The Blog Page

News, commentary and humor about bicycling and other topics of the day

 

Cardinals vs. Cubs

It's hard to believe on this day, July 21, that the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs are through playing each other for 2004, unless the Cards and Cubs get into the National League Championship Series.

The good news, of course, is that the Cardinals are 10 -- TEN! -- games ahead of the Lovable Losers. For those of you people who are Cubs fans, here's some interesting sites for you:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=sportoon/040721

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=rogers_phil&id=1843755

Then, while you're at it, enjoy this column about the Cardinals. Go Redbirds!

Roger 0 comments 4:48 PM

Thursday, July 15, 2004

Finally, Tour de Donut results!

For those of you who have waiting patiently for the Tour de Donut results, here they are:
http://www.bebikeclub.com/unchecked.html.

Just for the record, I finished 63rd in the Under-50 bracket. I really didn't expect to have a great adjusted time because I ate only 13 doughnuts, and my riding time was merely OK. I also spent too much time talking to people at the doughnut stops.

Maybe next year will be better!

And for those of you who want to read another account of the 2004 Tour de Donut, read this one written by Scott Cousins of the Granite City Press-Record. Scott has been a good friend of mine since our college days at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, and he did a good job with his story. You can read Scott's story here.

Roger 0 comments 1:48 AM

Sunday, July 11, 2004

Tour de Donut 2004

The last time I rode the Tour de Donut in 2001, I was concerned that too many cyclists were taking the event way too seriously. It seemed at the time too much emphasis was being placed on getting the fastest time and not emphasis was being placed on the real winners of the Tour de Donut, the people with the best adjusted time.

For those of you not familiar with the Tour de Donut, it is a bicycle "race" of about 30 miles with two stops to eat doughnuts. You receive a 5-minute time bonus for each doughnut you eat, and the people with the best adjusted times are the big winners of the event. The people with the fastest times and most doughnuts eaten also are honored for their feats.

Each year, the Tour de Donut begins and ends in Staunton, Ill., and the people of the small town of 5,300 people really make the cyclists feel welcome. The Staunton High School band played for us just before the race, and the starter for the race was none other than Miss Staunton! Several people lined Staunton's Main Street to see the peloton of about 600 people leave town on their way to a somewhat hilly course that visits the even smaller towns of Prairietown and Worden.

This year's Tour de Donut was a reunion of sorts for me. One of the people I ran into was Joe Booth, the one-time president of the Mid-America Bicycle Club, the club that created the Tour de Donut in 1989. At the first doughnut stop in Prairietown, I caught up with Joe and his wife, Judy, to talk about Tours de Donut of the past. All of us are past winners of the event, and we're still amazed how much the event has grown from its humble beginnings in 1989.

I knew I had no chance to win this year. I cannot come close to eating the 20 to 30 doughnuts needed to win the men's version of the event. Yet, I had a burst of adrenaline at the start of the ride, and the excitement of the event prompted me to eat seven doughnuts at the first stop.

At the second doughnut stop in Worden, I talked to one of my friends from the Belleville Area Bicycling and Eating Society (BABES), Charles Beil. He's recovered quite nicely from an accident he had in June. Charles always is a contender for the adjusted time title, and he was back in good form. As for me, I decided to eat six doughnuts at the second stop, three at a time. The serious doughnut contenders often squish three or four Jubelt's glazed doughnuts together and eat them at once, so I figured I should do that as well.

To top it all off, Karl Painter, the first winner of the Tour de Donut, was standing alongside Main Street as we returned onto Main Street in Staunton. It was great to see Karl and slap his hand as I closed out the Tour de Donut. Too bad he wasn't riding.

I don't know how well I did yet. I had to leave to go to work before the results were announced, and the results were not posted on the Boeing Employees Bicycle Club's site at the time I wrote this account. But it was good to see lots of people sticking around, drinking water or soda and eating sloppy joes, hot dogs and watermelon. A box of doughnuts sat near the soda and water tanks. They went untouched.

Roger 0 comments 12:40 PM

Friday, July 09, 2004

Catsup Bottle madness!

This Sunday is the World's Largest Catsup Bottle Summerfest. This year, the fine folks of Collinsville are celebrating the 55th anniversary of the Brooks Catsup water tower the stands over the former Brooks Catsup factory. It is a quite impressive site, particular while driving south on Illinois Route 159 from downtown Collinsville down the hill toward the old factory site.

The new executive editor of the Belleville News-Democrat, Jeffry Couch, says he has seen the Catsup Bottle twice already in his month on the job, and he plans to visit the Summerfest this weekend. That's more than I can say for two former interns at our newspaper, Janelle Cogan and Cecelia Le, who kept promising to see the Catsup Bottle but never quite got there despite my hearty recommendations that they do so. Janelle and Cecelia, you have been shamed!

To see what the excitement is all about, visit this site:
http://www.catsupbottle.com

Roger 0 comments 11:40 PM

Tour de Donut preview

OK, it's a bit late to be doing a Tour de Donut preview, given that the start of the race is nearly nine hours away, but here goes:

I am not expecting much from this race this year as far as my performance is concerned, both on and off the bike. My biking has been pretty mediocre this year, so I don't expect to be among the leaders, even with the time adjusted for doughnuts eaten. I'm just there to get some miles in to get ready for the West Shoreline Tour early next month in Michigan.

The last time I did the Tour de Donut in 2001, I thought participants were taking the event much more seriously than they need to. Too many people were concerned about their times on the course, and the doughnut eaters were taking things to the extreme. I think I can speak for my fellow co-founders when I say the even is meant to a spoof of the Tour de France -- and therefore a lot of fun.

The bad part of this year's race is that I have to go into work and be in charge of getting the Sunday paper out. It should be interesting!

Roger 0 comments 11:32 PM