tour of missouri/tour of alton

Sunday I was able to watch the last stage of the tour of missouri roll into town. I rode my bike around the team buses and was able to ride along side most of the riders heading toward the check-in area. Looking at their whisper thin physiques, ultra-expensive bikes and mega-cool kits, I felt like I had brought a knife to a nuclear warhead fight. However, I was not deterred by the fact that I looked like a wanna be jackass getting in the way of the riders. At the start of the race I was handed a pile of t-shirts by one of the support cars and told to pass them out. I also got a discovery water bottle when one of the guys riding by tossed it out, not for sure which rider though. So, that concludes my free bike junk I procured that day. Race was great, rode around the course to catch it at a few different angles then rode on the course after the peloton went by. It was great riding on forest park with not one damn car. If only in my dreams... Big crash at the finish when brad huff hit the barriers and went end over end. Pretty spectacular, but I actually missed it. Seeing my first pro bike race gave me cycling induced fever.

Yesterday I hooked up with Kleeman to due a mrt/mct ride. I rode up to Barnes and met up with him then we spun down to the river. Felt really good on the way out and were riding low to mid 20's with no problem. About 20miles in we stopped and had gas station snacks. 89cent powerade. A snickers. This is fuel of the gods. Blasted our way up to Alton and by this time I could tell the wind was really picking up and would punish us later for taking advantage of it on the way to one of America's most disgusting cities. Cruised into town and had about 40miles on the day but felt great. Decided to eat a gas station sandwich and a 44oz water, half of which I spilled. Streets, signs, people, everything in this town is covered in dirt. White trash and the ghetto fabulous live in some sort of utopian harmony in this town. I swore at any moment in time the kkk lookin asshole in front of me and the black panther behind him were going to shank each other but everyone remained cordial. I wonder if the trend of awfulness continues up and down the mississippi. Every town around here, Venice, Brookly, Granite City, etc. These towns are like human sewage pits. Emitting their poisionus gases and suffocating all life surrounding them. As we head back from Alton, a 25mph headwind was waiting for us on the levy. We crested the top of it and, wham!!!! It was all I could do to keep my bike upright. The wind was gusting and blowing it all over the road. Ben and I decided to work together and we started taking pulls in the wind while the other took a break in the draft. This proved to be much more effective but still miserable. By the time we hit the chain of rocks bridge the sun was setting fast and we had to drop the hammer. For the next 12 miles we were able to ride about 20mph into the headwind the whole way. This was probably the single biggest effort I have ever done on a bicycle. Taking long steady pulls over about 1/4mile each we were able to devour everyone on the trail making their way back to the city. About two miles out we finally caught a guy who was riding pretty fast. He of course increased his efforts when we had him in sight but eventually I broke away and buried his ass too. Hit the finish and felt like by brain stem was 200 degrees. I was close to passing out so dropped out of the big ring and rode about 7 miles of recovering before calling it quits. Showered and hit bottleworks for some goat cheese dip, a pitcher of water, pumpkin ale and a curry chicken sandwich. Food tastes so good when you bring your body to the point of total collapse. I think I'll try that again this week.