Shop Local...

If you're ever in Amsterdam, I would reccomend you stop in at Kaptein Tweewielers. It is on the Overtoom and what impressed me about this shop the most was their product to floor space ratio. They had a solid collection of bikes— road, mountain, townie, touring, singlespeed/fixie, cyclocross, and a few time trial bikes as well. The majority of their stock bikes were Trek, Kona, Scott and Ridley with a few Santos, and Rocky Mountain too. They also had a great selection on clothing and parts as well. How many shops will have the SRAM XX full gruppo in stock as part of the window display?

We scored a set of Crank Brothers Smarty pedals for 30€ ($43 USD) and a pair of Wellgo flat/clipless combo pedals for E.

Zolder Photos

U23 Zolder CX World Cup

Women's Zolder CX World Cup

Men's Zolder CX World Cup

Scene at Zolder CX World Cup

Men's Race at Zolder

Elite Women's CX World Cup Race

The Elite Women's race strung out quickly in the first lap. The first clip in this video is at the end of lap one. American Katie Compton is the fourth rider across the line and would end up in second place by the end of the day, 22 seconds behind reigning World Champion Marianne Vos of the Netherlands.

U23 CX World Cup Race

Mud and muck...

I think this pretty well sums up yesterday's Boulder Racing race at Xilinx. More later...

Welcome home kg271

A few weeks ago I got a DM on Twitter from @madsencycles... And then I wrote about Urban Utility afterwards. Well, kg271 arrived yesterday, just in time for the snow to start falling.

Valmont Bike Park Ground Breaking Cross

I took a few video clips with my 7 year old digital camera. Yeah, it's not exactly the greatest quality but it sure does show the basics well.

From CX 10.17.2009 Valmont Bike Park is going to be huge when it is finished. Huge in the sense of 'lets bring out all the cyclists in the community together' type huge. I guess, size wise it will be pretty decently sized at 40 acres with a little bit of everything for everyone-- stairs, sand pits, dirt jumps, run-ups, spectating areas, STXC courses, pump tracks. Although I haven't been around since the beginning, I'm looking forward to it just as much as everyone else.

I did put in my share of time on the Boulder Cycle Sport grill heating up brats and hot dogs for hungry spectators wanting to pitch in some money to pay for the park too.

As for the racing itself, I had a good, clean start until I hit the high speed barriers on lap 1 when on the remount I laid my bike out on the non-driveside, throwing it into my left knee, dropping the chain, twisting the left brake lever inwards and losing 20 spots. That didn't bode well for the rest of the race. I was able to swap back and forth with several other racers as they would slow down on the climb just past the finish line to grab a bottle feed and I continued to motor past them. With 2.5 laps to go, I could see Zach Lee coming in to lap me so I sat in to let him pass and dug to gain a few more spots with only one lap left.

Fight Cancer, Win an Ibis, Ride with Chuck and Fatty

Fight Cancer, Win Just About Any Ibis You Want, then Ride It with Chuck and Fatty Wherever You Want

2009 Philadelphia LiveStrong Challenge: Fatty's Speech from Fat Cyclist on Vimeo.

I'm posting this video to give some background on Fat Cyclist. '...That is how we will fight. We will show focus, we will show creativity, we will show endurance and not stop. And we will be kind.' (approx 13:15)

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Dejan Smaic's (Sportif Images) photo from Interlocken is a great shot but is only a glimpse at the pain and pace of Sunday's race. It's one thing when you speak of yourself as pedaling backwards in a race, but it's another thing to have a teammate say that to you afterwards. I think that in and of itself is a pretty accurate statement of the race.

SSWC'09 Pictures

People have been searching for any and all Singlespeed World Championship 2009 Durango photos. Here's my collection including the pre-ride, New Belgium Party, and the Starting Line Crowds.


Friday's Group Pre-Ride of the course.

Friday night's New Belgium Party.

At the start line on Saturday morning.

All of my SSWC'09 Durango photos can be viewed and downloaded from either my MobileMe gallery or from Picasa Web gallery.

Who would have thought that searching, "how to inplug a drain full of mud and dirt," would put Rolling In the Dirt in the top 10 Google search results. It lands on my August 30th post about my toddy brewing. Thanks Lijit for keeping track of this info!

Velonews...

This might be the closest I'll ever get to being pictured on Velonews.com. Yeah, right there next to JHK, with the iPhone upside down. That's me. We're both watching Heather Irmiger get inked after claiming victory in the Singlespeed World Championships 2009 in Durango. Many thanks to Greg Keller of Mud and Cowbells for making this psuedo-dream come true!

I found this video as part of MTBR's Virtual Interbike coverage for WTB.

I'm looking forward to getting set up with some new WTB tires for next season with the Tubeless Compatible System (TCS). It takes the strong wire bead of a true UST tubeless tire and matches it with a standard casing to work with a sealant system to drop the overall weight of a tubeless set up by dropping the UST casing weight. I have been running the WTB Mutano's all year on my Bionicon and just recently put on as my rear tire on my Surly 1x1 for Single Speed World Championships. The high volume, light weight of that tire makes it a great choice for racing on the mixed conditions at Winter Park.

Looking down the road...

Watching the final lap of the 2008 World Cup race at Koksijde gets me thinking down the road towards the Boulder Racing cyclocross race at the Boulder Reservoir on October 25. Although I haven't raced a Boulder Racing race at the reservoir, I remember the Boulder Cup Day 1 in 2008 at the Res. One thing I notice in this video is how tactically smart Erwin Vervecken and Sven Nys ride this last lap-- never letting the other one get too far out ahead, knowing when to ride and when to dismount, when to attack and when to sit in just just a little longer. In the end, Vervecken punches it just right to come out from behind.

The sand at the Res just sucks the energy out of your legs and the best option is to run and pin it. It hurts so much but feels so good at the same time. Weird how so many 'cross races end up that way.

2004 TdF

In 2004, I had the opportunity to go and see the final stage of the Tour de France. This was the year that if Lance Armstrong won the race, he would step out of the group of cycling legends who had won the overall classification Tour five times each in their careers to become the first to win six. In 2005, Armstrong would claim his seventh overall win in Paris.

The thing that amazed me on that day was the speed at which the riders passed by. With this being my first professional cycling race, I was in awe of the speed, fury and beauty of the passing peleton. Although I didn't get to see it with my eyes, I can only imagine what Tom Boonen's final sprint was like just meters down the road from where I stood.

The peleton, led by United States Postal Service Professional Cycling team and Lance Armstron in the yellow jersey, on the first of eight laps of the Champs-Elysees.

This picture pretty well sums up Armstrong's accomplishments in 2004, besting those like Eddy Merckx for the record of Tour de France wins.

Tyler Hamilton stopped by to greet American fans along the Champs-Elysees after crashing in stage 6 and subsequently dropping out of the tour during stage 16. Hamilton would go on to win the gold medal in the Olympic Time Trial in Athens and stage 8 at the Vuelta a Espana. In the coming months however, Hamilton's two positive doping results would more or less bring an end to his professional cycling career.

California's golden boy, Levi Leipheimer, palced 9th overall riding for Rabobank. He stopped by to give some love to the American fans in Paris.

SSWC'09 Post Race Party

Brecktobercross, Sept. 20th

Urban Utility...

After getting a halfway suspicious direct message from MADSEN Cycles on Twitter last week needing to confirm my eligibility for the free bike give-a-way, I quickly called the number I was given. I told the MADSEN employee that yes, I was indeed over 18 years old and I did indeed live in the USA, and confirmed that I lived in the great state of Colorado, he laughed. 'People are going to think this bike-giveaway is rigged because you're the third person to win from Colorado." 

"Well, hot dog. I'll take a bike with a bucket please!" Once the MADSEN crew has settled from Interbike, they'll be shipping off a new townie to me. I should expect to see it on my doorstep and in my garage in about three weeks.

Entering the pain cave...

Can you guess where the hike-a-bike sections were in the SSWC'09 course?

I haven't loaded up any of my pictures yet other than the Sept. 17 post so once I do, I'll have a better report up. Let's say there was a lot of pushing, some amazing views and a festive atmosphere.

On the open road...

Kenosha Pass.

Driving through the rain somewhere between Saquache and Del Norte. Off to the east, I could see the Great Sand Dunes butted up against the Sangre De Cristos.

 These two shots do no justice to the views on Wolf Creek Pass. The golden aspen stand in stark contrast to the darkness of the moss covered granite walls on the east side of the pass and the
sharp descent off the west side in the dark red cliffs stand out from the green forests. Clouds and fog floated through the valley below in true definition of how big the mountains are here in Colorado.

My next trick...

I'm busy prepping my bike and stuff to head on down to Durango for SSWC'09 and as I'm looking at it, I've got a lot of things I want to fit into that small saddle bag.

2 tubes- a 26", a 29"
Patch kit
2 tire levers
A wrench (bolt on rear wheel)
A pocket tool, complete with chain tool
CO2 blaster and 3 cartridges
2 Clif Shots- back up to a gel flask.

I put some fresh rubber on the wheels tonight- WTB Wierwolf LT 29 2.55 version for the front and a WTB Mutano Raptor 2.4 for the back. Both are really high volume which should provide some shock absorbtion on a fully rigid bike. I like the Mutano based on my experience with it on my Golden Willow so we will see how it handles on a different set up. I just need some fresh brake pads and I should be set, at least for gear- the course reports are looking brutal.

Double Header

Pikes Peak Supercross opened the cyclocross racing season in Colorado Saturday.

And Velocross at Boulder Indoor Cycling was Sunday. I'm pleased with how the season openers went overall. I'll work to get some race reports up tomorrow.

09.09.09 Working Man's Wednesday Worlds

Seeing these numbers of folks coming out for Working Man's edition of Wednesday Worlds is rad. The talent pools from state and national champions down to the local cat. 4 guys (myself included) all looking to get some good practice before this season kicks off soon.

Racing season is nearing us and the adrenaline is starting to flow. It's time.

Another cross convert?

It started yesterday at Boulder Cycle Sport as E and I spent an hour or so looking at cross bikes for her. We checked out a demo Scott CX Team for her and today we spent a few hours out at the Louisville Rec Center and the local elementary school working on skills-- really to see if she's interested.

Initial signs show she is and could get good, fast and clean out there. Watch out cat. 4 women.

Dodging storms

Wednesday Worlds #2

Bike, bottle, helmet, long sleeve, sunglasses, and port o barriers. Good to go this early am.

A few folks finishing up the first round of 5 laps.

More later...