09/1/2008 Tour of Missouri Bike Race

Randy is checking the seals around the RV door and windows. I’m considering if I can use Metro again, instead of driving to work. Adding Metro travel time onto a 10-hour day seems like a lot, but I’d prefer not to drive this winter so I may try it.

We haven’t done any bike riding for a couple of weeks, but Sunday we went downtown to watch some other bicyclists in the “Tour of Missouri” bike race. The race is scheduled for 8 days, and each day the riders cover a certain number of miles. Each day everyone starts at the same time and place, and bikes the same route. The officials keep track of who wins each day and the time it took them to complete the route that day. The race winner will have the overall best time for all 8 days, so even if someone doesn’t come in first every day, he can still win the race. Sunday they raced from 2:00 pm to about 4:00 pm. The route they took was all on the streets, so the police set up roadblocks along the way to keep traffic off the route. In order to get the right number of miles in, they raced around the same route 5 times. We found a spot to watch them and cheered them along every time they passed by.  I think the leader at that point was someone who had raced as part of Lance Armstrong’s team in the last Tour de France. This race is not for amateurs!