Tour of St. Louis wrap up and todays ride

It was great being home and seeing all the The Hub riders out in full force over the weekend. Not to mention the new faces of Hub riders I met over the weekend. I do not feel like going into detail about the races but the quick and dirty is I'm in shape and rode strong on both days. Big thing I need to work on is last lap positioning and staying patient. Sunday I tried leading out Bryan but I exploded a little bit to soon. Bryan still managed to get 7th place though. I'm very excited now to get back to StL so I can race more frequently because this weekend really definitely reignited the flame in me. Not sure what race I'll be back for in May but I can tell you I'm counting down the days and training that much harder to come back and be that much stronger.



For the ride today I thought I would just cruise around town but with the weather being a pleasant 87 degrees I put a nice ride in with a moderate climb. I did notice some differences when I returned to my bike here. My SCOTT in StL has a longer stem thus stretching me out more. I'm going to shorten the stem on the Scott because I like being a bit more compact on the bike.

Ready...... set..... Go

Getting ready to head back St. Louis and fortunately the winds were in my favor this morning as I was able to get 26 miles in before I head up to LAX. I beat my previous time by a minute, plus. I don't have time to look at any data but I definitely felt good today. We'll see that I can do this weekend. I'm really excited for the Time Trial. I've never done one but with my current training it would seem I should put a good number. Meet Me in St. LOUIE!!!

Lunch time Rolling

In an effort to beat the wind if you will I decided to ride at lunch instead of when I got off work because the winds tend to pick up as the day goes on here. My theory almost proved true but I still head a pretty nice head wind much of the ride. It wasn't terribly bad but boy what would I give for a ride with ZERO wind. Overall though it was a very good ride, I beat the Virtual me on the Garmin by a few seconds. So that was a good accomplishment for the day, I was starting to think I couldn't beat that time. I would like to get one more ride in before I fly back to St.Louis. I may try the lunch time "Wagon Wheel" ride here on Wednesday. It's a 21 mile let it all hang out ride that people do here weekly. I have yet to do it this year, but last year when I did do this ride I was spit off back after the first ascent. We'll see though, have to make sure I can leave work for a few hours first.

Weather man was right

Weather man called for wind gusting 25-35 mph and that is exactly what it has been doing the past 2 days. He's calling for winds 10-20mph for the next few days. I should be able to get out in that. Plan on getting at least one more ride here before I return to StL for the Tour of St.Louis.

The Ride

Rode the usual 26 mile loop. Nice but really just to windy. I mean I guess I'd rather have 75 degrees and windy versus rainy weather but I really am tired of riding in the wind. Only for a few miles was the wind not a factor today. This was also the second ride on the new wheels. On the ascent out I again felt like the wheels were a definite disadvantage, but on the flats where the wind was not pounding me I could feel the advantage of them. Forecast is calling for 25-35 mph winds the rest of the weekend so I will probably hit the trainer.

The maiden Voyage

It has been windy here the past 2 days, so much that I wouldn't think of riding a bike. Today the winds died down enough that I took my new wheels on there maiden voyage. I got them yesterday and took them to the shop so they could put my cassette and the new hub on. Once that was done I struggled at putting my tires and tubes on. Really caught me off guard at how much I struggled to get them both on. So by the time I was ready to ride I wasn't in the best of moods. One other thing is putting air in them is not elementary either. Finally set out on the ride and could immediately notice how stiff the wheels are. Going up the ascent I felt like I was riding with bricks on each wheel, so no climbing benefit for me. The wheels performed well though on the flats and once spun up it was easy keeping the speed up. I use speed loosely speaking because on the entire ride I had a headwind which didn't make for a pleasant ride. I was around 3 minutes off my best time on the loop, so the pursuit to beat that time is still on.

Wheels:
2007 Spinergy Stealth SS
1699g per set
black/white spokes

Fifty Plus, on Sunday

Today met up at the Sho N Go ride. Road 58.64 miles and a total of 2,105 feet of climbing. I did get dropped briefly on one of the final climbs, I wasn't exactly at bonking point but I knew we still had 20 miles left and wanted have something left for rest of the ride.




My new wheels should be here sometime this week!!! They had a campy hub in them so I ordered a Shimano compatible hub from Spinergy that arrived last Thursday. So once the wheels arrive I'll have that swapped out and then I'm rolling. stay tuned

Saturday on the Slopes

Spent today skiing at Mammoth Mountain. Riding the bike manana.

Thursday rolling

Set out on the usual 26 mile ride. Not to much wind today. I used the virtual partner again to race against the virtual me. I didn't feel like a had much for the ascent out so the virtual me left me in the dust. For the most of the ride I couldn't see the virtual me (VM). Finally I brought the VM back into site and managed to come pretty close to beating the VM. Although I felt weak on the climb I was able to make up time on the flats by just staying at a steady pace. All in all not a bad ride and only 55 secs off my other time.

GO OUT and VOTE!!!!!!

Ok so I'm not talking about the upcoming Presidential race folks. I'm talking about the Miss USA pageant coming up this weekend April 11 in Las Vegas. Now why would I care about some silly pageant, for the most part I still don't, but I did have the opportunity to meet our very own Miss Missouri. I was in Vegas Monday and stopped at the Planet Hollywood Hotel & Casino for lunch on the buffet. Can you guess where all 50 contestants grabbed there food from on the buffet, for those of you that answered the salad bar you are correct. Pretty amazing 50 women all eating salads and fruit when there were so many other foods to choose from. Guess with the swimsuit competition right around the corner, everyone was playing it extremely safe.




As for the ride today. Well I had been off the bike for about a week due to the vacation so I didn't want to press hard, only wanted to stretch the legs. Started out up the ascent and another cyclist turned out behind me about 100 yards back, got the feeling he was trying to catch me so goal was just not let him catch me. That was successful, next task I notice someone about 400 yards in front me,goal was to catch that guy and then really just relax the rest of the ride. I caught and past this guy then got caught in miserable head wind. Took my time by choice and cause I couldn't go much faster anyway riding into the headwind. I make my turn for the next flat 8 mile stretch and what do you know there was no wind. Seems like the legs had a mind of there own because before you know it I was cruising around between 25-30 mph. I can never usually hold that speed for to long but to my surprise I had alot in me and the speed was not tapering off....cruising at 30 mph I see 2 cyclist in front of me, one on some road bike with mountain bike handle bars and the other on a road bike. I blow past them and the guy on the normal road bike grabs my wheel and tries hanging....Not looking back at all after about 200 yards of holding my wheel he retired. When I noticed the guys shadow it definitely gave the legs some extra life even though they were already alive and moving. With that said I'm very happy with this 8 mile stretch where I was able to keep the speed at or above 25 mph.

BACK BACK on the mainland

Hawaii was great great great.....saw several cyclist cruising the scene. Definitely gave me the urge to ride but vacation is what this trip was all about. I did do some riding but it was on Harley Davidson.



Also, managed to purchase some carbon clinchers via the internet while I was in Hawaii, they should arrive sometime next week. Not really sure what to expect but I'm anxcious to get them. I have never ridden anything other my Mavic Elites, so will return to bike tomorrow assuming the winds die down here, today it was gusting at 30 mph.

ALOHA ALOHA

Taking a few days off to head to Honolulu and Waikiki Beach. Will return to the bike next week. ALOHA my friends