Yesterday was a whirlwind. I hardly got 6 hours sleep and then headed over to the University of Denver to meet up with Jonathan Vaughters, Tom Danielson and Christian Vande Velde. It was pretty interesting, but kind of long and drawn out. I’m going to let it all soak-in over the weekend before I post something on it. But, it was definitely worth a side trip.

I got on standby for an early flight back to Kansas City, but it had a mechanical and I didn’t end up landing until late. We stopped in Lawrence and had to eat off the late night menu at FreeState. It was still good. We got there just in time to catch the overtime of the Stanley Cup. Since the Blackhawks are playing, and Trudi is from Chicago, she’s really into it. But, she likes all sports, so would probably be watching it anyway. The game of hockey moves so fast that it almost seems anticlimactic when they finally score. The Blackhawks won and the series is tied 2-2 now.

The Tour of Kansas City starts tomorrow night. It is going to be a challenge getting back into race mode. So far this year I’ve raced 1 road race, 1 hard circuit race and 6 criteriums. Not much depth there. Without doing a 4 or 5 day stage race, it has been hard to kick-start my form. Usually, right around now, for some unknown reason, I start feeling better riding. It hasn’t happened yet, but I’m crossing my fingers.

It rained a bunch yesterday and now is supposed to be in the upper 90’s through the weekend. Muggy is going to be the word. I am not looking forward to that. I think I might get on my bike in a bit and mosey over to Lawrence slowly. Long, slow distance in the heat has been the only way I have had any success racing in the heat recently. And since summer hasn’t really even started, I need to get on top of that.

Okay, I still haven’t woken up really. Better have a 2nd cup of tea.

Sunday, they entered me in the women’s race. I guess USA Cycling is predicting how I’ll feel by Sunday and thought they would enter me in the appropriate category.

Start of the testing yesterday. Christian on the ergomenter, Jonathan in the chair and Dr. Iñigo San Millán, standing, doing the testing.

Freestate has a little shrine/display, for the Tour of Lawrence, which is next weekend.

The floor at the Kansas City airport is a terrazzo floor. It is pretty cool. I wonder why more people don’t use this for home flooring? Probably the cost.

I raced last night in Kansas City. The Tour of Kansas City is in its 50 year. That is pretty great. That would mean the first time the race was held was 1963. I did the race in 1974 as a intermediate. It has been an Olympic Developement stage race previously, but now it’s 3 criteriums.

Yesterday was a new course by the old Cliff Drive road race. The Cliff Drive course is very hard and one of my favorite all-time races. This wasn’t close. It wasn’t a bad course, it was pretty hard with one side being uphill and the other down, but it isn’t close to the old course.

There were about 50 guys in the Pro 1/2 race. The temperature was hot. Not scorching, but the lower 90’s. I don’t have too much to write about the race. The field was pretty aggressive, which was nice, but the writing was on the wall early on. Joseph Schmalz, Brian Jensen and Jonathan Jacobs were all riding much better than the next best guy. There were tons of small moves, but Joe and/or Brian could ride up to just about anything. Eventually, the string snapped and those two rode away. That was about as good as our team was going to do for the day, so I went to the front. But, Jonathan Jacobs took a flyer that I couldn’t cover. My mistake. I didn’t think he had much of a chance to bridge up. He didn’t, but he made it most of the way.

That was how it finished, with Joseph winning. He has been riding great, finishing 9th in Nature Valley last week and putting in some pretty solid attacks in Stillwater, the final day. Brian always is going good. He was planning to drive to Nebraska to do a 6 hours MTB race today, but we talked him into staying and racing today and tomorrow in KC. 6 hours of MTB racing at 98 degrees isn’t an easy task. Plus, if Brian isn’t here, the race would be much less interesting for me. I finished 11th. There was 5 away, so that was 6th in the field sprint. The sprint was screwy, on a curve, with a round about, so I just sort of blew it. But, I was gassed too, so there wasn’t anything I could do to recover after making a couple mistakes.

I felt mediocre. On a one to 10, it would be 3 or 4. That was better than I had previously thought, which was a pleasant surprise. I flatted about 1/3 the way in and took a free lap. That got me hot, really hot. It took a little while to get back to normal. I hate taking free laps. I always feel way worse after sitting out a lap than I did before I went to the pit. It seems like it would be the opposite, you get to “rest” for a couple minutes, but that is never the case.

Okay, we’re racing again tonight at 7:45. The course tonight has a hill, so it is kind of hard too. But, I need the race miles. Baby steps once again.

Joseph and Brian in the winning break.

I’m not exactly sure what I’m doing here.

Joseph, all smiles, after the race.

Brian, with his MTB bike all loaded up, ready to head up to Nebraska, until we talked him out of it. He’s gonna thank me for that later.

Michelle, Brian wife, at dinner, with schooners of beer. Man, did those taste great.

The area where we raced is very historic, but in a transitional state. If you’re looking for a huge, stone or brick house, for very cheap, around 250K, look no more, it’s here. Here are some photos of the beauty.