Most of the guys from my TradeWind Energy/Eriksen Cycles team, 4 of us, are riding from my house this morning. It’s the first time I’ve really trained with most of them, other than Bill, this year. That seems weird. Anyway, we’re going out for 4-5 hours at 100 +, whatever, degrees. Brian has been over in Denmark, where it was in the 60’s. So, he’s not good with the heat, plus he’s jet lagged. Should help make it an even playing field then.

Yesterday we rode over to the Kansas State Games Time Trial. My friend, Jeff Unruh, is promoting the cycling portion of the State Games. The TT was yesterday, then criterium is today and then the road race on Sunday. The bikes at the TT were off the chart expensive. And, I didn’t know 90% of the riders. I’m not sure why we don’t ride them. I guess it’s more for the citizen racers or something.

That isn’t the case with horseshoes. I went over to the horseshoe competition a couple years ago and thought I might do it. Boy, am I glad I just watched. Everyone, over and over again, ringer after ringer. These 80 year old guys, that were moving slower than molasses, would release the horseshoe and nearly always throw a ringer. I hope those are the best horseshoe players (is that the right vernacular) we have here, because if there are better guys, it’s not even a game because they’d never miss.

I had kicked around flying over to Paris for the last two days of the Tour with Trudi, then staying the week and watching the Olympic Road Race the next weekend. I have a friend in London that has a house on the course and she is having a party. Somehow it doesn’t seem like the right time to go over to Europe and just hang for more than a week. I’m thinking the BMC after race party might be a little more subdued this year and I’m not all that big on watching bike races in person. Especially one that “the experts” think is going to end up in a field sprint. Anyway, I’m not sure why, but we never got our shit together, so we’re still in Kansas. Not nearly the same, but, not bad either.

I bought a bag of ice at the store for the ride today. I can’t believe how much ice we’re going through riding nowadays. That isn’t how it used to be. Back during the Coor’s Classic days, I’m not sure we even had cold bottles. Actually, I’m pretty positive we didn’t. Now I only ride with thermal bottles that are stuffed full of ice. A normal bottle full of 1/2 strength, warmish Coke, sounds pretty terrible now. Funny how you get used to being pampered.

Okay, I have to get ready. I’ve been eating a ton more protein recently. Mainly some beef every few days and lots of eggs. I’m not sure exactly why I started that, but I have. Kind of seems to be working, at least for training. This is going to be an effort today.

I’m not even sure what most of this guys equipment is, but it looks expensive.

Jeff Unruh, the czar of the cycling portion of the Sunflower State Games lining up the riders, with a bullhorn as backup.

The TT was at the Hearland Park race track. I would have hated riding a TT there.

They are doing construction everywhere around Topeka. It’s hard to get in or out of town nowadays. This is probably the last day were could ride over this bridge over the Turnpike. It was kind of scary, with no sides, even though it is two lanes wide.

Someone left a comment yesterday about jar behind Trudi’s seat in one of the photos. (It always amazes me what people notice.) It’s a peanut butter jar. I’m not sure when we started using peanut butter jars instead of seat bags. It was a long, long time ago. I think my brother Kris originally came up with the idea. I started using them because I was so tired of all my stuff getting all destroyed from mud and such getting thrown up on my seat bag from my rear wheel. Nothing like opening up your seat bag and have your multi-tool all rusted up and everything else a mess.

So, we started using peanut butter jars. They are all pretty much the same size and fit perfectly into a bottle cage. Recently, I’ve been using two bottles riding in this 100+ degree heat, so I put mine behind my seat. It doesn’t work that well without putting some Gorilla tape around it, cutting a slit into the tape to hold the jar. I use a Binda toe strap, threaded through the tape, to secure the jar. If you don’t use the tape, then you have to really cinch the jar down, sometimes crushing it somewhat. It will work for a while, but the tape is better.

I was considering trying take this jar idea commercial a few years ago. A jar with a tube, multi-tool, etc., but it’s just a peanut butter jar. And the lids of peanut butter jars already come in quite a selection of colors, depending on what brand you buy. I think I saw a water bottle shaped thing a few years ago that kind of did the same thing. It didn’t seem to catch on. I don’t see why, they work absolutely great.

Anyway, here are a few photos of my peanut butter jar. You can stuff quite a bit into one.

Fits pretty good behind your seat.

Fits perfectly in a bottle cage.

This is what I’m carrying in my jar currently. Way more than a standard size seat bag. Pretty much the normal stuff, the folded number is for booting a cut. I just started carrying a patch kit and have used it nearly daily for the past week. I have no idea why that happens.

It all fits into the jar pretty easily.

And in a clutch, you can put the contents of you jar into you pocket and put your phone (an iPhone fits perfectly) into the jar to keep it dry if you happen to get caught in the rain.