Nutrition for Going Long

Hammer Nutrition has a great article here explaining the body's nutritional needs for endurance training and racing. This is a long but great read. Take a while to go through it, especially if you're planning on riding the century or even part of it with us or doing another longer "adventure."

Contador wins Giro de Italia

Spanish 2007 Tour de France champion Alberto Contador won this year's Giro after receiving an invitation only a week before the race. Congrats to him and to team Astana.

last minute ride tonight (jun 3)

Hi everyone. I know this is last minute, but i thought i'd see if anyone wants to ride tonight at 5:30. My wife and I are probably going to head up provo canyon, and could meet any of you prior to that. Just shoot me an email at spenbro@byulaw.net.

Good luck to Lindsey at the Little Red Riding Hood, and to any of you racing the Salem Spring Triathlon, i'll see you there.

Spring Ride-- May 3, 2:00

Legal Spin will have one big spring road ride prior to everyone leaving for their summer jobs. It will be Saturday at 2:00. If you want to come, please meet at the bike rack on the south side of the law school. We will ride either a 20 mile rout out to Provo Canyon and up to Nunns Park, or a 30 mile flat rout out to the town of West Mountain. Both are great rides, and the forecast is calling for afternoon temps in the 60's, which means perfect spring riding. We'll try to ride a comfortable pace for everyone, but for those of you hammerheads out there, you can take off at any pace you like, and we'll regroup from time to time. I'll be there, my wife will be there, and you should too. Bring your friends. If you can't come, have a great summer and stay tuned for periodic summer rides.

Boonen gets his win on the cobbles-- about time

Tom Boonen, team Quickstep strongman and classics expert, finally picked up his first win at Sunday's Paris-Roubaix. Boonen lead a late breakaway with two other race favorites, CSC's Fabian Cancellara and Alessandro Ballan while riders from CSC and Quickstep controlled the initial break allowing the favorites to battle it out. At the finish, only Boonen had enough in his tank to make the sprint, and he edged the other two riders out by about 2 seconds. The chase group came in 4 minutes adrift, and included surprise Martijn Maaskant, the rookie from Slipstream-Chipotle, who was not favored in the race. The weather proved to be nice, and a strong tailwind allowed the leaders to set a new record for the course since it was changed in 1968. Boonen averaged 45.13 kph (about 26 mph) over the cobbles.

Contador Wins Tour of the Basque Country/ Who wants to ride on april 25?

Since Astana cannot compete in the Tour or in any of the ASO run spring classics, Alberto Contador seems content on winning everything else. In his second major stage race of the season, Contador held off the filed in the final time trial to win the overall classification by 30 seconds over Australian Cadell Evans. Congrats to Contador and Astana.

In other news, we are thinking about a club ride on Friday, April 25 around 1:00. We would likely meet here at the law school and do a 25-30 mile road ride. It should be a lot of fun, and finals are over for everyone. If you think you'd be in, please leave a comment saying so. Hope to see you all there. Stay tuned for tomorrow's Paris-Roubaix post. (go Cancellara)

Devolder upsets in Flanders

By now, i'm sure that you have all noticed my unhealthy enamorment with professional cycling. Here is yet another fun race result. Belgian national champion Stijn Devolder won the Tour of Flanders on sunday. Some say that Flanders is the hardest of the spring classics, with several short, steep cobble stone climbs, terrible weather (it hailed and was in the mid 30's this year), and very competitive field. It is the Belgians' race, but Devolder was not on anyone's list to win.

Riding pace for Belgian favorite and Quicstep teammate Tom Boonen, Devolder staged a late attack that Boonen and Swiss Fabian Cancellara could not chase down. The attack took the entire field by surprise, and Devolder soloed to win by a gap of about 19 seconds.

Don't you all wish we were riding instead of studying for finals? Lets try to do it soon-- maybe the Friday after finals are over. Also, Paris-Roubaix-- "the hell of the north" is next week. It is one of the most prestigious races of the season, and my favorite rider, Cancellara is favored to win. Stay tuned for another post from the pro race circuit.