatively high. Joe came through after me and I didn't have the recovery. After popping, I looked back and saw no one. We had a full straightaway gap.

The remainder of the race was just getting in some miles. Stomach cramps began to set in at the very end and I pulled off with 3 to go. There wasn't much point in torturing my stomach.

Yesterday's race at Tilles sucked much less hard than Saturday. The day started crappy though. I arrived about 9:30, registered for the race and went back to the car to spin on the trainer. When I set the bike up, I happened to look at the rear wheel and noticed a two inch section of rubber completely missing. Threads were all that was there. Crap, I thought. And I didn't bring any spare wheels so I couldn't just swap a tire out. After hesitating for a couple minutes I threw everything in the car and took off for home, hoping that I could make it back to the park in time for the race.

I made good time despite having the bad luck of having a train block my route a la Paris-Roubaix. The whole way home, I was trying to think if and where I had a race-worthy tire. For some unknown reason I have about six worn out tires laying around. I guess I save them for the trainer but do I really need that many? Thankfully, I had a really nice Vittoria on a wheel that only had a few weeks of riding on it. Maybe someone was looking after me. That goes for not getting a speeding ticket on the way home either.

The tire was changed quickly and I got back to Tilles 15 minutes prior to the scheduled start but they were a few minutes behind. Up and down Litszinger once and then a couple laps warmup and it was start time. Not much of warmup but pretty similar to a Tuesday Nite. Thats what I told myself anyway. I played it safe and just sat on the back for the first 10 minutes or so before trying to move up. Slowly but surely I creeped up and gave an effort. A Manchester guy came along. It didn't last much more than a half lap but I tried.

Later on, the eventual winning break developed. We didn't have anyone in it and no one was responding. I went to the front and tried to close the gap. I think the gap shrunk some but I got winded and nobody would come around me. I tried to dig a little deeper but at that point my legs weren't about to close any gap. Aaron sensed the danger and did a real nice bridge up to the lead group. The breakaway stayed away and Aaron got 5th. Not a bad race.

Photo of the Day: It's good to know horny, young women that like to send pictures.

Hillsboro-Roubaix report: My performance today brought to mind the words of Homer... Homer Simpson, that is. As Homer once said "Thats the suckiest suck that ever sucked" I'm going to pretend today never happened.

Now for my Paris-Roubaix picks. My top 10 in no particular order Boonen Hincapie, Flecha, Michaelsen, Cancellara, Hushovd, Hoste, Wesemann and Pozzatto.

Second group of picks. Those that have never finished inthe top 10. Guesdon, Gusev, Hulsmans, Horillo, Ljungkvist, Cortinovis, Roesems, Tankink, Vogels and Eisel

A big weekend of racing. Tomorrow is Hillsboro and it looks like a tough day. Cooler than what we have for the last week or so and the winds look to be strong enough to cause some difficulty. In fact, I can hear the wind blowing hard outside the window right now at 10:15pm.

Hillsboro has always been tough on me. Year one, as a four, was pretty good but I got separated from the leaders on a windy section along the farm roads off Walshville Trail. Year two I raced 35+ and went down in a gravelly turn less than halfway through lap one. I was scraped up but rode the remainder of the lap and quit. Year three I missed because I was at the Tour of Georgia and last year I was caught behind some goober in the feed zone and a big gap opened. I just about caught back on at the base of the 2nd hill going in to town but I was blown from the effort to get back on. I started the third lap but began to cramp a couple miles from the line. Rather than destroy myself doing 20 crampy miles I turned around and headed back to the car.

We will see what tomorrow brings. Much pain will be handed out. With any luck I will be spared one of those hands.

As first Tues Nite Worlds go, it was a nice night this past Tuesday. Mid 60's and sunny. Quite comfortable. My new position still feels a little odd at times but no much that if affected my riding.

The race started quick and I just sat in the back for the first several laps, as usual. I need to let dinner settle in my stomach before I go launching crazy attacks. So, after about 15 minutes a break had established and the pack was putzing around at a really slow pace. That was silly and I figured I would shake things up. O'Neal had a small gap on the group and on the backside I decided to attack up the right side. A nice gap opened up the hill and O'Neal jumped on my wheel. We rotated around a few times and survived a couple laps. A pretty typical attack for me but it felt good.

After melting back into the pack I tried one more time later in the race when everything seemed boring. Nothing much came of that as I pulled the pack along for 2/3 of a lap. I eased up a few times but Nagy, I think, just sat there. Understandable since he had a man in the break.

After that futility I chilled for the rest of the race. The last lap was wound up pretty good on the backside when two guys touched wheels. I several others had to touch the brakes and really break any momentum. From there, I gave really hard effort to try and make up as much ground as possible. Some guys I'm sure decided to sit up but I feel I was going really good and passed a large number of people. At the finish, I was woozy and gasping for air so it must have been some good work.

Wednesday I went for a ride after dinner. Daylight savings is so much better than the trainer. After getting down to Meramec Bottom I did a mini-TT out to Hwy 21 before cooling down for a bit. Then I did a little work on my sprint. Five efforts between a couple street signs for a very slow roll. The form was not bad. A little bigger might have been better or at the very least I should have downshifted since the legs were pretty well spun out. Working on the leg speed isn't bad, though. From there I rode back up Wells and through the subdivisions. I was satisfied with the ride.

Saturday we set out for the Covered Bridge. A nice group of Justin, Mark, Glen, Trent and Matt who rode up JeffCo. Mixed it up a little and went through Sugar Creek Golf and for something different we went up Upper Moss Hollow. I like that climb, not as steep as the last hill on Old Lemay but it seemed quite long.

I like the climb but did not like the way I climbed all day. I'm okay for most of the climbs but something is lacking and I pop near the top or have to back off. Regardless, I got along okay. On the way back, we passed Joe heading south on Old Lemay. Well, he wasn't heading anywhere because he was fixing a flat. He didn't get the email announcing the change in start times and showed up at 9am

All in all, it was good ride. Nice weather, good group of guys. For some reason the route I picked was longer than expected. Somewhere around 73 miles. Add in the 13 miles of commute and I was pretty tired and sunburned. 138+ km's ridden according to the computer.

Pre-ride weight: 154
Post-ride weight: 147.8

This morning was rainy and damp. I bagged on the planned ride at 8am and felt good about it when then rain was coming down at 8:30. No guilt for me in missing the cold rain. Around 10, though, the weather cleared enough that I got out for a little while. Not happy with my climbing, I stayed in the subdivision and some repeats on a nearby hill. That was after adjusting my saddle. I tend to tinker when I'm not happy with my riding and it seemed like a good time to change my setup.

My legs were still heavy from Saturday but I went up the hill 10x's and then went around the neighborhood. I felt a little better by the end but there still wasn't a lot of life in the legs. Did about an hour total and that was enough.

I need to figure out how I want to ride during the week as a lead up to Roubaix and Sunday's Crit.

This evening a mean storm rolled through. I like to watch a good storm build up and stayed out even after the tornado sirens sounded. A funnel had been spotted in the Eureka area. Still, the rain hadn't started yet but it only took a couple minutes and the wind began to gust strongly and sky became fierce. For the first time in a long time I went in the basement, just in case. Even in the basement you could hear the wind roaring. Some small limbs were down but it looks like everyone came through okay. Not even a loss of power which is a miracle.

Photo of the Day: Today's storm rolling in from the south

Okay, I'm late getting my Flanders picks out there but here goes. In the real race, teams have eight riders so I will do the same but will give a couple teams. The first is riders that I think could win. If you've read anything about the race you already know the pre-race favorites. The only limit I'm putting on myself is no more than 2 guys from any real team. This keeps me from loading up on Quik-Step and Discovery riders as they both seem to be loaded. T-Mobile looks pretty strong too.

For the second team, I put another limitation on myself. None of Team Two's riders can have finished in the top 10 at Flanders before.

Without further ado, here are the teams.

Team One (the favorites) in no particular order: Boonen, Bettini, Hincapie, Hoste, Van Petegem, Van Bon, Klier and Ballan. If I had a ninth spot I'd put Ivanov. For all the Boonen hype, my gut is telling me Klier. He seems really confident and he has improved every year and since he finished 2nd last year... well, you do the math. I'll say Boonen second and Hincapie third. George scares me because of his low-key racing schedule so far but I'm playing a hunch that he has been playing it cool.

Team Two (non top 10 finishers in the past): Flecha, Eisel, Celestino, Elmiger, Devolder, Pozzato, Astarloa and Zaballa. My alternate would be Gilbert.

Then an unofficial group of longshots that I throw just for the heck of it. I guarantee that none of these guys were on any pre-race list. These are guys I just want to keep track of for the hell of it. Meirhaege, Franzoi, Scheirlinckx and Vandenbroucke. I can't help it, despite all his doping problems/allegations in the past, I like Vandenbroucke and am pulling for him to have a really strong showing.