Time to start planning for 2012. In 2010, I went with my buddies Scott & Joe to the Ronde van Vlaanderen professional cycling race in Belgium. The day before the pros race, the route is open to amateur cyclists of all levels.

We rode with 8,000 (or more) other crazy cyclists over a route full of cobbled roads, leg-ripping short hills called "muurs", and had a blast. It was a rainy day in April, which made it even more epic.

Yeah, well --

I went to Belgium this year and did the route of the Ronde van Vlaanderen. I did create a blog entry for the trip; I just decided to do it on the website for my cycling club. Then, promptly forgot to link to it from here.

So, you can go read it here.

(Update 4 Nov 2012 - looks like when ECV moved the website to a new solution, they nuked my blog post. And sadly, I didn't keep a copy of it. Bummah.)

My friend Tom Pincince sent me the below in email. I've so often wanted to point cyclists to a good list like this (but not had one) that I thought I'd capture it here for posterity.

Items 7-10 are my own additions.

A note from one of the stronger guys I ride with in the morning. He just got back from climbing the Tourmalet. Note that I was dropped mercilessly this morning.

Regards,

Tom

Subject: Paceline etiquette -- staying out of the hospital

Hey guys - -

Well, I finally wrote the "big check," and bought the bike of my dreams. Yeah, I know this blog site is called underheadphones, and yes, I do like spinning.

But truth be told, I spend MANY more hours on a bike than I do spinning records. And it's my real passion. (Does that suggest I should rename my blog? Hmmm...)

Four+ years ago, I saw my first copy of VeloNews on the news stand at Belmont Cycleworks. It was full of shiny pictures of the pro peleton, all the high-end bike porn I could consume. I was in love.

I ordered my first subscription to the magazine almost immediately.

I'm a big fan of Velogogo. Sox, its curator, works as a UX person at Vimeo.

I was looking a little more deeply into him, watching his videos on Vimeo. Ok, I'll admit it: I'm an immature, lame adolescent at heart. I got joy from this short video. I want one.

baa humbug! the anal jelly bean dispenser from Soxiam on Vimeo.

I'm an unabashed fan of Professional Cycling. The big European races thrill me to no end. I love talking about them, participating as a full-fledged tifosi from the US.

It's hard for us here in the US to truly get "full race" coverage in video. We either have to buy a subscription to cycling.tv (not cheap), which in my experience has been about as painful to use as tearing a bandage off 8-hour-old road rash. This year's Giro d'Italia was nearly a casualty of cycling not being a big-enough sport here in the US to get us good coverage. Nearly.

Note the bamboo frame. Was this fixie rider after the lightweight, the stiffness, or the green-ness? I think none of the above; even with baskets (vs. clips), those shoes aren't shoes to ride in. She had to be just a model for the photo shoot. We'll never know....

But a hot skinny chick on a bamboo bike? I just had to blog about that. ;-)

Thanks velogogo.com. (Great "blog" you should subscribe to.)

The Tour is the most exciting sports event of the year for me. I follow each day's stage with keen interest. It's a wonderful event to be a fan of, because it's such a long-lasting high. In contrast to the Super Bowl (which I do watch and love), the TdF gives you the gratification of competition for three straight weeks.

When the winner is announced (congratulations, Carlos!), it's all exciting and is the ultimate achievement. And all that's great.

But, the day after - today - the "What now?" feeling starts to appear.