You have a weekend all to yourself in San Francisco, you have your bike with you, and over the Golden Gate Bridge is some of the best riding you will do in the US. What could be wrong with that, right? Well half way through that first ride my BB completely shredded, and felt like someone had tossed a handful of gravel in there. Luckily this happened at the top of a descent that had one of my favorite bike shops around at the bottom, Above Category in Mill Valley. These are guys that immediately understand the pain of not being able to get out and ride in the three days of summer that San Francisco has had this year, and within 30 minutes I was ready to be back out on the road (Although I did spend another 30 minutes drooling at bikes and parts).
Chris one of the slickest and nicest wrenches around (in the shot above) had my old BB out, a brand new gold Chris King BB in, and a Dura Ace crank back on in the time it took me to do a lap of the shop. That my friends is service of the premium kind. The shop is sporting a line-up of the new Team Sky painted 2011 Pinarello Princes, with the Super Record 11 builds. These are amazing looking bikes in the flesh. They also had Chad’s Moots RSL built up with Lightweight Wheels, which was ridiculously light. That is one beautiful frame. Other highlights on the parts front were those beautiful custom powder coated 3T stems above, a really nice way to finish out a build from the shop. I picked up a couple of nice tools that I will post on later when I get them out of the bike box.
If you are ever riding in Marin you really need to go by this shop. A great space, a great line up of bikes, one of the coolest shop kits out there and some of the nicest people and service you will find. Go check them out. Thanks for getting me back out there so quick guys.
That title should drive up the search results! or spam. Some pretty funny wipe outs in here, but all in all looks like fun night out – well at least for the audience. Sexy Polo Beer Amigo, Crash Edit from enciclika on Vimeo.
Looks like Alberto Contador has met his match? That last 4KM of todays blitz (19 mph average for the day, gulp) up the Tourmalet was pretty amazing to watch. The look that Schleck shot Berty after he attacked….I think if Andy would have had that confidence coming into the Tour, we may have had a different race. He now knows he is more than capable of matching Berty on the big climbs. There are going to be some great races ahead. I watched it at the Rapha Cycle Club NYC this morning with a great crew and a great atmosphere. Being surrounded by such great product made it damn hard to not buy anything during all of the Versus commercial breaks….I see what they are up to. It is a real shame that the club will only be open until after the Vuelta. There is nothing else like it in the city and from what I saw this morning the local scene is behind it. Lets start a partition!
Departure day is here. The bikes are boxed and ready to go. One week in and around Nice and Cannes, and then driving in a Camper up to Lake Como and Bormio. Look out for some posts if I can find Wifi access. Otherwise there is going to be a lot of tweets from the tops of mountains. Or at least I hope there will.
Well I wouldn’t mess with him in a sprint either. First mechanical doping, and now stunt doubles for “dangerous” stages – what is our sport coming to. If the rumors are true, Liquigas have signed Christian Bale to act as a stunt double for Roman Kreuziger on the early cobbled stages of the Tour. After Liquigas experienced the “classic-like” stages in the Giro they decided to recruit a couple of look-alikes to ride the early stages in case of a repeat of all of the crashes. When Bale was asked about this new role he said “I plan on staying at the front, if Armstrong wants to try and come past, I will not be responsible for the consequences”. The team continues to search for a double for Basso. Hollywood casting director Sylvia Fellico said “It is a hard one to find, we can’t figure out if he is smiling or grimacing”
It must be hard being a Pro. The Tour is looming, and that bloody Tourmalet is in it twice. I know, you say to yourself, I am going to get out there and do a few sneaky hill repeats on it, that will get the head right. Well what do you know, you arrive at the little cafe at the top for a quiet hot chocolate and there is a bloody circus going on. Not one, but two Schleck brothers!, team cars (with bikes) and two bloody film crews. Scuppered. This is one conversation I would loved to over heard” (Photo of Contador and the Schlecks who bumped into each other at the top of the Tourmalet when out training this weekend)
AS: “Hey Berty!” AC: “Andy? Frank? what the….” AS: “Is that a compact you have on there Berty?!” AC: “No, no this is my brothers bike, it has one of those litle motors in the seat tube….” AS: “Berty you know that is illegal?” AC: “How come you guys got silver frames and I got stuck with this horrible blue and yellow?” AS: “We live close to Switzerland Berty, where they know how to design”
The last ten days have been amazing to be a cycling fan, for both good good and bad reasons.
1.Stage 7 of the Giro from Carrara to Montalcino
Spectacular to watch, tough to ride. Some of the most iconic images of our sport in recent times have come out of that day. Some of the stars embraced it and made headway on the GC, whilst others completely imploded in the conditions. Watching Evans bridge the gap to the leaders, ride through and off the front in the finale, had the hairs on my neck standing in end.
2. Stage 5: the split.
Whilst two of the three teams left in contention for the GC played a game of chicken (Astana and Liquigas), and the third team who had mostly abandoned (BMC) were helpless, literally half of the race rode off the front including such luminaries as Wiggins and Sastre to gain over 10mins. Boom! The GC top 10 just got wiped out. Race reset.
3. First year pro Nick Porteleading the Giro
Great quote “I don’t now how it happened, but I’ll take it!“. At the end of Stage 5 he found himself in the pink jersey with over 1.45 min to second place, and over 1o mins to some of the GC favorites. This is going to make an interesting game of carrot over the mountains this weekend. The word from Saxo Bank is “The kid can climb”, so is going to take it on themselves and make the race hard.
4. Landis Gate
As it has become known around these parts. Who knows what to believe. It all seems so incredible. The governing body receiving bungs to keep quiet. Some of the biggest stars still racing implicated in doping. Lance exposed… but who do you trust. The Landis book I can forgive, most of them are nonsense anyway, so if you choose to buy it, that is on you. But taking money from fans to fund your “I am innocent appeal” is a hard one to take. One thing for sure, if there is an ounce of evidence to back any of this up, American cycling and the UCI will be in tatters. We are going to sit back and watch this one play out a bit.
5. Lance Down and Out
Maybe his head was still at the Landis press conference, but this is a guy who doesn’t fall off much, and the timing of this one could not have been worse. With 50 days to the Tour and a spotty early season in his legs, Lance really needed the race time a TOC to get ready.
I just read a quote today from Rory Sutherland of the United Healthcare team who said, that out of the 132 days this year so far, he has spent 27 of them staying in a Holiday Inn. That is nearly a month in a hotel room (When I first moved to NYC I spent 6 weeks in the Holiday Inn in China Town, I feel his pain). Being on the road riding a bike for a living seems to be a blessing and a curse. The domestic race scene in the USA stretches the country from top to bottom, west to east, and in a country this big that is a lot of travel. That means a lot of driving, and not a lot of business class or private jets, a level of sponsorship reserved for the rich and famous. Photographer Michael Crook has been traveling with the Fly V team this season documenting that life on the road. As they are about to head off and join the Tour Of California this photo essay looks back to the start of the season when the riders were coming out of their winter training cycle and are getting tested and fitted for the season ahead. The numbers on those screens must have been pretty good as the team is having a spectacular season so far, and are looking set to make a strong challenge in California. Thanks to Michael for letting us publish this essay, and we hope she has a great time at the TOC following the team. Can’t say that I am not jealous.
Loving this T-Shirt from Ashcån. Not really sure about the implications when wearing it, especially outside the state of New York, but some nice type. In the words of the designer “I guess I was trying to say something about the duality of man with this one”.
