I was screwed up this weekend and thought that there were races close. They are next weekend. I should have just packed up the van and headed to Colorado, but I decided to ride 4 hours yesterday. I’m not sure what is in store today. I’m riding soon and then maybe heading West. Yesterday was a great day to ride bikes in Kansas. It didn’t get sunny until the afternoon and I was nearly finished by then. It never got more than the upper 80’s all day.
We’ve been without electricity since last Thursday night’s storm. It is kind of a drag, but not as much as you’d think. Not having hot tea in the morning is the main problem for me. We hooked up a super long extension cord to the next door neighbor’s generator, so we kept everything in the refrigerator from thawing. I hear it might not be until Sunday night now until it is restored. I wonder what it would be like in Bagdad or a place where you have power at just odd hours of the day and night. Nothing you can plan on. You’re ready to cook dinner and then, gone is the electricity. It would be frustrating at best. It seems kind of weird that the water and hot water are available. I know that it’s not hooked up to the electricity, but for some reason, it seems like it should not work too.
Okay, I saw that Ned finally won Mt. Washington Hillclimb outright. Man, can he pick his races. I was trying to get a hold of him before I went to Paris last month and he was in Spain eating dinner with Roberto Heras at a banquet. He finished 2nd to Tyler Hamilton once, so in my mind, he’s won the race twice now. Tinker was 2nd place. Maybe I should have went out there. Probably not. I hope I have a chance to catch up with him some next week.
We rode yesterday through a town called Burlingame. It is about 25 miles southwest of Topeka. They have the widest, most bricked street I’ve ever seen. I’ll post a photo below. It has a pretty nice downtown area for such a small town.
Okay, I’d better get dressed to ride. I think I am leaning toward heading to Colorado later this afternoon. I don’t think I’ll catch up to the Pro Challenge until Wednesday at the earliest, but you never know, I might head down to Colorado Springs to watch the prologue. The Coor’s Classic Reunion is on Thursday night in Vail at the Four Season’s and a ton of people I haven’t seen for ages are going to be there. It should be fun.
Mt. Washington Hill Climb Results
Men
1. Ned Overend, 55:03
2. Tinker Juarez, 56:14
3. Timothy Ahearn, 58:22
4. Chris Yura, 1:00:22
5. Chris Hillier, 1:01:30
MicroCat doesn't seem to be bothered by the lack of light at night. I found him rolling around on his cat tower last night.
Downtown Burlingame Kansas.
I guess my Wheaties Schwinn TT bike was on display at the banquet for the Pro Challenge last night in Colorado Springs. I don't remember riding this bike much. Maybe in the DuPont Race. Coor's Race? I don't know.
Near local, Brad Huff, gets nipped on the line by Eric Young at the US Pro Criterium Championships yesterday in Michigan.
Good on Ned!
Now I’m going to pirate the comments for a little rant; I’m sorry if that upsets anyone. As mentioned, C. Bradley Huff got second in the Pro Crit championships in Grand Rapids, MI (wasn’t Jeff Ensing from there?). At the same event was held the Elite Women Grand Cycling Classic. I’m pretty sure Grand Rapids has a big crit every year at this time. According to the CN report, there were 25 starters (and 2 DNS). 23 finished. THIS IS FOR AN $8OOO prize list!!! I don’t know whether to be angry or cry. Yes, this is a male dominated sport so we need to be supportive of women’s racing. But WTF women, YOU NEED TO GET YOUR ASSES OUT THERE AND RACE. I know there is the Aspen Pro Women’s stage race starting tomorrow, but there have got to be enough women in the upper midwest to fill the field out better than that. Women, think of the race organizer: how is he supposed to present that to a sponsor, either to show that the current sponsor got their money’s worth, or for next year when the organizer is trying to sell the race to sponsors again?
P.S. The places in the women’s race paid 20 deep.
The men’s start list for $15,000/30 places was tremendously disappointing too.
Is the message here that there are too many races going on at the same time? I can’t believe that.
I think the economy is hitting US cycling pretty hard. I have seen a drastic reduction in field size races that used to have 100 plus men now have 30. Sign of the economic times.
In Europe they have machines that lay down brick pavers for the street – here in New England they have to repave (if you’re lucky enough) every ten years – never ceases to amaze how far we are behind Europe sometimes!
http://boingboing.net/2010/11/15/brick-road-laying-ma.html
my old team put on a race for many years
women racers always complained about the inequity in the prize lists of ours & other local races. So about a decade ago we offered 1500 dollars for the men got a full field 125 riders
we offered 1000 dollars for the women and paid ten deep and got EIGHT women, no other races that day they just opted out. Every one of the eight women who did show & race apologized for the no shows. Just a sad situation. I imagine alot of promoters have similar stories
saw the last Pro XC race in Montana (womens) had like 15 riders in it?
http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/us-pro-xct-6-missoula-montana-cross-country-2/elite-women-cross-country/results
but the Men’s was not that much better, what gives? Must be a tough sell to sponsors
http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/us-pro-xct-6-missoula-montana-cross-country-2/elite-women-cross-country/results
We have a pretty long brick main street Lindsborg, KS. I used to have a Schwinn Prologue TT bike similar to the one pictured. pretty extreme- had a 24″ front wheel instead of the 650c front wheel most funny bikes had. finding tubulars for the front wheel was a special challenge. Pretty cool set up though-flipped the brake levers over and mounted grip shifters on the ends of the cowhorns.
Is microcat an adult or kitten ?
MicroCat is becoming a minicat now. Definitely a kitten, but is way more agile than a couple weeks ago. Pretty great kitten.
@ Johnny: Given the number of $5000 and higher bikes at bike races and training rides, I don’t think it’s the economy. I do think that the shift of riders from seniors to masters has some to do with it, especially with multiple masters categories. Also, a lot of people don’t want to look silly by showing u at a bike race with a $5000+ bike and getting their butts handed to them. Another factor is that some USAC licensees are triathletes who are afraid to race crits for fear of crashing.