Slip Slidin' Away...

By monday I had gone from feeling like crap to merely feeling like garbage. I did absolutely nothing but lay around and eat at mealtime. The holiday couldn't have come on a better weekend. Work would have made me feel twice as bad.

Tuesday morning I awoke feeling better. My stomach was still queasy at times but it was minor and as the day wore on, I got better. By the time I got home I was 85-90% and figured I would give the Worlds a try. Especially since we were having the little go away thing afterward for AJ.

The fieldsize was lighter than normal and we started out in a very controlled manner. There must have been some tired legs from Quad Cities. I was just sitting at the back trying to gauge how I felt which turned out to be pretty good. Five or six laps into the race, the pace started to lift a little.

We were passing through turn 2, when someone (Rister?) locked his brakes a little, this caused Dyer to slightly lock up. I heard rubbing of rubber and touched my brakes. Sure enough, I locked up to. The rear end slid out to the right. I corrected and though the save had been made when the tire blew. POW!















The cornering properties of a Mavic rim are not good and the slide began again. I was falling to the left and unclipped and was tripoding (is that a word) with my left foot trying to stay upright. It worked to a point. There wasn't much hope of staying up up but I did scrub off a lot of speed. My leg was getting bent out and back though. I started to feel the strain on my knee and groin/hip. Luckily, I came to a virtual stop, the bending of the leg stopped and I just fell on my side.

First thing was to check the bike. No scratches on the frame, not even torn handlebar tape. I couldn't believe it. I knew I didn't fall hard but figured there would be a scrape or two. Nothing. No tears on the skinsuit either. The only damage I saw immediately was the rear wheel rim was chewed up from sliding on the pavement. I walked back to the start and sat down. A few others were asking what happened and thats when I finally noticed a little more damage. The inside of my left shoe, around the toe box, was pretty beat up. They aren't pretty but they are still usable. I'm going to have to check the carbon soles but I think they are still good.
















I also put a nickel sized hole in my right glove. Not sure how I did that since I fell on my left but strange things happen in wrecks. Lastly, I noticed that I shaved a good chunk of left Speedplay off in the slide.















I tested to see if I could still clip in and that worked. Visually, it appears that nothing vital to the operation of the pedals was harmed. I'm going to have to give a more thorough checking after mounting a new tire.

Afterward, a small group went to the Tower Pub for some beer and pizza. I stayed much later than I should have but all is well. Sitting on the bar stool gave my leg time realize that its hurt a little. My knee hurt with pretty much every step. A little stabbing pain, nothing terrible. This morning it still bothers me some. Walking straight and normal causes no problems but if I twist it or move suddenly then it stabs me again. I can't decide what it might be. Maybe a ligament, maybe a hairline break. There is no pain when I touch around the knee, though and no discoloration of the area. I think it is only tweak of some sort but this probably tipped the scales toward not racing in Rolla this weekend.

Memorial Day

Journey to hell...

Saturday, I was back to the JeffCo ride. The heat and humidity made its glorious return in '06 as well. My leisurely half hour ride out to Meramec had me dripping with sweat by 8am. We headed out through Fenton for a change. On the way down to the Covered Bridge I was pretty happy with my riding. I wasn't tearing it up but I cruised up the hills pretty well and never felt terribly stressed by the tempo. We stopped at Sandy Creek for a while to refuel before heading back.

Instead of tackling Old Lemay again, we took Glade Chapel over to Hillsboro-House Springs. Whatever good stuff I had on the way down seemed gone from the outset of the return trip. I wasn't aided by a near heart attack, courtesy of a playful ambulance driver who decided to give a siren burst just as we passed in front of them. I dragged along the hills on H'boro-House-Springs but fought to keep up with Pat and Jose. At the top of the last real climb, I popped. Those two rode off and I just tried to keep a tempo since Mark G and Joe were still behind.

The heat caught up with me and did it quickly. At Hwy MM, I needed to roll into House Springs for more liquid. It didn't help as I was probably playing catch up at that point. The ride up Old Gravois was a slow death. More and more the strength went from my legs and it was just a matter of getting to the top. I recovered a little at the stoplight and did a bit better up to High Ridge. The rest of the way, though, it became just a matter of getting home. Joe and I didn't even bother going back to Kirkwood. We cut through Fenton instead trying to save a few miles. I walked in the house a hunched and broken man, sat down in the shower and let the cool water wash over me for a while.

I didn't feel too bad in the evening but knew that I was dehydrated.

What do you do after dehydrating yourself the day before? Ride again in the same heat, of course. Craig, Glen and I were the only ones to show up. Craig led us up onto the bluffs for a long, meandering route to Maeystown. This route was completely new to me but I had heard some nice things about it before. There was some nice, bucolic scenery full of smallish hills and rollers. Glen had a number stops along the way for a sticky chain link. Nothing he could do about it but stopping like that and sweating like a pig really sucked. A little more than 35 of the 45 miles to Maeystown and I started to crack. Worse and worse I got and limped into town. It felt like forever to get there.

After a long stop, we headed out. Once we made the right turn back onto Bluff Rd, Craig started turning the screws. We had a bit of a tailwind but we were up around 42km/h. I was hanging but if I had kept that up for much longer I would have blown like Mt St Helens. We had talked about taking Bluff Rd to Valmeyer but when we almost got to the 3rd railroad tracks, as Bluff veers to the right, they went straight. I said "See ya" and stayed on Bluff. It felt good to settle into my own rhythm and just think about getting back to Columbia. There also was some shade along Bluff. Something I know they didn't have on D Rd. I stopped again for water in Valmeyer and pushed on. Slow and steady I made it back at about 28km/h avg for the last several miles.

It's 9 hrs later and I'm still not 100%. I have drank a fair amount of liquid since the ride and have barely had to urinate. The old body is sucking up everything it can to try and get back to normal. There's always a couple times a year that I ride myself into a bad place because of heat and humidity. I've been worse than this weekend but doing it twice in back-to-back days was really stupid. Tomorrow is all about getting my body back to normal.

Feeling queasy...

all day today. I think I will skip riding this evening. I did cut my hair though and feel better in at least a small way. How do people with long hair put up with it. It just drags you down.

On the cycling front... Festina who? Good ol' Manolo "Venga Venga Venga" Saiz seems to have set off the biggest doping scandal yet in cycling the other day when he was arrested in possession of "cleaned" blood and doping products after leaving a cafe that he entered with 60,000 euros. Also caught up in the affair are various doctor types who had over 200 bags of blood and plasma with special markings representing various athletes. Liberty Seguros, sponsor of Saiz' team, has promptly ceased sponsorship of the team immediately.

What a mess. You have the potential of 20+ riders becoming free agents in the middle of the season. And if the names of these other 200 athletes, presumably all cyclists, are released then the entirety of european pro cycling will be turned on its head. Who will be left standing? Or should I say riding. Do all these guys get banned immediately despite not testing positive? Boy oh boy, the lawsuits will be flying.

The cold lingers...

on slightly. A steady dose of various pharmaceuticals has kept this cold very much in check, however. Given my recent history with colds, this has been pretty good.

Around four my nose starting running like the Colorado river and sneezing often. I had a mind to not race at that point but things cleared up and the race was a go. With my recent lack of riding and the mild illness I planned on just sitting in tonight and getting my legs back. A few laps in a group of five opened up couple hundred foot gap. We didn't have anyone in the break so I went to the front and tried to lift the pace a little. Trying to bridge wasn't even a thought. Instead I just wanted to hold them even and maybe discourage a little until someone else came around me take up the real chase. My half lap pull was good enough and I drifted back through the pack. Fletcher gave me a much appreciated push to stem my rearward slide. As much as anything he probably wanted me to keep a gap from opening up. The break got swallowed up a little later and it was back to my original plan of just riding in the pack.

Another break got away at some point. Hard to tell from the back, but I didn't care. I felt reasonably good. The legs couldn't have done a lot of efforts or anything sustained but it was a satisfactory return to race pace.

Most surprising thing tonight: The prototype carbon C'dale System Six doing laps in the A race. Nice looking bike.
Least surprising thing tonight: I am 95% certain I heard Justin Massivecarbonexcess say "I'm getting a new Pinarello" When aren't you getting a new bike Justin?

I love it when a plan...

completely falls apart. After spending a week off the bike and ready to start training again, my throat begins to hurt Friday morning. By the time I get home the cold had solidly set in. I decided to give my body a break and not ride. Saturday morning I wasn't able to ride because of work but there was no way I was going to ride. I felt like crap with occasional fever, headaches, sore muscles and throat.

Saturday night Joe called saying he and Mark were riding Sunday. I told him not to expect me but that if my condition improved I would try to make it to Columbia. Surprisingly, I felt pretty good the next morning except for coughing up some thick goop. That is always a good sign in my book. Better to have it out of my body than in.

I'm not smart enough to let my body get proper rest so I went to Columbia. It was a ride of the rolling wounded. Me being sick, Mark recovering after about 2 wks off the bike because of his Edwardsville crash and Joe riding again after 3 weeks for... well, it's not important. We did okay despite all our various infirmaries. I was kind of chilled as we refueled down in Maeystown but felt better when we got rolling again. My left knee starting hurting on the way back. Same thing as last year except I think it was the right knee last year. I have had this I.T. band issue enough to know how to deal with it. Still, I need to be somewhat careful in how hard I ride.

On the Giro front, OLN should have gone ahead and shown Saturday's stage rather than Sunday's stage. So what if it wasn't same day coverage, it was a much better race. Yesterday was a snooze except for the final 2 or 3 k's and even those weren't special. If there hadn't been some nice scenery I probably would have fallen asleep.

Okay, time to start riding again... some day. No, really, I think tomorrow I will touch my bike. This little mid-season break has been nice. Almost too nice. But, I'm getting itchy about riding again. This weekend won't be much riding either since I have to keep an eye on what is happening at work. So, when the time allow, I will sneak out for a couple hours or so providing it is dry. If not, I'll set the trainer up at the entrance of the garage and watch the cars go by.

Been looking at towns in Italy again. For a northern base of mountain riding I keep looking toward Trento, Bormio and Bolzano with an outside possibility of Cortina

And speaking of Italy, Basso put another couple nails in the Giro coffin today. The pure climbers (Cunego, Simoni, Rujano, etc) all sucked in today 50k TT. Cunego lost 5 minutes to Basso. Holy crap! That's huge. Gutierrez did respectably. Gonchar rode pretty well but he can't climb the super steep stuff that is coming. Savoldelli did decent but he can't out-climb Basso either. Danielson actually did okay too and moved up to 5th overall. Right now, my gut is telling me that Danielson is going to outdo his teammate Savoldelli in the big mountains if the team gives him free rein to ride his own race and not nurse Paolo if he is struggling.

I blew off Tuesday Worlds tonight. I was running late this evening and while I could have rushed and probably made it to Carondelet by 6pm, my desire to race was not strong enough to make me run around pinning numbers, changing clothes, filling water bottles, loading the bike in the car, etc. Yes, I didn't plan ahead.

Spent some time at work today looking at Italy. A year ago I did this and felt it was time to continue my research. I am getting preliminary ideas as to where I'd like to go, checking possible hotels and seeing where the mountains I'd like to ride are located. One thing I found is that the hotel rates in the mountain towns are much cheaper in the spring and summer. Nice! Obviously they rely on the winter ski season for their main business. For example, one hotel was about 125-135 euros in winter but was only 60-80 in spring and summer.

Right now I'm looking at four regions. Cinque Terre looks beautiful but I'm not sure about the riding yet. Everybody talks about Tuscany so thats a possibility although I get the feeling from some reading that it's somewhat overrun by tourists. The Veneto region is supposed to be great riding with plains and rolling hills to the south and sitting at the base of the Dolomites. And finally, I'd like to get into the heart of the Dolomites and Alps. I've done most of the famous French climbs. Now the Italian climbs need to be conquered. The Stelvio, Gavia and Mortirolo are definite ones I'd like to ride. After that, there are any number of climbs (Pordoi, Fedaia, Capolongo, Duran, San Pellegrino, etc) that can be tackled along the way.

Back to dreaming...

It's Sunday evening and my calves still very sore from yesterday. The lower back is a little stiff too. Feeling this way at this time of year is surprising. I would have never guessed yesterday's ride would have had this effect.

Giro coverage of OLN just finished and Basso showed who the class of the field in this year. Still a long way to go with some difficult stages yet to come but it is hard to imagine someone else challenging for victory based on his performance today.

Saturday I didnt ride from Meramec. Instead, I wanted to ride on my own. I wanted to leave later. I wanted to ride at my own pace in whatever gear and not feel obligated to ride faster or slower. I wanted the chance to explore where a road goes, to look at the animals, to smell the blooming flowers. Most of all I wanted to ride for the enjoyment, not for training. And yesterday was a darn fine day to do so. Sunny for the first half before turning cloudy. The temperatures were probably in the 50's. It seemed like October.

In brief, I left from home and went into Arnold to Church Rd to get to Old Lemay. I turned left on Spring Forest down to Seckman. There is still a lot of construction on Seckman. Except for having no shoulder and a foot and a half dropoff, the road itself is a piece of freshly paved bicycle heaven. Then it was left onto Frisco Hill Rd. Up 'til then I had been in the big ring and had to decide if I wanted to tackle hill this too. Why not? The climb wasn't as bad as I thought it might be but, then again, I wasn't about to set any speed records.

I flatted on Four Ridge and the clouds came rolling in. Dark, threatening clouds that looked like rainmakers that never produced anything. Once in Valley Park I turned right up 141. Normally, I would avoid 141 because of the traffic but the shoulder helped and it was the most direct way for me to ride up the Fabicksbert (aka Klagesberg). Along the way I spotted a road called May Valley just off of 141. I had heard this was a pretty tough climb so I stopped, crossed through a couple drainage ditches and proceeded to check this climb out. It's a good subdivision climb but not brutal. While going up the climb a black SUV pulls up next to me. It was Kent Jones. He recognized my yellow arm warmers. We chatted for a bit until another car came up from behind.

Once I reached the top, I had to decide whether to go back or guess which direction to turn on Summit. I chose to turn right and got myself completely twisted around and pretty much lost. I'll need to look at a map and see how that happened. My internal compass was all mixed up. Eventually I made my way back to 141 at Hawkins and continued on my. The Fabicksberg is still more gravelly than it used to be but its not too bad.

Ride time: 3.5 hrs. Calves are a little sore today. The big ring climbing took its toll.

Tues Nite Worlds were unspectacular for the most part.  After the initial pacesetting the race settled down and a group of about eight started to open a gap fairly early in the race.  The size of the group looked promising so I tried to bridge up.  If I had any kind of a jump I would have been across in no time.  Instead, it turned into a 2/3 lap slog up to the tail of the group.  I sat on, trying to recover, while some of the others took turns at the front.  A few laps later we were caught and I settled into the group again. 

Not much later another group rolled off with a few others making the bridge up.  I chose the wrong frickin' group because this one stayed away.  The rest of the race I didn't try anything and just put in some miles.  Joe was slumming in our group and saying how tired he was.  He had to be bluffing and I figured it would be good to try and give him a nice pull with a little over a lap to go and let him take over from there.  Of course, I didn't communicate this to him. 

At the base of the hill before the bell lap I moved past Joe on the right and motioned to get on my wheel.  I looked back and he gave this look like "I'm not working tonight".  Maybe he was tired.after all.  There was no point in wasting my momentum so I went ahead with my attack.  In an incredible and totally understandable display of indifference toward my ability to last a lap alone, nobody followed my attack so it was a question of whether I could last.  I felt good for most of the lap but sensed someone coming at the bottom of the hill but did not look back, preferring to keep my head down and pedal.  Martel came by at the top with a couple Mesa's but that was it.  I'm sure the others didn't have a great interest in fighting for nothing but I felt it was a good attack. 

Random thoughts: 

Why does FDJeux insist on switching to white shorts for the grand tours?

Is there a country that has a flag with the color orange?

Now that I think of it, does any flag have purple?

Yesterday was a great day for a race in Edwardsville.  Perfect conditions.  This was my first time at this race.  The first couple years of its existence it was held in late June or early July.  Each time it was too close to my trips to France and I was unwilling to risk crashing so I skipped the race.  Some people had described the course as a parking lot crit.  It is held on the roads in a parking lot but I found it to be an entertaining course. 

I showed up and I see Mark carrying his spare wheels.  Nothing special there until he pulled his shirt tight and shows this god-awful looking protusion coming from his collarbone area.  He was remarkably calm about it and wasn't in a great deal of pain so I don't know if it was broken or not.  My untrained eye finds it hard to believe that it wasn't broken.

My legs felt stale as I spun around before the race.  I didn't know what to expect once we got going.  Getting going proved to be problematic.  I lined in the third row behind an unknown guy in a generic jersey.  My inner voice said to be somewhere else but I didn't listen.  Sure enough, the gun sounded and he couldn't get in his right pedal.  Guys went streaming by on both sides as he fumbled.  Thanks Mr Gray Jersey Guy.  I realize it can happen to anyone but damn its frustrating to get caught behind someone that cant get in the pedal.  Right from the gun I was at the back of the pack. 

Mesa and Clubbers kept the pace high and moving up was not happening.  I decided to wait for an easing of the pace and hoped nothing got away while biding my time at the rear.  Twenty minutes I finally was able to get mid-pack.  As the race went on I felt better and better but never felt confident enough to try and hard work off the front like last week.  Aaron moved up at the end and Cooper drilled it on the last lap while I continued to sit about 13th.  I could have probably been more aggressive but I was comfy.  Comfy doesn't get results though.  Cooper pulled off before the chicane and it was up to Aaron at that point.  Two Mesas got him in the finale but he hung on for third.  I moved a few spots after the chicane and snagged 10th.  The 10th is nice but unsatisfying considering how passively I rode the whole race.

Good stuff:  Finished top 10

Bad stuff:  Didn't do any work and didn't handle the chicane well.  Kept having to close small gaps that I would let open up.

Raced Apple Pie yesterday as a Master. The other option was the 1/2/3 race but the 3's were being scored seperately and I really dislike that scoring method. In my humble view, it takes away any race tactics that may normally take place and it becomes a race to see who can hang the longest with the 1/2's when they put the hammer down. The other good thing about the Masters was doing only three laps. It fit better into my schedule and, as a bonus, might leave my legs a little fresher for today.

Twenty-eight riders started. Roughly 53 of the 28 riders were from VeloForce and Mack. Actually, Mack had 5(?) and VeloForce 6 or 7. Only Buckley and myself were there Sharks. Lap 1 was uneventful with the exception of Russ suddenly putting a helmet into the shoulder of Kent Jones and damn near taking down Kent. I'm not sure what that was all about so I won't pass judgment but, from about 10 ft behind it looked like a boneheaded move.

Shortly after the second lap started. Two guys attacked and built a gap with two more bridging up quickly. Mack, V-Force, Clubbers and ICCC were all represented leaving few teams to work. No one seemed all that concerned to I attacked in the hope of bridging but also to animate the pack. I got reeled in eventually. The blocking from the others teams began. Buckley, Russ, Ghisallo man, Team Z dude and myself would go up front to lift the tempo there was always a V-Force or Mack up there to break up whatever chase may have been happening. The gap was 2 minutes after lap 2.

Lap 3 was more animated as the attacks and counters came quite often. Four more riders eventually got away between turns 1 and 2. I had been pretty active before that and couldn't respond to those counters. I continued to try small attacks on the back side. Not sure why. The race was basically over. I guess I held out small hope of at least catching the 2nd group of four. I finally blew up for short while just before turn 3 but stayed close. At that point my legs just couldn't close the gap and I drifted a little further back. I wasn't too concerned since all the money was gone.

Bad stuff: Missed the break
Good stuff: I rode fairly aggressively

Sunday is my first time doing the Cougar Crit in Edwardsville.

Got out to ride a little this afternoon in preparation for this weekend's races. Rode conservatively today. I only wanted to spin the legs for a while. There will be plenty of time for hard riding on Saturday and Sunday.

Today was 'No Pants Day'. Did you celebrate?

This weekend's aggression did not exist tonight. For the most part, I was a slug. The first 10+ minutes were my warmup. Slowly, I eased through the field. About 21 minutes in I attacked up the hill and got a good gap. It's not too hard to get a good gap when nobody is worried about you staying away. I sucked hanging out there all alone and by the bottom of the hill the field started to stream by and at the top I was in the back of the pack again.

At that point it was back to just riding laps. As the race dwindled down though, my legs started to feel good again and I stayed in the front half of the race. I was top 20 at the bell lap it seemed. Some guys began to fade half way through and I laid it down in the run up to the hill. The outside line was good and I was strong up the hill and made through the turn in about 10th. A few more riders drifted by my side in the final sprint and for a moment I thought I had 6th. I shifted down but here came Rusty on right anyway. He was just going too fast and got me at the line. He thanked me for the great leadout. My pleasure. Really. Thanks for using me.

A quick count after finishing, had me in 8th. It's the Tues Nite Worlds so I don't put a whole lot of stock in an 8th place but it serves as a confidence boost.

On the way home from the race yesterday I had the baseball game on the radio. In the background Ernie Hays could be heard playing the organ. Mike Shannon chimed in about Ernie's unique playing style. He should have left well enough alone with that comment. Instead he continued on and displayed for the listening audience his own unique style... with the english language. Shannon proclaimed how great it is "when Ernie is at the pearly gates.".

Say what? I don't find it appropriate for Shannon to be wishing for Ernie's death. Personally I hope Ernie continues to "tickle the ivories" for many more years before he reaches the "pearly gates".