Yesterday I rode over Vail Pass with Sue, met Vincent near the top, then rode down to Frisco and then back again to Vail. I took off with no headband, but it was cloudy. I also left with no lip stuff with sunblock. I always use that at altitude or my lower lip gets really burnt.

Anyway, today my forehead and lower lip or pretty toast. I keep forgetting how much more intense the sun is at altitude than in Kansas. It always surprises me.

I went to a dermatologist a few years ago and the nurse asked me if I’d ever been sunburned. I thought it was a trick question. I hesitated and then just answered yes. She then asked more than 3 times. I laughed. I said yes again and told her I’d been completely sunburned toe to head 100’s of times, if not thousands. She looked shocked.

I told my mom the story and she said something like you always went to the pool with sunblock on when you were a kid. I told her that sunblock hadn’t been “invented” when I spent the whole summer at the pool. The lifeguards and a few others used to put zinc oxide on their noses, but other than that it was full sun.

I couldn’t come close to counting how many times I have been completely fried by the sun. My normal summer look was peeling skin on my face and back. Sometimes when it was bad, I could pull nearly complete sheets of peeling skin off my back.

I have pretty okay skin. I had freckles as a kid, all over my face, arms and shoulders. Most of my friends had freckles too. It doesn’t seem like many kids have freckles anymore. I wonder why that is? Must be sun related. I don’t know why you lose your freckles either? I just they just slowly disappear as you get older.

When I raced The Tour of Southland, on the south island of New Zealand, they have a problem with really bad sunburn. I guess there is an ozone hole that moves around above and that the sun is super intense and dangerous. The race supplied sunblock. Every school kid that lined the courses when we rode by wore long sleeved shirts, long pants and a hat that covered their faces. It seemed strange at the time, but it made sense.

Anyway, I don’t use sunblock on my skin. Well, hardly ever to I use sunblock. I’m not completely sold on the whole thing. Plus, I can’t stand it when it gets into my eyes while riding. I know that I’m going against the grain on this, but I think the jury is still out, scientifically, on this one. I guess time will tell.

Sue riding back towards Vail near the top of Vail Pass.

I saw this mushroom near the top of Vail Pass. I have no idea what it is, but it is the biggest mushroom I’ve ever seen.

These guys were near the top of Vail Pass too. I can’t believe how hard it must be to do this. I was so impressed.

The US Pro Challenge’s GC might have been decided by wet roads yesterday at the finish. Tom Danielson was still climbing as well as in Utah, but couldn’t manage to stay with Janier Acevedo (Jamis-Hagens Berman) and Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing) on the wet descent before the finish climb.

I’ve written before about how I believe that a true professional needs to be able to descend as well as they climb. I know that is a problem when you start getting to the very best climbers in the world. Everyone does have a different ability level in each aspect of the sport. But to lose a race because of not being able to follow on a descent would be something that would really bother me immensely. I’m sure it is bothering Tom now. Tom’s Garmin team director, Charly Wegelius says “Tommy just needs to press ‘Control, Alt, Delete’ on today and just focus on his best performance.” That is not bad advise.

I don’t know much about Janier’s handling skills, but a couple years ago, in the Pro Challenge, descending off of Independence Pass, Tejay was virtually in the front the whole way down and it was wet. He was racing for the GC lead that day too. He was quoted as saying he had “balls” on the wet descent. That is part of the wet descending equation for sure. But, he also has the skills.

Descending well in the rain, or descending poorly compared to others, shouldn’t reflex as badly upon a rider as back when Andy Schleck couldn’t manage to follow the field down dry road in the Tour a couple years back. Descending in the rain does take a very special skill set and the slick roads do magnify the differences in abilities, thus causing bigger time gaps. And no one really trains for it. It’s not like a rider says, “Wow, great, it looks like it is going to rain, I should go ride up and long climb and rail the descent”. So, you only get better racing and then at the races you have what you have. In this case, Tom didn’t have the skills that Tejay and Janier had.

But they have the time trial today to mix it up some more before the weekend. Should be interesting.

Tejay descending last year at the Pro Challenge.