El Cyclista

05.26.10

From The Saddle: Camp Catskills: Day 1

This is day one of what I hope to be a nice block of riding up in the Catskills, in upstate New York. Unfortunately day one coincided with what seemed to be the end of Spring, and we had 90+ temperatures and some sticky thick humidity. We are staying down the rode from a climb that is know as “The Devils Kitchen“. I rode up to the base at Becker rode and stared up at it for a while. It is not a climb, it is a cliff. I have been reading about it before I came up, and got informed that it has pitches of 24% and is only open from April. Something that originated as a mule track when that was the preferred way to transport, probably means it is not built for cars, let alone bikes. So having just watched the likes of Cadel and Ivan struggle up something similar in the Giro’s uphill time trial (Didn’t Dan Martin out in a great ride?), I may want to ease myself into this one (Note to coach: Chad I will not be doing hill repeats on this). I rode out along Route 32 and the Glasco Turnpike and the hills around Woodstock. Truly beautiful rolling roads, perfect for training. Heat exhausted and hungry, I might have to get myself down to Tammy’s for her Curry Night.

05.24.10

This Was Epic

This was epic. This Giro keeps giving us some of the most exciting riding I have ever seen, and the Zoncolan stage was a great set-up for a very exciting final week. No amount of team support was helping anyone here, this was down to your own personal ability to suffer. Once on the slopes of the last 10km it was you, your bike and a very steep hill. The Tifosi really did themselves proud. The noise as they saw Basso coming through the Zoncolan bends was incredible. And what a return for Basso. It has been a long way back for him and what a way to announce that you have found your legs again. He visibly looked more fluid than any of the other riders, keeping a metronome pace all the way up, riding everyone off his wheel. Then watching Evans fight back in the upper slopes as he realized his chance to take a Grand Tour was slipping away up the road in front of him. Epic.

Photo: Pentasport/RCS Sport

05.22.10

From The Saddle: Lobach, PA

Berks county, PA has to be one of the nicest places to spend a weekends riding, yet seems to be relatively undiscovered. I spent two great days around the hills near Reading, and think I only saw two other riders. The ride out to Lobach rolled up and down for miles on pretty much car free roads. The last hill right up to the driveway where I was staying was a serious lung buster. If you ever get the chance to ride Hill Road from the lake at Angora road, a short hill that will give you a 20%+ gradient test, make sure you have a 27 on the back (the picture really doesn’t do it justice).

04.05.10

From The Saddle: The Glen Falls Loop

After about an hour of riding around Washington DC to find a road to ride on and dodging the Cherry Blossom watchers, following the locals is what I should have done from the start. Once you actually find that road, MacArthur Blvd, it turns out to lead to a very nice ride out to Glen Falls and the countryside beyond it. Low traffic, a pretty good surface and some nice hills made for a nice 4 hours, even if nearly two of them was spent sitting at lights.

03.10.10

Google Maps Bike Routes

So they do this the week after I come back from LA? Google Maps directions now with bike routes included. This is a very cool addition, as I find myself using the “where the hell am I?” button quite a lot on Google Maps. Now the question is, are they going to add a Pro, Cat 1 or “on my fixie” filter that will adjust the journey time? One feature which I love is the crowd sourcing of the routes. They have put their best wheel forward at making suggested directions, but offer up the functionality for local riders to email in suggested changes to improve the quality. One feature missing though, is showing the best coffee and bike shops en route. Then you are talking about true technology for riders. Imagine this coupled with the Copenhagen wheel we posted earlier (http://elcyclista.com/2010/02/the-copenhagen-wheel/)….that would be pretty damm cool.

03.07.10

From The Saddle: La Flores and Malibu

The weather caught up with me on my last day of riding in LA. It had been too good to be true, 60 degrees and sunny everyday. I wanted to head up La Flores one last time. When you turn off PCH there is a nice steady one mile to get yourself settled in, and then you hit a tough 16% section. Once past this it is a great climb that had hardly any traffic on it. I came back down the same way to PCH and headed back towards Dume Point to shake the legs out. If you ever get tired of riding PCH (It is hard to believe this is the equivalent of our 9W – hardly seems fair) there is a nice little side road called Malibu Road, that although it doesn’t have a great surface, you will get an idea of how the other half live. When I got back into LA I spotted a great little gaggle of surfers floating around looking for a wave. All of this right on the doorstep of the city. Completely changed my opinion of LA, it is a very cool place to ride.

03.04.10

From The Saddle: The Agoura Hills

It just gets better and better. My first time riding in the Agoura Hills off PCH, and man it is some tough love riding. Beautiful Canyon roads, that get less traffic the more you go out along PCH. Today I headed up Encinal Road on the advice of my coach Chad and along Mulholland Hwy (probably the worst named road ever – because believe me this is no Highway) and back down Kanan Dume Road. The climb up Encinal is perfect, nice and steady and great views of the Pacific on the lower slopes. It averages out at about 5.5%, with a max of 8% and runs for about 6.5 miles if you go all the way up and over to the Malibu Country club. The legs are starting to feel a little cooked, but I am going to squeeze every ounce of life out of this sun before I go back to frigid NYC on Sunday. How can I go back to the Cyclops after this?

03.03.10

From The Saddle: PCH To Zuma Beach

From The Saddle: Griffith Park, LA

My first ride in LA. My first time in shorts outdoors in 2010. Felt good. I drove over from West Hollywood to the car park at the LA Zoo and set out on the loop recommended to me by friends in Griffith Park. This is a regular in the city loop, and despite the fact it was 7am and a little cold, there were still a few riders out. The loop is practically traffic free, and apart from some drain off dirt from the rain, the surface is pretty good. Just after the Travel Town museum there is a nice little climb, perfect for hill repeats. I did see something interesting. This being Oscar week I guess there are a few stars in town, and I did see a jogger out with her trainer being escorted by a police car. Only in LA.

02.25.10

The Copenhagen Wheel

I have been watching this product for a while with great interest. One of the things I enjoy most about riding is the physical exertion, so isn’t a bike with an engine a scooter? Although, there is something nice in the idea of being able to just flip on an extra 30watts in the last 20 meters of the State line sprint. Joking aside, I understand that this type of product is not aimed at me, and if it succeeds on getting more people out on bikes – then that is an excellent thing. Who knows where that could lead, and it does make a very good option for a daily commute in bike friendly cities. Potentially more interesting is the technology developed within the wheel hub itself, that if adopted could apply to us all. The hub design allows sensors to collect data as you ride. Not the usual stuff we all collect already (speed, distance, watts, elevation..) but data on your actual route like carbon monoxide, NOx, noise, ambient temperature and relative humidity. This in itself is not so interesting but when crowd sourced with other rider’s data you start to build up a very different view of the environment that you ride or train in. Or as the developers call it “fine-grained environmental information”. On a personal level I would love to know in New York summers where the lowest pollution levels are in a city, in real time as I ride. But on a planning level if it could impact city policy and planning on where the best place to put bike routes are, now that would be something. The hub functionality is controlled from the handlebars via Bluetooth and a smart phone and allows you to view the data in real time. It can also be used as an electronic shifter to change gears, and amazingly lock the bike. Genius. So now I am thinking of a product partnership between Apple, Powertap and Shimano to make a race version of this. Sign me up.