A couple days ago in the Giro, Simon Clarke, from Orica/Greenedge, threw up his arms at the finish.  He didn’t win the race, he won the field sprint for 2nd.  Afterward, he tells the interviewer that he knew he was 2nd, but so excited about taking over the race lead, thus the Pink jersey, that he couldn’t control himself and celebrated.

But, he was fibbing.  At least I think he was.  If you watch the video below, you’ll notice that after the line, the Movistar rider, I think Giovanni Visconti, motions to Simon that there is a guy up the road and Simon grasps his helmet with his hands.  In this case, a picture is worth a 1000 words.

Simon should know by now, that the whole thing was live, on the internet, TV, etc., worldwide. You don’t get to say that you knew you didn’t win when your actions showed you didn’t.  And, really, is it that big of a deal?

I’ll answer that, it really isn’t much of a big deal.  I’ve never done it before, but I pay pretty close attention who is up the road and what place I’m racing for.  But, there are a lot of things going on during the Giro and maybe it is easy to get confused about whether the peloton is together?

Seems like with race radios, he would have known a rider was away, but maybe he pulls his earpiece out at the end.  Sometimes having something in you ear can throw off your balance a little, which would be pretty bad in a chaotic sprint.  Plus, who wants someone talking in your ear when you’re trying to negotiate a field  sprint at the Giro?

It is embarrassing, but just because you did an embarrassing thing, doesn’t mean you should lie about making the mistake in the first place.  It is somewhat understandable losing track of one single rider in a stage of a Grand Tour, but it really isn’t understandable trying to fabricate a story.

If Simon learns one thing here, it is better to just fess up and take the ridicule up front.  It really isn’t worth lying about, especially when it’s out there for the whole cycling world to see.

Yesterday I got up pretty early for me, before 6  am, and headed over to Lawrence with Bill to do aschool visit at Woodlawn Elementary School with my TradeWind Energy Cycling Team.  We did the same thing last year and it seems it is going to be an annual happening.

TradeWind Energy teamed up with Sunflower Bike Shop to present the kids with new lights, front and rear, plus a Woodlawn Bicycle Club t-shirt.  The team did a little question/answer period and then the kids, that brought their bikes, did a few obstacle courses, got their new lights mounted up and had their bikes checked out by mechanics from Sunflower.

Overall, it was a good day.  We got our new team clothing, so everyone was suited up in new kits.  TradeWind is slowly morphing from a wind energy company to a solar energy company.  WInd energy is going to slow down a lot because of governmental policies.  TradeWind changed their colors, thus we had to also.  It is always nice getting new stuff.

The Tour of California today is going to be interesting.  I called Sagan winning the time trial yesterday.  It did seem a little weird, but  that is the way of professional cycling nowadays. Normally, a good sprinter isn’t a good time trial rider, but Sagan is also a good classic’s rider, so that was my consideration.  I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Sagan wins the Tour of California overall.  I think he hangs with the climbers today.  That is another reach, but nothing he does is really that surprising.  He has received a lot of criticism from Tinkoff, his team owner, so I think he has something to prove.

It is going to be rainy all day here in Kansas.  There was a one day race in St. Louis today, but that is a long way to drive for an hour race.  Plus, the prize list was $250 total for the Pro 1/2 race.  That is sort of  pitiful, even for a local race.  I’m  a little under the weather again, at least on my bike.  I think it is because of all the pollen here, but it might just be life.

Tomorrow, my team mate, Brian Jensen is going to do his last big ride before trying to defend his Dirty Kanza 200 title, in a couple weeks.  He is planning on riding 150 miles on gravel.  I hope to do some, or most of that, with him.  Since everyone thinks I train so scatter-brained, this fits right in.  What I really need is speed work.  We did a pretty hard ride yesterday evening.  There were just 5 of us and we had nearly a 22 mph average when we got back to town.  It was pretty windy, plus muggy.  I woke up pretty spent this morning.

I usually take Catherine’s mom out to breakfast on Saturday mornings, when I’m in town, but she never got back to me today, so she must be busy. Okay, think I’ll head down to the farmer’s market and get some fresh eggs.

Showing the kids the obstacle course.

Dan Hughes, owner of Sunflower Bike shop, mounting some lights on one of the kid’s bikes.

Bill trying to put a chain back on. These kid’s bikes are somewhat of a challenge. Lots from Walmart, etc.

Future field of racers. Pretty cute.

This was one of my favorites. She had a complete Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle thing going on.

Our new kits. We got a lot more clothing this year, which is always nice. Lots of different winter jackets and bibs.