I’m sitting here in my kitchen, here in Topeka, the wind is blowing close to 30 mph outside, and I’m wishing I was up in Iowa City watching the Jinglecross races this afternoon. If my butt didn’t hurt so bad and I thought I could suffer through the 7 hour drive, sitting, I’d still go. A few of my friends yesterday asked me why I’d want to drive that far just to watch a bike race. Their rational was that I go to bike races virtually every weekend of the year, so why go so far out of the way to just spectate at another one.

My answer was easy. I learn bike racing when I go spectate. Especially at higher level cyclocross events. Jinglecross is a great venue for spectating. It has enough technical areas, especially in the wet, that it is easy for me to learn by watching others race the course.

I’ll give you a really good example. A few years ago, at the Jinglecross, the course was super slick from an overnight snow that was melting. The race on Sunday was run clockwise and there was a run-up next to the bleachers and then a super muddy, off-camber section across the top of the bleachers, back down to a field. It was super slick and very technical.

I went over there, before the women’s race, with Bill, and tried it a few different ways. Both Bill and I were having a really hard time staying on our bikes for the 150 meters of slick mud, even though it was downhill.

Then the women’s race started and we had to clear the course. I was interested in seeing how the women’s field was going to handle the section. Amanda Miller, who is considered a local from Iowa City, even though she’s not really from there, was leading the race. She had only come to Iowa the day before and had finished 11th on Saturday. Anyway, she slogged up the long, muddy run-up and kept going up to the very top ribbon, way above the bleachers. She calmly remounted her bike and rode the whole section without incident and came out onto the field with a huge, beyond huge lead. She won the race by miles. She made the section look like it was dry, she rode it so smoothly.

So, I saw and knew that the hill was doable. I’d finished somewhere in the top ten on Saturday, maybe 8th. In the men’s race, I got a good start, ran up the hill in the top 5 and took Amanda’s line. Todd Wells and Ben Jacques-Mayne were both on “her line” too. They both cleaned the section, I did too, but had used all the real estate of the course, to do it, but when I came out on the field, after only 1/4 lap, I was in 3rd, with maybe a 20 second gap to 4th. I ended up finishing 3rd that day, which was better than my fitness warranted.

I ran into Amanda after the awards and told her the reason the I’d finished 3rd was because she showed me the line when she was racing earlier. She said that she hadn’t pre-rode the course at all, but a friend that raced a Master’s race in the morning told her the line and she just went with it. It sort of blew me away.

The “winning line” I was riding was the line of a local Master’s rider that happened to tell Amanda was good. And she just took his word for it, did it, then I mimicked it, and that was the reason I finished 3rd. Amazing.

I am a student of the sport. Watching on the internet, watching in person and especially during the races themselves. Cycling is a sport where you can never possess enough knowledge. It’s a constant learning experience. It’s one of the best aspects of the sport.

This is the hill, the course went up by the bleachers turned right and then descended on the off-camber hillside.

Amanda, in great form, a couple years back, running up Mt. Krumpet.

Yesterday was windy. Like windy enough that I had a 46 mph max speed on the ride and it was on the flats. And I could have gone faster.

I’ve always like riding in the wind. I think it makes training rides interesting. It makes a puzzle out of where the rides should go initially. I use the wind as my main ally for training here in Kansas. It’s always been that way.

I remember going for a ride when I was 14, right when I was going to start racing. It was a Spring day and the wind was blowing 30+ mph from the South. I had only ridden less than 5 miles from my house and finally surrendered. I couldn’t ride another pedal stroke into the direct headwind. So, I did a u-turn and knew immediately that it was a mistake. I was coasting along at over 20 mph and was virtually being blown home. I so much wanted to turn around and keep riding, but I was too stubborn to retrace my steps over the road I’d already ridden. So, I was instantly home and vowed to myself not to let the wind ruin my rides.

Another memory of wind was one year at the Tour of Texas. The Tour of Texas was originally started to gather riders from all over the country to race and train there. So, we’d go down to Texas and do a stage race, but also train between the races. Most of us wouldn’t have trained too much by March, so we weren’t in shape. I went down to Texas with probably less than 500 miles on my legs. It was the first year for the new 7-11 team. Those guys had been down there for over a month, exclusively riding.

The first race was a windy road race. I was pretty good keeping in good position, out of the wind and because of that, made the final break, which consisted of 5 or 6 7-11 riders, me and Thurlow Rogers. I was dying trying to pull through. It was only 10 miles to the finish and I was doing my best to pull. We were riding in echelon and I kept telling myself if I could only make it to the last corner, for last 5 miles of tailwind, I’d be good. Man, was I naive. As soon as we turned the corner, our speed increased dramatically and the draft disappeared. I was spit out the back within a mile. I made it to the finish ahead of the field, but it was super embarrassing getting dropped so close to the finish.

Riding with tailind, in a race, really shows who is stronger in a race. It makes the draft much less important and the drafting in a race is really what defines the sport. If I had to name the most important aspect of cycling, I’d say drafting. I bet if I told someone that was unfamiliar with the sport that, they would have no idea what I was talking about. It is kind of strange thinking that.

It’s the same with headwind. I’ve climbed with some of the best Colombians on very hard climbs, into very hard headwinds, only staying on because of the advantage of drafting.

Anyway, I like the wind. Like I said above, I like riding in the wind. I really like racing in the wind. It makes you stay on your toes the whole day. The windiest place I’ve raced, windiest consistently is at the Tour of Southland, on the South Island of New Zealand. I’d done the race a few times. It is a 5 day stage race and some years, everyday the wind is blowing over 30. Sometimes much more. It is very intense bike racing. I was dropped by Hayden Roulston and Company one day because I was spun out at 50 mph on the flats. Tailwind, on the flats. That was bad.

What was worse, turning the final corner that day to the finish. Going from a 50 mph tailwind to a 50 mph crosswind. It was nearly unmanageable. One rider, Paul Crake, crashed that day, getting blown off the road in that corner and he sustained spinal injuries from the accident. Paul was a super athlete at the time, coming to cycling from runner, mainly stairclimbing competitions. He is still the record holder for the Empire State Building stair run. It was horrible luck.

I live in a good place for wind. Kansas is the 3rd windiest state, behind North Dakota and Texas. I’m sponsored by TradeWind Energy, a alternative energy company that builds wind farms. They have one wind farm with the average windspeed at over 16 mph, 24/7. Pretty windy.

Anyway, it is always windy in the fall here. And spring. It’s not so good at this very moment, when I’m just trying to rest on my bike. I know, I shouldn’t be riding, I should be resting with Shingles. But, I’m more stressed on a daily basis not riding, than riding. The problem is that it is nearly impossible to ride easy when the wind is blowing over 40. Today it looks like it is going to be pretty tame, so that is good, good, but boring.

You can click on the map below to see the current windspeed and direction ove the whole United States. It’s pretty cool.

Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.