Kaspar

The first race for me is this Sunday at Lost Valley, St. Charles County Park, a mountain bike race, the first of the NORBA Missouri State Championship series. I will do the endurance class because I am old and after measuring everybody up, that is where I belong. I am torn a bit. Some of the Geezers have dropped down in to sport class, or others have remained there for whatever reasons. There is no expert 40 or 45 + class. So be it. A few years ago I moved up to expert class because I started winning sport class races. Expert is a totally different deal, I have gotten some pretty lousy results. But I am in shape this year, no deaths, no knee surgery, no broken bones, no issues. I am looking forward to seeing what I can do. But this has nothing really do to with Kaspar.

Steve Kaspar is where I go if I need to get a decent workout on the road. Nothing fancy, no hills, no pacelining, no frills. Steve can be found in the Valley, most Saturdays and Sundays, Edison to Airport Road, repeat, for four hours.

Now, he has been criticized for doing this, too boring, not enough versatility, why do it that way? Let me tell you something. His workouts hurt. Last week Schuck and I set something up with Kaspar, met him down at Ghissalo, on the corner of Edison and Long road. By the way, they have some killer inventory, lots of clothes, major blingety, bling Moots in there. Some really cool stuff. Guitar man Jim Sullivan works there. So does Tim K. who hooked me up with a new helmet. Tim has had bronchitis all winter long. Hope he gets to feeling better. Tim is one of the greatest cyclists in the region, a former national champion BMX racer. I would post a picture of him with a mullet from the 80's. But I will refrain.

Anyway, we park the car at Ghissallo and Steve is already 20 minutes in to his workout. He won't stop, he may look up wave, then motor away, but he won't stop or slow down. The ride starts at 9:00 so do yourself a favor and be on the bike at 9:00. Each lap takes about 15 minutes. Just enough time to see him on the next one for Eric and I. Don't worry about Kaspar "one upping" you either. I am pretty sure he one up's me each day before I get out of bed. Most likely with his diet and regimen of soy and protein smoothie, just the right mixture of protein to carbs, fat. He is the most dedicated trainer of the sport in all directions. Saturdays ride was his first on the road in six weeks. The rest of the time was spent on the trainer, in four hour time periods, on the trainer for Gawds sake!

Here is the Kicker, he is 51 years old. He is a category 2 rider for Dent Wizard, one of the fastest and best organized teams in the region. I don't even know of many 2's that are his age. There aren't that many 2's that I know for that matter. He races with the likes of Kurt Fletcher, Andy O'guin, Karl Stover, a bunch of Pirtles, a few other famous dudes.

After an hour or so warm up, Steve asks me and Eric: "do you guys mind being a rabbit and letting me chase you for three laps?" What this means is that he wanted to put his gear in to 52x11, the hardest to pedal and do a power workout for 30 minutes. Eric and I would rotate and pace line just far enough out of his reach to keep him at his max. So we obliged. We took off maintained a decent pace, 22-25 mph at times. We didn't want to lose him, thought he'd want us to stay "in sight". After the first lap I looked back and noticed that he had fallen back a bit. I was happy because I was redlining, trying to keep Eric at his max. I was doing my own power workout, tossing in the intervals on my time to pull. On the second lap, Eric started showing signs of slowing, but he came through on every pull, never missing a beat. On the third lap I turn around and see Steve less than 50 yards away, beginning to bridge up. Keep in mind, we were struggling to stay away. For those who don't understand, there is a 30 percent decrease in workload when drafting behind another rider. Steve had no break at all, had been in the toughest gear and was coming up on us quick. We were struggling to get to the mailboxes where we were to finish. I put the hammer down and dropped Eric, who was at his max, Steve comes around and I am able to grab his wheel long enough to get some recovery. I don't even think about coming around him on the sprint. This one was his.

Hey, make all the comments you want on his workout regimen, his discipline, his comments when people don't show up that say they will. Steve Kaspar is one of the baddest ass power freaks there is. I reckon I will be back for more. Nuff said.