Did the group ride tonight. I managed to finish in the group. That was one of my goals for the year. I was following wheels and hanging on for dear life. I almost got sawed off a couple of times, but managed to stay on. I think that was largely an act of will. That said, I got lucky. There was close to zero wind, it was relatively cool (80F or so), and we went the flat way. The above image is the download from my heart rate monitor. Fortunately, we only climbed 500 feet in the 48 miles. My average heart rate for the 2 hours was 136 with a peak of 159. Can you say ouch?
Wow... another blog hiatus. That must mean, I've had way to much other stuff going on. Let's see... I managed to survive RAGBRAI. It was a good one. I had lots of fun, as always.
The most fun occurred on the day out of Indianola. I rolled over to where the ShortBus was ensconced around 0730. Hung out and helped them break camp and get on the road about 0830. That consisted of a roll over to some local breakfast emporium that had a most lovely breakfast and several large screen tellys so we could watch Le Tour as we digested and sipped coffee. Then around 1045, it was a leisurely 20 mile roll to Milo, Iowa.
In Milo, there was a kick ass band playing, Crooked Mile. We got there with a little bit left in their first set and then hung out through their second. Lots of fun. This was the best band on RAGBRAI. We apparently didn't get there early enough to watch my dear friend Ms. Bets from the Whiners have them take the "Whiner Goddess Bitch" oath. I did see that on video over on Facebook.
Not much else of note to report. The best news is that my legs seem to have shown up. I haven't been going this well in ages. I'm hoping to be able to ride this peak through Cycle Oregon in mid September.
In the yoga world, Tapas had Sara Strother back for another workshop. That was good. I wasn't anywhere close to as wrung out as the last one (probably because this one was only an hour and a half long). Learned an interesting way to enter into Standing Hand to Big Toe (Utthita Hasta Padangustasana). Today's led Primary series class had me in full rain mode. Wow... was I sweating... check that... raining.
My friend and next door neighbor in the blog-o-sphere in McSmithlyville posted a link on Facebook to the most frighten yoga video ever. Not sure I should post it, but hey... it's the InterTubes
Well... "America's Team As Presented by Kazakhstan", a.k.a. Astana is looking really good right now. The other teams needed to get one of them into The Jersey to force them to work on these flat stages. Now all of Astana'a droids are all well rested for the fun and games that begins tomorrow.
Former Tour winner, Bernard Hinault has an interview up over at VeloNews. I like his take on Le Tour and Lance boy. Here's are a couple of quotes:
VN: What do you make of the Armstrong return?
BH: Pfft … I couldn’t care less in the end. It’s not my problem.
VN: Don’t you think it’s impressive that he’s been able to return to the top level after being away from the sport for three years?
BH: But what is his motive for coming back? Is it to win? To fight cancer, or something else in the future? To one day be the governor of Texas? I think at this moment, the Tour serves him more than what he serves the Tour.
We stopped at Arnold's Bike Shop in Thompson, Illinois on the Saturday leg of the Cedar Valley Nature Tour - Re-located. I scored a Zefal HPX frame pump there for fifteen bucks. We all bought one. These are the best frame pumps ever made. Sadly, they are out of production.
I also "test rode" a new bike. I don't think that I'll be riding this one on RAGBRAI this year.
Who says those librarians don't know how to have fun? The daughter went to the American Library Association meeting in Chicagoland this weekend. She's hoping to catch the Book Cart World Championships. Here's a clip from last year:
Well... I am now fully in the grip of that annual madness known as Le Tour. So far it's been a good one and it really starts to hot up tomorrow on stage 7. It's a lovely little 224 km from Barcelona to the ski station at Arcalis in the tiny Principality of Andorra. The last 10.6 km of the stage is at an average grade of 7.1%. Can you say ouch?
I have to give major props to the Shimano-Skil team. They are rocking Le Tour old school. They been sending riders in the breaks, working at the front, trying to get their sprinter to the line. It's the way it should be ridden.
Speaking of old school... I will admit, I didn't realize that this team still in existence. I was smiling when I saw those jerseys. I was remembering back to the old days, when Sean Kelly was in the red and white stripes. Now there was one of the iron men of the road.
Here's the definitive picture of him. It's from the podium of 1984's Liege Bastogne Liege. Be amazed...
Well... Another week has gone by. Did a quick trip down to the St. Louis area for the 4th. A good trip. The drive was nice and boring, just like I like it. I actually made it over to the gym that was close to the hotel to ride a spin class so I could keep the legs working. It was pretty good, but I really don't care for the bikes they had. That said, it was a massive drip fest.
I'm now starting to get into RAGBY mode. I have to seal the floor of the tent and the ground sheet, but the magic stuff showed up a couple of days ago. Then it's find a few things here and there and start stuffing it into bags.
I plan to put the Ti beer wrench pictured above to good use with the folks from The Bus during the week. It will be nice to see everyone again. I find it interesting that since I started doing RAGBRAI, I've made a number of good friends that I see once a year. That's the best part of the ride.
Also... The 2009 edition of the Tour de France. I'm somewhat bummed that Jason McCartney didn't make the Saxo Bank Tour team. I would have loved to see Jason and Jens sitting on the front of the field and shredding it to pieces. There are a number of interesting twists to this year's race. The Team Time Trial (TTT) is back, but with time losses unlimited. Also, there are no time bonuses at the end of stages. I'm really hoping that someone other than Lance Boy wins. It will be very interesting to see how Astana manages to get four potential TdF winners making a team effort.
