I’ve been enjoying this week’s coverage of the Tour of California live on the Internet and later in the day on the Versus channel. I’m recognizing some roads I traveled a couple years ago when I had my bike down there. If you can avoid the traffic death-trap roads, there is some nice riding that can be found, and some very steep paved climbs.
What’s with the spectators though? They are all wearing bicycle helmets. I know it is a good strategy to ride your bike to a good race viewing point, but why doesn’t the helmet come off when the rider comes off? Euro fans also ride their bikes to watch the races over there, but I never see helmets. I guess the American fans expect they’ll be involved in a crash.
Yesterday, I was out doing some roubaix practice for the race in Emmett this Sunday. Tomorrow I’ll be at it again with a 3.5 hour ride and some climbing repeats. For the roubaix practice, I just ride around and every time I come to a road that simulates Bill Burns, I hit it hard and see if I can stay upright. I ride on the farm roads around here all the time and I love them, so I’ve got plenty of experience riding pave (I mean gravel) but not on 23c tires. I just wish the race had more sections like that. Maybe next year I’ll try out the roubaix in Eugene or the Hell of the North in UT.
I’m in second place on the GC for the series, 1′14” down. When the GC came out after the last race, I was in the lead. Then I noticed that they hadn’t assessed my bogus time penalty from that missed turn in looptyville. So, I alerted the officials and enforced my own time penalty. I didn’t realize bike racing was like golf, where you assess your own penalties. Cycling does have some uncanny similarities to golf, a true gentlemen’s sport. Cyclists certainly share the same advanced vocabulary with golfers, a one-page dictionary whereby most words end in -hit, -uck, or -itch. Golf is the only sport I know where the professionals’ names (e.g. Couples ‘n Love III, Tiger, Funk, Begay) are as quirky as cycling (e.g. Velo, Roll, Casagrande, Axel, Armstrong?, LeMond, Kirsipu). Also, both cyclists and golfers move around their respective courses in exclusive groups that belligerently instigate contention with other participating groups. No wonder people are calling cycling the “new golf” in America.
Since I’ve handicapped myself a few times in the series, I’ve got some work to do to take back the GC. This will be difficult since the Bode leaders are racing so well right now. It should be a fun race though.
