Tour Stage Overviews

The route is going to make a thrilling race. The race might actually be decided in a drag race on the Champs between the survivors.

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This year the race jumps right into it with a short ITT for the first stage in Monaco. That should be a great backdrop. The favorites will emerge right away.

Back by popular demand, I think, is a TTT on stage 4. That should knock several riders from weaker teams out of contention. If you're a rider with a bright orange jersey, my guess is you weren't happy about the TTT.

Stage 20 has a mountain top finish on Mount Ventoux.

I'll be rooting for Carlos Sastre and Vande Velde this year. It's going to be interesting to see how Astana plays its cards, and of course, to see how Armstrong does after a long break from competition.

Most of all, I'll keep my fingers crossed that there are no doping scandals. Last year came pretty close to snuffing out my interest in pro cycling.

Here's a link about the Marked Men of this year's tour.

That Not So Fresh Feeling

I've been piling on lots of miles and intensity lately. My plan has been to keep thrashing it until this week, take a rest week, and hope to be fresh for the July races.

It's going to be nice to take a break. I'll skip the drive to Westlake this week and actually get some things done around the house. Also, the exertion has been catching up with me. My back is sore most of the time, and for the past week, some rides have been a real struggle. The fatigue is most noticable when I'm just riding tempo; it's a real effort just to cruise along at 20 mph on the flat.

Scary Stuff

Driving while texting/emailing is pretty common. I've seen people texting while making their way around dead man's curve in Cleveland.

Here's an article that should make cyclists nervous: link

2,600 deaths and 330,000 injuries caused by in-car cell phone use.

Cyclists and pedestrians, I would guess, are particularly threatened by driving while texting. Since you can't read with your peripheral vision (go ahead and try it), you need to look directly at the puny screen, and rely on your peripheral vision to drive. That works in a static driving condition, but will fail if something suddenly changes, like a pedestrian crossing the street, or a cyclist on the side of the road.

Beat the Rain, But not the Heat

I went up to Leroy a couple of hours early today to take a shot at the TT course before any of the big thunderstorms that were popping up around Cleveland hit the course.

I was hoping to beat my time from last week by a few seconds, but hopes for that faded as I rode around the course for my warm up. Though the wind was predominately from the west, so there was a big tailwind on the outbound leg, it was also whipping around in different directions on the course, probably a sign that a storm was coming. Also, it was hot touching about 90 degrees, like riding in an EZ bake oven, with the same disgusting results.

My HR was popping even when I was poking along at 15 mph during the warmup, but I decided to give it a shot anyway. I doused myself with water and took off on the course. Ouch. No power but the HR was climbing into the 170s. I kept it up to the turn around, and saw I was way off my pace from last week, and was really struggling in the heat.

I made it to about 2 miles to go and started to try to push hard, but couldn't muster any force, so I decided to shut it down and just roll home. Hopefully the weather will cooperate a little more next week.

July Cycling Fest!

Starting the first week in July, my calendar is packed with races to ride and watch. The Twin Sizzler is on the 4th, Westlake is the 7th, the first of the Chapel Crit series is the 9th, then the Tour of the Valley starts on the 10th--I'll skip the RR stage, but do the rest. Of course, the Tour de France will be running at the same time, and in the morning I'll be planted on the couch watching all the stages live.

At the end of the month, it will be time for a break, and to mix things up I'll start running to prepare for CX season.

I'll keep my fingers crossed that I stay healthy throughout, and should be in position to finish the season strong.

Westlake #7

It was hot, but at least it wasn't humid, at start time. The race was scheduled for 25 freakin' laps! That's getting pretty far out of my comfort zone. 40 miles at Westlake is nearly perfect for me. Over that, I start to wear out during the last few laps.

Hydration was a major issue, so I spent most of the day drinking juice and water. Last week, I had gatorade. When it's hot like that, I have a hard time absorbing it, and get more and more ill as a race progresses. I found mineral water, Gerolsteiner, doesn't cause that problem, so I brought a few bottles of that along and filled my bottles to the brim, and drank about 16 ounces before the start.

The fields were huge. The B field was about 20 people, the A field was over 50, I think. Prior to the start, everyone took time to sign Scott's Get Well Soon card.

We started at a leisurely pace. Only a few people were willing to jump right into the 50 mile race, and a small group TTed off the front. Apparently none of the big guns went, so we rode a leisurely tempo while the group pulled away.

I wanted to follow one of the riders who always gets in the break, so I looked around for Brian Batke, Rudy, or Chris and made it my goal to latch on to their wheel no matter what. I rode with Brian for a while, but in the shuffle of the field, I ended up on his teammate's (Tris Hopkins) wheel as he made his way forward to launch an attack. Perfect! He launched just before the turn off Ranney Parkway through the sweeper before the straightaway.

The attack was powerful, even though I was just following a wheel at around 30 mph for a minute, I was pumping out as much power as I do over the last mile at Leroy. In spite of the big effort, the field managed to latch on. I retreated back into the field and kept my eyes open for Chris or Brian, but was still a little tired from following the attack and missed the next move.

In the A race, the breaks gel quickly, and it takes a while for a successful one to get away. I don't think I have quite enough mojo to attack again and again at that speed, but I'm actually pretty close.

Once the break went clear, the field settled into a manageable pace. Nobody seemed able to organize a chase. I helped pull for a while, way, way too late to actually close the gap, but we only managed one rotation before teammates of the attackers broke it up.

The last lap finally rolled around. I made a point of getting the hell out of the way of the melee. I decided to just cruise the last lap without getting involved in the sprint for Nth place.

Now that we're past the solstice, the races will be getting shorter. I'm looking forward to the 20 lap races. Even more, I can't wait to ride with my peers to test out my legs.

Total Distance: 50 miles

Time: about 2 hours

Energy: 1347 kJoules

Avg. Power: 191 Watts

An Instant Classic?

This spring, Max recommended Punderson State Park as a venue for a Road Race. Chris and I finally took a ride down there today to recon possible routes through the park. It's really close to perfect for a circuit race. The terrain is rolling, there's probably a couple hundred feet of elevation gain per lap, there are sweeping turns, different views of the lake, high speed straightaways, and technical turns. Each lap would probably be 3-4 miles. Like the Covered Bridge course, it would be challenging, but the climbs are short and not too steep, so any rider can compete. There are plenty of opportunities for a break to get away, and the out and back sections of the course would give chasers a good view of their prey. There are a hundred potential stumbling blocks, but with some luck, we'll get this race off the ground in the fall or next spring.