A quick roundup of last weekends Tour of STL is in order.

Day 1 - Arrive at 6:30 to help with setup. After a little setup work, I got hooked into working registration. This was my first time doing registration and what a joy it was.

Where, oh where, to start. The first problem was having a list of pre-registered riders that was not up to date. That gets the day off to a nice start when I see that I'm not registered despite going through the online registration.

Second, no signage to guide the cyclists to through the registration and no real organization on our end which resulted in....

Third, riders having no clear direction, walked up at random to one of the two or three of us behind the table and ask to register. You would think they might have an idea that there would be a line of some sort instead just walking up as a herd and standing around the tables. Like a fool, I tried to help these people and it only led to more confusion. Finally, I tried to get everyone in a line and restore a little order. That lasted for a while until I could get away and start warming up for the race.

The race itself was anti-climactic. It was a little windy and some crazy strong guy solo'd to a victory almost from the gun. I did a little work, blah, blah.

After the race I headed up toward the the afternoon time trial. By this time, I was hungry as hell. I had a little something to eat at 6am and a bagel during registration. It was now after 2pm and I was desperate for food but did not want to sit down to a meal. On the way to the time trial I found a Hardee's and grabbed a couple small burgers. An excellent pre-race meal, I know. And now that I think about it, do Hardees burgers always come with no ketchup? I found that strange.

After arriving at the time trial, nothing was ready and first rider started an hour late. I could have taken more time in finding something better to eat after all.

While the crit was windy, the time trial out on Columbia Bottoms was even windier. The wind swept along the flatlands and buffeted the riders. The winding course alternated between fast and easy and hard and slow. Unfortunately, more of the hard work came on the return trip of the out and back course. There were times that the TT bike with disk wheel made you feel like Dennis Connor sailing a 12-meter America's Cup yacht. I turned in an okay time that was slightly slower than at Hermann the week before, but with the wind and an earlier race in my legs it seemed about right.

Day 2 was even windier than Saturday. The combined courses for the usual Carondelet race plus the Tuesday Night Worlds course made for an interesting circuit race. Staying tucked in the pack was big help. I did not do as well as I could have in that regard, however. Still, I was riding fine until I tried an ill-timed move up the right side of the course to try and stir up the pace. The pack came swerving over as the course bent slightly to the right and forced me to lay on the brakes, praying that my fishtailing rear wheel stayed off the curb. By the time I got moving again a gap had opened up. I was left chasing up the hill and then along the windiest portion of the course. That was the end of my race.
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Congratulations to Davide Rebellin for getting busted for using CERA at the Olympics. It's ridiculous that it took eight months and one Spring Classics win to nail the guy but at least he's gone now. I never did trust Rebellin. He has was always a pretty good rider when he was younger. Then, in 2003, at the age of 32(?) he suddenly wins the Ardennes triple and has had a string of very strong performances ever since then.

Over the last several years Telekom has earned the reputation of probably having been the dirtiest team in cycling. As it turns, the other German team, Gerolsteiner, looks almost as dirty. In just the last year Kohl, Schumacher, Rebellin have all been busted. Were they always that dirty or were the riders desperate for performances because Gerolsteiner was pulling out of the sport and they needed results?

The recent spate of Gerolsteiner positives makes you look a little differently at Heinrich Haussler's performances this year. He rides for Cervelo now, but was also on Gerolsteiner for the past couple years. Maybe he simply is maturing and has had a breakthrough in performance but his sudden rise to prominence certainly makes you wonder.
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And speaking of Gerolsteiner, what is up with Conehead Schumacher's lawyer? Schumacher was already busted for tests he submitted at the Tour. Now it is revealed that he tested positive at the Olympics, too. Michael Lehner, Schumacher's lawyer, unleashed this gem of a quote when the Olympic positive became known, "I had to really swallow hard, when I heard that."
Really? Don't insult our intelligence Mr. Lehner.
After recovering from the shock of Schumacher's positive, Lehner came up another brilliant thought. Despite the fact that he is defending Schumacher for the Tour de France positive, where Schumacher claims he was not doping, Lehner then argues that it is possible that Schumacher was not doping at the Olympics but that there may have still been traces of the CERA from the Tour.
Huh? What? That logic makes my head hurt.
Lehner should be disbarred for such idiocy.

Liege

My Fleche-Wallone were questionable but did okay. Andy Schleck was my safe pick and he came through with a 2nd place. Daniel Martin was a longshot and finished 54th, about a minute down. Yuri Trofimov was on the start list but did not start, so that can't be held against me.

The Spring Classics come to a close this weekend with the 95th Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Only 10 riders in this years race have finished top 10 so there is a wide open field of possibilities for who to choose this weekend.

If his knee holds up, I will choose Robert Gesink. Secondly, I will pick Thomas Lovkvist and lastly.... hmmm... Simon Gerrans.

Fleche Wallone

I kind of forgot that Fleche Wallone is a mid-week race. As a result I have thrown together some quick picks for tomorrow's race.

It would be easy to choose many of the same riders as Amstel Gold, but I will mix things up a bit just to make it a little more difficult. I will keep Andy Schleck on my list. The two new selections are a little more of a reach and chosen because they are more of longshots. The first is Yuri Trofimov of Bbox and finally Daniel Martin of Garmin.

Back to racing

Tomorrow starts the Tour of Hermann. Saturday is going to be a loooong day with an early time trial and a late afternoon crit followed by the hour and a half drive home. I'm feeling okay after a couple solid weeks of training and look forward to the start of a solid block of racing with races almost every weekend for a while.

I missed last years race in Hermann so I don't know exactly what to expect. I know the road race is kind of hilly with at least one tough hill and the time trial is pretty flat and rolls along the river. Since I expect to the the state TT this year for the first time in several years, I am curious what I can do in this first effort of the year.

My main goal is to improve over the only time trial I did last year. At the Tour of St Louis, I was very near the bottom of the Cat 3's and that is not acceptable. Hopefully, putting proper aerobars on my old frame along with the 404 front wheel and rear disk will yield some positive results. The big question marks are that I have not been on the bike at all. There's no better way to try something new than to race it, right? With any luck, everything will stay screwed together and not fall apart before the 10 miles are complete.

On to other topics. My Roubaix picks did okay. My late addition of Pozatto paid off with a 2nd place, Haussler finished 7th and Quinziato 9th. Even my longshot wildcard pick of Popovych paid off with a respectable 50th place.

This week is Amstel Gold and I'm trying to come up with some picks on short notice. The amazing thing about Amstel Gold is that only 13 riders in the race have been in the top ten the past 5 years.

I'm going with Gilbert, Andy Schleck and Nibali in no particular order.

The Queen returns

Mid-April means the Queen of the Classics, Paris-Roubaix. My picks for the Ronde were pretty darn good and will be hard to top them this week.

Only eighteen riders in the race have finished top 10 the past five years.
Almost as many, nine, have retired.
A couple, O'Grady and Ballan, are injured and not racing.

Those numbers tell me there will be a few new names cracking the top 10 this year. But, who?

My picks

Heinrich Haussler - you dance with the one that brung ya. Haussler keeps coming through for me, so I will select him once more
Filippo Pozzato - almost overlooked him because I thought he had been top 10 before.
Manuel Quniziato - rode strong and the Ronde and finshed 13th last year.

Wilcard pick: I have no serious expectations from this pick but Yaroslav Popovych won the U23 version of Roubaix in 2001

Flanders picks and other stuff

Quite a good weekend of picks for Sunday's Tour of Flanders. If I had allowed myself to change my Ciolek pick at the last moment, I would have had 2nd, 3rd (with Gilbert) and 4th. Instead, I had to settle for Ciolek's stellar 111th place instead of Gilbert's podium finish.

Time to start thinking about this week's Roubaix and finding out who I can and cannot pick.

Last week was also my first full of training under coach Louie. I found it to be a good week of training. The workouts were reasonably hard but not ball-busting. Not yet, at least. As the weeks build, I'm sure the training will naturally become harder and harder. If nothing else I feel commited to following the workouts that are given. I find it much to easy to rationalize skipping a workout normally. Now, I feel an obligation to follow the plan and see where it takes me.

I was a little concerned after Saturday's ride. My legs were tight and stiff all evening. This didn't seem good the night before our race at Tilles Park. But, when I woke up Sunday they were better. Not 100%, maybe 95%. Warming up, the legs did not have much snap but felt fine otherwise.

The race started and everything felt fine. The flowing nature of the course may have helped by cutting down on the accelerations needed but I felt powerful and did some okay work. I'm curious to see where this training takes me and whether the goals can be achieved.

Study more

The Tour of Flanders has already started so I don't feel it would be right to change my picks for the race. But, while looking at the start list, I can't believe I overlooked Philipe Gilbert and chose Gerald Ciolek. The only thing in my favor is that Ciolek could be his team leader while Hoste MIGHT be Lotto's leader.

I will stick with my pick though, but call Gilbert my bonus pick. Then, when he ends up winning, I can kick myself for not selecting him in the first place.

Pick 'em

It's prognostication time for the best Classic on the race calendar, the Ronde van Vlaanderen. But first, my Milano - San Remo picks turned out fairly well. Haussler was just pipped at the line by an unexpectedly good Cavendish for the win. Bennati took 6th and Visconti finished but 30th but also in the lead group.

Flanders is a much more selective race than San Remo and makes picking guys that have not finished top 10 a little more difficult.

- Thirty-two riders have finished top 10 in the past five years.
- Of those thirty-two, ten have retired, one is on doping suspension and one is injured leaving only twenty active riders that have a top 10 in the past five years.
- Who's the most consistent rider over the past five years? Tom Boonen, right? Wrong. Boonen only has top 10s. Both Alessandro Ballan and George Hincapie have four top 10s

My picks in alphbetical order

Gerald Ciolek - I cant say why other than he is a good young talent
Heinrich Haussler - His form is bound to start falling off soon and he has never done particularly well at Flanders but I will ride his horse one more time
Martijn Maaskant - He seems to be a man of the cobbles and has had good solid finishes in recent weeks. He seems to be building for the two upcoming weekends.

And, finally, a pick that I guarantee will take place. Skil-Shimano will put a man in an early break.

Change I can believe in

What a difference a few weeks make. Tuesday evening was the first time I had ventured over to IL for a ride in 2 1/2 weeks. The last time I had been been over there, winter was still clinging desperately to the landscape. Most everything was still stark, and starkly bare.

Oh, how things had changed. I crossed the JB Bridge and looked to the farm field on the right as I normally do. As usual, when spring arrives, the field is at least half filled with standing water. Not so common was it's appearance. The water was reflecting a deep blue tint from the sky above. Just beyond the water was the bright green of freshly grown grass. As I drove down Bluff Rd to Valmeyer, the rocky bluffs shone bright white and showed off their shapes in a way I had never noticed. The evening sun gave the area very different look than it's morning appearance.

Thank goodness I enjoyed the scenery because 20 minutes into my warmup for the evening's workout I cut my tire and and had to limp 3 miles back to the car.

So, Wednesday, with a nice, fresh rear tire I made my way across the river again for yet another attempt at doing my planned 20 minute interval. Maybe I just wasn't as observant Tuesday evening the farm field just over the bridge not only had the blue and emerald green grass, but just beyond the grass was probably an acre at least of purple flowering ground clutter. Very nice.

The wind was blowing strongly out of the south at about 15mph for second day in a row. My long interval experience is lacking and I probably went out a little harder than I should. The burn set in after a couple minutes as I turned more directly into the wind. Ooof!

Just looking at the average speed is pretty depressing. A whopping sub 20mph average. Impressive, I know. My average power was 285 watts. I guess that is okay for 20 minutes. Kind of hard to know when you are just starting to measure that sort of thing. But, now there is a baseline and we'll go from there.