€ 750 for this thing and they can't even paint on their logo. BUNK. Maybe paint weights to much.

But I want it. Oh, yes, I want it.

Photo by Matt P VeloNews

Brooke's got it right in this post. What the flock is it about our sport?

I'd make this blog a pit stop of your morning distractions over coffee. Great stuff. I can appreciate given the balance Brooke goes through. Something I can appreciate.

You've got to check out Mike Day's insane BMX trial at the course being proto'd for the 08 Olympics in Beijing. Study this guy's rhythm through 32' gaps. Genius. Now while it may be impractical to go and source a BMX bike and try to get to your local huckin' course, you can gain SO MUCH for your cross game by getting in some BMX like practicing.

When you watch Sven, in the UCI leader kit in this video...

....you get a sense of why he won 8 Belgium BMX national titles back in the day. Frankly there's more impressive videos and photos of his bunny hopping and ditch hucking exploits, but this vid is nice to see some of the smoothness he has. Niels Albert ain't bad either. And while most of our courses here state-side do not have these meticulously inserted whoops (Faia, hook up those camel whoops at Breck this year!), you can be doing things rooted in BMX to practice and improve your cross game.

Some of the stuff I practice for goes back to my NBL days. When you set up your training barriers, consider doing this: Come at speed to the right (or left) of the barrier, do a HARD 180 back at the barrier, dismount/port/remount and once back on apply the sprint. I'll leave it up to you to figure out how many to do. Let's just say that I've got hours not minutes of this specific skill logged in already. It shoudl be in your stable.

I think Nelson said it best: Ha hah!

It is on. The group was extensive today. It will only get bigger as the weeks roll on and Mountain States Cup and other racing series finish up and those people start transitioning into their 'cross mode. I'll ask them where they've been...

Inexplicably fun this AM. People are giddy about the season upcoming. We railed it at Elks and then a park on Folsom this AM. The port-o's were in good use and everyone got their share of technique under stress this AM. I made the course a bit long-ish today and tried to get as many off the bike sections as I could find. I think it worked. People *were* worked it seemed.

The body responded well and I listened to myself and T and stayed within it the whole time. Holding back a bit to truly see where things are at. Even power output, no wad-shooting. Only flow while mixing it up with my friends. Smiles. That's about all I'll say for now. Just glee.

Some pics below. Brandon's got a new bike sponsor this year so people's jaws as you would expect were on the floor. It was pure show and tell time for that boy. Like a kindergartener with a new Transformer.

Brandon's new toy (Bike 1 of 2 of course...)

Explaining the virtues of man and machine

Time's interesting Ahead system being explained...

Baker smirking as he's heading off with family in tow to Belgium

Troy throwing down this AM.

Worked.

Inked.

Ben Turner's been spotted and involed in secret training missions.

Yum.

Yum 2.

TRP are coming out with carbon versions of these. Yum again.

SRAM is going to make a move in 'cross big time . It just makes sense.

Memories. This is some GOOD sheeit! I posted on this guy at Cyclocross Videos before on his amazing collection of super hi-res 'cross video last year, but Gewilli's recent post on the guy's unbelievable collection reminded me to revisit the site and further how i-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-l-e these videos are!

If you watch carefully, the details of 'cross technique come alive in this video. Watching Frank and Mark McCormack get their 'cross on and a young Tim Johnson battling it out against a (possibly high) Pontoni, is great, but you have to step into and observe the details of the race vis-a-vis all the technique going on. Delicious. Watch the transition of the racers through the barriers and run up. For all those dudes at my clinics, this is like a video overture of the remount nuances we drilled over and over...all captured in hi-res. Frank McCormack in particular (my hero if you all want to know) is perfect. Even with old school bar end shifters, he's flawless on his porting. I have followed his style since I watched and raced in the '99 Super Cup in the Presidio ages ago as a B. It was that race and these guys in '99 that made the whole thing click for me by watching that finesse in the midst of all that power.

One particular sequence is maddening. Watch and study this particular part of the course where the riders come down and immediately up into a set of run up barriers. Note Pontoni (and note his white sex...'rockin 'em in '99!) coming in HOT to the planks. Amazing sequence of how NOT to lose ANY momentum. He is grabbing a handful of top tube while still swinging his leg over at a full gallop. I guess that's why he has the stripes on his sleeve. A few seconds later, watch Frank McCormack again. He's slower, but again flawless on the technique. Watch the interesting flick he does with his hand to adjust the cranks to ensure that right crank is in position for his remount. Like I said. Details.

Click HERE to watch the 99 Men's Pro Boston SuperCup and prepare to hold on to your jocky shorts.

So I recall when Brandon pumped these out for VeloNews last year.They are a good 4 part series on some raw technique basics you can leverage if new to the sport. I live directly next to this park and get my game on quite often here early in the AM's. If you notice, check out the para-gliding hippies landing in the background. I got into one AM with one of these freaks for 'using the grass'. Awesome. Love Boulder.

Click HERE for the Vids as VeloNews' embeddable video control is a p.o.s...thus the screen shot.

Jonny, you've been sold up the river, buddy. Bobby busted you and exposed your blog to me. You should've never told anyone, man. If anyone wants to swing by and see what goes on in the life of a soigneur, have a look at my team mate Jonny's blog and see his exploits with Slipstream.

Here' s a particularly interesting article Evan sent to me over the weekend. He and I ten to geek out on this stuff. It focuses on Reynolds carbon rims but I think is interesting enough to see the progress being made to bring carbon to the masses (although I need to understand more about this 'world wide shortage of carbon weave....").

Click HERE for the article.

Got my FSA's hooked up this weekend. Nice a squeely for now until I build up a layer of brake gunk. Same as last year. GOD I love those rims.