We raced in St. Louis today. A 1 mile loop with one climb per lap. It was in the upper 80’s. It felt like 100 to me. I don’t think that anyone in the race was acclimated to the heat. The race went good for the Tradewind Energy/The Trek Stores Team. We had 3 guys in a 7 guy break. I wasn’t too happy that Brad Huff (Jelly Belly) was there. Brad knows us all pretty well and realized it was probably going to be a lost cause. Brian got away with 6 laps to go to win solo. I took off with 2 to go to make Brad chase. Nick the won the sprint for 2nd. I finished. 6th. Pretty good training for the next few weekends. I was pretty bad the first half hour and then better. It wasn’t nearly as painful as I anticipated. Maybe tomorrow. An 87 mile road race with a bunch of climbing. Forecast is for the mid 90’s. Might as well get used to it I guess.

Sent by iPhone

Sunday was hot. That was the thing. Super hot. Like mid to upper 90’s and very high humidity. Everyone melted. Including myself. The race course was great. Two 34 miles loops and then a short finish loop of 20 miles. 3 pretty big climbs per lap.

We did great. Brian Jensen won again, with Chris Hall finishing 3rd and Bill Stolte 4th. Nick and I rode the two big laps and called it a day. Brian soloed in completely cramped up. Chris soloed for 3rd completely cramped up. Bill rode away from the small group I was in and put 5 minutes on them in the last 20 miles. He might of been the only guy in the race that wasn’t finished physically. I felt terrible right from the start. Beyond terrible. I was getting dropped by the field on 1 km climbs. But, the field eventually got down to 7 guys left. I thought about it as my hamstrings were cramping and decided that I couldn’t think of a good reason to destroy my legs for the result. I almost never quit races. I have no regrets here. The race was up the road and I was completely destroyed. And I was destroyed without ever putting out a huge effort. Pretty weird.

I would like to know, exactly know, what a person’s body does to acclimate to heat and cold. I know what it does to acclimate to altitude, but have no idea what it does to acclimate for temperature.

So, that is 3 race wins in the last 3 races for the Tradewind Energy/The Trek Stores Team. But, I’m riding worse than I have all season. By miles. Just when the important races are coming up. Great. I might have to try to switch something up here. I’m not sure what, but it couldn’t hurt to try.