Reflecting

This year's TdF did not disappoint. Although there were very few Americans competing, the TdF proved that cycling and the event belongs to those who ride clean. There are a few riders that I follow, one being George Hincapie. He is a work horse who gets on his bike and does his job, all the while having fun. Here is a typical George picture. It's all done. He is taking his brief case and he's going home - on his bike!

Thanks to velonews.com for the pic. Thanks George for the smiles, crazy glasses, and for being a true professional with high ethical and moral standards.

Cassandra

I got up early this morning to get ready to go to Ward Council, as I am eating breakfast, my phone rings. JD is calling me from the Champs Elysees, the final circuit of the TdF. In talking with him, he mentioned that he had stood road side at the Tour of California and that there is no comparison with TdF. The air in Paris was electric and crazy. TdF sponsors drove by throwing hats, shirts, and other items to the fans. The riders had not arrived yet but the anticipation was palpable. Thanks JD for taking the time to bring me in to the final stage of TdF.

Craig asked me about a week ago while a rider needs a team at TdF. I tried to explain it to him but finally said "let's watch." Team CSC showed why a team is needed as they put a hurting on the other contenders through the domestique's high tempo and punishing rides. By the time the final time trial came along, Evans and Menchov had nothing left. If this had been the first week of the Tour, Evans pulls back Sastre. Due to the pain that the riders of CSC inflicted, Cadel did not have a chance although I hoped he could. Congrats to Team CSC on the excellent TdF win. Cycling really is a team sport.

Speaking of a team sport, the Chilly C Cycling team rode out from Laurelwood on Saturday morning for a spin around Hagg Lake. The ride did not disappoint. We saw several deer, running along the side of the road. The lake and surrounding scenery was beautiful. Cas and I did some hill work, pushing the tempo hard up the hill and cruising down the back side of them. The C did well also, especially after the bike change. We rolled back to Laurelwood after 28 miles of the Oregon countryside. Cas and I decided to ride the 18 miles back home. She learned a little about drafting and paceline riding and we made it back in an hour. Not bad for a 13 year old and her third real ride. Nice! She did get tired on the last bit of rollers into Newberg but we got it done. All told we did 46 miles. We will be ready for the Tour de Stake in mid-August. I am excited to maybe have another cyclist in the family. Craig is next then we will have four. He is already showing interest. Yes!

For me, I rode 116 miles. This next week will be tough with girls camp. But, I'll figure out a way to get in the miles.

Timing

Stage 20 of the TdF is tomorrow. It will be epic. I have watched ever stage so far and am enthralled by the passion, pain, and pageantry of the event. All these days of racing come down to 53 km in the race of truth - the individual time trial. After almost 75 hours of riding, the top 5 cyclists are separated by less than three minutes. Wow! I will be watching tomorrow morning pulling for Cadel and Christian. It all comes down to who can put pain aside and ride for the maillot jaune. Timing by Festina.

I rode my own time trial this week, although a bit shorter - the 10.3 miles home. I clocked my fastest time yet at 28 minutes, 35 seconds at a blazing 21 MPH. I beat my own personal best by over 5 minutes on the same route. I was motivated and it hurt but a good kind of hurt.

It has been a quiet week of riding so far with lots of TdF time. My thoughts are with my STP buddy this weekend. I will be watching for JD on the streets of Paris on Sunday. "Yo", a quick shout out to the race and pour some Gatorade on the streets of the Champs-Elysees for me.

Anniversary

4 years and 40 pounds ago, my father brought to me this idea of riding a bike for fitness. I have been hooked on riding the bike ever since. Granted, I have watched and followed the TdF since watching Live on Sky TV in Germany, Greg LeMond's improbable pulling back of 54 seconds in the 1989 edition. Impressive it was to watch!

As I sat and rode today, I thought back on many of the rides I have done, recalling good, bad, and ugly. Last week, when JD and I rode, we talked frequently about going back to SA and putting in some miles there to compare with what we have ridden since. The 211 loop with its hills, the scenic loop hill, Bandera road, and other rides that we did would probably be bumps or rollers rather than hills when comparing them to rides like the Col de Hamilton or the Rock Shop climb or Bald Peak. It is nice to have had to opportunity to ride such incredible rides over some beautiful landscape.

As for this week's riding, I got back on the bike on Monday to ride into work. Thought I'd show how tough I was and do some climbing. Well, the hills fought back this time. I am riding up to the green house on Krueger, legs screaming at me, letting me now that they did not approve of this pain. I had to get home so I kept pedaling. A few times I thought about calling the SAG, but my pride overcame me. The 25 miles on Monday hurt so I didn't ride till Thursday. The legs felt better but still not quite recovered. Today was 57+ miles. Of which, 22 were with the Chilly C Cycling Team or the Triple C Team. They want to ride in the Tour de Stake so I need to get them into shape. It was good easy pedaling after a morning of hard intervals. At the same time, I love to have company and this was awesome to have them with me. All told, 107+ miles this week.

Update on Goals: YTD miles: 3329 (definitely more than last year); 204 pounds (9 more to go). I am on my way to reaching both. Next target: Tour of Tucson in November - less than 6.

See you on the road!

Vacation

Let me describe my typical day while I have been on vacation - wake up early, watch the TdF, eat some breakfast, ride for a few hours, and then go sight seeing or other family activities. Perfect! What made it even better was having the Hogg here to hang with and to do all these things with - nice!

We put in 100 miles before we even hit the road on Saturday for the STP's 204. Some of the week's highlights include getting up Bald Peak in record time, just over 37 minutes, riding new local routes, and having a King Dog.

The STP started early for us as we rolled out of bed at 4 AM and onto the road by 4:30 AM to get to the start line to meet with the rest of the Newberg riders. At about 4:50 AM we rolled across the start line at the University of Washington. It was a beautiful start to the ride, clear skies, 60 degree weather, around Lake Washington with the sun hitting the peaks of Mt. Rainier. It was breath-taking. While enjoying the ride, we were doing some work with the group from Newberg, At one point, while talking about Scouts, two of us mislead about 200 riders. Luckily, a few noticed and quickly got us back on track. We pounded out the first 100 in six hours total time. The second 100 took a bit longer but we got into Portland a little after 6 PM. This was the fastest in total time that I had ever ridden the STP. I had bettered my ride time by only 20 minutes but the impact of all the training rides is that I did not suffer like I had previously. So many times I was thankful for all of the riding I had been able to do prior to the STP. I didn't get the hollow leg feeling or the total body ache of previous rides. This was very encouraging. We had a plan and we worked the plan to perfection.

In retrospect, we could have been a bit faster on total time. We spent some extra time at a few of the rest stops that we could have cut down. I figure we could have been at least an hour sooner if not more. Now we have the recipe, next year means we can only make it faster than this year.

I appreciate all the help and support of my family and friends that they gave before/during/after the ride. I could not have done it without you. Thanks!! A special thanks to the Hogg and his family for hanging with us - it was great!

All told for the week - 304+ miles, over 400 ridden with the Hogg.

Off the mountain

The Tour de France has several mountain top stage finishes. Ever wonder how they get off the mountain - they ride. Can you imagine putting in some 100+ grueling miles up and over several climbs and then having to get back on the bike to ride down to the team bus? The ride down is not alone either, it is with all the fans and recreational cyclists who previously had lined the route up the mountain.

Here is an excerpt from Will Frishkorn's (of Team Garmin-Chipotle who is competing in the TdF) blog and his experience riding down the mountain.

"The craziest part of the day by far however was coming down off the finish hill. When we hit the top we had warm clothes and a bit of food waiting. After a quick hit of calories and quickly bundling up we headed back down 15k to the team parking. Unreal! The crowds that made the entire climb almost unbearably loud were all moving the same direction and it was complete mayhem; thousands of people on foot, bicycle, motorbikes, and a few cars sneaking in as well. Every few corners there would be cops signaling to slow down and yelling "accident!!" and sure enough there would be a few people smashed together off in a ditch. it looked like one of the Milram guys got tangled up in one, but mainly just spectators. None the less, scary ... and with the mind already pretty numb it was that much harder. Amazing though to see how many people were out turning the day into one huge party. Makes all the suffering that much easier for sure."

Feasting

It has been a fun last couple of days with a bit of riding mixed in. On Thursday afternoon, we fought the holiday traffic and rolled up to Tacoma to watch the Rainers game and fireworks with my brothers, OB12OLD, and my Louisiana nephews. We had a great time just being boys - you know, throwing stuff, yelling random comments, and just being annoying overall. The fireworks were great, the kids loved them.

The 4th was spent just hanging out at a memorial breakfast, eating some incredible BBQ (Thanks 2OLD for the ribs), playing some football at the park, and reading. Thanks for my mom for having us all at the house and be patient with all of the kids and as always, the great food. Although I never lived in that house, it does feel like home because she is there.

After leaving around 6 PM, we headed to the airport and meet the Dunfords. Quite exciting for all - they are here.

We got up Saturday and tuned into the Tour. Yes, it started. Valverde put on a show at the finish. I believe he was trying to send a message to the peleton that the Dauphine was no fluke. I am leary of his ability to finish the Tour. Three weeks is a long time. Cadel's face at the finish kind of told it all - "I am going to have to work hard."

JD and I put in a metric century and a half - 97 miles of fun around the Willamette Valley - North Valley, Haag Lake, Yamhill, Carlton, Lafayette, Hopewell, Wheatland Ferry, St. Paul (let's rodeo), and back to Newberg. The weather cooperated with us - it was a cool 72 degrees with cloud cover all day. It was good to be riding with JD.

Overall, 150+ miles this week - with one week to go to STP. We'll probably ride a bit more than the schedule this week but also allow plenty of time to recover. It would be nice to have a 300 mile week!

Fantasy

Yes, even the TdF has a fantasy league - courtesy of Performance Bike.

My team is as follows:

Overall GC contender: Cadel Evans of Silence-Lotto, Kim Kirchen of Team Columbia

Sprinters: Oscar Freire of Rabobank, Mark Cavendish of Team Columbia, Robbie Hunter of Barloworld

Climbers: Andy Schleck of Team CSC, Manual Beltran of Liquigas

Support: Stijn Devolder of Quick-Step, Danny Pate of Garmin-Chipotle

I took a few more sprinters since there are more flat stages than mountain stages. Cadel is in good form and showed well at the Dauphine. It is his year to shine.

It all starts this Saturday, 7/5 - Stage 1: BREST TO PLUMELEC, 195 km. No prologue, just racing! Let 'em ride....