Today at work my friend and co-worker Andy G told me he could not ride RAMROD because of a time conflict. It also turns out he had volunteered and so was guaranteed an entry. Sweet.

What blew me away is that his guaranteed entry is transferable and he offered it to me! My lucky day for sure. As I type this my registration has been accepted and I'm in for 2010.

This year will be the 27th edition of the ride and I think I have done it about 15 times. It is absolutely my favorite one-day ride in the state of WA. I have gobs of vivid memories riding this event back in the day when a friend of mine – Rick B – and I were trying to 'race' it. Ah, the good old days… when we were young, strong and really stupid. Back when the ride was timed and support vehicles were allowed. That seems like a lifetime ago now.

For some people my biggest cycling claim to fame is still that Rick and I managed to post the fastest time on the original 156 mile course. I guess that can never be taken away from us since the route is now officially 154 miles. Good thing too because I could never go that fast again in my life!

These days I make it a point to hit every rest stop, regroup at the top of the climbs and enjoy the scenery. While still going fairly fast between stops of course…

Having my entry be a sure thing is fantastic. Will I have fun this year? That's also a sure thing. Thanks Andy.

Everyone should be so lucky as to experience a magic moment while doing the activity they really enjoy.

Graduating with the degree of your choice is nice, Getting married to the person you love is great, so is having a child (when it's intended anyway). But last Saturday I got the opportunity to top all that. I finished a race with two teammates and we swept the podium. Nice.

Of course I'm kidding about the significance of this event but damn it was fun.

At first I was talking it down and coming up with all kinds of reasons why this event was not so special but after reading a friend's blog I decided screw that – I was part of a really cool thing! And I'm going to revel in the emotions (which of course include posting this to Twitter and Facebook so all my friends know how good I feel). Besides, at my level of racing there are just so many ways that you can truly do it up.

Check it:

[here is the original]

Thanks to Dave H and Todd G for being there, helping power the moves and for letting me cross  the line first. Especially that last part. :)

Back in the day I got my first bike shop job at the University of WA ASUW Bike Shop. It was a super gig – low stress, I learned a lot and kept in touch with many of my co-workers for several years after leaving.

One thing that was rampant at the shop was working on your own bike. Off the clock, on the clock, whatever. Employees were always using shop rags, chain oil and tools to pimp out their own ride(s). And really, when you make that little, it's hard to focus much blame. As long as the customers get helped (which they did) then the manager would usually turn a blind eye. Heck, he did it more than all of us combined…

So today when I got my weekly copy of University Week in my Inbox I had to laugh out loud when saw this picture and caption:

"Student Tomio Tran works on his own bike on a recent morning at the ASUW Bike Shop. The shop will move to the first floor of Condon Hall when the HUB begins its remodel in June. To learn more about the Bike Shop, visit its Web site, here."

Some things never change. And you know what? That makes me feel good.

It was probably only a matter of time…

There are all kinds of cyclists, each one more of a niche market than the next. One particularly small segment of cyclists call themselves randonneurs and there happens to be a local club; appropriately named Seattle International Randonneurs.

I have a few friends that belong to SIR and I have on a couple of occasions attended an official brevet with them. There are always one or two rides hosted by SIR that I would like to do each year and so this year I figured what the heck and signed up. Not that it's required, they just seem like good people to support.

Just like bike racing it turns out you can't just sign up with a local club, you also need to join RUSA which is the national governing body of randonneurs. So I did that too.

What ride am I thinking of doing this year? a 300K up in Bellingham when there are no races. Specifically on April 3.

My friend Jeff D had his bike stolen and was notified because someone found out about it on a blog post and gave him a ring. Nice. The Internet finally did some good. Except that the bike was not recovered and its still out there… So in hopes that this post will let someone else who has seen this bike Contact Jeff before they hock it on eBay, here is the info:

My house in NE Seattle was burglarized last night and my TT bike was stolen. Please keep an eye out for someone trying to unload a 55 cm black Cervelo P3 SL model year 2005. The most distinguishing feature is brand new a Quarq power meter on brand new rotor cranks. Luckily I had training wheels on it, Velomax I think, and not Zipp.

Thanks,

Jeff

(206) 335-3551

I had to get Cameron to show me how to use Windows Movie Maker in order to create this…

I'm riding up the Denny Creek road on day one of the 2009 Courage Classic. Trying to film while riding is fun. The second bit is me rolling into the finish at Suncadia.

Every time I go for a ride that is picture worthy I bring my camera. And so naturally I'm more likely to be behind the camera than in front of it. Now I'm not some sort of vain camera whore or anything but I like to document stuff and 'stuff' includes me so any time someone else takes a picture of me - be it on the bike or off - I love getting copies.

Last Friday I was racing at the track and when I got back to work on Monday there was a message in my inbox from a co-worker. Turns out her brother was in town and just happened to be at the track to watch some bike racing and to play with his camera.

When he heard the announcer mention my name it rang a bell (seems my co-worker had told him I raced bikes and that I did so on the track) and since he was playing around with the low light conditions anyway he squeezed off a few shots. He sent these to his sister and she sent them along to me. Nice.

I love Craig's List! Just when you think you have found all the gems up pops another. This one came from a co-worker (thanks Nick!) and I am in f'n tears after reading it:

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sea/1192150038.html

Having worked in the bike biz for 15 years I sympathize with so much of this… And with quips like, "I also want a unicorn to blow me.", how can you go wrong? You can't; that was rhetorical. Now read this. And laugh. Hard. Then go for a ride and revel in the elitism that is second nature to all experienced or wannabe experienced cyclists.

Today one of the most amazing cyclists in the world won yet another race. Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli won the French National TT championship and in so doing added her 56th national title to her palmares.

Oh yeah, did I mention that she is FIFTY YEARS OLD? And still spanking women half her age. Amazing.

Just for fun let's compare Jeanie to a well know, perennial American powerhouse: Kent Bostick (just because he's also 50, sponsored and was covered all the time in VeloNews back in the day).

Hello…! Is there any doubt?

Too often we lose track of why we ride or race and when someone like this comes along you have to know that they simply love what they do. Sure, it might be a bit obsessive at times and they might not have any children but hey, respect worthy without a doubt.

Two years ago Jeannie was described as the best cyclist in history that gets the least recognition. I agree.

And so it begins.

A few days ago under the affects of new bike euphoria I Tweeted, "Can I get a (Ellsworth) witness?!" Sheesh, talk about starting things off with a cliché. :(

But screw that, a few days ago Shelley and I received the bulk of the stuff needed to build our first full-suspension mountain bike tandem and it rocks. It ROCKS. You hear me?

First I gotta thank the 'sponsors'.

Ellsworth - this company is one of most outstanding mountain bike companies in the world. All their shiz is still made right here in America (not just assembled here or designed here) and lucky for me they launched their own recovery plan whereby new bikes were discounted $700 if you sent them any(!) old complete bike or frame. Ellsworth gets the tax write off, needy people get a working used bike and Shelley and I get a brand spanking new ride. Martin is no dummy, I jumped at the offer.

WebCyclery (and Henry Able) - this company is actually a brick and mortar retailer in OR but they happen to have a big web presence and phenomenal customer service. Oh yeah, the happen to be tandem experts. It helps that Henry is a tandem-crazy person himself (he has a road, full-suspension and single speed tandem at least…) and the guy is passionate about riding them. Way passionate. Henry answered all of my questions patiently and even though I did not get ALL of the parts through WebCyclery they were never anything but fantastic. I did a 15 year stint in the bicycle industry and this is why IBDs succeed.

This morning I finally broke down the boxes, put the frame in my repair stand and sorted through all the parts to see if anything was not going to work or was missing. Here are those pictures. Turns out the 350 mm Ritchey Pro seatpost I ordered for myself will not be long enough. Luckily though Ritchey makes a Comp in a 400 mm length so that's now on the way. Even though I triple and quadruple checked the advertised dimensions against my single and tandem bikes, there is nothing like dropping 5 large on a bike that you have never seen in person to make you sweat… I was not absolutely positive it would fit us until it showed and thank GOODNESS it will be fine. Shelley will actually need a 350 mm post and the stoker top tube is plenty roomy. And with the 400 mm post in front and one of my 15 cm stems it will be fine for me. One word: relief. One more: Anticipation. One more: I'm calling in sick as soon as it's ready! Oops, that's more than one but you get the idea.

I was able to recycle some parts from an old tandem (the captain's cranks) and from my single (headset, shifters, derailleurs, saddle and pedals) and had a some tires and tubes and a saddle and pedals lying around for Shelley but everything else is new.

Speaking of new, I love the fork I got for this bike. LOVE it. It's the 2009 Fox Talas. OMG, this is one sweet way to hang a wheel on a frame.

ASIDE - I had to sell two tandems to afford this one! I sold the beautiful, custom Ti Cycles steel bike with the daVinci Designs drivetrain that Cameron and I used to ride in the Courage Classic to a good friend and I will need to sell our Rodriguez mountain bike tandem as well. I'm okay with this. :)

What's next? I need to build the wheels and then assemble the bike. I'm still waiting for two parts to arrive, one of which is that longer seatpost, but my goal is to be in the dirt one week from Saturday. Yes!

Every once in a while you get an itch and it just needs scratching. It might be your first century, your first fully loaded bike tour, an ultra distance ride, a night ride, whatever. Sometimes you don’t even know you have this itch until someone else tells you about it. This is what just happened to me.

Thanks to my buddy Tom W on Saturday, May 23 I will show up at Tom's house and do the 100 miles to nowhere ride for charity:

http://www.fatcyclist.com/2009/04/23/register-now-for-the-100-miles-of-nowhere/

We will do this event on rollers but you - because I know you want to do this - could do it on a trainer or any (really) small outdoor circuit you that you like.

Tom has graciously opened up his house (or very large deck if the weather is nice) if one or two of you want to join us and if there is more interest we might see about an outdoor venue like the Marymoor Velodrome infield, etc.

Cost is only $75 ($50 of which goes directly to charity). What's that you say, I get to PAY to endure this torture...? YES! Isn't that the way it usually works? Plus, no fund raising - just pay and ride and get your schwag.

So c'mon, check the box and think of all the stories you will have to tell your children once that skin graft on your taint finally heals up.

Let me know if you want in.

Martin "Yes, I am going to regret this but WTF..." Criminale

"I believe Tyler… was doped to the gills." No doubt.

Remember when it was cool to support Tyler Hamilton? All those evil Euros were saucing it up and getting away with it because they were part of some good old boys club (along with lots of doctors and half of Spain it appears) and our squeaky clean kid with the cutesy dog was riding his heart out on foreign soil. For USA no less. Well what f'ing ever.

My new favorite blog said it really well so I won't plagiarize too much here but I am REALLY bummed that this situation is making us (read: cycling fans) into such cynics. Rider gets caught, rider - of course - denies everything, B sample comes back and guess what, it's positive too…

Call me naive but I still must want to have heroes that I can live vicariously through.

I suppose my failing is that with all the doping news surrounding cycling I had some notion that it was helping. Lord knows that all the major sports in America are hopelessly mired in drugs and will probably never rise above. Football, baseball, golf (WTF?!), give it up.

Because I like to ride and race and am bike crazy (and don't want to come down from my high) I now choose to live in a dream world when I read about professional results. And every few days I zap myself with one of those neuralizers from Men In Black just for good measure.

Oh yeah, remember that domain for all the Mr. Hamilton fans?

http://ibelievetyler.com/

Hahahaha…

This post was inspired by David Rebellin who today did something that is simply incredible. Not only did he win Fleche Wallonne (a brutal, one-day cycling classic) but in so doing he earned a hat trick and proved that at 37 he is in no way down for the count.

Then, as the mind so often does, mine began to wonder and I started thinking about all the different levels there are in any sport. In cycling you've got your local talent, your national talent, your domestic pro, your continental (meaning European) pro, your quality domestique and finally the few guys that can actually think about winning a race.

Occasionally an athlete comes along that simply defies this scale or progression.

"There are few sports people who have competed that, no matter how great the introduction, it is still a disservice to their career. Eddy Merckx is one such athlete."

Other than 1971, 1972 was arguably THE year that epitomized his career. In this year he won - among many others - the following races:

• Milan-Sanremo
• Fleche Wallonne
• Liege-Bastogne-Liege
• Tour de France
• Giro d'Italia
• Giro d'Lombardia

And if that was not enough, proving that he could carry his form all the way from April through September; Eddy Merckx, 27-years-old at the time, laid down 49.431 kilometers over an hour (on a normal bike) in a record which stood for just under 12 years until Francesco Moser came along and broke it riding what could only be called a bike from another universe that sported cow horn bars and dual disk wheels. That was in October.

ASIDE - in 1997 the UCI banned (read: revoked) records that had been set on bikes with 'technological advantages' over those used in 1972. This meant that under the new rules Merckx's record stood until 1993 when it was broken for the second time by the incredible Graeme Obree. Besides, in 1999 Moser admitted to having doped specifically to get that hour record…

Merckx won his last major classic at the age of 30 and retired at the age of 32. THIRTY TWO. Since he won his first major race at the age of 20, this means he amassed all his victories in the span of one decade.

Most other cyclists are happy to cement their career with ONE major classic win or ONE grand tour stage victory. Eddy won no less than 11 grand tours accumulating dozens of stage victories in the process, loads of lesser tours and of course more one-day classics than any other rider of his era or any that came before or after.

Superlatives fail me.

Hahahahaha… when I saw these pictures below it totally cracked me up. They are from this years edition of the Tour of California and you can obviously read into them anything that you want. Here is my take.

As usual during an alpine stage with nice weather, lots of people feel the need to dress up. Unlike every other costume that I have seen which is only supposed to evoke humor, this one potentially has deeper meaning and one could even construe the wearer to be making a statement? Uh, whatever…

Here we see the doping devil armed with a two-pronged syringe running next to everyone's favorite cancer survivor and to some, suspected doper, Lance Armstrong. I can easily imagine the devil yelling, "Hey Lance, how does it feel to get away with the biggest lie in the history of professional sports?"

Having had just about enough of the constant accusations and hounding, not to mention the first hand experience of fans getting to close to riders on alpine stages, Lance decides to take matters into his own hands. I can clearly hear Lance say, "Dude, I have NO TIME FOR THIS SHIT. Je-sus people, where are the freakin' barricades…!?"

As fatty hits the deck you can see (if you look carefully enough) that more than one rider behind Lance is laughing. The most obvious is Chris Horner.

As our costumed crusader wallows in the snow he kicks a bunch of the white stuff in the path of the peloton (but thankfully avoids falling into the road himself). His expression is one of obvious shock and awe.

You can side with the doping devil or you can side with Lance. I think running next to the peloton when there is only 12 inches of space between them and the shoulder is DUMB. I also bet all the riders really enjoyed watching Lance tip this guy into the snow bank. With all the (official AND out of competition) controls professional riders are being subjected to lately and all the doping cases that get tried in the media instead of a court of law it must make them feel pretty damn impotent. I'm fairly confident when I say that the vast majority of the bunch probably lived vicariously through Lance for those few seconds.

And if you're a LA fanboy, this might depict an entirely different scenario. Perhaps something like this…

I clearly see a guy running along the side of the road. He starts to slip and fall, Lance attempts to save the guy but just barely misses helping the poor fellow out. That's what I see. Lance is a great hero. Everyone should try to be as good of a roll model as he is.

Or in this case what your friend knows that makes things interesting.

If you have been following the Tour of California then you know that a local boy - Tom Peterson - had the ride of his life the other day and broke away with Levi Leipheimer on the last hill and then won stage two.

The stage was interesting and you got to see some tactics played out in the horrible weather conditions that are northern CA this time of year. With all the rain and cold temps everyone was freezing! But not Levi. Since he realized he felt really good he stripped down at the base of the last climb, told his teammate Popovych to twist the throttle and once the field was decimated he took off using that extra gear that only elite athletes seem to have.

Already up the road were three riders, one of whom was Tom Peterson. As Levi roared by only Tom was able to hold his wheel and that's how they crested the summit, Levi with Tom in tow.

Since Levi was gunning for the GC Tom was justified in sitting on which he did to perfection. To watch them climb and descend was to view a real contrast in styles. Levi was mashing a monster gear with tons of power and Tom was twiddling a much smaller gear (in comparison) and saving energy as best he could. At the finish it was no contest but both riders got what they wanted; Levi took over the race lead and Tom got what I think is his first win as a pro.

After the race Tom told reporters that he felt really good and that hanging with Levi was not a problem. This of course starts the big speculation game where people - with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight - make predictions about whether or not Tom could be in the overall lead if only he had not had a flat just before the start of the prologue which caused him to lose about two minutes on the first day of the race.

This is where my friend comes in.

Turns out Tom didn't get a flat before the prologue; his team just f__ked up his start time! The flat story was purely damage control. I guess they had a lot of damage to control because when Jonathan Vaughters (Garmin Slipstream team director) found out about the screw up, he tore everyone involved a new one via telephone from Switzerland. Ha!

All the armchair coaching and predicting is useless anyway because if Tom had not been delayed in the prologue and had still managed to go with Levi, more than one team would have chased him down for sure believe you me.

I guess just because you have a pro contract and free bikes and an entourage taking care of you does not absolve you from the responsibility of checking your own watch. :)

That's all I can think of when I look at this prototype Rotor crank that Carlos Sastre is supposedly riding. And when I say snap I of course mean snap in half and not anything like, "Aw... snap!"

Rotor starts with a forged aluminum crank arm and then turns it into Swiss cheese. Only it's scientific Swiss cheese see, because the holes intersect making the interior of the crank practically hollow.

Why...? Who knows. Back in the day of machining the hell out of bicycle components (think Magic Motorcycle, etc.) was the rage and even further back when everything was drilled obviously taught manufacturers nothing. Every time a new generation of engineers comes along they must say the same thing. "Oh sure, it's plenty strong..." Nice.

Plus it probably whistles on descents!

When the Cervelo Test Team first came about I thought wow, that is one cool concept. Now after seeing this death sentence make it onto the bike of a world class athlete I'm not so sure anymore. I mean yeah, it's great to try all the new stuff but c'mon, at what price? Doesn't Zipp/FSA/Shimano/<insert name of favorite, reputable manufacturer here> make a crank that is light enough? The answer is of course they do; but other manufacturers need to turn heads in order to sell their wares.

Here's hoping Carlos can stay out of the hospital...

Wow, I might have to start singing a different tune here.

Lance is just not my favorite guy. He seems totally narcissistic, self-centered and appears to have absolutely bailed on his wife and kids and then went and had another child with a girl he had dated for what, six months? Nice. Plus,prior to his recent comeback he just never warmed up to the media.

Anyway, today on cyclingnews.com I read a quote that made me do a double take.

"Sometimes I get frustrated with people who criticize his return, and then what, they're going to sign up and cheer when David Millar returns? It's the same thing. You've served your suspension, let's get back on the bike and race," he said, using the EPO-confession of the British star as evidence of the fans' hypocrisy.

"There's no point in criticizing Basso, criticizing Landis, or criticizing anyone… if you've paid your penalty, this is normally how society works. Let's forgive and forget and get on down the road.

"Obviously Floyd's a friend of mine, he's a former teammate and he has a lot of fans. In that sense, you've got to remember that Floyd might have been found guilty but at the end of the trial if you polled the people, 50 percent thought he was innocent – in regard to that it's good that he's back."

I agree 100 percent.

So why am I still buggin'? Because in my humble opinion Lance cheated and never served any suspension. Just the opposite in fact. Because of his connections, celebrity status and wealth he got access to cancer drugs and treatments that mere mortals could not. Everything was totally fast tracked with no waiting period and when he survived he was the media darling. Oh sure, he might be clean now but to me it's like justice never got served.

Whatever.

Good to hear that he's in favor of these guys racing and of forgiving past indiscretions.

Because I always forget where this is I thought it might help if I posted a link:

http://www.kingcounty.gov/transportation/kcdot/Roads/Bicycling.aspx

Please take a minute and help Cascade Bicycle Club by completing this survey about the King County Bicycle Guidemap.

Nice.

There is NO shortage of one-man bike shops in Seattle. You've got 12th Ave Bicycles and Collectibles, 20/20 Cycle (which really is much more than a one-man operation currently - they even sponsor a team now), there was Ti Cycles when I worked there way back when and recently I learned about another one - Mobius Cycle.

Mobius is run by "Niki" (a former bicycle messenger I believe) and although it's now also more than a one-man operation it embodies what I love about the urban bike shop.

• The entrance is in an alley.
• The shop is on the 4th floor of the building.
• The hours are "afternoon to evening - Monday to Friday". Nice.
• Niki seems to do what she wants and does it how she wants. Thank goodness for her there are like-minded cyclists in Seattle to patronize her business.
• It's in the heart of downtown Seattle.

The web site is slow as hell, it's organized in a way only Niki probably understands and I can't wait to visit this shop.

ASIDE - I spent some time following links and in addition to some very entertaining blog posts I also came across this deleted scene from the Fast Friday movie.

I have to admit that I love this stuff...

While partaking of my daily bread yesterday morning I read that yet another cyclist tested non-negative for CERA from this year's Tour de France.

From my limited research it appears that CERA is a form of EPO that lasts longer than the traditional strains so you can take it less often. This also obviously means you don't have to continue to take it during a stage race as the effects will continue for days. And, prior to this new test that just came out, it was also not detectible.

The problem (for cheaters anyway) is that now blood and urine samples can be stored for a long time, so labs can go back in time and examine samples from athletes after new tests are released.

"What's that you say...? Anti-doping people are trying to catch up? D'oh...!"

That's right Mr. Kohl. And Mr. Ricco. And Mr. [insert name of your favorite athlete that just performed an unbelievable feat here].

What a f'n shame that now EVERY time someone bounces back from a lousy day and has a terrific day or someone strings together more than one outstanding performance that it's more than likely they have cheated.

Well what do you know... :)

And it's about time, right? The San Francisco Chronicle just reported that the $700 billion bailout of the US economy will give bicycle commuters a $20/month tax-free reimbursement starting in January of 2009. As long as your bike is your primary mode of transportation of course; fair is fair.

And speaking of fair, you just know what this will bring...  It will be the start of all kinds of creative lies to try and prove that your bike really is your primary mode of transportation. I wonder how one will be required to substantiate this? Show the federal government your road rash? Fax them a copy of your bike locker key? I see a lot of creative stories on the horizon. :(

I just hope they don't make it too hard, like for the person that drives to a park & ride and then takes the bus most of the way and rides the rest, they should get this subsidy too in my opinion. The bigger picture is getting more cars off the road,right? I sure hope so.

You hear that Tim Eyman? This is supposed to do good so don't f it up.

Sweet Jesus... sometimes I have no idea what people are thinking! I'm a regular reader of cyclingnews.com and today they covered the world's most expensive bicycle.

What's so great about this bike? Uh... exactly nothing.

It looks for all the world like some ancient track bike that has been restored, plated in gold and then crusted in diamonds. What's that adage? You can polish a turd but no matter how much you polish it, it's still gonna stink. I mean c'mon, the saddle is made from really hard, uncomfortable leather (and they couldn't even level it out for the photo!), the bar wrap is hand sewn (and why don't we use leather on the bars anymore?) and what's with the pedals?! It looks like they put some regular old, department store platform pedals on a single speed. Nice. What about those super cool new Speedplay nanogram pedals? Or at least a classy, Campagnolo quill pedal with a fancy Binda strap? Heck, plate the strap buckle why not! But no.

This thing doesn't even look good hanging on the wall.

How can you make an expensive bike that is also cool? Sure, there just isn't as much technology involved as say, with a car or a sailboat but you can still do it justice. What about using some kind of unobtanium material for the frame? Or what about sticking some kind of uber-researched disc wheels on the front and rear? Or how about this; we all know you can only make a bike so light and make it affordable, what about if price was not object?

Gluing diamonds on a steel frame just does not get me hot. I can totally see some lower-income kid out there trying to bling out his ride with a can of gold spray paint and some fake stones. Looks the same to me...

You know when you have experienced something memorable, loads of time passes and you kinda forget about it (meaning you are no longer telling your friends about it every damn day) and then someone brings it up and all the memories come flooding back? I love that!

Back in 2003 a friend and I did a mountain bike race in Costa Rica and a couple of days ago someone emailed asking for tips as they were going to participate in the ride this year. Oh man, did all the joys and pains become vivid again...

I am continually amazed at the brain's ability to forget the pain your body goes through. Take child birth. Would you do that again knowing what is coming? Not me. Some might argue that riding your bike for three days is nothing like passing a football or carrying that football for nine months but you get my drift.

As I was recycling all the moments of the ride I was seriously doubting I could ever do that sort of thing again. Perhaps some other event where I did not know what to expect but not the same thing. I'm too much of a wuss. But, it was a blast to recall all the details! Having experienced that was something I would not give up for sure.

Therein lies Martin's challenge... how to keep doing things like this without knowing too much about them in advance. :)

Google Maps has loads of great features like the 'drive there' and 'take public transit' features so how about a really green option like bike there? Seems like a no-brainer to me.

You can sign the petition to encourage Google to add this feature, I did.

Nice.

There is a mountain bike downhill race in Lisbon Portugal called Lisboa Downtown that winds down these endless flights of stairs and cobbled streets and goes over man-made ramps and looks absolutely SICK. I first read about this on cyclingnews.com and then I watched some of the video on the event web site and all I can say is wow...

I remember when I worked downtown at Ti Cycles and took Dave's 2nd generation titanium DH bike for a spin down the SAM steps and all over Pioneer Square. Never before in my life had I been able to hit a curb head on and barely notice it. Or haul ass down a flight of stairs and not be worried about getting pitched over the bars. And that was with way old school suspension technology.

What a blast this event must be. Every kid dreams of riding down stairs - who doesn't love that, right?

The proximity of the stone buildings probably add a little to the excitement level of the riders I'm betting.

At the start of the first road stage of this year's Paris-Nice stage race cyclingnews.com reported that the rain was falling and the wind was blowing. The weather was so atrocious that the distance was cut in half... quite unusual for a professional road race.

As a winner of stage two of the 2007 Tour de France to Ghent, Gert Steegmans was known as a specialist for uphill bunch sprint finishes. He showed it once again by winning stage one of Paris-Nice in Nevers. The race was shortened in half to 93.5 kilometers due to severe weather, but was contested on a very high speed when Steegmans' team-mates from Quick Step decided to put the hammer down in the cross wind.

Under the rain, the Belgian squad looked as comfortable as if it was racing in its own backyard, unlike the diminutive Spaniards from Euskaltel who were daunted by the high winds. "Kevin Hulsmans and myself, we looked at them and we laughed, they were scared," Steegmans testified.

Nice. It takes balls to say that sort of thing but it takes even bigger balls to walk the walk and Steegmans did that in spades. Not only did Quick Step shred the peloton at will but Gert took to the front with 350 m to go and never looked back.

What's that clanking noise...? Oh, it's Steegmans approaching.

Sometimes someone comes up with the answer to a question that should never have been asked; like this Iso Truss mountain bike frame.

I mean I guess it's a neat engineering feat but there are so many things wrong with this design...

• What happens when you leave a cup out in the rain? It fills up with water. on a wet day all of these tubes are suddenly great, big cups that will fill with water, mud, cow poop, dead slugs and anything else you ride through. Live in So Cal? Have no fear, your 2.75 lb frame will also soon weigh 4 or 5 when it fills with dust.
• How many times have you banged your legs against the tubes of your frame or fallen on your bike? Now imagine banging them against a cheese grater or falling on a thousand tiny serrated knives...
• Ever sit unexpectedly on your top tube? Right, these bike designers obviously have not either.

This is the kind of thing you buy and then hang on your wall or seal up in your time capsule so you can laugh about how silly people were 20 years ago when you dig it back up.

There's more than one cycling nerd besides me at the Information School where I work so it should not be too surprising that one of them walked in to my office today and informed me that Sheldon Brown had passed away. Sure enough, you can read about it here.

My only real contact or interaction with this guy was one long email exchange on some techy bike list some years ago and I vividly recall how adamant he was that you only EVER needed one brake on a bicycle. That being the front brake. No amount of real-world examples that I had experienced would convince him otherwise.

The guy sure was an icon in the bicycle industry and a very unique individual, I wish his wife and kids all the best. Working in a bike shop is not exactly going to leave his family a big nest egg if you get what I'm saying.

Some things that stood out to me when I was browsing his vast collection of bicycles were a fixed-gear tandem and a fixed gear with a Biopace chainring. That takes balls.

Really, really damn fast. Check this:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road.php?id=road/2008/jan08/qatar08/qatar082

On a flat, windy day of the second stage of the 7th Tour of Qatar the peloton (not just the leaders!) averaged 55 kph. For those of you that were not around for the half-assed attempt the US made to go Metric many years ago, that's over 34 mph. THIRTY FOUR.

Oh sure you say, "Anyone can do that when you are getting sucked along in the pack." Wrong.

• You have never had the likes of the Quick Step team riding you into the gutter because you can't get into their echelon.
• This stage was 137.5 km (85 miles) long. When was the last time you even averaged 25 mph for more than a few miles.
• This was the average. That means at times the speed was much higher.

Unbelievable.

I wonder how many bags of potato chips I could buy if I sold all my bikes. 'Cuz that's what I feel like I'd be pretty good at right now - getting fat.

Every year I think it would be a neat thing to post an all-inclusive calendar of cycling events that interest me. My first iteration was lame to say the least... But it slowly got better and in 2006 I settled on a format that I thought would stand the test of time. I 'borrowed' this look from OBRA and ended up liking it so much that I used it for the WSBA calendar as well.

But, since I'm no professional coder my calendar is 100 percent manual when it comes to updates and revisions. Not so good. And it has to be completely overhauled every year when January 1 no longer falls on a Saturday or whatever day of the week it was last year.

Enter Google Calendar.

Now my ride calendar looks like this. I love it. You can opt to view just road races, track races, social rides, holidays, whatever you want. I can now also create recurring events, easily link to Google Maps and people can add this stuff to their Google Calendar if they have one.

Outsourcing like it's going out of style - I love it.

How long until the next neat-o thing appears on the Internet? Oh wait, it's already here...

I first heard about MapMyRide from my friend Brian and I gotta say, this is cool. Not only can you 'map' your road or off-road ride, you can apparently also save you ride and let others search them, use them, etc., etc. A two wheel ride share if you will.

As cool as this is I'm really bummed that this service never uses a secure, encrypted (HTTPS) connection when asking you to create your profile, sign in, anything. In this day and age that seems unconscionable. Oh well, it won't stop tons of folks from entering all kinds of personal data I'm sure. :(

After checking it out and seeing that they use Google maps, I wonder how different it is from Gmaps Pedometer.

How much stuff can you cram into a cyclometer? Cervellum thinks it's a lot.

Not only does this bicycle computer have all the usual stats that everyone (doesn't) need, it also has 'modules' that you can connect to give you heart rate, an optional LCD on the top of your STI lever, a power meter, GPS mapping capability and a REARWARD FACING CAMERA SO YOU CAN SEE WHAT'S BEHIND YOU.

No, really. There is a lens that attaches to your seatpost and the image it picks up can be displayed on the unit's screen; just like some massive RV with no rear window.

I suppose it might be fun to be off the front and not have to look behind you to check on the progress of the pack...

Sometimes, after years of not finding what you want you come across it in the strangest way.

I was riding the bus home today and grabbed a copy of The Stranger to read on the trip. Now I love ads, often they are far more interesting than the articles in any magazine. So as I'm paging though the latest issue I saw a cool, little  black and white line drawing of an ad and promptly checked it out when I got home. It was for swrve cycling clothing. And they rock.

Ever ridden your bike in jeans? It bites. Seams rub you in all the wrong places, they bind and you have to roll them up so you don't coat them in grease or snag them in your chain and launch your self over the bars. And when your work place is close enough to home to make putting on the official cycling clown suite a humongous hassle I'm always looking for the perfect "ride to work and then still be able to wear it without looking like a fool" outfit.

I'm going to ask Santa for a pair of knickers for Christmas!

Okay, I love my bike(s). I have dreamed about them, resolved major moral dilemmas while riding them and asked girls out while on one. But no way would I ever consider going this far.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7095134.stm

Let me preface this rant by saying that I love CycleU. They perform a really great service for local riders and racers and provide invaluable coaching, training and skills classes. But... sometimes their customer service falls far short of what I think is reasonable to expect.

For about three years now they have had this indoor TT series. It's fantastic! The event is a 10 km CompuTrainer race and they have seven of these things lined up so when it's fully booked it's quite competitive to say the least. In the past when you finished a TT they would simply email you a spreadsheet of the results from the evening. This was super as you could compile your results as the year went on and also compare yourself to your friends, etc.

Then someone make a stink about privacy... I guess they thought someone else would get a competitive advantage or something if they saw all the results. When I heard this I was laughing. I mean I suppose it's feasible that this is true but c'mon; 99 percent of us here are just po-dunk local racers and I'll wager that there is not a thing anyone could do with this precious TT results knowledge that would affect the outcome of any local race. I guess I made a bit of a scene last year trying to argue FOR sending everyone's results to everyone but was shut down. Hard. "We take the privacy of our clients seriously" I was told.

So anyway, CycleU kowtowed to this user and started only sending me results for ME and not for anyone else. Now I had to email all my friends and share results the good old-fashioned way - by sending attachments. :(

After my first indoor TT this fall I was surprised that I got no results at all... When I inquired about this I was pointed to the CycleU blog and that results would be posted there. And guess what? everyone is listed!

Hello CycleU! Remember last year when you were all concerned about posting results from other people? Well now you are not only posting everyone's times but you are doing so in a format that is not very valuable to results geeks like me who want to track this kind of data and don't want to suffer through the manual data entry.

So my beef is:

1. I got no results.
2. I had to follow up to get my results.
3. The results are exactly what I wanted last year and could not get. Why the huge stink last year...?!
4. The format bites. You make me download an image? Argh...

Lastly - is there a link on the CycleU home page to their blog...? Only as of about today.

Why do people make stuff complicated? It's just an indoor TT and people want results. Sheesh. Why is it that so many bicycle industries are run by enthusiasts and not business people? I mean all the things CycleU does is great and these indoor TTs are great, where is that little bit of extra?

Seattle is awash with bicycles in general and in the circles I travel it's that times 10. Even so, sometimes I see a bike that really amazes me; like this Schwinn Varsity here.

If you look closely you will see:

• BMX pegs for crying out loud! Not like the rider ever uses them but still...
• The ubiquitous (for Seattle bicycle messengers anyway) top tube pad.
• The single speed drivetrain.
• Unlike most hard core messengers, this person rolls withOUT toe clips but has a front brake to compensate.
• Steel (or are they tin?) fenders.
• A full-on Brooks saddle! I see this so often, no matter how cheap and cobbled together the bike, the owner opts to totally pimp it out by breaking the bank on one particular component. In this case it's the saddle. I mean you could buy at least three of these bikes for what that saddle cost; including pegs for each one.
• Of course this ride is sporting the chopped and flipped (upside down) road handlebars. Nothing less would do for the messenger look.
• Note the chainstay protector, and it's protecting this frame from what exactly? Besides, it's a single speed bike,the chain will never get anywhere near that stay.

Anyway, it's pretty cool when people like their bikes enough to dude 'em up like this. Seriously. It won't stop me from making fun of these machines but style has no objective basis obviously.