Another crap race in Webster yesterday. Correction: I raced Masters and 3/4 so it was two crap races. It's same old story, drift to the back of the pack and work much harder than I should. Blah, blah, blah.

Riddle: When is cabbage not cabbage?

Random observations: All the flooding that is taking place on the Mississippi has brought a few things to mind. At the top of the list is the newsfolk's use of the term "overtopping" when the river goes over a levee. This term was not used during the big flood of '93. When and why did this term become vogue? Why not just say the river topped the levee? The river cannot undertop a levee. Isn't overtopping a somewhat redundant term?

Why are levees not covered with some hard, impermeable surface? It seems that it would prevent a weakening of levees. And, if the water would 'overtop' the levee then the usual erosion and destruction of the levee would not take place. Budget reasons are probably the answer to my question.

Answer to riddle: When it is a carrot.

Put a load of cabbage in a trailer a few hundred feet ahead of Giuseppe it becomes a carrot for him to chase. Saturday's ride proved this to be true.

The tubs are complete. The first tire went on fine. No muss, no fuss. The rear wheel was a little more troublesome. Despite the first tire going on with no problems, I thought I remembered reading a suggestion to pump the tire up a little before installation.

That was not a good idea. Three-quarters of the tire went on before the battle of rubber vs muscle ensued. I pushed, pulled, tugged, perspired, panicked and ultimately surrendered like a Frenchman.

With the drooped shoulders of a beaten man, I pulled the tire back off and proceeded to reglue the wheel. Before attempting the tire mount again I let out the air out. Sure enough, the tire went on fine just like the front wheel did.

Why didn't I just repeat what I did the first time? Dumb, dumb, dumb. But, I guess it was a learning experience that I will not repeat.

Round Two of Glueatubularpalooza '08 went well this evening. My comfort level was a bit higher and I slopped that glop with aplomb. Tomorrow is the final gluing and then the all important installation of the tire. If there will be a mess to be made, the tire will be it

Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.


I was watching the Tour of Switzerland today at work... sssshhnhhhhh. Frank Schleck put in real nice attack on the final mountain and was later joined by Markus Fothen on the descent. With about 6km to go, and a lead that would put him the yellow jersey, Schleck took a turn badly and crashed. He was taking odd lines into the turns and his technique caught up with him. I would say he had bad luck but it was his own fault. Schleck seems to be rather crash prone. He was in the winning break in Lombardia last fall when he crashed.

The first round of gluing the tubulars went reasonably well tonight. The glue was only slightly messy when there was a thin string that would not break off cleanly. Other than those minor issues everything is good so far. Tonight, the glue will dry and then I will apply a second coat of glue tomorrow.

The Park website suggests that, on new wheels, letting two full layers of glue dry before applying a third layer and then installing the tire. I am debating whether that third layer is really necessary or whether I could get away with just apply another layer of glue tomorrow and then put the tire on. Hmmm....

Tonight I plan to start the process of gluing my tubulars.  The tires have been stretching on the wheels for a while now and hopefully will be a bit easier to mount after the glue has been applied. 
 
This should be interesting.  Despite what I have read from most people, I am actually going into this thinking I can successfully mount the tires the first time without making a big mess.  Positive thinking!

On a related note, the disk wheel for my TT project arrived yesterday looking all pretty and smooth and black.  If only it makes me fast(er).  Looking at the size of the valve cutout, I think my usual 48mm valves will be difficult to inflate.  On the way home, I just might stop stop at a shop, buy a standard inner tube, throw on an old tire and give the wheel a spin around the school's track.  Oh yeah, a cassette would be helpful too.  As much as I would like to give the wheel a spin, I am more anxious to glue up the tubulars since that will take longer.  The disk wheel may have to wait a few days.

Random observations:  Why are car tires not sold in different colors?  Colored tires seem rather popular in the bike biz.  It must be an issue of manufacturing cost but I tend to believe that there is a niche market that would pay a premium for such an item.
 
More than a few hours of my weekend were wasted watching the US Open.  A golf match can often provide some good post-ride TV viewing.  It is relaxing and can often induce a nice little nap, much like a flat stage of the Tour de France.  But, I digress.  There are a few things about golf that need to change.  Oddly, none of them involve the actual game of golf.  These changes are...
1)  During major championships, when the networks have extended coverage, there is no need to show Tiger Woods hitting balls on the practice tee.  Yes, he is the best player in the game but I seriously doubt that the viewing public is jonesin' to see practice swings an hour before he actually tees off.
2)  Spectators really need to stop yelling "In the hole" after shots.  Do they actually believe the ball is going in the hole?  They cannot possibly think that their exhortations can will the ball into the hole.  Can they?  You would think the fact that a shot actually goes in the hole approximately .1% of the time might cause folks to stop making the bold proclamation but, it does not.  Even more stupid is that they yell "In the hole!" a quarter second after the ball is hit when the big mouth has no idea what the shot is going to do.  My only guess is that they continue the practice only so that when that one, magical shot happens to drop into that 4.25 inch opening, they can tell their friends how they knew it from the moment the golfer hit the ball.
3)  This is closely related to #2.  If you are going to make an arse of yourself with how you cheer, at least know what you are cheering about.  Sunday afternoon Tiger was somewhere around the 13th hole.  He had hit his tee shot into the rough and selected a club that would make it hard to reach the green.  I can understand the fans not realizing that fact.  Tiger hit the ball and, for a change, the crowd was restrained in their cheers and applause... except for one nimrod with a shaved head.  Standing directly behind Tiger in full view of the cameras, this dork promptly curls his arms up to his chest, both hands making a fist while bending at the knees and waist and yelling "Yeah!!! Yeah!!!" so loud that he was drowning out everyone else.  Unfortunately, this genius made a spectacle of himself over a shot that landed in the rough again and well short of the green.  Get a clue!
 

---

The i'm Talkathon starts 6/24/08.  For now, give amongst yourselves. Learn More

Saturday morning was a great day. The drive over to Columbia had a slight fog hanging in the air with hints of sun trying to peak through the gray clouds. I turned onto Rte 3 and the area looked surprisingly scenic. The rolling hills and farmlands were more colorful than the typical green piled upon more green. Mixed in with that green were swaths of rich, brown freshly tilled soil and the golden yellow of wheat(?) fields that looked close to harvest. My eyes saw the land in a whole new light yesterday. The terrain reminded me a lot of some of the rural farmland in France.

Perhaps the surroundings lifted my spirits before the ride. We did a normal Ronde van Monroe and my legs felt okay as we went up the D Rd. By Gall Rd, they felt a little better. The test of how the rest of the ride would be was going to be the climb of Kasteelberg. We made the left hand turn leading into the hill only to have the approach to the climb interrupted by a short torn up section of road. The rock and dirt slowed us to a crawl. We usually hit the climb fairly hard but not this time. Instead, we had to gather steam up the hill before reaching a good tempo. At the top, I felt good still and knew the remainder of the day should go okay.

The rest of ride did go well. I felt really good and unstressed. The legs were lithe with good power. That had to be my best ride in a couple months. If only every ride could be so smooth.

Pretty much everyone who rides a bike is aware of Mont Ventoux as an epic climb. I have been fortunate enough to climb the beast twice. The second time was in warm conditions. The first time was in very cool and windy conditions on the upper half of the mountain. My first time up the mountain was an ascent that caused my eyes to well up with emotion.

As amazing a climb as the Ventoux is, that descent from my first time up the mountain remains probably my most memorable desecnt. As I said before the mountain is a famous climb but the descent back into the town of Bedoin is 'trop bon'. The features of the climb that make it so difficult, long relatively straight roads without hairpin turns to take the sting out of the mountain, are what make it a blast to descend.

On the way down, there are a few good turns, but no hairpins, for the first five or so km's down to Chalet Reynard. You will know Chalet Reynard in the video by the wide area with cars parked in it. Below Chalet Reynard, the road is a gently winding road that lets even a non-crazy descender like myself to scrub a little speed in the turns but generally let the bike go and build up the speed. Ventoux is a GREAT mountain to descend. Enjoy the full length video of an almost complete descent to the town of Bedoin.

Yesterday, word came through the team grapevine that Ken had another bike related trip to the hospital. This coming just over a month after his bad crash in Washington. As tough as the last crash was this one sounds really brutal. Broken lower right arm, broken bones between the teeth and the nose area. Ken is probably the nicest darn guy around and certainly doesn't deserve the injuries he has had lately. I feel very bad for him. Get well Ken.

I have been racing for far too long. Thankfully, that 15 yr long period has seen very few moments of landing and sliding along the pavement. And, when I have hit the ground, the injuries have been relatively minor with only one trip to the hospital... knock on wood.

Sometimes I wonder how I would react to a bad injury. Would I quit the competitive side of the sport in my somewhat advanced age? It makes me wonder sometimes. Those thoughts have crossed my mind a few times in recent years anyway. Would an injury seal the deal?

Since the start of April my training has suffered badly. I often think I have s subliminal fear of success. If I get to point of riding really well, I get lazy and my fitness goes to hell. Early this year I was going quite well but ever since the start of April I basically stopped training except for our regular weekend rides. For a while, I was able to bluff myself with a few decent rides but for the last month has been awful. My desire to train was negligible and every bad race in recent weeks took a little more desire away.

Maybe Winghaven was the turning point. I rode three times this week. Nothing terribly fancy in terms of training but there were maybe two times in the couple months that I rode more than twice during the week. A little consistency in my riding has changed my mental outlook. For a moment I had an urge to skip Thursday's ride but I was not going to let it happen. One week does not make a big difference but I am looking forward to the weekend.

AGGRESSION!!!  Show some G.D.F'in aggression you dimwit.

Sunday's race started quickly with a strong tailwind and the usual early race testosterone pushing the pace.  Once, we turned into the wind the pace backed off we bunched but I did not take the opportunity to move up much.  Dumb, dumb, dumb.  Once we turned out of the wind, the field strung out and on the false flat atop the hill guys were getting shot off the back of the pack on the first lap.  I would come around a rider, close a gap to the next only to have him leaving another gap.  Thanks to my own laziness I was sealing my own fate by repeatedly having to chase lap after lap.  Finally, on the fifth lap the rubberband was stretched too far and I snapped.  Frustrating.

Random thoughts:
-- While driving back home I looked at some of the businesses along the highway in O'Fallon.  Progress West Medical Center... a valiant attempt to be different by not having flattish surfaces.  Instead it looks a preschooler placed uneven, gray building blocks.  The company Citi has a gray, boring building, too.  There were any number of equally bland, "modern" and anonymous designs further down the road.  Why would companies in a growing city like O'Fallon put up such life-sucking buildings.  They look like something from the eastern-bloc
 
-- The rudeness and ungrateful attitude of some racers toward those closest to them who come out to provide race support is appalling to me.  I have no use for those that behave in that manner.  They deserve to spend a hot, humid day like yesterday without any support.
 
-- God bless short shorts.

---

Search that pays you back! Introducing Live Search cashback. Search Now!

After a week of stellar non-preparation for Winghaven, I headed over to Columbia for our regular soiree. Giuseppe and Patrice joined the party and we kept things simple and rode along the Levee down to Valmeyer. Just basic riding along the flats with a stiff wind most of the way south.

My hope was to spin the legs and not work terribly hard. Cutting through the wind, however, forced you to work. Spending all week off the bike had left me as fresh as a brown banana. As the miles went by, the legs felt a bit better but I do not have great hopes forWinghaven today.

Last year, I missed Winghaven with illness. In '06, I turned in a truly embarrassing 3 lap performance. We have a big field this year and my hope is to tuck in the pack for a while, get my legs under me and then see how things develop in the second half of the race. Today will be hot.

Random observations:
* This morning's cloud shrouded sunrise shortly before 6am created a hazy glow was hauntingly pretty. 
* Twice in the last six days I have seen cars with Alaska license plates.  Why are these foreigners invading our peaceful midwestern countryside?  :)
-----------------------------
Rather than do something crazy like training this week, I have spent the last couple days pretending to know how to put a bike together.

My new wheels have been built up for a while so last week my new Vittoria tubulars arrived and I purchased some glue Monday night.  Tuesday evening I mounted the tires on the wheels to begin the stretching process.  The first tire seemed a little more difficult to mount on the rim but maybe that was because it was my first attempt.  Once the tires were mounted I pulled out the future TT frame.  First, I installed the chainrings, then the brakes, followed by the derailleurs.  For the time being, I had planned on using the bar stem from my cross bike.  If I had put a little thought into the process I would have realized the stem would not handle the beefy 31.8mm aerobar.  Thinking ahead is not my strong point.

Yesterday, I stopped by the shop after work and picked up a new stem, some brake cables and a chain.  The new stem and bars went on smoothly.  Then it was time for the cables.  I threaded the cable through the little hole on the brake levers but the metal "head" of the cable would not fit in the lever.  Initially, I thought it was only a matter of the slot on the brake lever not being wide enough.  I began filing down the opening to make it larger.  The work was slow and the more I worked it became clear that the metal head on the cable was not only too thick to begin with but that it would be too long to fit as well. 
 
By that time my German stubbornness had reared its head.  The darn cable was going to fit come hell or high water.  I started getting goofy and took the cable downstairs and fired up the grinding wheel.  That began a series of about five or six trips up and down the steps to see if my work was sufficient enough to fit in the brake lever.  It was not.  With each unsuccessful trip, my frustration grew greater.  As I did more and more work on the cable it became clear that standard brake cable just would not work.  By that time I was proud owner of unneeded and rather inelegantly modified set of cables.  I looked around some old parts and discovered some shifter cables laying around.  The smaller head on the shifter cables was the perfect fix to my problem. 

Far less frustrating, but still mentally challenging, was figuring out how to internally feed the cable through aerobars correctly.  Properly feeding the cable was a case of taking two steps forward and one step back.  Again and again I would realize something that needed to be done before the step I just done.  Eventually, everything came together but by that time I had decided to quit for the evening and not start tackling the process of connecting the cables to the various components.  That is a headache for another day.  At least, the bike looks like a bike again.  Albeit, a chainless bike with dangling cables and no working components.

---

Now you can invite friends from Facebook and other groups to join you on Windows Live™ Messenger. Add them now!

Hot diggity dog. My month long funk may be ending. I actually felt better than average today. I might even go so far as to describe the ride as quite good. There was a spring in my "step" and I did not dread every climb. Of course, everyone was claiming they felt like crap. Instead of actually feeling good, maybe I was only half crap. Half crap would be better than full crap, wouldn't it? Fifty-two moderately hilly miles today.
--------------------

Time to catch up on a few videos from the Giro.

Stage 19 to Monte Pora.

Another reason the Giro is cooler than the Tour. Check out the size of the road on the Passo del Vivione. The Tour wouldn't think of going on such a road.

Stage 20

Another beautiful day on Passo Gavia, followed by much of the Mortirolo climb. Yes, it truly is as steep, narrow and twisty as it looks in places. Even narrower when driving down it in a car.

Stage 20 part 2

The O'Fallon Grand Prix took place yesterday. My form has been awful but I wanted to race for a couple reasons. One, it was a new race and it should get support. Two, the course was interesting to me. Three, for a change my attitude toward racing was somwhat upbeat for a change.

The temps were warm and a breezy and a good crowd seemed to be gathering in the two good-sized parking lots. These first time promoters seemed to have their act together. Registration was in a nice church hall. People selling food. Lots of cops milling around. All the lead and wheel vehicles lined in front of the church. The only thing left was how they did with a course that was long with many turns.

They did well there, as well. Markings letting us know of approaching turns. Mile markers lined the road. Corner marshals at all of the 3,612 turns.

Unfortunately, only about 20 Cat 3s showed up. It looked like even fewer 1s and 2s. Very disappointing. Tulsa Tough was this weekend but how many folks go down there? It has never been many in the past. The low turnouts resulted in a combined 1,2,3 field. Just what a guy with suspect needs.

As far as how the went for me, I got nice tan. I am not totally disappointed. There was some progress in how I felt and if the race was just our category, I feel I would have lasted longer.
----------------

The highlight of the ride over to O'Fallon had to be the large delivery truck that could be seen from I-255. The side of the truck was handpainted with BIG lettering so it could be seen from the highway. I looked to my right and there it was. The painter's announcement to the world that he/she is a dimwit. The sign read "Fother's Day Gifts"

Say what?