I drove out from Colorodo Springs to experience this one stage because 1) I knew it’s where the race would be decided, 2) I love the bike porn of time trial bikes and 3) I’ve heard the riding is good around the Solvang area (it is). Was it worth the 2 day drive? You bet. When Lance Armstrong announced his retirement and his plans to do the race, most of the elite UCI teams signed up and this was probably the greatest field ever assembled on US soil. Additionally, Amy was still in her first trimester and my projects at work were really quiet enabling me to take most of the week off. The start had truly aligned. I’ll never forget it.

Here are some of my favorites of the big name riders (click the thumbnail for the full size image):

Race winner Levi Leipheimer:

2009 ATOC Winner Levi Leipheimer

Here’s Lance Armstrong:

Lance Armstrong

Tyler Hamilton:

Tyler Hamilton

Christian Vande Velde:

Christian Vande Velde

Floyd Landis:

Floyd Landis

Michael Rogers:

Michael Rogers

Tom Danielson:

Tom Danielson

Tom Boonen:

Tom Boonen

Mark Cavendish:

Mark Cavendish

2008 Tour De France winner Carlos Sastre:

Carlos Sastre

The 2009 Amgen Tour of California time trial will be held on a 24 km (15 mile) course that starts and finishes in the Danish village of Solvang, CA. I had a chance to ride it 3 times today and here are my thoughts.

* The first mile will be the hardest. After .3 miles of flat, the road climbs madly for about 1/2 mile with grades around 9%. I hit a kilowatt every time on this section, the pros will likely hit 1.3 – 1.4 kw.

* The course is very technical with four 90 degree corners coming after fast downhills.

* Ballard Canyon is a twisty, short yet steep climb on a very crappy road that looks like it could have been paved my the incompetent folks at the Colorado Dept. of Transportation.

* There are very few flat and fast sections. I rode with a Cat. 1 who was riding a Specialized Transition TT bike and though he could drop me on the flats, his TT bike was no match for my road machine once the road tilted up.

* The course offers a lot of natural protection from the wind.

* My best time was a little over 35 minutes and that was riding with the guy I mentioned above. I think the winner can go sub 30.

I’ll be taking pics and will post them here. [UPDATE 2/25/09] Finally got my pics up here.

It takes a lot to make me post but I actually choked on my dinner when watching Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) froth at the mouth about the government spending $1 million a year on providing small tax breaks to companies who encourage bicycling to work and money to promote the improvement of bicycling infrastructure in urban areas. Of course, I’m biased as a cyclist but $1 million a year? Seriousy, Rep, McHenry. That’s what you chose to stand up and call out in this $819 BILLION stimulus package?

Worse, Mr. McHenry pitches this as if this is the Democrats’ pillar of their energy policy. Regardless of your political affiliation, I think you’ll find this guy laughable.

Lance’s Comeback to Cycling in 2009

I have to say I’m pretty surprised and though I don’t think it’s such a good idea, I have to admire his panache. He looks lean, mean and motivated. I like that he made the announcement with a video to put an end to all of the written speculation. 2009 is going to be a very interesting year for professional cycling. Good luck dude.

Though I hadn’t ridden outside sine June 26th, I decided to make a run at the North Cheyenne Canyon climb.  I’ve previously written about this HERE, HERE  and HERE.

Though I’ve lost about 100 pounds since I first tried it last year, I’m still surprised that I’ve been able to knock almost 5 minutes off my PR.  Oddly, tonight’s climb felt the slowest of all my efforts though I did notice that I stayed above 7 mph on the super steep section (usually drop below 5 there).  Initial attempt:  24:44.  New PR:  19:39!

The conditions were ideal, about 60 degrees with no wind and I literally climbed into a cloud which cooled me off even more.  When I had set out for a ride, I hadn’t even though of doing NCC but then I realized that I’m unlikely to see weather like this until November. 

The video shows the NYPD officer standing in the street as bikes ride past. He begins to slowly walk towards the street as the cyclist, Richard Vazques, approaches. Vazques veers left to avoid him, but the officer speeds up his pace and then violently knocks Vazques to the ground in front of a crowd. Vazques was arrested, held for 26 hours, and then charged with felony assault of a police officer and resisting arrest. One other cyclist was ticketed Friday night for riding outside the bike lane, which is not actually illegal and often necessary, considering how popular bike lanes are for double parking.

Nice job, Mayor Bloomberg. If so inclined, please leave a message for him at (212) 639-9675. I did.

The NYPD placed the unidentified officer on desk duty pending the outcome of a department investigation. With a little luck, he will lose his job, his car, his house and find it very difficult to find employment in the future.

And just so it is known, if I’m ever knocked off the bike like this by a cop or anyone else, I will be charged with much more than assault. I will do everything in my power to end the assailant’s life, right on the spot. Yup, I would kill a cop. In a heartbeat without any remorse.

The last time I climbed North Cheyenne Canyon, I weighed at 228.5 pounds.  Today, I weighed 188.5 pounds and climbed it with Josh, one of the most gifted climbers I’ve ever ridden with.  We had planned to ride from Broadmoor down to Florence but the wind was steady at 15 mph from the south (read: HEADWIND) and gusting in the mid 40’s.  It was kinda chilly too (around 50) so we decided to ride close to Cheyenne Mountain for protection and do the hills.

When I first climbed this bad boy, I clocked a tad over 37 minutes (yikes!).  Today’s time:  23 minutes, 48 seconds (clocked from the gate).  Not great, but getting closer to my ultimate goal of sub 20.  I’ve previously written about the climb up N. Cheyenne Canyon HERE and HERE.

Here’s the ride profile (guess which spike is N. Cheyenne…):

Ride GPS data

Taken today, 193.0 pounds.

I can barely recognize the top picture but it has given me motivation to get on the bike right now, at 8:55 pm.  Even at 193 though, I’m still about 20 pounds overweight for my height of 6′ 1″.  Sorry about the scruff, I would have shaved but I was testing out my new camera and was shocked to see myself.

Josh, who was ranked UCI Elite as recently as 2005 but has since retired to work for Federal law enforcement, asked how much weight I had lost ’cause “there’s no way I did that with training!” I said none, I was just one a new program of EPO, testosterone and exogenous blood transfers with as straight a face as I could muster. We laughed for a second and took off down the other side of that hill where I hit 52 mph.

During that climb, I knew that I couldn’t hang with Josh so I just fixated my eyes on the PowerTap and tried my best to keep 330 watts. I tried not to look at my surroundings and kept my breathing as rhythmic as possible. I was so fixated on my meter that I was sure that I had been passed by a few of the guys, the resident mountain goats who still race. But unbelievably, I was second at the top. It will be a very long time before I can challenge Josh, he’s 52 pounds lighter than me and his bike weighs at least 5 pounds less than mine. He is a phenomenal climber but he lacks power though on the flats and for the most part, I just need to stay within 3-4 minutes of him on a climb to catch him on the descent.

I had lost 32 pounds since I last rode with these guys back in February and while I had expected to ride a little better, I was blown away by the difference the weight made on the climbs. I’ve got to be careful to keep my power but I’m now counting the days until I can get down to 160.

I feel like a cyclist again.

Sure, the view from my deck every night is awesome but it sure sucks to have to climb back up every night.  At the end there, you see the murderous profile of Thames Rd, one of the three options I have to get home from the Broadmoor Valley.  While not the longest, Thames is the steepest but I’d grown very tired of climbing Farthing Drive.  Thames is about 1.08 miles long and averages 11% with two pitches that exceed 15%.  According to my PowerTap, I was averaging about 355 watts but was still only going about 6 mph up the thing. 

Those other three humps beginning at mile 5 were the repeats of the road that leads up to the Broadmoor Golf Course.  It’s one of the most bizarre hills I’ve ever ridden.  Though it’s about a mile long at 8%, it looks as if it’s barely a rise due to the big mountain ahead (Cheyenne Mountain) and three other ridges that can be seen from that road.  On the first club ride I did out here, I completely misjudged it and lost over 100 yards before the summit of the climb.  When I got up, everybody was laughing at me and said that hill gets newbies to Springs all the time.  I wasn’t laughing…