It Doesn't get Much Better than This

Riding with friends can't be beat. Riding with good friends is even better. Riding in south east Ohio is of the BEST around. My bro-in law Tim picked out and handled the map duties for the day and we had an epic ride for about 3.5 hours. I think it was right around 50 miles or so, with about 3500 feet or so of climbing. Tim, Joel, Layne, John and I all met up in downtown Canal Winchester to put a few hours of climbing in our legs before Asheville and before our road season starts.
I got the white hoods installed and my white Ritchey stem which is light, stiff and white. Very nice. I have since flipped it flat since this pic and will be removing the red bar tape and replacing it with black. The red is just a little too pinkish and not dark red enough for my taste.
I felt pretty great all day, we all worked equally and threw down pretty hard outside of Lithopolis and into downtown Canal. Spring has sprung - fitness and endurance is growing as well. The watts are up. good stuff.

Tour De France - Stage 9 - Sleep loss - Training

Ohhhhh, the tour is pretty exciting this year. Jen and I got into a 'Fantasy Tour' Pool with a few friends. I think her and I may be holding top 4 spots after today? Not sure.
I can say I would easily travel to France, just to ride these two roads, they certainly at least appear amazing, from the helicopter cameras. My first choice would be Italy over France though. Excited to go home and watch the stage tonight.
I had my hopes on Valverde, but it seems today he might have cracked. Ricco was amazing yesterday and I had him picked as a good climber early on. Today was the first time I actually saw some type of emotion from Cadel (at the finish during TV interviews today). He is usually so stoic - mannequin like. Let me see, I am sick to death of the Saab ads. I was finally happy to see interviews with Vaughters not wearing a turtle neck and corderoy jacket. Someone tell him he looks the same in every interview article with photos...He is good on TV though. I am enjoying listening to the audio from Eurosport TV, Sean Kelly's accent and commentating is great, a change up from listening to Paul and Phil for sure. I know Versus is shooting and broadcasting in HD this year, which would be great to see, but ahhh, who needs that really.
Next: Sleep Loss
So, I return from Chicago and can't manage to get my body clock back on right. I think I averaged 5 hours of sleep Wed-Sat. It was almost 3 a.m. before I went to bed on Friday night.
Next: Training
I had a pretty hard workout planned for Saturday, I think one of the hardest ever, maybe or OK, top 10. I get up, knowing I must be leaving the house to hit a family reunion at 1pm, and haul out the door on my bike. I head up North to find some uninterrupted roads (no traffic lights, no stops) to get this crazy workout completed.
I am 40% of the way into the workout and I just blow up. Done, put a fork in me, that's it, someone come and pick me up please - who is driving the hurt bus, I need a ride home.
Sunday - word has it... I should go get this workout completed.
Ok fine. I can do this. I recruit a friend to join me in my trip to the hurt bus again, telling him ahead of time, he's gotta ride his own ride or hang on to my wheel out of the wind, etc. (He did great and managed to do the workout as well)
We head up Dublin Road all the way to Route 42 and use that as a turn around. The workout seemed to all come together on such a stunningly beautiful day non-the-less. I think I'll ride more up that way, the roller hills up that way, would be way more enjoyable if I wasn't trying to get a crazy workout done.
I got home, after 2.5 hours/45 miles or so and wasn't completely blown. I even managed to be quite productive in our garage. I cut some wood for shelving, Jen helped and we got a ton of organizing completed. The 'man cave' is looking good. Pretty soon, I'll be able to pull out and work on my 1966 Chevelle without moving everything in the garage.