Two Wheel Blogs

Yesterday I had the pleasure of working as an official at the inaugural Tour de Grove in (where else but) the Grove section of St. Louis. Now, I wasn't one of the officials who spent their day in the shaded and sheltered start/finish area. I was the lowly official set off to the back side of the course to man pit #2.

Today I pulled up my training schedule and saw that I was scheduled to do a sprint workout. Granted, I was supposed to work on form more than substance, but once I saw the radar, I decided I was jumping into the Tilles crit 4/5 race. I did this race last year and got 16th place and felt it would another good gauge of my fitness. Considering I haven't done any real explosive, high-intensity work I was a little more than apprehensive at the start.

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

I had a peak at my upcoming calendar today and realized it's pretty full between now and the end of the month. Counting it all up, there are 2 crits and 5 separate TT's.

That set off a bit of a panic, because it was only yesterday that I began training in the TT position. I might have to race myself into being comfortable on my TT bike.

Oh but wait, can you ever be really comfortable on a TT bike?

This is pretty cool for anyone who races and understands, or wants to better understand, the power requirements of a criterium bicycle race. Team Clif Bar Midwest created a criterium video shot from a handlebar mounted camera. What's so cool about it is they overlaid it with the PowerTap power meter file, synchronized with the race.

The video runs a little over 9 minutes from start to finish. But unlike most internet videos you see, this one seems like it's over before it starts. It's exciting to watch. Kraftwerk's a decent choice of music too. The only real drawback is internet resolution doesn't let you see the criterium powertap file better.

Sorry Chris. I know, I know. I said I was taking this one for your blog but when I got it home and found it was about the only decent one I took all day I had to hog it for myself.

Go ahead and steal it if you want to. You deserve it, because I sort of promised it to you. BTW, you looked good out there today. And your bike too... Very nice.