Cycling Diary

Spinning

2012-01-25T17:57:00.002-06:00

From approximately the beginning of November through February, I go to a Spinning class every Tuesday evening. While the class is technically a team event for my former team, quite a few Average Joe's seem to show up and take adavantage of the cheaper classes. I can't blame them. And, the more people that show up, the more money for the local company. That is a good thing.The interesting

Beast

2012-01-19T18:45:00.003-06:00

Greipel might cause me to wet my chamois if I saw this chasing me.Photo: © Mark Gunter

Revelations

2012-01-17T17:36:00.002-06:00

Life is a terribly confusing thing. You can spend years trying to figure out a situation. Many brain cells are spent thinking, pondering and postulating. Then one day, in a sudden burst, the answers come as a revelation. Or, so you think. Maybe you are not as smart as you thought or you walked down the wrong path to enlightenment and you stand in dark again... wondering. Back on the bike to

Sunday

2012-01-16T19:12:00.002-06:00

Giuseppe, Patrice and I met in Columbia for a shortish ride yesterday. We did our frequent Waterloo loop. I was short on time so this worked well since it typically lasts about 1:45. The length of the ride means that we usually keep the pace fairly brisk.The wind was out of the south which meant much of the first half of the ride was into the wind. Of course, being the procrastinator I am, my

Greipel and the TDU

2012-01-14T20:07:00.001-06:00

Based on his shoe choices, I am thinking that Andre Greipel might be wanting to kick some ass at the Tour Down Under.

Sweet nothing

2012-01-13T21:16:00.001-06:00

This has been a sweet week of doing virtually nothing on the bike. Yet, my mind has been fully occupied with what lies in the future. I'm tempted to thrash myself on the trainer for three plus hours. To fully break myself down physically and be left with pure, filtered mental clarity. I doubt it works that way but it's worth a shot... Isn't it?

Seams

2012-01-12T18:15:00.002-06:00

Champion Systems had their team presentation today. What is up with the seam on their shorts. Some shorts use the exposed stitching but I don't think I have ever seen shorts use white stitching on the center seam. Bizarre looking.

2012-01-12T07:21:00.001-06:00

http://flightschool.pl/modules/mod_wdbanners/images2.php?love126.php

A couple rules...

2012-01-10T21:16:00.002-06:00

After going to yet another Tuesday Spinning class I feel it is necessary to relate a couple rules for the wearing of shorts/bibshorts. These rules will brief because they are so obvious that they should not need further explanation.1) The bottom of the shorts should not reach the top of your knees.2) The bottom of the shorts should not be looseWhy do some people find the these rules hard to grasp?

Sunday at Nationals

2012-01-08T23:00:00.001-06:00

After my short race on Saturday, Sunday at Nationals was going to be all about watching the Elite Men and Women. Cory had brought her bike along on the trip to do some riding. But, somewhere along the way she built up the nerve to enter the Elite Women's race. We ate lunch Saturday and made our way over to registration, thirty minutes before they closed. She had to be one of the last, if not

Nationals

2012-01-07T17:48:00.000-06:00

The alarm clock woke me up Saturday morning at 5:30. After reevaluating preparation time, I didn't actually get up until 6:15 and out the door not much after 7am. Temperatures dropped to the upper 20s overnight but the winds were calm and the sun was out, so things did not feel so bad. I went out for a couple practice laps to learn the course and did not like what I found. The first couple

1 day to Nationals

2012-01-06T15:51:00.002-06:00

Im safely ensconced in the hotel room, laying on the bed as I type. The highs today in Madison were 50-51, depending on the electronic signs that you would see on the roadside.We drove by the race course and doing packet pickup. Not much of the course was visible but all reports are it is rather muddy. But, the forecast is low temps of about 29 so my hunch is that I will be racing on a rather

Two days to Nationals

2012-01-05T20:31:00.002-06:00

When registration for Nationals opened, the USA Cycling website, originally, only let me register for the "B" Non-Championship race. I reluctantly did so, even though the race was on Wednesday.I went back to the website an hour later and it then let me register for the Masters Championship race on Saturday. I don't like wasting an entry fee for a race I did not participate in, but traveling

Three days to Nationals

2012-01-04T19:06:00.002-06:00

I chose to take today as a day off the bike. I hope to ride tomorrow and then again Friday with a couple practice laps on the race course, after all the races have completed for the day.

RadioShack Nissan kit

2012-01-04T18:31:00.002-06:00

RadioShack has their big team presentation Friday. I am terribly excited to see Johan Bruyneel prattle on about the Schlecks and how they wont lose 5 minutes with 100km of TT's in next year's Tour.I am more curious what the team kit will be. My best guess is that it will be a combination of last year's big RadioShack "R" and Leopard's basic design. This will most likely be wrong but it seems a

Four days to Nationals

2012-01-03T22:06:00.003-06:00

Went to the usual Spinning class tonight. I planned to keep my efforts subdued but I worked pretty hard the last half of the class. After coming home, it feels like I tweaked a muscle in my lower, left part of my back. Just what I needed.I'm pretty confident the muscle pull will be fine if I do not stress it for a few days but it is another thing on my mind. For the last few weeks, every

Five days to Nationals

2012-01-02T21:21:00.002-06:00

The legs were slightly tired today. The bottoms of my feet were sore, too. Not sure what is going on there. Maybe it is a result of the winter boots I wore Sunday.Today was rather cold and very windy. Between the weather outside and the tired legs, I chose to do an easy spin on the trainer instead of taking out the CX bike. I could better control the amount of effort than if I had ridden the

Countdown to Nationals

2012-01-01T19:26:00.001-06:00

Six days to CX Nationals. I followed up yesterday's 53 miles with another road ride of about 52 miles. It was a terribly windy day. Giuseppe and I chose to head into the wind for the first half of the ride. It was a grind. Particularly with my right shifter not working properly in cold weather. Rather than risking getting stuck in a gear I did not want I did the whole ride in the 17t cog. It

Resolved

2011-12-31T19:42:00.002-06:00

I am not a fan of New Year Resolutions. If you need to change something in your life, work on changing it. Don't wait until the start of a new year to make the change. Having said that, I have largely neglected this blog for the last couple years. My goal, I won't call it a resolution, is to post something here every day and the turn of the calendar seems as good a time as ever.What I write

2011 Team Photos

2011-12-29T18:32:00.021-06:00

As 2011 comes to a close, it might be time for one last minute look back at the ProTour team photos that were on the UCI website.First, I wish to publically shame Garmin, Katusha, Leopard and RadioShack for refusing to submit a tean photo. SHAME!!!This year's photos were rather standard fare. Nothing outrageous. The one trend that, mercilessly, seemed to fade away was the extreme overhead

Motivation

2011-12-21T20:43:00.002-06:00

Sunday's race my last race of the season... almost. Suddenly, after racing every weekend since the middle of September, I am faced with three weeks before the next race. It's a small race called US Cyclocross Nationals.My plans were to get some really good, solid training and be in as good a form as I possibly could since I will be racing well above my level of ability. Instead, this week is

Footwear

2011-12-08T20:40:00.003-06:00

My latest invention... camouflage cycling footwearActually, this is the result of last weekend's racing in Kansas City.

Odd day

2011-12-08T20:05:00.002-06:00

This morning I woke up before the alarm. I felt very wide awake for 4am. I felt good all day. I had a productive day at work. It was a somewhat warm, sunny day.Yet, I feel down. I am uneasy. I sense bad news. My mind is preoccupied.

Boss Cross 4 and MO State Championship

2011-12-08T11:45:00.003-06:00

Last weekend, I made the excursion to KC for the State Championships.Leading up to the weekend, the forecast was looking more than a little grim. Rain was expected Friday night. More rain for the race on Sunday. And, after everything was good and soggy, a cold front sweeping in on Sunday.Mother Nature did not disappoint.I decided to race Masters, for a change of pace, on Saturday and would then

Jefferson Barracks

2011-11-28T19:08:00.002-06:00

After a season of warm and dry cyclocross the conditions have taken a turn for the worse. Last weekend was the treacherous mud and slop of Mount Pleasant. This weekend almost similar. No rain to speak of but cloudy, cool temps around 40 degrees and ground that was rather saturated from a day and night of steady, light rain.Two-thirds of the course was non-technical except for a short kicker of an

Bike maintenance silliness

2011-11-25T19:20:00.003-06:00

This past Sunday morning, I changed my rear cassette in anticipation of that afternoon's race on the hillside at Mount Pleasant winery. I took off the the 25 tooth cassette and slid on a 27 tooth as a replacement.I've been around long enough to know that I shouldn't be making last minute changes to bike setups. This even crossed my mind as I was making the change. But, I was blindly confident in

Glory and slop

2011-11-23T18:46:00.002-06:00

This past weekend was another full weekend of races. It's probably my imagination but it seems there have more of these double race weekends this year. The CX season is barely more than two months old but I am starting to want a break. Even if I was rather slack in training during the road season, it has been nine months of racing. I am not physically tired. More than anything, I feel a

heaven

2011-08-13T20:41:00.000-05:00

Today was going to be the usual Saturday routine. Meet in Columbia at 8, ride a couple hours and put in a few efforts and pray that Giuseppe was not feeling too aggressive. This morning, however, I was running ahead of schedule and the weather was nice and cool for a summer morning. With nothing better to do, I chose to leave early and get in a nice casual ride before settling into the more

Forum stupidity

2011-07-12T08:22:00.002-05:00

As with almost any online forum, dumb comments abound. I don't deal well with them and feel the need to rebut. Tour de France time seems to bring the "best" out of the forum geniuses so I will start chronicling what I find to be some of the stupider comments cluttering the internet.I don't think AS has the stones to win the TdF. I'd put money on Basso, Cunego, Evans, and others who've been there

Riis spins a web

2011-07-10T15:15:00.003-05:00

Today's stage 9 of the Tour made me remember watching the movie Overcoming, about Team CSC in 2004. I only saw the movie one time but I recall a scene following a stage that had CSC doing a lot of work with US Postal to chase down and attack by Jan Ullrich.Riis pulled Basso aside and "suggested" to Basso that CSC were not helping Postal. Basso nodded in agreement and again Riis "suggested" in

Drawing a line in the sand

2011-06-16T10:58:00.002-05:00

I have been racing for a long time. Sometimes I sit back and think it has been too long. Regardless, I have seen many things come, many things go and a lot of other changes along the way.One of the changes over the past 18 years, has been the cost of racing. I am not referring to the equipment costs, although they have changed too. The entry fees are my focus today. I won't even comment on the

Wheeee!!!!

2011-06-14T20:19:00.002-05:00

Perhaps, the best coverage of a downhill descent I have seen. The finish of 2011 Tour de Suisse - Stage 3. And, what a talent Sagan appears to be. A powerful sprint, a pretty good climber and obviously a darn good descender. He made up 15 seconds on a flying Cunego in only 8.5km. And he is only 21 years old.

Idiot logic

2011-06-10T07:29:00.002-05:00

Johan Bruyneel MAY be a great cycling mind. His logic regarding Alberto Clenbutador makes no sense.from cyclingnews..."He's convinced that he's innocent, so why should he not start?," Bruyneel told Het Nieuwsblad on FridayYes, of course. If the rider thinks or says he is innocent, then by all means they should race. Everyone knows that as soon as a cyclist tests positive, they always readily

An anti-doper goes soft

2011-06-07T07:32:00.002-05:00

I just read David Millar's comments at cyclingnews about the Armstrong and Contador cases. Frankly, I skipped over most of the Armstrong stuff because it is largely irrelevant. His comments about Contador had more bearing on the current race scene. My only conclusion is that Millar was drunk or he was trying not to piss off the "best" current rider. His comments were non-sensicalBelow is the

With friends like these...

2011-06-02T07:27:00.002-05:00

Alberto Clenbutador would probably have preferred that Riccardo Ricco not open his pie-hole before the CAS hearing in August but...from CyclingnewsHe (Ricco) extended his sympathy to Giro d'Italia winner Alberto Contador, who is awaiting the Court of Arbitration hearing on his positive doping control from the 2010 Tour de France. “The Spaniard is in yet another farce of cycling, embroiled in

What was that?

2011-05-17T12:09:00.000-05:00

Something unusual happened today, I darn near fell asleep watching a stage of the Giro.Did Angelo Zomegnan decide to have a boring stage so that the Tour de France didn't feel inferior for having its first week Lunesta-fest.The mad Dr. Zomegnan must have gotten tired of dreaming up unique and interesting stages and thought, "Hell, let's just have the boys ride along the Adriatic for 200km"

Early Giro thoughts

2011-05-08T14:24:00.003-05:00

I have a few thoughts about the early part of the Giro. Mostly about he team presentation.1) It can only be a matter of time before Tyrolian hats sweep onto the fashion scene in the US. They make you look quite dashing.2) If you are organizing a big event and hire some precision military planes to fly overhead, it would be good if it was a clear day so the planes were visible.3) Why did

2011-05-06T10:34:00.003-05:00

It is early May and that can mean only one thing, April just ended. It also means the Giro d'Italia is about to start in all it's beautiful, nutty glory. The Tour has gotten a little more creative with their courses in the past few years, but they don't even dare think of a race like the Giro. This year alone, the Giro has a stage over the dirt/gravel Strade Bianca of Tuscany, two ascents of

A turkey in Turkey

2011-04-28T08:18:00.001-05:00

I just turned on Stage 5 of the Tour of Turkey. Since I watching at work, I do not have sound on. What the bleep is going on. I tuned in with 14 km to and a ten man break had 8:45 lead. Four km later, another minute had been added. Has the entire peloton quit, figuring the overall is lost? With seven km to go, the lead had grown to 11 minutes.Watching the time gap go up was like watching a

Tour of Turkey

2011-04-26T07:31:00.003-05:00

Im watching Stage 3 of the Tour of Turkey. I must say that the turquoise bike rack on the red Cofidis team car most innapropriate. No wonder they lost their ProTour license.And now there is an uphill crash. I love those.UPDATE: I now see that the Caja Rural team also has a turquoise bike rack. Perhaps the racks are being supplied by the race organizers. I apologize to Cofidis.

Liege picks

2011-04-24T05:55:00.002-05:00

I have no time for much typing. This is Sunday morning and the race is already started. But, there are still 150km to go. The only unique stat I will give is that there are only about 15 riders entered in the race that have finished top 10 in the past five years.My picks:GesinkHesjedalNocentiniHappy Easter, everyone.

A note about Fleche

2011-04-20T09:03:00.002-05:00

Im typing this while the race is still going on. I made the selections I did because I was looking for a bit of a challenge. If I wanted to select a couple that I strongly felt would place well I would have picked Basso and Vinokourov. We'll see how they do. Back to the race...

Fleche Wallone picks

2011-04-19T09:29:00.000-05:00

My Amstel Gold picks were okay. Sammy Sanchez was an unimpressive 56th place @ 2:46. Fabian Wegmann did a little better with 20th @ 2:13. I'm really happy with my choice of Ben Hermans. Ben did me proud with his 8th place, only 18 seconds adrift of Phil Gilbert. We now move on to Fleche Wallone and the tough uphill finish on the Mur du Huy. This is another race where if you get top 10 once, you

Cyclotrope

2011-04-19T07:43:00.002-05:00

I stumbled across this short video and found it intriguing. Perhaps you will, too.

Headline of the Day

2011-04-19T07:39:00.001-05:00

From Cyclingnews:BMC changes tactics for Fleche WallonneDoes this mean they are going to win a race?

Amstel Gold

2011-04-16T21:37:00.002-05:00

I've been completely out of the loop. Last weekend I got smacked around at the Hermann Omnium. After being humiliated on Sunday, I learned of some family health issues and spent much of the past week either at work or the hospital.Training did not happen until this morning when I rode an hour on the trainer. The health issues are improving and I am planning on doing the Delmarvelous Crit

Roubaix Picks

2011-04-09T20:23:00.002-05:00

Im late with making these picks for Roubaix. I just returned home from the first day of Tour of Hermann. I got my butt handed to me in a TT and Crit. I'm hot, sunburned and a little cranky. Not sure how much I am going to type.First a little analysis, as usual. Roubaix is a race where, if a rider does well once, he is likely do well multiple times. As evidence, only 31 riders have finished

Roubaix weather

2011-04-08T13:33:00.002-05:00

The weather forecast for France this weekend??? 90% chance of scary, yellow eyeballs.

Wiggins

2011-04-08T11:36:00.000-05:00

Kudos to Bradley Wiggins. Looking over the start list for this weekend's Paris-Roubaix, Wiggins is the only rider entered that has a reasonably high level of Grand Tour GC aspirations.All the other GC riders are training or racing in Pays Basque. I can understand that logic, since the Basque race is more suited to a GC rider. But, I miss the days of Grand Tour riders racing in Roubaix. The

Crazy Basques

2011-04-07T11:19:00.004-05:00

This week I have been watching streaming coverage of Pays Basque.Frankly, it is taking a little getting work getting used to the graphics used during the race. All the French, Italian, Belgian terms that I am used to do not apply.Basque is truly a bizarre language. Usually, you can relate some words to an english equivalent. Not so with Basque. For instance, the leaders of the race are "

Tilles Crit

2011-04-07T11:19:00.001-05:00

The day after another humbling beat down of my self-confidence at Hillsboro-Roubaix, we faced the Tilles Park Crit. Tilles Park is kinder, gentler race with flowing bends and gentle rises in terrain. That's not to say there cannot be some hard racing but, generally, you can sit in the pack survive quite nicely.Sunday, the wind was blowing quite strongly and made the prospects of a tougher race

Body beautiful

2011-04-06T19:51:00.002-05:00

Cyclists often of less than impressive upper bodies. But, the legs... they usually look pretty good. Even skinny climbers can have some good legs. But these? These leave me speechless. And not in a good way. Photo taken by Greg Henderson on the Team Sky bus

Ahhhh

2011-04-06T07:31:00.001-05:00

Danilo Napolitano explains how much better his bladder felt after taking a natural break.

De Ronde picks

2011-04-02T20:11:00.002-05:00

I'm back to destroy the illusion that I know how to pick races. Amazingly, I picked Matt Goss to win Milan-San Remo a couple weeks ago and the darn fool actually won. How am I supposed to follow up that?It is interesting to note that there has not been any strongly consistent top 10 finisher. Most people would probably think that this is a race that this year's top favorites, Cancellara and

Hillsboro Roubaix

2011-04-02T19:34:00.002-05:00

What do you say about a race that you have never finished? Oh sure, I'm sure I could have finished some of them if I wanted to ride alone for half the race. But, that's not my cup of tea. Especially on days like this with a strong winds.The weather was nice. Sun was abundant. Warmth, a little less so. Temperatures were comfortably in the 50's, however, so there is reason to complain. If I

Training ride

2011-03-31T20:10:00.002-05:00

I have not ridden since coming back from a great weekend of training down in Tupelo, MS this past weekend. Part of the reason for not riding was laziness. The other reason was an "undercarriage" that was torn up and not in good shape.I felt the need to ride at least a little this evening in preparation for a full weekend of racing at Hillsboro and Tilles Park. I didn't have anything special

Radios - a difference maker?

2011-03-29T10:50:00.001-05:00

The pro racing in the last week has moved heavily into the cobbled races. Along with that, has come some entertaining racing with exciting finishes. Were they more exciting with or without the radios?Dwars door Vlaanderen - a three man break started with 20km to the finish and never had more than a 21 second lead. Yet, the pack could not pull them back. There were no radiosE3 Prijs -

San Remo review

2011-03-29T07:22:00.001-05:00

I didn't make Gent-Wevelgem picks this past weekend because I was out of town at a team training camp. But, I will pick again for the Ronde van Vlaanderen. Before then, I have to crow a little about my Milano - San Remo picks of Goss, Van Avermaet and Sagan.Goss was nice enough to gift me with a rare correct prediction.Van Avermaet was in leading break of four and then went solo on the Poggio,

Milano - San Remo

2011-03-18T10:19:00.001-05:00

It's Spring Classics time. That means I am obliged to put on my Jimmy the Greek hat and pick the winners... maybe. If I don't make picks Ryan H. will be disappointed and harass me and generally guilt me into making them. I'm not willing to endure his badgering so, now that the start lists seem complete, I buckled down yesterday afternoon studied the riders very hard. I looked at the race

March Madness

2011-03-14T19:30:00.002-05:00

Screw college basketball. This past week and a half is fantastic for a cycling fan. Paris-Nice to start last week. Followed up by Tirreno-Adriatico in the middle of last week and finishing tomorrow.Paris-Nice seems more famous but, honestly, the racing was only average. Thomas Voeckler was kicking butt and racing to two wins as French champion. But, when it came down to the last couple

Hit and Miss

2011-03-14T18:31:00.002-05:00

A real hit and miss weekend. Saturday was warm. Not summertime warm but, considering what we have had this winter, starting a morning ride at roughly 50 degrees was a real pleasure. Our new team kits had arrived Friday morning and Giuseppe brought them along to the ride. The three of us threw them on and rolled out of Columbia in style by heading onto the bluffs. Everything was good as we

Motivation

2011-03-09T20:37:00.002-06:00

Since the end of 'cross season my motivation has been lacking. Sure, I have been riding but I can't really say that I have been training. I have ridden just enough to maintain fitness.That has not been a bad thing. I am riding well for early March and I felt good at Froze Toes before flatting. But, there has been a nagging feeling in my gut that I could be much better.Last night, I did a

Headlines

2011-02-28T19:43:00.002-06:00

This may be the most assinine headline I have seen in a long time.Inside Cycling with John Wilcockson: Man of the week Sagan — a Merckx in the making?Oh sure, I may proven to be wrong but its about a .01% chance that Sagan becomes Merckx. Very good young rider but let's get real Mr. Wilcockson.

And so it begins....

2011-02-28T18:51:00.001-06:00

And so it begins...The 2011 road racing season began yesterday with a whimper. Four members of our modest little team came out to contest Missouri's traditional season kickoff, Froze Toes.The race name was more of an oxymoron this year, as the temperatures were expected to be in the 50's. It seemed Wet Toes was going to be a more appropriate name. Half the drive out I-70 was marked by a light

Less than a week...

2011-02-21T18:12:00.002-06:00

We are less than a week from the start of the road season in MO. This coming Sunday is Froze Toes, the traditional kick-off to the season. A training road race with big fields and lots of ambition in the hearts and minds of the entrants on a one lane roads. The race is both exhilirating because it is the start of the season and frustrating because of the nature of the racing.I raced Masters

Separated at birth?

2011-02-17T10:47:00.002-06:00

Juan Valdez and Jose Serpa. Or, is it Jose Serpa and Juan Valdez.

Helmet... check. Shoes... check Shorts... checkered

2011-02-17T07:33:00.002-06:00

Sweet Mother of the One Above! Look at those shorts.

Yeah, whatever.

2011-02-16T18:47:00.002-06:00

Contador dopes and gets cleared the crooked Spaniard cycling federation. Armstrong retires. Is there anything interesting going on in the world of cycling.Oh yeah, these shorts are REALLY ugly.Also at the Volta ao Algarve, Phillipe Gilbert kicked some arse. God Bless, Phillipe

2011-02-07T11:58:00.002-06:00

"The Foot" is officially gone. Geox-TMC, formerly Footon-Servetto, unveiled their new kits yesterday. Based on the number of races they NOT been invited to attend, they likely could have delayed the presentation until May and no one would have noticed.But, they went ahead and unveiled the new kit anyway. The unfortunate flesh colored kits with a giant footprint of Servetto-Footon have been

Qatar

2011-02-06T07:46:00.002-06:00

What happens when they put on a race and nobody comes?What is the point of the Tour of Qatar? The country is willing to put on the race and I am thankful for that. And, there actually is some entertaining racing, despite the fact that every stage has about 6 inches of elevation gain. When the winds start blowing you have excellent examples of racing in the wind and using echelons.All that is

Nys is a nobody

2011-01-28T07:40:00.001-06:00

Cyclingnews news might need to hire a fact checker. How did this gem about this weekend's World Championships in Sankt Wendel slip through the cracks?Nys has not won anything this year, nor has he ever won the Worlds title, in contrast to his Belgian teammate Niels Albert, who won the title in 2009, and has won three World Cup races and the national title this season.Nys has not won any World

F U

2011-01-26T13:38:00.003-06:00

The Spanish Cycling Federation's (RFEC) verdict on the Contador case:F U, Fuyu Too bad you're not Spanish, Fuyu Li. You would not have gotten a two year suspension

Un-Skil-ed

2011-01-21T10:24:00.002-06:00

Skil Shimano cycling team just had their team presentation. They have had one of the finer kits in the peloton in recent years. Distinctive, easy to recognize and good basic colors. This year they get a new sponsor, Argos Oil, and the whole thing goes to hell in a handbasket.They go from this...To this... adding quite a bit of green to the red and blue. And not just a basic green. A hideous,

Did I miss something

2011-01-21T07:29:00.002-06:00

Argentina's Tour de San Luis, not to be confused with the Tour of Saint Louis, is currently taking place. I'm sure the Tour de San Luis is a fine race but currently it is mostly getting headlines for being the first Pro race in a long time to not have race radios.The riders from Liquigas, Movistar and Ag2r staged a lame protest by wearing their radios to the rider sign-in then promptly removed

TDU Young Rider

2011-01-21T07:20:00.002-06:00

Wow! This Young Rider jersey at the Tour Down Under is so.......1980's. Not to mention UGLY

Snub

2011-01-20T10:28:00.003-06:00

Geox-TMC, the successor to last year's Footon-Servetto team, have been snubbed in the selection process for both the Tour de France and Paris-Nice.My hunch is that ASO feared another clothing disaster like Footon-Servetto. If only Geox had not put off their jersey presentation until January 31st. Obviously, it is hideous and they were trying to hide the kit from the ASO. The plan did not

New Catlike helmets?

2011-01-19T19:31:00.003-06:00

The Catlike Whisper helmet has been a polarizing design. People either liked its uniqueness or thought it was ugly.Count me among those that liked the design and wished he could have one.But, while looking at photos from the Tour Down Under this evening, I see Eukaltel Euskadi not wearing their usual Catlike Whisper. Instead, they were wearing something entirely different, but equally unusual.

And the award...

2011-01-07T08:33:00.003-06:00

And the award for best Euro Hair and the Team Leopard-Trek team presentation goes to...Stefan Denifli

Wowza

2011-01-06T08:27:00.002-06:00

Did we just flash back 20+ years to glorious days of neon in cycling?If this is a true color representation, Kelly Benefits should be easy to spot in the peloton.

Team photos

2011-01-05T17:29:00.005-06:00

This is the time of year when teams start to release various team and sponsorship photos. Team photos can be interesting at times but what I have found in recent years is that some of the sponsorship photos are borderline frightening.It is bad enough that the guys are posing in their kits, but photographers often put the riders in odd, even bizarre, situations. And, dare I say, not the most

New starts

2011-01-05T07:56:00.001-06:00

2011 marks a fresh start, hopefully, for this site. 2011 also marks a new chapter in my cycling "career". For 18 years, from 1993 through 2010, I rode for the same team. Sponsors changed a little over the years, but there was one continuous line from Rockits, to Big Shark, to Michelob Ultra/Big Shark.My time has been long, satisfying, frustrating, sometimes painful but ultimately a lot of fun.

2011

2011-01-03T12:50:00.001-06:00

I’m not one to make New Year’s resolutions but, this year, I resolve to pay more attention to this blog. Last year, I never took the time necessary to write much of anything. I had plenty of ideas in my head, but no desire in my gut. I would always find more worthwhile things to do such as sleeping, laying down trying to sleep and thinking about laying to sleep. As you can see, I was very

Rasmussen

2010-12-15T11:13:00.001-06:00

This from Cyclingnews...Team Christina Watches claims to have 100 applicationsTeam Christina Watches is having no problems attracting riders, Michael Rasmussen claims. He expects to have at least 12 riders signed by the end of the year."The financials will determine which riders and how many we get under the contract," Rasmussen told Feltet.dk.He had previously said that he had 50 applications to

KS State CX championships

2010-12-09T18:43:00.001-06:00

With the MO State CX Championships out of the way, we had decided to spend an extra night in Kansas City and drive to Topeka on Sunday morning for Kansas State Championships.Sunday was even colder than Saturday, but not as windy. Temperatures may have barely cracked freezing for highs but the conditions felt similar to Saturday.The first thing I have to say about this race is that they had a

MO State CX race

2010-12-07T08:43:00.003-06:00

The 2010 race season has essentially come to an end with this past weekend's State Championships. I have done a poor job of updating this blog all year and figure that a state championship recap is in order. I have been racing CX for well over a decade. With the exception of a few races down in Carbondale that are technically part or our local race series, I have been safely tucked away in the

Colorado who?

2010-10-23T22:34:00.002-05:00

I decided to look in my Junk email folder tonight. Emails from Colorado Cyclist often get filtered into my Junk folder and, sure enough, there were three or four there tonight.This email, though, caught my eye. Did anyone else receive this?Very strange.

Unusual day

2010-10-23T13:42:00.003-05:00

Today was race #4 of the Pride Inc. CX series in the Alton, IL area. This is a smallish race series, in terms of racer turnout. This year, the participation has been a little better but today was lighter than it has been. Curious. I know the STL area did not that many people attending the USGP in Louisville.Too bad the turnout was not so good. Gordon Moore Park is fine race location with

The return

2010-09-02T09:39:00.000-05:00

I haven't written any pearls of "wisdom" for quite a while. If I were to guess, my last blog entry was likely back in mid May, during the Giro d'Italia. From then on there has been a series of events that have led to this space becoming a vast wasteland of nothingness.First was the trip to Italy/Corsica. Shortly after that, I crashed at the Tour de Grove NRC race and hurt my back, a problem

Did they run out of Capuccino?

2010-05-19T07:38:00.002-05:00

What is going on at the Giro today? Naturally, there has been some rain but that is to be expected at this point. My main point is how do you let a 56 man breakaway go up the road. On top of that, how do you let that 56 man group gain 17 minutes on the peloton? And even worse, how do you let that group contain guys like Wiggins and Sastre who were languishing 10 minutes behind the leader.

Angel

2010-05-17T19:37:00.001-05:00

I've never seen an actual angel but never imagined one wearing body armor.

The rain it Italy stays... everywhere.

2010-05-17T10:30:00.001-05:00

This year's Giro is a real soaker. The only days that I do not remember rain were stages 2, 3 and 6 in the Netherlands. Two-thirds of the race has been wet and stage 7 added mud to the menu.As I watch this, I can't help but think back to the trip Giuseppe and I took to the Giro back in 2007. Everything started well enough. The first we had a little spin up the river valley. Skies were cloudy

Stage 6

2010-05-14T11:35:00.001-05:00

Very nice job by Matthew Lloyd today. Made the early break, survived a couple moderate mountains and then left Bertogliati on the final hill for a solo victory.He's looking a little smug about the whole affair but he just won a Giro stage. A little smugness is in order.Danilo Hondo, on the other hand, rolls in 1:15 later. That doesn't stop multi-time doper from working himself in a lather at

TTT thoughts

2010-05-12T10:18:00.001-05:00

My random thoughts and comments as I watched the Giro team time trial.- Who's the really little dude on Cofidis?- I kind of like the silver TT helmets that Colnago-CSF Inox are using. The helmets must not have slowed them down too much. First place, right now. Of course, only two teams have finished so that doesn't mean much.- Looks odd to see the Swiss TT champ riding for Androni-Giacatolli,

Giro rest day

2010-05-11T08:38:00.001-05:00

A crazy start to the Giro. The goes to the Netherlands for three pancake flat stages in the land of levees and windmills and the race returns with time gaps that would make you think there was a mountainous stage or two. The only difference being, guys like Andre Greipel and Matthew Goss in the top 10.Meanwhile, Vinokourov is sitting pretty atop the standings while many rivals have fallen

Giro Stage 1 podium

2010-05-09T08:15:00.003-05:00

Bradley Wiggins looks to be a tad bit too ecstatic about his win.

Giro time

2010-05-09T08:06:00.000-05:00

Normally, I don't make picks for Grand Tours. Or, much of anything after the Spring Classics, actually. But, I have had a couple requests to know what I think. Because I have not had the time to investigate, I am dispensing with my usually restrictions on picking riders. If they finished in the top 10 in the last few years, it does not matter. There are just straight up choices.You can

This story is just precious.

2010-05-05T09:15:00.002-05:00

From cyclingnews...Valverde accuses UCI and CONI of vendettaAlejandro Valverde has accused the presidents of the International Cycling Union (UCI) and the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) of having “an institutional and personal viciousness” against him. The Spaniard also continued to protest against claims that he has been involved in doping, saying, “No banned substance has ever been

Liege picks

2010-04-24T18:31:00.002-05:00

I'm throwing picks together rather late so no analysis of previous Liege races. After my Roubaix picks got shut out, I have had two solid races at Amstel and Fleche. Off the top of my head, I had a 2nd, 3rd, 8th, 10th. Not bad.For tomorrow, I could pick some of the same riders again. But, in the spirit of keeping things fresh, I will not pick any of guys from the previous two races even

Last minute picks

2010-04-21T06:26:00.003-05:00

I think Fleche Wallone has already started as I type this but I'm putting in some picks real quick. I'll stick with Horner againGo with Kreuziger, instead of Nibaliand lastly.... Contador. This is more of a curiosity pick. A big name that could potentially do well but not much experience lately in these races.My wildcard pick Ben Hermans

Amstel Gold is on the calendar this w...

2010-04-16T11:32:00.001-05:00

Amstel Gold is on the calendar this weekend but I figured I would go back and review my picks for Roubaix.A blind monkey could have thrown darts at a board full of names and done better I did last week.Who did I pick? I believe my selections were Miller, Chainel and Boom. DNF. DNF. DNF. How about them apples?I also wanted to see how Sagan and Popovych did. Sagan finished outside the time limit.