Snow swept into town today and has dropped about 1.5 inches so far. The heavier snowfall comes tonight and the forecast is for about 6" give or take an inch or two. The snow doesn't affect any training tonight. I wouldn't be riding outside at night anyway. This rural-ish roads in IL and JeffCo make this weekend's rides questionable. Could be another trainer weekend.

Today's photo was taken a couple weeks ago. If I were to give this picture a title it would be 'Rainy Day in Hoosierville'

My new rims are being shipped today!

My thigh muscles are a bit stiff today. Spinning class must have worked me over a bit last night. I rather like the feeling of some sore muscles. There is a certain satisfaction in knowing that you worked hard and that it should make you stronger when the racing starts.
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The 2008 Tour of Missouri route was officially announced today. The race organizer, Medalist Sports, followed the traditional pattern that has been set with their GA and CA races. Keep the same basic route with a tweak here and there to mix things up. I'm not saying that is a bad formula. In fact, it is probably a good thing for newer races to establish a certain amount of familiarity. Ultimately, I think variety is what makes for a good stage race however.

This year's race will again head west to east. St Joseph is this year's Grand Depart. I like the change from last year's out and back KC route, while still having the finish in the large population of KC to get things kicked off strongly.

Stage 2 from Clinton to Springfield is unchanged. This nondescript stage surprisingly brought about the decisive break in last year's race. Hopefully, the race will not be decided so early in the race this year.

Stage 3 is again the Branson TT. This is a difficult and very hilly course. At least it seemed that way to me when I pre-rode the course. I'm not surprised to see this stage return. Branson did a nice job of hosting and provided an awesome backdrop for the awards ceremony with fireworks and fountains along the riverfront.

Stage 4 again starts in Lebanon. They did an terrific job as a start town last year so I am glad to see this smallish town's efforts rewarded with another hosting opportunity. The stage finishes in Rolla and could potentially provide some nice hills if it approaches Rolla from the south. The rudimentary route map seems to indicate a northward loop. Not sure what this stage will hold.

Stage 5 from St James to Jefferson City. I've never traveled between these two cities. My guess is that this will be a rolling stage but not terribly hilly.

Stage 6 again finishes in St Charles but, instead of starting in Jeff City, the start moves to Hermann this year. Being from the St Louis area, this is the stage piques my interest. This stage is listed as being 13 miles shorter (110 miles) than last year but Hermann is almost 50 miles closer to St Charles.

What does this mean for a revised route? My sinking feeling is that after going through the Augusta wine region it could mean a loop northward to Troy/Winfield area before heading south into St Charles. I liked the Augusta area for a race and the crowds on Schluersburg were incredible but the thought of that northern loop concerns me.

I would like a pretty hilly stage and keeping the route a little more southerly sets up nicely. An added bonus is that it would be closer to me and would like to see the race go along our training routes. This is my hoped for stage... Like last year, head east on 100 to Washington but don't cross the Missouri River into Augusta. Instead, continue on to Gray Summit, take Old Gray Summit Rd into Pacific. Leave Pacific on Hwy F. Go over John McKeever Rd into Byrnesville. Take Hwy W into House Springs. Briefly, get on Hwy 30 and then onto Lower Byrnes Mill. Go up Franks into High Ridge. Go down Antire and up Jim Weber and into Eureka. Go over Alt, up Woods and onward to Pond Rd, past Babler. That puts the race into course designer Kevin Livingston's childhood stomping grounds. Take Orville to Strecker, Kehrs Mill and Wild Horse. From there, things flatten out along Olive and River Valley/Creve Coeur Mill area. Cross over the Page Extension and finish on the St Charles riverfront. That route is right at the listed 110 mile route. I like it for various reasons.
1) This would be a pretty hilly stage and keeping the route a little more southerly sets up nicely for what I think would be a hillier route than going north.
2) The race would pass through a good number of towns with some good sized population. Among those cities are Washington, Pacific, Eureka, Wildwood and Chesterfield.
3) On a selfish note, it would be closer to home and I would like to see the race go along our training routes.

Stage 7 in St Louis seems to be the same circuit as last year. That's okay.

Sunday was a darn fine January day for a bike ride. We didn't ride as far as I would have expected on such a nice day but it was still a good 53 miles.

We didn't have a specific route in mind but turned in a typical JeffCo ride with punchy small hills including Montee de Weber, Route de Saline and the upwardly rolling Route de Hunning before heading east on Crique de Roche and turning around at Vieux 21. Then, heading back to Haute Arrete, down to Parc de Vallee and up Route de Marshall.

Thursday I mailed the check for my new rims. Now I have to decide on some hubs and spokes.


Rode pretty well Saturday. Made a few efforts that seemed to be effective. The distance maybe 50 miles. We hit JeffCo today and the temps should be seasonably comfortable. The distance should be a bit more witht the to/fro miles added in.

Francesco del Ponte update:

This quote from VDB at Velonews cannot be good..."I just want to live race a full season, with tranquility and without health problems,"

He's wanting tranquility. Sounds like his dog may sick again and he is looking for a vet to prescribe some meds.

I typically pick a young pro rider to follow through the year and watch them, hopefully, progress.  The past few years I have followed Thomas Lovkvist.  Lovkvist has become a rather good time trialist and he's not too bad in the hills.  Still only 24, he has a few years to improve and should be a major contender in shorter stage races and some one-day races.  He has moved from Francaise de Jeux to High Road this year so it will be interesting to see how he fits in with the new team.  I'm tempted to follow him one more year but feel it is time to move on.
 
My new man to follow is Remy Di Gregorio.  Di Gregorio is a 22 yr old French climber so he won't make a name for himself early in the season.  Late in the spring and into the summer his name will start becoming more visible on the results page.  He crashed early in last year's Tour and didn't get a chance to show what he could do on the big stage.  However, he did finish 17th in the Dauphine while winning the mountains competition, he won the climbs classification at Liege and was still in the lead duo with just over 20km to the finish and finished third in a stage of Volta a Catalunya.  He seems to be a big climbing talent.

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From the Rolla Daily News....
 
Julia Mangogna, Staff Writer

Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder had good news for Rolla, and Saturday night at the Annual Rolla Area Chamber of Commerce Banquet and Awards Celebration, he hinted about the city's prospects at its participation in the 2008 Tour of Missouri bicycle race.

"When the route is announced, there are going to be some happy folks in this part of the state," Kinder said.

Kinder was the keynote speaker for the Rolla Area Chamber of Commerce Banquet and Awards celebration at Matt's Steakhouse.

Kinder was speaking of the second annual pro cycling race, to be held in September. The city, through Recreation Center Director Scott Caron, has applied to be at least a part of the six-stage race. More than two weeks ago -- on Jan. 9 -- a group of representatives from Tour of Missouri were in Rolla reviewing sites and the city's bid as a host location.

"The last tour was the largest free sporting event ever brought to our state," said Kinder. "That tour had a $26 million economic impact on the state of Missouri."
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Let's piece things together a little bit.  KC and STL are sure to be start and end points for the Tour again.  Whether STL is the starting point this year could still be in the air, I suppose.  Springfield/Branson area will surely be in the mix again.  Rolla is a host city according to this story.  Hints have been dropped that Hermann will likely host.  There was much talk about giving northern MO a bit of the action this year.  At the time, Hannibal was mentioned fairly often.
 
It's seems to be out of the norm for Medalist Sports to vary race routes radically but just for the hell of it, assume the race goes east to west this year.  I could see a circuit around the St Louis area for stage one.  Hannibal to Columbia for stage 2.  A TT in Jefferson City 3.  Hermann to Rolla for stage 4.  Lake of the Ozarks to Branson for stage 5.  Springfield to... oh I dont know... Sedalia or Warrenburg maybe for stage 6.  Then some kind of KC loop or circuit for stage 7

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We were bound to get a weekend like this eventually. Reasonably cold temps don't bother me much but single digit temperatures are simply silly. My toes don't have gone through enough minor frostbite in my years and they don't react particularly well to extreme cold. My toes were uncomfortable enough while trying to warm up last week. I didn't need to voluntarily go through that again.

Yesterday was trainer time instead of shiver time. Two and a half hours good hours of riding. My legs were feeling the effort. They were more sore than any of the other rides we've been doing lately. I plan on repeating the ride again today. It will be a very productive weekend.
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I wonder if the the whole Men in Black scandal from last year has had any conscious or sub-conscious influence on more teams going to white kits this year. Before, only the French teams wore white. FdJeux and Credit Agricole were mainly white jerseys. Ag2R and Cofidis were half-white. Now QuickStep and Milram have joined the innocent, virginal white look. Team High Road kind of destroys my theory with their almost entirely black jersey.

Tuesday's Spinning class was better than last week. I didn't mention last week but got on a bike whose left Look pedal had an unbelievably low release tension. The front desk had some hex wrenches but none of them fit the pedal tension screw. All the other Look bikes were occupied so I tried to make do with the hand that was dealt.

After pulling out of the pedal a couple times, Giuseppe pointed out a Look compatible bike that I had missed. The pedals had the strap attachments for riding in tennis shoes. I was able to get one of them twisted off but not the other. Just my luck that the pedal I would have liked to be loose was tight.

After wrestling with that for a couple minutes, I went back to the original bike. It sucked big. I felt rather secure while out of the saddle but I must have pulled out of the pedal another 3 or 4 times that night while in the saddle. I figured I was going to hurt myself if that kept up and decided to settle into a moderate effort.

Fast forward to this week. Different bike, not that much different result. This week it was the right side pedal and it was not AS bad but again I pulled 2 or 3 times. Very frustrating. Next week I am bringing my own hex wrenches to tighten the pedal. I should just bring my own pedals.

Thursday was a quick and dirty trainer ride with some 5 minute intervals. I feel satisfied with the effort. I did the efforts on the TT bars as a little bit of practice in that general position. This year I plan on making a return visit to the State TT for the first time since '02. Is that right? Damn, it doesn't seem that long ago.

Unlike my past efforts, I want to work toward a strong showing. My other two attempts consisted of screwing on some clip-on aerobars and going for a 40k effort. Each time, I clocked a bit over an hour (around 1:01).

This year when my new frame comes in and the bike gets built up I will convert the current frame into a TT bike. Is it an ideal TT frame? No, but it will work fine and with new aero wheels, a proper helmet plus bars and I SHOULD be faster than in the past.

Erstwhile wearer of the Maillot a Pois, Ricky Virenque has found a new girlfriend.  It's nice to see that she believes in water safety and wears flotation devices.  Completely Not Safe for Work.
http://www.as.com/recorte/20080109dasdaimas_5/C280/Ies/Virenque_tiene_nueva_novia.jpg

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If I EVER win a race, I think I will stick with a more traditional victory salute.

This weekend's rides were completely different. They were the yin and yang, the alpha and the omega, black and white and any other incorrectly used metaphor you choose.

Saturday was chilly but turned into a sunny, warmer than expected ride with nine of us zipping through IL. It was a day that I found quite enjoyable to be riding.

Sunday was gray, windy, and cold with a few snow flurries. Hard to imagine but only two of us showed up on such a lovely day and neither of us were terribly excited about being on the bike. My ambitions were low after battling the biting wind on my ride out to MIT. I think Giuseppe was more than comfortable sitting in his 'canuck' (car/van/truck). What exactly is a Honda Element? It would probably classified a van.

Regardless, we eventually hit the road and made up a ride as we went. Instead of going south, we switched things up a bit and went north and west through Des Peres, Town & Country and Valley Park before doing a quick out and back to Lone Elk and then returning to MIT.

It was not the most spectacular ride but at least we rode. There were only two other fools that we saw out riding.

For the weekend, I put in right about 100 miles. Not so bad. Later in the afternoon, I went ice skating. That makes up for a little shorter ride, doesn't it?

I hadn't skated in... I don't remember how long. As a result I had the pleasure of skate rental. I don't recall skates behaving like the pair that was granted me. It's been a long time but I dont remember skates behaving the way mine did. Skates are supposed to grip the ice, aren't they. I would push off and there was hardly any traction. When I attempted to turn the skates would have a sideways drift in addition to the usual forward motion. The skates must not have been sharp. As time went on, I seemed get slightly more comfortable and compensated for the drifting motion but nobody would have confused me with Sergei Fedorov.

Thank goodness this US Champion jersey has supposedly been rejected by Levi Leipheimer.

I came across a report that I haven't yet seen on CN or VN or... pick your website. Boonen is thinking of forming a four-man pursuit team to compete on the track at the Beijing Olympics. His teammates would beGert Steegmans, Sebastien Rosseler and Wouter Weylandt.

I like this phrasing from sportwereld.be...
 
Following the recruitment of Tyler Hamilton and Santiago Botero, both mentioned in a number of doping scandals, Rock Racing is very busy attracting Oscar Sevilla, a fish from the same barrel with cloudy water.

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Wednesday night I cleaned my bike up. This past weekend was nice and warm but the roads were moist from overnight rains and the bike was filthy. After a decent cleaning I set about changing my bike position.

Sunday, while stopped in Haute Arrete, I mentioned to Giuseppe that I was plodding along and didn't feel comfortable on the bike. I don't have an explanation why other than having to adjust the saddle a few times in recent weeks because the seat bolt seemed to loosen and causing the saddle to move. Each time, I would move it back to something that seemed about right but never checked. It was purely an eyeball adjustment

As far as I know the setup was close to what I have usually ridden but I didn't like the feel so I made big changes. Pushed the saddle wayyyy back and dropped it a bit.

Tonight, I did an hour with a few 5 minute efforts. I'm not raving about the position but it was okay. I will give it a few rides on the road and see how the body reacts. Better to make the change in January than in June.

Aside from the newspaper, rarely do I read letters sent in to websites by readers. I'm too busy posting my own drivel here. However, about a week ago, I clicked on a link to the 'Letters' section of a well known cycling website based in Australia. I quickly scanned the page to see if anything caught my eye and, sure enough, there was a letter from someone in St Louis.

My curiosity was piqued and I felt the need to see what my fellow citizen had to say. Seconds later I began to shudder and turn away from the monitor in sheer horror. In the words of Herbert Morrison, "Oh, the humanity!" This fine gentleman managed to combine such diverse topics as journalistic technique and Cadel Evans training into one whopper of a letter.

I was so moved by the letter, that I feel the need to share it... along with my editorial comments in bold for a little fun.

"Evans starts training for '08 Tour"

Where is the news? Where is the story?

Uhhh... the news is Cadel Evans began his training for the '08 Tour

A report/article from an Aussie journalist regarding an Aussie is convenient but at least make a news story out of it. If someone wants to make an interesting article, especially regarding a countryman, they should begin with a very different headline in December.

Evans late to start in training for '08 Tour.

A reporter's goal is not to stir up controversy or make a story "interesting". The goal is to report the facts.

Get in there, turn the screws! If you want your fellow countryman to represent the first Tour victory, get on his back and ask WHY he didn't start training the day after the Tour '07?

1) Nobody begins training for the next year's Tour the day after the Tour ends
2) Maybe you missed the fact that the cycling season doesn't end in late July.
3) Evans won the ProTour. Why? Because, unlike you, he realizes that the season doesn't end in late July and raced until Lombardia in October.

By December Cadel should know the '08 course He was at the '08 route announcement and knows the course and already have ridden some of the climbs. I know for a fact that he has ridden the Peyresourde, Aspin, Tourmalet, Galibier, Croix-de-Fer, Alpe d'Huez in past Tours. If you are a serious GC contender and been in Europe for several years, you have most likely ridden most of the mountains in a Tour at some point. Even a schmuck like me has been overr four of next year's mountains. That, my friend, is how to win the Tour. Because that is how you trained before winning your Tour de France Don't just follow, Cadel...LEAD! If you expect to win, and it is safe to assume this is the goal, then you can stop worrying about what others write, say, or whether you should be "superhuman". I promise he is not worried about what you wrote Know in your mind that you have trained harder & smarter than any other rider, after all, you are not the only one riding/training right now. That's right, everyone else has been training since the Tour ended

You want to be the best, then train more than anyone because when you are in the final 5km of the penultimate climb(s) in '08, you will know in YOUR mind that "there 'aint nobody out here but me that is going to win this thing", right before you dust the three favourites following your wheel.
How often do GC contenders ride away from their competitors on the penultimate climb of a stage? That sort of thing almost always happens on the final climb

Where is the story? Give us something to read, substance perhaps? Make something up, write about why Cadel is better than anyone else, take a stand!

Make something up? What the hell kind of reporting is that? That will get you fired just about everyplace but the Weekly World News.

I guarantee the '07 winner and the following top ten, aside from Cadel, has started thinking about '08 as soon as the bubbly settled in July. I guarantee Alberto Contador has already been to France, as busy as his schedule has been with Tour victor duties, and has ridden a few climbs. Following your logic, Contador will not be a factor in '08 because the wasn't training for the '08 Tour the day after he won on the Champs Elysees In fact, I personally spoke with him in September at the Tour of Missouri and he couldn't give specifics but he was on his way. (I worked the event).

Here is a story, "Evans training schedule: August - July 1". This would give readership something to think about, enjoy. It would also be false because Evans is not about to do something so stupid Equally, it would commit Cadel to paper. Once you write it down, it becomes reality. Bullshit I am cheering on the best riders, whomever, wherever they are from. Good for you. That surely brightens Cadel's day

Cadel already lost Tour '08 would be my prediction, because anything less than number 1 would be a loss at this point. At this point? Not counting Menchov and Pereiro's drug tainted victories, at what point has second place ever been anything but a loss Don't follow, LEAD! The same holds true for fellow countryman journalists. Entice us, dazzle us, prove to us why the time is NOW for Australia. Those are the most baffling two sentences I have read in a long time. Entice us? Dazzle us? You are talking about journalists, right? Who, in their right mind, looks to a journalists to prove that 'the time is NOW' for any country? What does that even mean?

Let's keep it simply Cyclingnews. Nothing before and nothing after. Huh?

Why would a photographer do a team picture where it appears that it is a group "natural break"?

I pounded out a satisfying hour on the trainer again last night. My
form was better than the plodding two hours on Tuesday. I'm happy with
the workout.
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Gilberto Simoni is usually good for a
quote or two. He isn't quite as boasting about making things tough for
Armstrong in the Tour... and then finishing about 50th. Still, these are his thoughts about the upcoming Giro

Last year, he was beaten by an impressive Danilo Di Luca, but this year he figures 'The Killer' will not be up to his usual self. "The combination of Di Luca and [Paolo] Savoldelli at the new Team LPR will be important, but one of the two has to understand that they will lose the Giro. Di Luca has won this last summer, but he was always suffering. It is difficult to repeat these levels, difficult to always go so well.Cunego? He is always the same, not such a factor."

Two thoughts:
1) Savoldelli was lucky to win one Giro, much less the second.
2) DiLuca suffered? He pretty much cleaned everyone's clock. If he was suffering, what were you doing?
3) Gilberto still doesn't seem to made friends with Cunego.
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Riding cohort Patrice just sent me an email. It was a story of Sean Yates winning a time trial in England

The new Team Astana has started out the new year with a win. Sports Director Sean Yates won the Southborough and District wheelers 10-mile time trial on New Years Day, 30 years to the day after he first won the race.

When he was given the prize, a bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape. If I keep progressing like this, I might well turn pro one day, he joked. Yates raced as a professional from 1982 to 1996. After drinking half the bottle, according to a team press release, he said, "This cycling lark is piss easy."

First of all, the Southborough and District Wheelers sounds like an event 5 drunks at the local pub threw together over a bar bet which might explain Sean's nonplussed nature.

Regardless, the quote seems quintessentially British. Compare your typical American athlete gibberish.

Reporter (making a statement while pretending it is a question): Tom, it was a tough game tonight.(?)
American athlete: That's right. They played really hard tonight, yknow. But, we dug deep and, yknow, gave 110%, yknow. We'll keep working hard, yknow, and taking one game at a time, yknow, and think we can make the playoffs, yknow.

Compare that with Yates' literate and humorous reply. Can you even imagine a typical American pro athlete using the word lark?

In yesterday's post I forgot to mention Vantournot as a potential winner of the Belgian CX Championships this weekend.
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The I-64 shutdown began this morning. The local news stations were in full panic preparation mode by starting the morning newscasts at 4:30. Why? Because they could.

Nobody is heading to work at that time and it is 2-2.5 hrs before the morning rush hour, but that won't stop them from having non-stop webcam images of nothing going on. How much of a non-story was the shutdown? At one point of the newscast, they turned the camera from the nothingness on the highway to a raccoon scampering across an open field.

The non-event continued this evening. There was still nothing to report but Channel 4 continued to have reported live remotes from reporters desperately trying to pump up camera images of typical road traffic on their expanded news coverage from 5-6:30pm. That way they can claim to have the most complete coverage of the I-64 shutdown because, as their slogan states, Channel 4 News "Never Stops".
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During the trip to Italy, the latch on my camera's battery cover broke off. Most of the time the cover manages to barely hold the batteries in place. Sometimes, it does not. Regardless, this has made taking pictures a little more difficult as I feel compelled to hold the latch in place while taking pictures. It is not a big deal, but it is awkward. Often I have not felt like dealing with the hassle.

Anyway, I got to thinking I haven't posted many photos lately. I hope to start taking more pictures and post them here. They will not necessarily be cycling related but will be a little slice of what my eyes see. The photos may not even be good, especially after I shrink the images, although I think I take some decent pictures.

This is a small christmas tree in the windowless inner sanctum known as my office

Happy New Year!

How did I ring in the new year? Watching euro CX videos. Pretty exciting, I know. Really, though, watching Nys race is instructive. The guy always seems to be in control. He's Mr Cool. Having his talent helps a person stay cool, I suppose.

If he gets a bad start he coolly moves through the field. If he puts himself in a small lead group of two or three, he will push the pace and maybe open a gap but its not uncommon for him to slide back again. Then, he will tuck in behind the guys who just had to chase him down and bide his time until his the next acceleration. He is just so patient.

Nys' attacks hardly seem like attacks. They just seem to materialize. If you were to make a comparison to road racers, he is not Pantani. There is no flair or panache. No out of the saddle theatrics. More often, he seems to be more in the mode of Indurain or Ullrich. The pace gets harder and harder. Soon he has a 5 second lead... 10 seconds... and the gap grows almost imperceptably. You look at the screen and think 'How did he get that lead?'

Speaking of Sven Nys, today was the GP Sven Nys race. There has to be a little pressure being entered in a race named after you as if you are a living legend. Naturally, he won solo after a first lap attack. Dominating.

He hasn't been as dominating this year but he seems to be rounding into really good form one week before the Belgian Championships. Wellens was ill today so Sven's odds of winning got a boost today. That leaves Vervecken and Albert as the next most likely contenders.

The bad news comes when the World Championships roll around. Sven is almost sure to find a way and not win that weekend.

Enough of that stuff. As planned I knocked out a couple hours on the trainer this morning. Nothing specific. Steady big ring pedaling is all. I felt average. My legs got heavy during the last half hour. Like Sunday, my ribs bugged me a bit.