Tour of Missouri, Time Trial

hey ho:

another day dawned bright and clear on branson missouri as we met in the veterans cafe for breakfast and war stories in the hotel lobby. other than race workers, there was no one under the age of 50 in the whole place. and i don't say that as a bad thing... it was just rather odd. we were definitely the minority. i ordered some eggs over hard, and dug in heartily into a plate of bacon and cinnastix. with any luck, by the end of the week i will have a nice case of gout going.

we roll down to the start, which is right on the branson promenade. this is pretty rad, as mentioned in a previous entry, but again, we could have been in any number of suburbs in america. at any rate, we load the cars with tents for the course. On a Time Trial, there is no moto or auto support, but rather big yellow mavic tents lined up every couple miles along the course. basically, if someone needs support in a TT, they are pretty much screwed. However, today we did do a wheel change. Andy, a pro wrench from illinois, did a wheel change on a USA national team rider in under 10 seconds. while this guy was pretty off the back to begin with, he finished under the time cut, and the wheel change didn't slow him down. Nice work Andy!

The setup

So, i am set up in the blazing sun, but i have enough water and gatorade to feed an army. the riders ride by. no one needs support. I pack up the car and pick up my riders and their tents. we are done. the day was pretty uneventful from a support standpoint, but it was sweet to see Levi rip by with the afterburners on. and George hung in there. Ivan dominguez looked pretty good too. it is so interesting in a TT to see that some people are really trucking, and other guys are absolutely hating life.

Ivan "fidel" Dominguez

Herr Leipheimer

'Big' George Hincapie

after the race we gather our mavicness, and head back north to Springfield. Since this is a short day, we get to go for a bike ride, and Elizabeth, Peter and I head out for a couple hours. The rolling roads have no traffic, are pretty smooth, and run through some nice countryside. it was a really great ride, and good to get out with friends.

We sit down for dinner at a brewpub, i think it was called anytown usa brewing. The fish and chips were decent though, and sit well in my colon with the rest of the fried food. i gotta get a salad in me. whole foods, where art thou? at least we got to cover the windshield of nelson vails' car with coasters. that was pretty funny, watching him pick them off the windshield while his attractive female passenger waited in the front seat of a rented pontiac g6.

of note, however, is that there was a crash yesterday, and one of Longmont's own went down and is out of the race. Dan Schmatz, Longmont resident, hit an armadillo on the road, went down, and shattered his collarbone. he is down, and possibly out. There is talk that the collarbone is not only broken, but completely gone. My thoughts go out to the man, since he is one hard-working bike rider.

alright, i gotta get some shuteye, and then its on to Lebanon tomorrow for a 130+ mile stage. Take that, sitbones.

over&out