I’ve received a few emails about why I thought the Benton Park course at the Gateway Cup was good. I’ve thought about it a bit and there are lots of reasons I liked the course.

First and foremost, it was fun. And just because it was fun for me, doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone that raced the course had fun. It was fun for me because it kept me on my toes. There are not that many criteriums, and way less road races, that make you keep your eye on the ball constantly. That is one reason that I enjoy racing ‘cross and MTB’s. During those races, your mind is constantly working to stay ahead of your progress. When your thoughts get behind your forward progress, that is when disaster normally strikes. And this course was a thinking course.

There were 10 corners on the course that came at unexpected times. I can’t think of a race that I’ve done recently that had two corners so close together. The right/left combination on the backside was a blast and made you set up your position quite a bit earlier than you would have thought. The road surface itself wasn’t that great. They had done an excellent job of marking the areas of concern, but that still came into play. The random potholes and manhole covers in the corners just added to the race, ATMO. I liked coming out of the final corner in line and having to decide whether to just follow the wheel ahead of me into the line of orange marked holes, or take my own line and be out in the wind. But, the technical aspect of the corner wasn’t the only thing that made it good.

The ambiance surrounding the race and the neighborhood was great also. The small commercial areas we raced through were unexpected, mixed in with the old houses and huge brewery. The start finish area was perfect. A park for kids and dogs. A 24 hour coffee shop/bar. Nothing missing there. And the music on the backside was a little scary, annoying at first, but then was something to look forward to later on as you got used to it.

If you look at the composition of the winning break, those 7 guys were probably the best for the weekend. It was missing a couple strong guys that missed it and were in the field, but not one rider up there wasn’t a strong bike rider. It is rare that a course selects such a break without having a monstrous hill on it. Or something of the sort. Of course, it wasn’t only the course made that selection, but it was impossible for someone to be in that break that didn’t have the goods upfront. It was too hard of a course not to be riding at the front of the field. And it was impossible to make the selection if you were riding more than 20 guys back.

This course was perfect for the size and quality of field that they had at the PRO race at Gateway. This course was safe, even thought the road condition might of seemed to point otherwise. Having to ride single file makes the races much more safe. The size and quality of the field does matter considerably when judging whether a course was good on any given day. In cycling, the best/stronger guy doesn’t necessarily always win. But, a good bike race course helps make the sport more fair.

A lot of guys came up to me at St. Louis and started talking to me about the post about HVAC/heating making people fat/skinny, from a while back. It sort of amazes me how many people are really interested in the topic. The movie “Super Size Me” came up in conversation more than once.

I kind of have a rant about that movie that I’ll share –

First of all, it was totally unfair to McDonald’s. The movie was about gluttony, plain and simple. I’ll challenge any person to try to eat those quantities of calories and not do serious damage to their system. And you can eat anything you want. As healthy as you like. You just have to overeat by nearly 4000 calories a day. That would be more than double, maybe triple, your caloric intake a day, for a month straight. Or around 3 weeks, if you’re the guy from the movie. Can you imagine having to eat Thanksgiving dinner 3 times a day for 3 weeks. And that might not be enough eating to satisfy the amount you need to eat to gain weight like the guy in the movie. He gained over a pound of fat a day. Overeating is not good for you. It is that simple. Overeating 3 meals a day is really bad. It is that simple.

But, eating at McDonalds 3 meals a day, for a month wouldn’t necessarily be that bad for you. Even if you did it like the rules of the movie, minus the overeating part. If you just ate everything on the menu in rotation, but with normal caloric intake, you would be fine. I eat at McDonalds a fair amount. When I’m racing, I probably eat breakfast at McDonalds at least 20% of the time. The main reason is a time consideration. When there is no time consideration, I go elsewhere. But McDonalds does has a predictable menu for breakfast. I order hotcakes only and a side of scrambled eggs. Sometimes I get milk, sometimes hot tea. That is it. It works.

I ate breakfast at McDonalds virtually everyday last winter when I was roofing my building. That was for two months straight. I was there at 6 am, with all the old guys in farmer’s ball caps, drinking their senior coffee. I usually got hotcakes, but when it was going to be cold out and I knew I wasn’t going to be eating lunch ’til late, I’d order the whole big breakfast with hotcakes. Originally I was giving the sausage to Bromont, but eventually I ended up eating everything they gave me. Including what they call hash browns. I didn’t even like them-not the taste nor the consistency, but I ate them anyway. And I lost nearly 10 pounds during that time. Eating nearly the worst food I’d eaten since I was a teenager, I lost more than a healthy amount of weight. I know that wasn’t the reason for the weight loss, but you can’t say that eating out at a fast food place makes you obese.

Now, the only time I eat at McDonalds, other than breakfast, is when I’m driving home late and Bromont wants for a plain hamburger. He gets a plain hamburger and I do sometimes. And sometimes a chocolate sundae, sans nuts. And hot tea usually. There is no doubt about it that the food tastes good, but I just don’t eat it much. Other than McDonalds, I have no idea what the other hamburger/fast food places serve, so I don’t really have much of an opinion about them.

I’ve seen some pretty great cyclists eat a horrible diet and have stellar results. Don Myrah for example. When he was beating up all the MTB riders and winning Cyclo-X Nationals, he ate food that would make the guy from Super Size Me looks like his vegan girlfriend. I saw him and his brother polish off a 9 X 13 cake pan of layer bars. You know the things with a graham cracker crust, with chocolate and butterscotch chips covered in sweeten milk and coconut and then baked. They fill you up like cheese cake. If I eat more than a couple small pieces I feel like shit. And they ate 1/2 a pan each and were still moving normally. And that was normal for them. And he rode great.

So, back to the theme. The movie was unjust. And you get fat when you eat too much. By too much I mean too many calories. As cyclist, we get to eat a ton of food. That is a definite plus. But, we also need some more vitamins and minerals. But, not as many as you think. So, we can indulge ourselves, on a daily basis, if desired, with whatever extra calories we want. As long as you eat a basic healthy diet for starters, don’t worry so much about the content of the extra. But, make sure it isn’t just extra. That is what is going to make you fat.

Eat too many of these and you'll end up looking like the guy below.