Two Wheel Blogs

Ah well, before you get the wrong impression let me just state it right up front. I did not race the Tour de Winghaven. I was there. Many of you know this because we said hello as you completed your registration and check in.

My butt got in a fine workout at yesterday's Tour de Winghaven. About 6 hours worth of paperwork. I volunteered to work registration.

What? No race?

No, unfortunately for me I had a wedding (yes, a Sunday wedding) to go to. I had to leave right as my race was starting. I was able to wish a few team mates good luck in the race, but I didn't even get to see the start. Too bad for me, because lately my form has been coming along.

OK that's it. I said I would do it and I did. I've submitted my upgrade request. If it's approved today's State Road Race will have been my last race as a Cat 5.

And it was a good race. There were over 40 pre-registered and I think just about every one of us turned out. I took a quick look over my shoulder at the start line and was impressed by the size of the crowd lined up to race there.

I set just two goals for myself for today's race:

1. Stay with the lead group
2. Finish well

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It's Sunday afternoon already? What happened to the weekend? There's nothing like a bike race to make a day go by in a hurry. Yesterday I did the first two races in the 2008 Tour of St. Louis - the Carondelete Park criterium and the Columbia Bottoms Conservation Area timetrial.

The Tour of St. Louis is actually a 2-day event. There is a criterium on Sunday morning in Forest Park. I skipped that one, opting to make the weekend into something better resembling a stage race. A couple of emails and a phone call later I'd landed myself into a couple of hours of hard (for me, at least) riding.

Weekend stats

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I won't have time to watch it (see the previous post), but today's also the Tour of Flanders. I'm resolved to catching up on it afterward though. Unlike here today, race conditions are forecast to be epic - rain, snow, hail. All that nasty stuff that you and I won't ride in because we're not paid to.

It's days like this I'm content to be blessed with ordinary genes.

If I had any doubts that it takes a little luck to win a bicycling road race before today, I have none now.

I really felt like I had good legs; and I just plain felt good on my bike today. For the first 6 miles of the 2008 Hillsboro-Roubaix I really felt like I was doing a decent job of managing my position in the bunch. Too bad all that good was more than balanced by the little bit of bad luck at mile 6.

I hope the sun comes out today. I think a nice ride in the countryside would be better if done in the sun. I'm headed off to Hillsboro in a few minutes for the 2008 Hillsboro-Roubaix Road Race.

It's been a weird week for me, training-wise. Three days of business travel and meetings sort of took the heart out of any bicycle riding. That could be good, as far as freshness goes. My experience is usually that a day or three off the bike leaves me with a lowered sense of feel for what I can accomplish.