Brian King’s Blog

I’m not sure why I even bother, but I just can’t let this rest.  The 2009 race is happening right now, and NOW is the time we should be forcing our politicians to make the decision on keeping the race next year.  It would show good faith from the state, and remove the dark scythe hanging ominously above this race.  Even as the riders toil in the heat of the Missouri outlands – announcers, fans, and everyone else is saying this race is death warmed over…yet I don’t get the sense anyone is particularly concerned or doing anything about it!  The press should be constantly in the Governors face this whole week, talking about the good things this race is doing for Missouri this very instant, and get him on record either supporting it or explaining why it is bad for the state to support it.

Missouri is on the cusp of losing one of the most positive PR sporting events in the history of the state because they can’t get their act together.  I figure investing 1.5M dollars in return for 30M+ in revenues which are generated from having this seven day INTERNATIONAL sporting event would be a no-brainer. Is it politics?  Democratic Governor of Missouri wants it dead.  Republican Lt. Governor fought like hell to save it this year with an 11th hour rescue.  Can it really be that inane?

There are three big bike races in the United States, though the Tour de Georgia apparently took this year off as they seek sponsors to foot the bill for 2010.  This leaves the Tour of Missouri and the Tour of California with 2009 races.  And here we are in prime time in the world’s eyes, and the state of Missouri looks like a bunch of chumps as we bumble around not knowing if the race will be back next year.  This hurts potential future sponsorships, this hurts television coverage (why bother if it is going to be canceled next year?), and it hurts Missouri tourism which is the primary sponsor of this race.

And, in what seems like a continuing series of complaints about the City of St. Louis and race planners, someone got the bright idea to place the start/finish line directly next to a median full of flowers on Market Street.  Then the announcers had the gall to berate anyone who was standing in the flower beds!  Congratulations – once again St. Louis looks like they can’t get their act together.  As you can see from this photo, the flowers are literally next to the start/finish – not somewhere people were standing just to be mean or bad citizens (as was implied by the announcers).

Don't stand in the flower beds!

I just can’t fathom why it is so important to have the race start and end in such a confined space, with literally 10 feet on either side of the race chute available for spectators.  If you aren’t standing on the guardrails for the entire race to protect your spot, you can forget about seeing the finish in real time.  I found this out the previous 2 years I’ve been to this race.  What this does is force people to hold their spots the whole four hours, rather than mosey around the tents to see what else is there.  Is it really that difficult to find some grand stands for people?  Why not have some high schools provide stands, and in return let them march their bands in between laps for some entertainment for the crowd?  The only entertainment we got was one motorcyclist doing stunts (interestingly enough, he is the only piece of entertainment for three years running).  Come on St. Louis, this is the best we can do?  One act?

This year there were no large screen TV’s showing the race at the finish line like previous years – which meant that once the peloton rounded the corner we had almost no idea what was going on.  This was bad.

Is it really so difficult to start and end the race somewhere like Forest Park, ideally along a hillside so that spectators could relax, bring blankets, enjoy the park, and see a good race without standing along hot guardrails for 4 hours?  Have the circuit go downtown to get your precious face time for the city, but don’t make the fans suffer for it.  Better still, have St. Louis be an end point of a stage race, rather than a circuit race.  Do a shot downtown, then a few laps through Forest Park for the big ending.  I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but the St. Louis circuit race is almost a carbon copy each year.  Time to mix it up.

Finally, I can say one good thing about this year in St. Louis – the photographers were asked to move back up the road far enough that they didn’t block all the spectators who were trying to see the big finish.  In year 1 they were right up at the finish line, making it impossible to see the winning sprint if you were behind them.  Not sure where they were in year 2 because I couldn’t see the finish.  Definitely an improvement.

And not to be totally negative, here are some ideas for improvement;

1. Improve the start/finish area.  Totally unacceptable to pack everyone in on a few small sidewalks, or worse in a half-mile of flower beds, and expect that to be OK.  Think this through a bit more next time.

2. There must be TV’s for spectators at the start/finish.

3. Bring in entertainment between laps if there is a circuit race.  You are trying to promote tourism.  Why not have Fred Bird there?  St. Louis Rams cheerleaders.  High school marching bands.  Allow regular bikers the ability to ride en masse through the start gate to get a taste of the race first hand and get on TV and get their bikes signed by riders later? Surely there are other ideas for entertainment which showcase Missouri that would do it for the positive exposure alone?

4. Have a camera on a roof top so as to capture the look of the peloton as it goes through the gate and as the big sprint happens at the end (since we can’t have helicopters this might be a poor man’s substitute).

5. If you are having money trouble, why not chip in with some other states to help?  The Tour de France isn’t solely a French affair, and it regularly travels in a half dozen other countries over the years.  Nobody wants to lose the exclusivity of only running through Missouri, but would it kill us to have a route spend time in neighboring states in return for help funding the Tour?  Off the top of my head, I could see a route going into Alton, doing a small loop in Illinois, and then heading back over the bridge.  A quick jaunt by the slaughter houses of the Kansas side of Kansas City might add some flavor to the race…

6. Politicians need to figure out a way to work together on this.  The tourism dollars alone make the decision to support the tour a NO BRAINER!  If we throw this away because of politics it will be a black stain on Missouri.

7. Get real time TV coverage.  How can an event this big, in our home state, not rate some kind of full length TV coverage?  I suspect it is because no one can sell advertising for this event.  Well congratulations – that is exactly what wishy washy support from the State of Missouri will do for you.  No one is going to pay for advertising on an event that no one knows is going to be around almost up until the time it happens!

8. Talk to Lance Armstrong.  If you can get him interested in having his Livestrong foundation have some role in the race, even making his group a prominent co-sponsor at no cost, the publicity alone will bring in tons more spectators.  Lance could single handed-ly save the Tour if the Missouri folks could play it smart.

I love the fact that Missouri has this incredible opportunity, and I fully expected the race would be canned this year.  I’m impressed that even at the late hour the race was saved, we were able to get seven professional racing teams to show up (we had 3 last year apparently).  Kudos to race organizers for doing the best they could with the time they were given. The race has lots of potential, even as other races fall from grace (Georgia).  But if Missouri blows this because of petty politics I’m going to be very disappointed in our elected representatives.  Not surprised mind you, just disappointed.

I’m not sure what the answer is here.  I’m just a guy who loves watching bike racing and I hate to watch this slow motion train wreck happen.  But what can we do to force the issue here, and fast?  I don’t know…

September 8th, 2009 | Tags: biking | Category: St. Louis | Comments (1)

OK, I bought my Jeep Scrambler back in 2002 for the modest sum of $4500, which at the time felt like I was getting a smoking deal for a relatively clean and operable 1985 model.  I began working with my buddy Curt Sadler who was then working for Poison Spyder Customs – and together (his brains and my sweat) we slowly brought the CJ8 up to modern wheeling standards.  By late 2003 it was ready to go, and in early 2004 I took it on its maiden voyage to Holy Cross, CO.  It performed every bit as well as I’d hoped.  For my style of driving (generally light on the gas, and carefully selected lines of approach) it was fantastic.

Then, I took about a 5 year break from driving it.  I can’t really believe it has been that long, but there it is.  FIVE YEARS it has pretty much sat in one garage or another.  I was tempted to sell it, and even posted it on Craigslist a few times with a few nibbles here and there.  But my heart was never really into the sale.  But it wasn’t really into keeping it either… which left me in a quandary.

This summer however, I’ve gotten the bug once again and I’m trying to FINALLY get this pig registered and plated in MO so I can legally drive on the roads.  My assumption being that if I can get myself back into Jeeping and I have fun like I did in the past, I’ll keep her for a little while longer.  I spent the past week working on the rear brakes – and I haven’t gone nuts, so maybe I have a chance!

1985 Jeep Scrambler Coming Soon!

August 18th, 2009 | Tags: Jeeps | Category: Jeeps | Comments Off

I’m putting this here because I think it is one of the funniest pieces of television I’ve ever seen.  It shows Code Pink demonstrating outside a Marine recruitment office and the results are absolute hilarity!

August 13th, 2009 | Tags: current events | Category: Life | Comments Off

I’m tickled to death that Missouri could rise above the politics and money issues to bring back the Tour of Missouri – it surprises me every year that we actually have this caliber of sporting event in our backyard.  I’ve been to the last 2 Tour of Missouri’s, watching both finishes in St. Louis.  My opinion is that the City of St. Louis does a crappy job of promoting itself during these huge events.

1. Location.  The race has ended both years in Memorial Plaza, which is a center of drug use and is frankly a complete dump.  I had the pleasure last year of seeing a) vagrants who looked like they were zoned out of their minds.  b) drug paraphernalia laying around the park – within easy reach of any 3 year old c) there is a city run port-o-let on the corner of Chestnut and 15th that was one of the most disgusting things I’d ever seen.  I can’t even describe the overflowing and explosive mess that covered the entire inside of that thing.  Totally unacceptable.  I never did see a proper bank of port-o-lets other than a pair in the VIP tent.  St. Louis do some clean up!

2. Finish Line.  I’ve sat through both races, watched every lap, and now we are ready to see the big finish.  Oh but wait, you walked more than 20 feet away from the crowd at the finish? Forget about seeing the actual riders cross the finish line!  It is so disappointing that with the entirety of St. Louis, tour organizers try to shoehorn the finish in as narrow a place as possible.  I missed the finish in year 1 because I was crowded out by the official press photographers who stood out on the street just on the far side of the finish line.  I missed the finish in year 2 because I was off about 50 feet in front of the finish line on top of some steps.  Thinking this would help me actually see the riders cross – I was wrong again.  Poor planning.  You have a choice of either standing at the finish line the entire race (this takes care of maybe 100 people) or you can see the backs of the racers as they cross, or you can see the backs of the photographers as the racers cross the finish in front of THEM.  What about the rest of us!

Not to be totally negative, I can’t say enough good things about the volunteers, fans, and actually having a race of this level on our home turf.  The people are friendly all around and it is for the most part a family friendly event.  I just want it to continue and these problems need to be fixed because it makes St. Louis look like a bunch of amateurs.  And why can’t we even get a local crew to televise the race?

Below are what I saw for both finishes.  I realize I could have gotten in real close if I had fought for it, but that is like asking everyone at Busch stadium to huddle around home plate to see someone slide in.

More photos of 2007 race

More photos of 2008 race

July 30th, 2009 | Category: biking | Comments Off

This photo from 2007 shows my grandmother, mom, myself and my son – four generations of our family on my mom’s side.  Sadly, this photo is now a part of irreplaceable history as my grandmother passed away this past weekend.  She was a very strong woman who had gone in to a nursing home temporarily and by all indications was about to be cleared to go back to her home (unassisted) when she was felled by either a stroke or seizure of some sort.  It was very quick.

She had several hobbies, one of which was gardening.  As she got on in age she was less and less able to maintain the huge gardens she once did – but she always dabbled.  I think this year we are going to start a garden in our backyard to celebrate her life, and to help us keep her memory as vibrant as this picture.  I’ll post photos once I get it started…

April 13th, 2009 | Category: Life | Comments (2)

A quick post here, but one that I’d like to share.  I’ve bought a new computer, building it from new components purchased from my favorite online store, Newegg.com.  My motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-UD4H.  I wanted to have 3 monitors, so I bought a dual-DVI video card (Powercolor 4870 PCI Express) but I was not sure how to connect the third monitor without buying a second video card.

The motherboard does have onboard video, but the documentation was a bit vague about whether I could run the onboard video in addition to the add-on video card.  This is one area that was pretty sparse with online help too.  It turns out that this motherboard has something called ATI Hybrid CrossfireX, which simply put allows both onboard video and add-on video to work at the same time as a team.  Thus, it was possible to have 3 monitors running at once.

The solution isn’t as nice as having 2 identical high-powered PCI Express cards in true crossfire mode, but it is perfect if you just want to put a spare monitor to work for simple tasks.  Since it isn’t very well documented in the manual I took this opportunity to put it out on the net.

So what do I use 3 monitors for?

Primary (center 22″ widescreen) monitor : Graphics and HTML editing, email management, movies

Right Flank (17″) : web browsing

Left Flank (17″) : IM windows, status indicators, Winamp, low-fi movies while doing other work on the big screen

Talking point:

Does this hybrid mode in any way tie the onboard video with the performance of the primary card?  I’d say no, because Crysis plays just fine with high video settings before and after I went to 3 monitors.  I can’t be certain there isn’t a downside somewhere though.

April 7th, 2009 | Tags: technology | Category: Life, tech | Comments (1)

Ever since the Tour of Missouri came through town I’ve been re-energized to ride more this fall. The weather was unusually nice up through Thanksgiving, allowing me to ride several times into the “cold” part of the year. Despite not getting a lot of riding in for most of the year I feel I ramped up very quickly and by the last ride I felt really strong. A positive thing to carry into the new year! I am a real wuss though in that I typically can’t stand riding when it gets below 45-50 degrees so any exercise I get will have to be indoors. I’ve never been very good at going to the gym or even riding the recumbent bike I have sitting in my basement.

However, one motivation to keep in shape over the winter is a possible trip to Fruita next spring with my friends in Denver. If I can keep that in mind I should be able to either get to a gym from time to time and spin, or else dust off my exercise bike here and give it a go now and then.

The act of publicly stating my intention to go riding next year should help keep my motivation going through the dark months of winter ahead. Of course if I don’t revisit my blog for weeks or months…

No, that won’t happen!

December 11th, 2008 | Tags: biking, fruita | Category: biking | Comments Off

I just have to post this picture sent to me by a friend in Iraq.  Explosive ordnance disposal drives this vehicle, and well, it speaks for itself for the state of biking in Iraq.

Bikers beware in Iraq

November 10th, 2008 | Category: biking | Comments Off

This past weekend I finally got out on some dirt this year, after doing some training laps for 4 or 5 weeks around my neighborhood. It was good to be back in the saddle and off cement, but it was a short but interesting ride…

The technical section of the trail isn’t too bad when you are in top form, but I clearly was lacking my normal balance and drive, which made the descents harrowing and the ascents brutal. The large rocky “ramp” section up was too much to even try. However, I didn’t crash, I had a lot of fun, and I eventually hit my stride on the flats down by the river. After dodging poison ivy for several miles, trying to say out of the mud bogs -this section was recently flooded- and even finding a bridge out, I had to turn around because I knew I wouldn’t make it back to the car before it got dark.

And then something happened that I couldn’t have prepared for; I got stung by a wasp! As I was happily pedaling along, minding my own business, a wasp flew into my half-open mouth – causing me to instinctively close it. This apparently made it very angry and it stung the inside of my lip. Fortunately I am not allergic to bug stings, but I was fairly alarmed as the inside of my lip swelled to the size of a small super ball. The ice in my camel back had long ago melted and I had nothing but water to apply to keep down the swelling…all my sting ointments in my first aid kit were for external use only!

So I did the only thing I could do, which was pedal. I was about 5 miles from the car, but I was able to catch some pavement for most of the return trip. I felt like a goof with a big swollen lip, but there were no spectators out in this part of the world – so I made it back with my pride. A stop at Quick Trip for some ice really helped the swelling and by the time I got home my wife didn’t even notice it until I said something.

If I learned one lesson it was the need for some sort of cold technology in my first aid kit to use to reduce swelling in emergencies such as this. You just never know what is going to happen around the next corner!

Sadly -or maybe fortunately- I didn’t have my camera with me to document the event.

October 9th, 2008 | Tags: biking, St. Louis | Category: St. Louis | Comments Off