A Belgium-ish Route

   I was cycling on one of my regular loops through Yellow Springs that reminds me of the area of Belgium and northern France the Tour has been visiting during the first few stages of this year’s race. The terrain of my ride was rolling hills, mostly on narrow roads, some of which were in rough condition. In fact, one half-mile section near Kimberton was stripped down in preparation of repaving, which gave me a taste of what it might be like to ride in Paris-Roubaix!

   The closed-in shaded roads around this area were especially nice in today’s heat, keeping me from baking in the convection oven-like conditions on the asphalt. However, I really enjoy the breaks of open farmland along this route, riding among the fields of corn and hay which look so similar to what I’ve seen during race coverage on TV. It's too bad that all of the houses of stone with slate roofs or the occasional massive modern estates that line the roads are so obviously American, otherwise I could really imagine I’m in a breakaway, trying to hold on for a Tour stage victory. Granted I’m riding about one fifth of the distance the teams covered today, at about three quarters of their average speed, but I’m ten to fifteen years older than they are, and I don’t have the benefit of drafting among 197 other cyclists either. (Yeah, dream on!)

   Speaking of the Tour de France, I’ve really been impressed by Peter Sagan (above), the Slovakian cyclist from the Liquigas-Cannondale team. He has had some successful spells the past couple seasons, but he looks like a man on a mission in this year’s Tour, with two incredible stage victories already in which he has crushed the competition. Brimming with confidence, he reminds me a lot of Sean Kelly in the 1980s, with the ability to hang with the top sprinters in the bunch, but also possessing the punchy ability to power up steep short climbs. Sagan narrowly missed winning a couple of the Spring Classics, but I see that being his specialty in the near future.

   On the business side here at CycleTech, I had quite a full shop here a couple weeks ago, including a restoration of a child’s bike and a rush job for a friend who was competing in an upcoming triathlon. I was also working on a troublesome mountain bike that had multiple problems, such as frayed brake cables, misaligned handlebars, wheels badly out of true and a bent rotor for the front disc brake. With the prompt delivery of some parts, I was just able to clear everything out before heading on a vacation to the shore.