This afternoon, after work, I drove to my usual CX training area. Those rare days when I actually train, that is. I wanted to look at the terrain for some possible changes to the course I normally ride. The trip was beneficial and I came up with a few new ideas to make a slightly more difficult course. My thought is to try and gain permission for a race next fall.

Flipping through the channels I just stumbled across the Hooters Swimsuit Pageant. This is some tough viewing.

Saturday brought my return to the road after a post CX forced hiatus. My ribs had been feeling pretty decent for a couple days and figured I would give it a go. Just in case, I popped an Ibuprofen before leaving home.

One thing I had not done lately was pump my tires. The discomfort I felt made me wonder if riding was a smart decision but it seemed unlikely that I would be using my upper body as much as when using the floor pump. Just in case, I started the ride cautiously and followed wheels for a while. Eventually, I began to feel more confident. Or maybe I just did not think and began to ride with less caution. We hit our first hill on Hertel and after following wheels at the start I hopped out of the saddle and danced up the hill quite nicely. From then on, I felt pretty confident that I would be fine for the rest of the ride.

Once we reached Freeburg I was at the head of the group for most of the 25 or so miles back to Columbia while setting a reasonable tempo. I felt surprisingly good after a couple weeks off.

Sunday, we met at Meramec CC. No one came with a plan and we circled in the parking lot for what seemed like five minutes pondering the route possibilites with as much thought as a Greek philosopher. We ultimately settled into a fairly standard JeffCo route although we did tackle the nasty Col de Corisande behind George Winter Park at the suggestion of Marco. That damn thing doesn't feel good with December legs. Anyway, from there we tackled the hills of Romaine Creek with a side adventure of watching Giuseppe try and tackle a private road called Jensen Hills that kicks upward in an unpleasant way. Most of stopped at the base near the NO TRESPASSING sign but Giuseppe is not to follow signs. He made quite good progress and looked strong for a little over half the hill. Then came a mean kick and his progress stopped in about 10 ft. and the feet touched down. He turned around as we enjoyed a chuckled at the base. After that side excursion we headed into Haute Arrete and down into Parque de Vallee.

For over a month my legs had done little more than hour-long rides. As we approached Marshall Hill my body was starting to feel the affects of two longish days in the saddle. I took my time up the climb and saved a little for the ride home.

Weekend totals were 112 miles. Not a bad start to the winter training. It is turning cold this week so it looks like a lot of quality trainer time coming up. I actually look forward to it. At least two hours on the trainer sounds like a good way to ring in the New Year.

RANDOM THOUGHTS:
Heras retires. Boohoo. Apparently, he feels he is too good to ride for a Continental team. So sorry to not see your doped ass fly up a mountain anymore, Roberto. You were fun to watch on the Angliru but really, who is that impressed anymore now that you have been caught.

A couple days ago round 6 of the Superprestige CX series was held in Diegem. This years race was held under the lights. Seems like a crazy idea but it seemed to go off without too much difficulty. The race did yield what could be the quote of the year. Behold the DUH! statement of the year from Bart Wellens "The problem was that we were warming up in the light and racing in the dark. This difference is night and day." Who says pro cyclists are not smart?

Hwy 40/I-64 is shutting down in two days. I am almost giddy with the thought. The media is salivating with the impending armageddon of a highway shutdown. The dark side of me loves chaos and this holds the potential. Another side of me loves to hate the media. Nothing would please me more than to see the city cope without much problem and spoil the media's plans for endless stories of MoDOT's screw-ups.

DeVlaeminck slams Boonen:
If I am reading the story correctly Roger DeVlaeminck claims that Boonen did not perform in 2007.  He states, Boonen won the Tour's Green Jersey but adds that Petacchi and McEwen were even and that Boonen only ploughed along and then sprinted for 200 meters.  DeVlaeminck praised Devolder, Gilbert and DeAvermaet as riders who at least rode with character.
 
Ouch!  It's tough being the big man in Belgium.

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Except for the occasional twinge in the chest, I felt MUCH better at Spinning this week. I could breathe much better and could pull on the bars pretty well. Looks like I have a green light for Saturday's ride.

I'm going a little stir crazy. Except for a Spinning class last Tuesday it has been two weeks have passed since I last straddled the bike. My legs are itching to ride. I'm settling another Spin tonight but Saturday will mark my return. My still aching ribs probably won't like Spinning any more than they did last week. If not, I will just do my own thing.

What Saturday will bring is completely unknown. I have a feeling it won't be pretty as we hit the rolling hills of Columbia. At least I have an anger to ride right now.

QuickStep's Patrick Lefevre is a despicable person but I will give him credit for selecting a nice jersey for 2008.

However, I would not recommend letting theses guys in your front door to lay QuickStep flooring

Post CX Nats physical update:

• Injured Ribs: Pushing down with left arm, lifting with a somewhat extended arm, coughing, twisting body and deep breaths are all uncomfortable.
• Radius bone in forearm: Bone feels bruised despite no physical marks except for a small bump.
• Left knee: A nice black and purple bruise 1.5" in diameter on the inside of knee.
• Neck: Stiffness when tilting head back or to the left.

Other than these things, I feel great.

A report on Cross Nats is in order. First, I left much sooner than I wanted. I really wanted to stay the weekend and see the Pros on Sunday. After Friday's races, I returned to the hotel and turned on the TV and the weather reports were for 5-7 inches all the way along I-70, with 7-9" around STL and 10+ around Warrenton. When the forecast was 2-4" on Saturday I was willing to stay in KC. But, I needed to be back in town for work on Monday and the increased snow amounts were a bit too much to risk.

Wednesday evening I rolled into KC and went to find the course. After a wrong taking a n incorrect ramp in downtown I made my way back north and found the course easily. Not wanting to pull out the bike, I walked the course instead. Almost the entire course was small broken ice chunks with a narrow line of grass/soil.

Despite the walk through, I arrived early to get in a few laps during the Open Course period before racing started. The on-bike experience was very tricky as you skated around turns and off camber sections, begging for some tire grip and seeking out a good line. The practice laps were helpful but with temperatures rising and three earlier races, the course had changed dramatically. Some ice still existed but the race line had worn in and it was mostly a thick, slick mud with some grass and ice at the edges of the course.

Lining up for the race was unique. Around here our race fields are usually 20-30 riders. Here, we lined up eight men across and I was at least eight rows back. This was a bigger field than most of our crits. I did luck into an position along the rail, rather than in a mass of humanity in the middle of the pack. The course was a sweeping right hand bend to start and then climbed a straight road for about maybe 100-150 meters. My start position paid off and I gained a good number of places on the pavement before turning into grass, mud and ice. Folks were slipping, sliding and swerving all over in a struggle to stay upright. The field strung out fairly quickly and the race settled in. I was holding my own quite nicely. Made it through the tricky off camber hillside, over the barriers with no issues, around a few trees and then decided to do a spectacular imitation of Armstrong on Luz Ardiden.

A rider in green had stopped on the right side of the road. I assume he had crashed and had picked his bike up. I had just swept through a turn with a few others behind me. I saw the guy and didn't feel there was much of a problem but either he moved his bike or I had to make a correction. It's hard to say but just as I went by, I noticed his handlebar. A split second later, like the infamous musette that pulled down Armstrong, my handlebar hooked his and went flying to the left (just like Lance) and went splat in the soft ground. I pulled his bike right out of his hands and took it along for the ride. At least three of four guys went by as I scampered to my feet and untangled our bars.

The remainder of the lap was uneventful and I was managing my effort. I turned back into the grass after the finish line and around the big sweeping righthander. Down the gradual hill I went when suddenly "something" happened. This area was full of soft, rutted ground. I figure my front wheel hit one of those ruts wrong but it was completely unexpected. Again, I went flying to my left. Despite the muddy ground, this was a much harder hit than the first. I struck the ground with my shoulder and upper back, arms and legs splayed all about and finished the impact with my head falling backward into the ground. I was stunned for a brief moment as several others rode by. I hopped back on the bike but the chain had been dropped. Then it was back off the bike to fix the chain and back on again to start chasing.

Later that lap, I again went down again on my left side in a ditch but that was far less dramatic but it was another couple guys that went by. The remaining 2.5 laps were uneventful. My legs felt remarkably good the whole race and I finished strong out of the saddle.

In the end, I finished 54th. Not a spectacular result, for sure, but with the three crashes I am satisfied and feel I rode strongly. The whole scene was a learning experience.

After the race it felt as if I pulled a muscle in my chest. Using my left arm was likely to cause some pain. Adrenaline is a good thing and I never felt any pain during the race. Saturday, I was poking and prodding and feel I may have cracked a rib or two a little. When I press on a couple ribs around the sternum they hurt but when pressing in between there is no pain. So, I'm not sure exactly what I did but it is uncomfortable. Getting out of bed and the chair gives a jolt of pain and any coughing doesn't feel real good. Regardless, it was a lot of fun to race out there.

I did manage to make an appearance on a Youtube video of the race. One of my competitors had a helmet-cam. He lined up a couple rows behind me but quickly got on my wheel. If you wish to watch, I am (in blue) right ahead of him at about the 7 second mark of the video and stay in view for about 15 seconds. Notice the dramatic Pantani-like acceleration as I got out of the saddle.


The second half of the race can be found here

It's Wednesday and a comment about the State CX Championships are in order, I suppose. The weather reports were less than ideal and the news alarmists were painting a bleak picture of the roads (even though they were fine). Still, a few more people showed up than the day before. That was good to see. The numbers were still disappointing in my view but, given the weather, I guess it is to be expected.

One thing that bad weather in a not-so-crazy CX state make for some cherry-picking of state medals. Yours truly benefited nicely. In a hard fought race between me, myself and I. I won in a tight battle. Whew! That was rough.

Here's an interesting snippet from the German paper Spiegel...  Hincapie was the straw that broke T-Mobile?
 
The alliance between Stapleton and Telekom failed because of a misunderstanding over how Stapleton was to deal with the doping issue. While executives in Bonn were constantly reading headlines equating the name of the company with doping, Stapleton insisted that his job was to work on the future and not constantly revisit the past.

 
In keeping with this philosophy, Stapleton had no qualms about signing fellow American George Hincapie for the coming season. Hincapie, 34, was Lance Armstrong's trusted lieutenant during his series of Tour victories. In 2005, the tall American won the most difficult mountain stage of the Tour, even though he had never excelled as a mountain specialist before. For Telekom, Hincapie was just another image problem, a time bomb because he probably knows a great deal about Armstrong's miraculous trail of victories. But for Stapleton he was a solid rider with a clean record who was willing to conform to the team's anti-doping policies. Despite the company's attempts to convince him to change his mind, Stapleton insisted on hiring Hincapie.

The rift between Stapleton and Telekom had become so wide that the separation had to be painstakingly negotiated. On Nov. 6, the company's board of directors decided to examine ways to get rid of Stapleton immediately. The simplest approach was not an option. Although Stapleton's contract with Telekom included an exit clause, it only applied to a current doping case, of which there were none in November.   Stapleton apparently insisted on being paid the full salary to which he would have been entitled until his contract expired: €45 million.
 
His attorneys hired detectives to interview former riders and company employees in an attempt to obtain incriminating material against Telekom. Their goal was to find out whether Telekom had secretly known about -- and covered up -- widespread doping in the 1990s. But they turned up empty-handed.

Stapleton took his time -- a full three weeks -- before finally signing an agreement with Telekom to dissolve his contract. In the end, the former partners were practically at each other's throats."  Officials at Telekom refused to comment on the cost of the separation, but it is likely to have been in the neighborhood of €20-25 million -- a hefty sum to avoid bad publicity.

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Exactly when did middle America acquire northeastern cyclocross weather. First, was last week's muddy, slopfest at Unger Park. And now we are smack dab in the middle of an expected weeklong weather pattern of light rain/sleet/freezing rain and possible snow with 30+ degree highs.

Now, if we would only have race fields the size they have in the northeast. Apparently, we are nothing but fair weather 'crossers around here. How embarrasing that a total of 32 racers show up. Yes, it was cold, kind of wet and somewhat muddy but only 32 people to race? C'mon folks! That is pitiful. You can't drive 1.5 hours for a race? Does it have to be within a twenty mile range to drag your butts out of the house? It wasn't necessary to wash your skirts. They would have just gotten dirty.

Jeff Yielding takes the initiative to host a two day race weekend with a good, challenging course that included a brutal stair climb and a natural hill that required a dismount and 32 people show up? Apparently, most of the folks in eastern MO are such finally tuned racing machines that they do not dare burn a metaphorical match by racing the day before the State Championships.

Shame, shame, shame.

There better be a nice crowd Sunday, despite the crappy forecast.

Sure, the Giro route was announced the other day. There may be a TT up the Plan de Corones, stage finish atop Passo Fedaia on a very mountainous day, and a Gavia/Mortirolo double on the 2nd last day. But, I think the big news was Ricardo Ricco's pimpin' gangsta pinstripes and blingy belt buckle.

Ummm... is Ricardo's fly open?