Apologees for the very late report. 

It was indeed a great evening for the TT.   The breeze died down to almost zero.  It's uncanny how great the weather has been Tuesday evenings year after year.

Again, this week, seven TTers rolled to the line for their Race of Truth.  This week Hop opted to ride his TT steed and he, and it, must have had its fill of oats as he smashed the course in a FMT in an easy to remember 24:00 (25.00mph).  Only 2 seconds off from his PR!  He has been very consistent by having 5 times between 23:58 and 24:09.   Brigitte rocked on her TT rocket bike , blasting through the course in an FWT of 25:59(23:09mph) !  That's 59 seconds faster than her prev PR and 2:37 faster than her best RoadAero time.    Body postioning matters so much.... approx 80% of the total drag of the cylist/bike system is due to our bodies.  Sean and Rich both rode their best times of 2026.  

Jade and Rich completed a brick workout after the TT.   Jade just about jumped off her bike and directly into her running shoes.   She cranked out 2 half-mile intervals at what appeared to be a blistering sub-7min pace.  Rich rode back to the start and knocked out a few miles from there.  Chris, Jade, Brigitte and Rich are all heading to Spain in a couple weeks to compete in the Tri Worlds.  

Note: Next week we will be starting at 6:00pm.   

The Vuelta ends today....     the following comes to mind.....     Whoa Wout!! , team Visma dominates,   the new found gravitas of Enric Mas    and  Damn!  this Vuelta was grueling and tough ! 

Wout vanAert -   donning the green jersey for leading the sprint points, the Green Giant had the audicity to go after the "best climber" jersey on yesterday's mammoth mtn stage.     He won a mtn stage 13  in the 100 degree heat and then won stage 15 shortened due to 110 degree heat.  It's incredible that he can carry his 175lb over the peaks to set himself up to outsprint anyone left in the closing miles.  He fell just short of the polka dot jersey yesterday.

In addition,  he leads out the team's primary sprinter, Matthew Brennan, in the sprint stages.  On those stages he'll also serve as domestique and go back for water bottles for his team mates.  

VanAert and Brennan won 7 stages for the Team Visma team !   

WVA be competing on Sept 27th in Montreal in the Road World Championships.  He and Remco Evenpoel will be co-leaders for the Belgium team. Talk about a stacked team!

Enric Mas (Spain) -   he's been considered one of the better climbers in pro cycling.  He's finished 2nd in the Vuelta 3 times.   He broke out in 2018 with his stage 20 high mtn win to Andorra and in doing so secured 2nd place that year.   He generally rides defensively.  When Pogacar crashed out in stage 8,  he took the bull by horns and won the Queen's stage the next day.  He and his team never let go of the red jersey.  He covered any significant  attacks from the GC contenders.  He gave up very little time in the time trial to the Roglic the Terminator.  He simply rose to the occassion in his home country to secure his first Vuelta victory. 

A tough Vuelta -   This year the Vuelta had ~12,000 ft more climbing than the Tour de France.  And from what I could see, much of it was on steeper slopes.  Many times the gradient was 18+ %     To add to the misery, the temperature was over 95 degrees for two straight weeks and there was a string of 5 days of temps over 100 degrees!    There were 35 rider abandonments during this tour.  Many strictly due to the affect of the heat.   

Montreal, CA   World Championships

Unfortunately, to watch the cycling World Championships live, you need a subscription to FloBikes.   It costs $49.99/month.   Too steep for me.  So, I guess most of us will be reading about what happened.