Milestones

Today's ride was interesting. After becoming depressed after the end of the Tour, I decided to ride my bike. After yesterday's brutality in Babler and Wildwood, I decreed an "easy day". Chesterfield Valley, nice and flat. Lots of wind, though. Starting out, my legs were creaky and sore. I puttered around, to and fro, for about an hour. All signs pointed to ending the ride. Oddly, my legs had at some point started to feel pretty energetic. So, signs notwithstanding, I decided to do a little "time trial" on the Chesterfield levee trail. Minimal pedestrian traffic, which was good. Nice even wind, not too strong and not gusty. After resetting my computer, I set off with the hammer down. 4 miles later I slammed on the brakes, turned around as quick as can be, and set off the other way. There was some suffering, but nothing extreme. Lot of breathing, maybe a little drool, some burning legs. 8 miles later, I checked the computer...20.3 mph! That isn't fast by any means, but for me it's nice...I like that 20mph number. I did about 19 into the wind, and hovered between 21-22 with the wind. Mostly a crosswind, so it didn't make a huge difference, but it was noticeable.

Hooray! 20mph for 8 miles, and I didn't even fall over at the end. In fact I felt pretty good. But I had laundry to do and groceries to buy, so I headed for home...

As anticipated, the ride did wonders for my Post-Tour Depression Syndrome (PTDS). The planned "easy day" didn't quite work out. If I can hit 20mph now, only a few months after beginning my "speed training" and still far from my previous fitness level...I have high hopes for the future.

The Tour is over

Well the Tour is over for another year. Alberto Contador stamped his victory with undeniable authority. Cavendish made the sprints a bit boring with his unbelievable speed. And I, alas, have fallen in love with the podium girl on the left. Doomed to be unrequited, no doubt.

I can't understand why bicycle racing is not more popular in the U.S. Football, baseball, soccer...how boring are they? Conducted inside, mostly controlled environment, same places time and again. The Tour is contested on the open road, in beautiful ever-changing scenery, and the riders display the pinnacle of human capabilities, endurance, and skill. Nothing comes close in my book.

Until next year, Tour. I am now sad. I think I'll ride my bike.

Product review!

Since I appear to have at least one semi-regular reader I figured I'd offer a review of a cycling product I recently tried out. Maybe if I keep it up, manufacturers will start paying me to review their wares. Then I can retire to a life of prancing about in amazement at each latest greatest new product and subverting my conscience in the name of capitalism! No more dodging bloodthirsty robots. Lofty dreams.

At any rate, up for your inspection is the Camelbak Podium bottle.


Waterbottles, meh. They've seen modest improvements over the years. High-flow valves, less plasticky-tasting plastic. All but worthless insulation. Finally Camelbak of strap-on hydration system fame has taken it upon themselves to improve the breed. And in summary, they did a good job. Nice bottles in small and large volumes, low-plasticky-taste, high-flow valves, and even insulated versions. The trick is in the valve. At first I figured "Bah, stupid Camelbak bite valve, why would I want that on a bottle?" Then Alex at the Hub demonstrated the bottle to me. The valve remains sealed until you squeeze the bottle. Then a rush of refreshing beverage shoots out. Pretty ingenious, really. Everyone I know squeezes the bottle anyway, so why not use that as the "trigger"? So I bought one, liked it, bought a couple more. The only drawback is breaking the habit of opening the nozzle with my teeth, then slapping it shut again. No need! Just grab bottle, position near mouth, squeeze, and enjoy delicious hydration. Replace bottle. Done.

So far, it doesn't leak at all. The insulated version is just as "meh" as other insulated bottles I've tried. They work for 30 minutes or so, but in the blistering heat of a St. Louis summer they only manage to stave off the inevitable for a short time.

In my usual tinkering style, I tried to transplant the cap to another bottle. No dice, proprietary threading. Nice try, though. Hopefully my favorite shops will start to carry shop-branded Podium bottles so I can go back to being a rolling billboard!

My recommendation? Go buy one or two. They're not much more than the other bottles at your local bike shop, and they work. I think you'll like them.

And so on some more...

While you're online, go check out Mitch the Masher. Tomorrow he begins a 24-hour mountain bike race in Wisconsin, which you can follow in real time! I worked on the same campus with Mitch for who knows how long, never realizing he was a cyclist. Then I ran into him at a local bike shop, and discovered he's a ravening madman cyclist and endurance mountain bike racer! Nice guy. Now go watch the race, 11am Saturday to 11am Sunday.

Gears, revelation, and so on

Yep, it's pretty shocking. After my sparkling revelation that in order to go faster on a bicycle, you must pedal harder earlier this year, I've been making progress. I'm getting to the point of ticking over ever-increasing gears, approaching the top gear rapidly. A couple days ago I discovered (actually common knowledge...) that I can sustain a given pace longer by choosing a lower gear and spinning my giant ham-hock legs faster. It's pretty amazing, really, that I'm already approaching the limits of my compact gearing after only a few months.

The really amazing thing, though, is how long it's taken me to figure out how to exploit the latent potential in my enormously long legs (yeah, I'm tall, we're supposed to be good for power on bicycles...). Remember this guy?Greg Lemond, waaaay back in the Day. I'd been hooked on cycling for a few years before his appearance in the Tour de France, but this guy - plus Andy Hampsten shortly before - inspired me to buy a race bike and go for broke back in the mid-to-late '80's. That and my high school physics teacher, who was a well-known local racer.

It's a little sad for me that LeMond has, er, regressed to this:I imagine getting shot by your brother-in-law and leaving lots of lead pellets in your body can have a...detrimental...effect on your mental processes. With all due respect for awakening legions of Americans to cycling and his amazing accomplishments in a then-inhospitable stage for American cyclists - someone he respects needs to slap him and advise him to "let it go."

So, what's it been? 22 years? 22 years I've spent puttering around at 15mph in the small chainring, thinking the big ring was just for downhills and tailwinds. Ha! Had it backwards...the big ring is for everything except steep hills! Well it's on now. Watch yourself.

In follow-up to my previous post, the respected and admired Jens Voigt appears to be doing better. About as well as anyone can be after grinding their face into the asphalt at 45mph, but not nearly as bad as he could have been. Heal fast, Jens.

Le Tour, and training

First off, allow me to express my sorrow at Jens Voigt's horrific crash today. By all accounts he'll be okay, but it was brutal to see. I can't imagine the pain. Sliding down a mountain at 45mph on your face, after having broken your cheekbone...well I hope I never experience it. He was allegedly knocked out - even with the best efforts of his helmet - so at least he wasn't conscious for it. I hope. Jens is one tough mofo, though, so if anyone hops back on the bike with more fire than ever, it'll be him. He's an inspiration to watch both on the bike and off. I only hope he returns for at least one more Tour - I'm sure this isn't the way he wants to remember his last go-round in France.

If you haven't already, buy "Hell on Wheels". It's a great documentary of the Tour, does a fantastic job capturing the feeling of the riders. The optimism and excitement at the start, then the gradual descent into grinding misery as it drags on and on. Jens is featured, and his humor and personality alone are worth the cost many times over.

In other news, I'm a terrible cyclist. Everyone has told me that to get faster, I need to take time off. I.e. ride hard, then either take a day off or at the very least ride "easy". Well, when the weather's nice and I have time I can't not ride. And if I'm on a bike, I can't not attempt to go faster. If you're not breathing hard, heart pounding and legs burning, what's the point? Some kind of psychological issue, most likely. Oh, well, what can you do?

Watch out for that...

Thunderstorm!

So I was out pedaling around for a couple hours after work, and an ominous cloud appeared on the horizon. Looked like it was going to the north, so I pedaled on. Then the wind picked up, which provided some excellent exercise. Then the temperature dropped about 10 degrees between one pedal stroke and the next. At that point I headed for home. Wise choice as not 10 minutes later there were some powerful-looking lightning bolts maybe 4 miles away.

Just checked the radar; yep giant red storm, very southern tip of it just passing barely to the north. But another big red storm with Chesterfield square in its sights right behind. In fact I think it just starting raining...

Dodged another one!

Progress report

Ah...final victory over the new Trek. As you may recall, the drivetrain has been bugging me. I got it all tuned in, and it shifted flawlessly. Except for what I considered to be excessive noise. I considered maybe it was the new 10-speed, or the giant carbon tubes. Being me, I was unable to leave it alone. Turns out the b-tension adjustment was off. I figure it must have loosened itself at some point. SRAM specifies a 6mm gap between the largest cog and the first pulley. I set it. BAM! Still makes a little noise, but it's what I'd consider normal for a bicycle. Sounds goooood. Now I can ride without the constant distraction of a clickety-clackety drivetrain. It's the simple pleasures that keep me going.

In other news, my fitness is improving. I find myself seeking out hills, rather than shying away from them or slogging dejectedly up them. It's good to have enough power and fitness to go up a hill in a reasonable gear at a decent cadence rather than grinding up at 30rpm, panting and struggling for every meter. Of course, living in the bottom of a valley, with only 10% climbs in every direction, does help. Every time I step out the front door I have no choice but to climb my way to freedom on the open road.

And as always, watch the Tour! Today was a fantastic stage, Contador leaping to the assault. This weekend is sure to be entertaining.

Ahead of the curve...?

So, I was browsing the Trek Project One site today, checking out the new Madone. Interestingly, they've dropped metallic orange from the color options. Lucky me, that's the color of my bike. I might have to investigate, and see if I own the only Madone in that color...collectible? Maybe that's why the initial paint was butchered...it was their first and last attempt at painting with that color.

Apparently I am attracted to bizarre items. In addition to my discontinued color (after one year!) bicycle, I am one of a small handful of manual-transmission Subaru Legacy GT wagon (Super Wagon!) owners. Also only offered for sale for one year. What's not to like? 250 rage-fueled turbocharger-boosted horsepower, wagon utility, all-wheel-drive, sporty handling! Not to mention ravishing good looks.

I'm either way ahead of the curve...or several decades behind. Burnt orange, anyone?

Are you watching the Tour de France?

You should be. Today's stage was incredible. Columbia-HTC was chasing down a random breakaway, when a turn in the road and ferocious crosswinds provided an opportunity. They took it, and gapped the main field. Who should happen to be in the right place to go with them? Lance Armstrong and Fabian Cancellara, that's who! The 29-person group stayed away to the finish, with Cavendish and Hushovd duking it out for the sprint finish. Cavendish won in an impressive double-kick effort.

Post-race interviews were great. Cav accused the rest of the field of being junior racers..."you want to race like juniors, you get junior results." Gutsy, but he is undeniably the best sprinter in the world at the moment. Even Lance got a little riled up. Alberto Contador did not make the break, so Lance leapfrogged him on GC. Asked about this, Lance responds "It doesn't take a genius to know in that wind, with a turn coming up, you need to be up front." Ouch. The Astana team table was probably an...interesting...place to be tonight!

Progress

Today I managed to go up the Wirth climb at Babler with a tiny shred of dignity. Instead of my previous lumbering, struggling, grinding ascents I managed to stand and turn a decent cadence up 3/4 of it, then sit and turn a slightly mashing cadence over the crest. But I didn't blow up, and it didn't turn into a slog-fest.

I guess what they say is true, to build strength you should climb ridiculously steep hills.

Oh, and the baffling "mystery" of excessive calf usage as a result of seat scooching is over. The kind folks at Ghisallo (thanks Devlin!) pointed out that by moving the saddle back, I've also increased the distance from saddle to pedals. My feet were reaching for the pedals too much. Dropped the seat 3mm (trigonometry!) and voila, problem solved!

Still tearing my legs off

Yep, still going at it. Yesterday I met two MS150 veterans, Mike D. and John S. at Babler Park for some good old-fashioned hill-thrashing. Two hours and ~30 miles later, my legs were toast. Actually not completely toast (like the Wildwood Death Ride), but nicely fatigued. I even "attacked" if you can call it that. Not so much attacking my riding buddy, but the gentle roller that had the temerity to appear in front of us. I went at it with the big ring and am happy to say I crested the subtle rise and powered over the top without exploding. One of those "last hurrah" sprints as a ride draws to its conclusion. I do that, it's weird. I suppose since I stealthily (?) upshifted and jumped from behind you could vaguely call it an "attack". Announcing my intentions probably nullified any "attack"-iness, though. That and the general lack of velocity.

I scooched my saddle back about 5mm to eliminate some big-gear front-of-knee pain -which worked - but now my calves seem to be doing a lot more work. Baffling.