Video of the Day
Is this great race coverage? No. Great cinematography? No.

What it is, is Milan-San Remo from 1977. Retro in all its glory. Teams like Peugeot, Brooklyn, Raleigh, KAS wearing black shorts, simple jerseys, not a helmet in sight, and a groovy soundtrack. First place: Jan Raas Second: Roger de Vlaeminck

This news just rocks.
 
From Pezcyclingnews...
The technical committee of the UCI has recommended that radios be banned from racing starting in 2010. The association of race organizers also agrees with the idea and according to WielerUpdate, it's only a matter of time before radios are a thing of the past.

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This a completely random comment but just now I was on Yahoo.  Among the things on their page is the day's top search items.  Most of the time the top searches are celebrities in the news or just a current event.  However, as we approach 9am the #9 search of the day was gingivitis.  Gingivitis?  I realize it is a sexy topic, but what would cause a spike in gingivitis searches?

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Not a bad race today. The starting spot was awful. Lined up very near the back of the pack and knew it was going to be a day of seeing how many people I could pass. Those kinds of days are not that bad because you feel like you are accomplishing something. Despite that, I'm not sure I care to get mixed up in that mayhem again. People are bobbling and wobbling all over the place. I probably did my share, too.

After a half lap, the field started to string out enough to start moving through the field. I had no idea where I was but just tried to reel in as many as I could. Much to my surprise, I finished in 9th out of about 40. I am satisfied with that.

As usual, the course was mostly flat. I have had some doubts about my power and it seems to me this is a power course. The most technical spots would have been a few transitions from grass to gravel. Except for a slight bobble on the 180 near the start line I was pretty clean. I suppose there was a certain degree of technique needed on the giant cinnamon bun of death feature but mainly it was just turning right for for 30 seconds and then turning left for 30 seconds.

Regardless, it was a fun day.

Race 2 (for me) of the season is upon us and I am not serene. My throat is bugging me a little and I fear another cold might be settling in just a little over a month after the last killer cold. I am questioning whether it is wise to attempt to race and possibly weakening my system.

My legs are little heavy, too. Davide came out to his first Saturday ride yesterday. After having done three rides with Davide I have come to the conclusion that he is a Giuseppe in training. Actually, he may already out do Giuseppe. He just gets on the front and goes. And goes. I'm not going say hard riding is bad in the off-season but I think I burnt half a match too much yesterday trying to keep up.

So, that brings us to today's race at Spanish Lake. The venue has never been a favorite of mine but they utilized a new section of the park last year and made it better intead of only being mostly in a big, flat field. We used a section thick grass last year that sucked everything out of your legs. I didn't much care for that part. Also, there seems to be an eternal mound of dirt that the course designers just can't resist making us go over. I really do hope that that mound is finally gone.

The UCI has often been criticized because of their strict limits on technological advancements. The minimum bike weight is one such restriction. Many have also criticized the bike restrictions when attempting to break the Hour Record.

The UCI recently struck again by outlawing skinsuits in downhill MTB events. From cyclingnews...

The wearing of skin suits has been a point of contention over the last year, notably in the Australian round of the mountain bike world cup. A skinsuit-clad Tracy Moseley (Kona) won the women's race by four seconds ahead of Rachel Atherton (Animal-Commencal), who claimed that the skin suit gave Moseley an unfair advantage.

As unnecessary as I may think the skinsuit ban is, the quote by The Loser... I mean Rachel Atherton is even more absurd.

"Fair enough to Tracey if she wants to do that to win, but for the sport and the longevity of the sport, to wear cool race kit and to make an image for yourself is more important than the odd win here and there," said Atherton.

It is more important for the sport to go slow and wear cool race kit than it is for person to win? Say what?

Even assuming that Atherton's statement is true can her outfit really be considered all that much cooler than Moseley's skinsuit?

I'm looking at the newly released parcours for the '09 Tour.  On first glance I am not terribly impressed.  The course may not be thrilling but it might provide for a close time gaps in the final GC.  Or, at least until Stage 20. 
 
The rumors of a Ventoux finish on the penultimate stage came true.  I like the new wrinkle of a mountaintop finish that late in the race to maintain some intrigue. 
 
The first mountain stage (stage 7) could be difficult.  The finishing climb to Arcalis is not brutal but pretty much the whole stage appears to gradually climb.  The 224km length could add to the difficulty as well. 
 
Stage 16 COULD be interesting.  Two big mountains with a mountain descent to the finish.  I wish I knew what the descent of the Petit Saint Bernard was like.  This stage reminds me a little of the Col de la Bonette stage this year that had guys bombing the descent to the finish line. 
 
Stage 17 looks like the queen stage to me with five climbs.  I would guess four of them will be Cat 1's and the other a Cat 2.

The team time trial has returned.  I like watching this event but must say that I really did not miss this stage the past couple years when it was not included. 
 
Surprisingly, the more southern portion of the French Alps are not included at all.  When is the last time the Tour did not pass use the Col du Galibier or Alpe d'Huez or Col d'Izoard or the Col du Glandon/Croix de Fer combo? 
 
This year's race had an interesting first week with some bumpy stages.  This year's first week hugs the Mediterranean coast and looks to be the typical snooze until the final sprint.  Cavendish must be licking his chops. 
 
The two remaining Pyrenean stages (excluding Stage 7) will not be easy but they have 44km and 70km after the final mountain summit.  Maintaining hard fought time gaps gained on the climb might be hard to do.

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The cyclocross season started a month later than I originally anticipated but it is rolling now.

My road season sucked eggs so I started riding the 'cross bike earlier than normal. Then, late September brought on a bad cold and set me back a few weeks. The last few weeks have been about getting some base back and my intensity was lacking. I went into yesterday's race at JB completely unsure how my body would react to the effort of a full-length 'cross race.

With 24 hrs to mull things over in my mind, I am satisfied. My third row starting spot was fair. Frankly, I didn't want to be front row with my doubts about fitness. My start was decent. A few places were lost but I didn't drop like a rock through the field. After a couple laps I started to find a groove. I was good on the long gradual uphills and did whatever damage I did on those sections.

Throughout the race I probably moved up 5-6 places. There were a couple people toward the end that I wasn't sure if they were lapped or just fading fast. My hunch is they were lapped so I'm not counting them. The last 4-5 laps saw me get in a good back and forth with another rider. I had caught and passed him on the long uphill but he eventually worked his way back and returned the favor about a lap later. He led for a while as I studied him. With two to go I passed him again on the long uphill. As I passed, he said to keep a good steady pace. I wasn't ready to attack at that point anyway. From then on, he followed my wheel. On the last lap, I lifted the tempo a tiny bit. He hung pretty close, but I had a gap that go wiped out just before the gravel road. I caught Lewis and should have made myself more known. As it was, I caught him right at the U-turn and had to take the wide route through. He was right on my wheel coming out of the turn and he made the jump first. I stuck to his wheel and was moving up but got pinched a bit as we turned onto the grass and he held me off the rest of the way. It was a fun way to end the race. He got 11th and I got 12th out of 38 finishers.

Looking back, I probably should have gone harder on the long uphill on the final lap. That was my biggest advantage over him and it would have hurt him as much as it would have hurt me. Still, without that little bit of bad luck in the final hairpin I think I would have held on for 11th. That's racing though.

I could have sworn Lombardia was on Sunday. I double-checked and triple-checked the date and still screwed it up somehow. That saved me the effort of making any picks.

Does Alessandro Ballan think he is Paolo Bettini? Bettini added a fair amount of gold paint to his bike over the last four years after winning the Olympic road race in Athens. As expected, Ballan has been riding a specially painted bike with the world champ stripes. He also followed Bettini's lead and has a gold head tube, a gold front fork, gold handlebar tape and gold on his helmet.

Meanwhile, as best as I can tell, Olympic gold medalist Samuel Sanchez is only wearing gold sunglasses, armwarmers, a little gold on the shoes and gold quick releases.


News of the Day

Yesterday, I mentioned that, after my replacement tube blew, that it sounded like it was brittle and cracking. This morning, I got around to changing the tube again. I was shocked with what I found.

This morning I kept debating whether to ride into the city and take some photos of various buildings or head into Jeffco and look for more of the early changing leaves to photograph. Because of early morning traffic concerns I chose to make the jaunt into Jeffco.

I was in no hurry and was prepared to ride simply for the enjoyment. So, when I reached the Bottoms I chose to take the Lower Meramec trail and maybe see a few deer and enjoy the scenery. There were a lot of leaves on the pavement and some camouflaged mud. I never saw the mud but the tires got covered. Caution was word for the day.

After reaching the end of the trail, the tires shed the mud well. A mile down the road was another short section of road with a thin layer of mud. Halfway through I hit a stone or twig or something that blew my tire. At that point I started considering a change of routes so that if I flatted again I would not be stuck way out near Haute Arrete. I swapped out the tube and used my CO2 cartridge. As it neared the end of the cartridge life, the tube began leaking rather heavily. I can't figure out what happened. The valve was far frostier than normal and when I pressed on the tire it sounded like the tube was crackling, almost like it froze and didn't want to expand normally. Very weird.

So there I was, stranded without another tube and several miles from home. I decided what would be the shortest route home and slowly began pedaling. After about a half mile, I caved in and made THE CALL for the rescue vehicle to pick me up.

A couple photos from my aborted ride.

Question: What do you get when you combine a handlebar mustache with an Elvis shrine?

Answer: Sven Nys biggest fan, of course.

Sven, Sven is onze kampioen
Sven, Sven is onze kampioen
Sven, Sven is onze kampioen

Length: 4:14

All the regulars bailed on today's ride. Giuseppe must have been working all weekend. Then, on my way out to the ride Patrice calls to say he will not be riding. He also talked to Marco who decided to skip. Personally, I think they just wanted to stay home and watch the first round of the Superprestige from Ruddervoorde.

If I had not known that Davide was going to show up, I would have turned at that point and improvised a route rather than going all the way out to Kirkwood. Davide was already there and while I was waiting to cross Big Bend someone else pulled into the parking lot. It turned out to be Craig, so we ended up having a tidy little group.

Instead of heading into Jeffco, we decided to do the Bugman route. I seem to remember the Bugman going down Old State but maybe it changed over the years. Instead we cut through a subdivision that cuts through to Old 100. I was on that road once before but I have no clue of the name unless I look at a map. We turned right on Old 100 to go the gas station that is no more.

Foiled in our attempts to hydrate, we pushed onward back out Old 100, down Woods, up Melrose, etc. You know, there was a time not so long ago that I could actually climb reasonably well. Sometime during the last 1.5 years that skill seems to have vanished. I wasn't awful but the desire to suffer on a climb is lacking.

All in all, the ride turned out good. The temps were a little warmer than I cared for but it was a brisk 3hr ride, plus another 50 or so minutes to and from the ride. My legs feel like they have worked. Sixty seven miles

Marco, Queen and I showed up for the Columbia ride this morning. It was yet another day of fabulous weather. The sun was bright and the trees are just starting to show their colors this fall. Meanwhile, the remaining corn is dry and brown and the soy is a brilliant yellow. Fall is the best time of the year for riding.

We followed a route that I had mapped out earlier this year but never managed to ride. It turned out to be a nice route up to Waterloo via a route we never take, then looping back to Nieuw Hanover and then south along D and then Hertenberg before looping back around on C and through Nieuw Valmeyer and dropping down to the flats. We skippped one last climb back up to Nieuw Hanover because Marco was feeling sluggish.
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Supposedly, next year's Giro will go over Mt Vesuvius for only the third time in history. I have no idea what the climb is like but let's hope it does not decide to blow it's top.

Time for some video of recent races in Italy. First up, the Giro del Lazio. Check out the tiny little streets that they are racing through early in the video. Length 9:12

Next, the ultimo chilometro of Coppa Sabatini. Length 2:18

Lastly, the finish of the Giro dell'Emilia. Length 6:10

Saddest line in a news story...
 
from Velonews
"During the Tour only four drugs cheats were snared:..."
 
ONLY four?  Is that an accomplishment?  I feel joyous.

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We could not have had a much better weekend of riding than the one that just passed.  On Friday evening, Jay was headed to Omaha for a CX race so I just went and knocked around on my neighborhood school's 'cross course.  Friday night is apparently the night to go.  Tuesday's and Thursday's are busy with football practices but apparently, and logically, the teams must use Friday's as a rest day before game day.  I was blessed with a nearly empty venue on a beautiful evening.

Saturday was a low-key 40-ish miles.  Patrice'e crash on a busy Rte 158 made some nervous moments but both body and bike were mostly good, except for the usual scrapes.

Sunday was our 5th edition of the Gran Fondo Ste Genevieve.  The eight riders was our largest group yet.  Aside from getting a really late start, the ride was almost flawless.  Davide's massively cut tire in Valmeyer was the only problem.  I had never seen a rock put a 3/4" cut in a tire before.  The fact that he even made it back to Columbia without any more issues was pretty amazing.  A combination Clif Bar wrapper and a business card makes for an okay tire boot. 

We altered our the location of our second food and drink stop a little so they were more evenly spaced and the change worked out much better than past years.  No one was nursing nearly empty bottles, trying to reach Ste. Genevieve without cramps or a bonk.  Unlike last year, I drank plenty of liquids and kept a pretty regular schedule of gels, tablets and 1 powerbar.  There was no HUGE bonk like last year.  In fact, I felt really good at the finish.  I have never felt better after this ride.  Now, if I can only remember this next year because I never again want to suffer like last year.

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The blood re-tests for CERA from this past Tour are due to start being released any time now.  Latest rumors are 18 positives.  An increase from the rumored 14 positives by La Gazzetta.  Supposedly, 2 Columbia's and 3 CSC's are involved.
 
In a related note, Cancellara has already called a news conference after the releaseof the test results.  That news sounds rather damning. 
 
And we wait...

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Got back out on the cross bike last night for the first time since being sick. It did not take long for me to be sucking wind. On the road this past weekend, I could kind of bluff my way through any lack of fitness. Not so when riding through grass, braking, accelerating and going up sharp little climbs. So, I have some work to do in the next couple weeks.

As a little extra punishment, I hit a hole or something on one of my early laps. Never saw the darn thing. Next thing I know, my rear wheel is hopping out from under me and I am instinctively counter-steering to stay upright. The whole incident was a split second but somehow I cracked my knee cap somewhere on the bike. I figure it was either the bar end or the front brake. Tore a little skin off and drew some blood but that mother. I could hardly put any pressure on the pedal for a lap or so. Even today, the knee is quite sore to the touch. Feels like I bruised the bone.