Ahhhh...spring.

Well the best part of the cycling season is here, at least in my opinion. The early season "training races" are over for all levels of racing - from the local/regional racers here in the Southeast to the Pro Tour guys who have been hitting it hard in the Spring Classics. The season has begin and there are no excuses. The real racing is here now and if you are finally just getting into a little training with the warm weather having arrived - you had better plan on a bunch of races getting your a$$ kicked. There are no excuses at this point, you are either in form or approaching form...or you have missed the boat this year.

On the other side of the pond, as a fan, the one thing that always amazes me is the speed at which the professional ride the cobbles. Anyone who has watched the races realize the absolute grit of these races...hard men in hard weather riding across ancient roads made of stones the size of small hams embedded in dirt that uis great for farming, but horrid for building roads out of. Grueling to ride even 1 km of them, incomprehensible to ride across 30 km or more inside a total 250+ km race. To ride on these surfaces is one thing, to race on them is jaw dropping. Below you will find a video from Team Sky, filmed by Canadian rider Michael Barry of their recon of several sections of the Tour of Flanders course a few days prior. Check out the speed of their riding, cobbles or not. And also check out the speed of their approach onto the Holleweg (1:25 or so) - a long section of cobbles across the flatter sections of the course. That is Mr. Flecha who puts the hammer down across that section at such a speed it looks freakin' ridiculous.



Locally, not much here, other than some faulty weeks of getting a little behind on the training. This weekend is scheduled to be the Southeast's version of Milan - San Remo. Though we won't race the nearly 300km that the Pro Tour monsters race, we will race 160km, which will definitely be the longest race in the Southeast that I am aware of and by far the longest race I will throw my cash in for.

Details at 11....


Stay safe y'all,

Da Bug