Yesterday was the 3rd day in a row with the temperatures near record highs here in Kansas. It is such a treat not wearing anything over my knees at the end of January. Yesterday and the day before, the high was nearly 70. Needless to say, I got a fair number of hours in on my bike. I got a new Garmin for Christmas and I have close to 1100 miles on it now. That is with not having it on my bike for the whole time I was in Madison for Cross Nationals, plus Worlds in Louisville, plus the 5 days I took off roofing. So, I have about 20 recorded days on the thing. Today I rode 100 miles and felt pretty good. Great, maybe, for this time of the year. I guess I haven’t really taken any time off, not a block at least, so maybe that’s the explanation. I think I’ll stay fit until the first of March and then rest some in March and April. Those are kind of down months here in the Midwest

Speaking of Garmins, it seems like some of the numbers are just made up. Like the calories. Yesterday it said I expended 6200 calories. I have no idea how it generates that number. It doesn’t even know how windy it is. And it was pretty windy. I think I need to get something that sends power/wattage to the Garmin sometime soon. I was sort of waiting for the pedals that Garmin is making, but I don’t know. I’ve been doing this pretty long without that gadget, but it might be fun to see the numbers. Especially since the Garmin unit separates each legs power.

Yesterday too was a milestone here on my website. It was the first month that I’ve had over 100,000 views. It was 103 thousand and change officially. I don’t have anything to compare that too, but it is a round number, so it caught my attention. So for everyday in January, about once every 25 seconds someone clicked here. That is for 24 hours a day. If we factor in the time people sleep, then it’s one every 17 seconds. It seems like a lot to me, but like I said above, I don’t have anything to compare it to.

Okay, I’m going to ride on gravel today. Hopefully 4 hours or so. I’m looking for a race to do soon. Hopefully this weekend.

Bill and Adam riding South of Lawrence.

I love these stand alone trees that make the cut and mature along the edges of the fields.

We rode gravel for a few miles on the Rver Road, on the way back, to try to get out of the wind some.

Garmin view of my ride yesterday.

Stats

I’m flying to California tomorrow. There is a road race on Saturday, the kick off to the Southern California road season. I was looking at the event flyer and was a little worried about it being a little too hot for me. Sometimes inland in Southern California can be a little toasty. Like in November when I did a cross race at 90 degrees. But, then I saw the event flyer. Here is the rules section-

Rules: Race runs rain or shine. All USCF and NCCA rules apply. Riders must wear helmets at all times. Course is open to
traffic; obey all traffic regulations. Centerline rule is strictly enforced. Littering on the course is prohibited. You will get no
warning—you will be disqualified and fined by the CHP on your first offense. “Appropriate clothing policy”: if a rider does
not have appropriate gear suited to the cold weather, then they will not be allowed to start.

I thought, wow, they must think it is going to be cold and, wow, a clothing rule. I’ve nearly never ran into an “appropriate clothing policy”. Is a policy a rule? Anyway, I’m wondering who decides what appropriate clothing actually is. Is there a cycling official Maitre d’ that makes sure you have the right clothing on? I don’t get it. I don’t really understand it. Maybe they’ve had a problem with all these LA and San Diego guys showing up at 4000 ft. in January and getting caught it a snow storm?

The only other time I’ve been associated with anything near this is at The Tour of Southland, in Invercargill, New Zealand. There was a TTT for the prologue and when we pulled up to start, the UCI commissaire, who was from Japan, told us to take our knee warmers off. This was 1 minute before our start. He didn’t speak English and we didn’t really understand what he was talking about. It was in the 40’s. So, we frantically ripped our knee warmers off and barely made the start.

After the race, I asked our team manager what that was all about. He went and talked to the commissaire and the next day he brought me a printout in English that explained there was a UCI rule that addressed clothing extending below your knees. Mainly concerning aerodynamics. A couple stages later there was a time trial. I had flatted the day before and got a crummy wheel change, so I was pretty much out of GC. So I was going to roll the time trial. It was barely 50, so I had on knee warmers and a long sleeve jersey. Going to the starting ramp, the UCI guy stopped me and told me it wasn’t cold enough to wear knee warmers. In sign language since he didn’t speak any English. So I just took my knee warmer and folded them up over my knees, to abide by the official rule. He didn’t think that was too funny and there was no way he was going to let me start in inappropriate clothing. So, I scrambled once again, not that it really mattered, took off my knee warmers and rode the TT at 20 mph.

Seriously here, I don’t think it is anyone’s business, other than the rider, how much clothing a rider wears when he is racing. If this appropriate clothing rule would be enforce in cross, I wouldn’t have been able to start the last few National Championships in shorts. I usually don’t like anything over my knees. I’ve been training down to around 50 degrees bare legged recently. But, there are tons of guys that wear leg warmers over 60. To each his own. It is ludicrous to think that someone other that the racer themselves should decide on the appropriate clothing.

I don’t think it is going to be an issue on Saturday. The temperature is supposed to be in the mid 70’s in San Diego. I can’t image that it could be that much cooler at 4000 ft. altitude.

Since we’re on the subject of cycling clothing, The Clymb has a bunch of Craft cycling stuff on sale that seems pretty cheap. Here is the link, you have to sign in to view, but it’s not a long procedure.

Pretty wouldn't be able to start in San Diego?

Kevin Pauwels probably couldn't be wearing these in New Zealand.