Well folks, it appears to be happening. Gregg Germer, an American living abroad in Belgie-land and proprietor of a bike touring company, Chainring Tours, is in the process of moving forward with his plans to build and sponsor a 100% American professional 'cross squad to race the SP's. GvA's and WK's.

Have a look at his sponsorship video and if compelled to help support, do so!

A few weeks ago I peddled on over to BCS to watch my boy Ted get his new bike fit....dialed in via the very capable eyes, hands and brain of Mr. Todd Carver and his Retül system. I followed this up with a "5 Questions with..." episode with Todd so folks could learn a little more about this dynamic bike fit approach. With all of my body drama and pains going on as of late, I needed to get dialed and have Todd put me under his lens so I can train pain free (and I mean the bad pain....) on my roadie. So, I got myself Retül'ed!

I showed up at my scheduled time at BCS and Todd was there waiting for me, and immediately got me up on the platform and 'dotted' up with all the various infrared nodes and he began his work. On the platform, I got plugged into the Computrainer.

Todd dialed me in and while I was spinning a bit, he began his Q & A and asked all sorts of questions to dig into what I want to achieve....and thus we focused in on areas where I have pain, etc. He then used the Retül technology to 'photograph' where I am at physiologically with this bike. TONS of imbalances to say the least.

During the course of the inspection, Todd would have me get on and off while he made various adjustments...all the while studying my movements with each tweak. All this ended up resulting in a saddle height raise by a CM and by bars by 2CM amongst some other micro-changes. My bars were at a 10CM differential to my seat height (e.g. super low and racy) and therefore needed to come up a bit to ~8CM.

So with the general dimensions re-dialed, we then dove into other body-mechanical issues...mainly surrounding feet/cleats. My feet have a naturally high arch so he prescribed got some Specialized ++ inserts to provide some support and reduce exhaustion I suffered from (e.g. cramping) and then dialed in my cleat position to ensure maximum efficiency. My theory had always been as far forward as possible but with the adjustments he made to the bike, he brought them back a fraction toward the heel and it is way more comfortable and allows me to pull through the stroke way more comfortably in a heel down approach.

Afterwards, Todd sent me all my data via email as all customers get of the resultant tests in addition to your bike sizing...very valuable for when you need a frame built or buying a new one off the shelf and you need it dialed perfectly. A wonderful part of the service. I am going to ride on this new set up for a few days and see what if anything needs to be micro adjusted. But I am stoked to go and train pain free!

Fatherhood. I wouldn't even know where to begin if I were to blog about being a dad. It's nothing short of miraculous. And there are many dimensions to that miracle. From seeing your child born to their first gut laugh to walking to talking to running to riding to controlling your impulse to duct tape them up into a ball and put them in the closet when they whine.....well, it just goes fast. The work is put in every day by my wife and me to focus on these children growing up healthy, happy and most of all, as respectful gentleman. Yeah, we're in the full on 'poopy' phase where they fall apart in ball uncontrollably laughing if they hear the word poo or see a diaper, but as my mom has told me countless times: "Choose your battles." So I've got that going for me....

So like all good Hallmark Holidays, dad's get theirs too. And the fellas did it up right. Today was the epic, or now called, the Ned-ic. An apparent record was set on the RTD bus to Ned today according to the driver who was overseeing the loading of the bikes into the belly of the bus. I wish I had counted, but it was packed to say the least.

The Boulder Cycling Mafia was fairly well represented today, save for Bobby who rode 8 hours Saturday and followed that up with 24 beers in fast succession. Sorry you missed the Ned-ic, Bobby. We had The Torrence bros in the house, Waltworks, FRZ, J-Fry and Bri....too many to name.

When we got to Ned and unloaded, we began our journey. By the time we got to the high school, we split ways with quite a few of the folks and the 'Lucky 7' shaked out. We were led by Dave "I will NOT get you lost, I've got a GPS" Weber, Freeride Zach, Nick Stevens, Antonio G, IMBA Drew, Rob "I am Gonna show you some" Love and yours truly. We threw it down for roughly 3:45, which does not seem like an 'epic', but 4000' of altitude gain at 8-9K feet over 40 miles is a good'un in my book.

Dave W did NOT disappoint. He actually scouted this the weekend before with that GPS and my GOD, we were on literal pristine technical singletrack for MILES. This one section in the vicinity of Lump Gulch was so sick, I started to pop a....OK, trying to keep this a clean site. We traversed up this technical rock climb that required tons of body English and insane power to get up and over. Tons of matches burned but it felt too damn good.

Wheelies pulled, tabletops launched, some skin lost, swerving in and out of trees. My God, what a day to be alive and healthy. It was insane to see these parts of our state that even core MTB'ers rarely see. SO, with fried legs and limited liquids. we made our way back to Boulder and celebrated by ceremonially dipping in the Boulder Creek. the muscles thanked me.

I am DEFINITELY buying a GPS. Tools like Google Earth are sick. I can not comprehend how you can see in 3D the ride we were on today....all driven from Dave's Garmin.

What a great evening! Our bud Zach Lee of CommArts, his boss and other compatriots are working on a large project to assist a group in Belgium with a bike park project. Sound Familiar? Zach is also deeply involved with the Valmont Bike Park project, leveraging his considerable graphic arts skills to help create the visual identity for the park here in Boulder.

The proposed park in Belgium is to be called VeloCity in the town of Massmechelen (in the provence of Limburg). This is the region that hosts the Amstel Gold race as well as the GP Stad Hasselt cyclocross race and is about 50 minutes from Blauberg where Dubba, KP and I stayed for our stint in January this year for 'cross master's worlds etc.

A contingency of folks flew over from Za Motherland including the mayor of Maasmechelen, Georges Lenssen, the Executive Director of the Limburg Chamber of Commerce Johann Leten, a journalist Philip Hilven and David Winkels, who is director of the VeloCity bike park project. They came exclusively to explore the idea of creating a Sister Cycling City or some other alliance between Boulder and their town . Zach assembled a GREAT crew of folks from Boulder, all cycling mafia, from those involved in the Valmont Bike Park project to racers (Timmy Duggan was here to represent...even while recovering from is crash! Great to see you man. Very inspiring.), to media (Neal Rogers in za house...great to have beers with you too man!) and lastly Shaun McGrath, our mayor. It was very cool to speak with Georges and Shaun and talk through how community + government can actually get it done.

All in all a great night and fantastic to speak with our counterparts in Belgium getting this park concept together. The sames sets of challenges; the same core passion.

Maybe the Larimer County issue out here ain't all that bad. Check this story out in the Marin Independent Journal. And when you get to the MIJ web page, there is a little Voting widget there to gauge your opinion. MAKE SURE YOU VOTE!

When it rains, it POURS. While the crew is working hard to establish a true Bike Park on the North Side of Valmont Park here in town (LOTS of good news on this project forthcoming folks...), it has been tremendous work for those who have been pursuing this passionately for the last 10 years. Working with the city, the parks and rec department, the community at large...you name it. It has been an example of 'process that works'. Slowly, but it works..

Anyways, take that example and then look at this new privately funded project that I heard about only a few months ago. From the crew that has brought the immensely successful Boulder Indoor Soccer, now they are launching Boulder Indoor Cycling! This town, will TRULY be the epicenter of cycling with world class athletes, world class training facilities, beautiful surroundings, altitude...and now safe, convenient places like Valmont Bike Park and Boulder Indoor Cycling to choose from.

As they advertise on their announcement site:

142m Velodrome Cycling
All Levels of Mountain Biking
Racing Leagues

Kid's Programs
Bicycle Rentals
Lots More!

Holy crappola. 1st one of the season in the books. Going into this with base and only a bit of high threshold training was absolutely painful...but a good and old friend kind of pain. It was a mid pack finish kind of night but I will take that any day given the beasts out there last night in the midst in the Open/A's.

The course was inexplicably fast, and super fun. Some whoops and doubles thrown in for good measure on various sides of the course that I tried to style each time....when my eyes weren't crossed. The 'kids' from the CU Cycling team did a SPECTACULAR job organizing, running, announcing and dialing in the course. The sponsors were outstanding as well. I think they need to do some primes next time! I'd be gunning for it and explode into violent fury....

Anyways, recovery spin today and more training to come when I can inject it into my life. T's helping me with that every day. I woke up this AM 4.5 pounds lighter than I was yesterday. HA! Looks like I DO need to be doing more high intensity stuff....

Photo credit to Kate Thayn

Well, looks like I am going to pin on my first....no make that my 5th number in 2008. I forgot that I was in Belgie in January.

Open/A's are at 7-ish. Za Plan has just started and I've got a collective of like 2hours of intervals in me. All base. June is my December. It's going to be awesome, sports fans. I know EXACTLY how I am going to feel:

• Gun will go off
• I will pin it and try to take hole shot
• Heart rate will jump to 183...maybe 184 if I am lucky
• I'll have no trouble with the heart/lungs. I'll keep that puppy pinned at 175 but....
  
• ...by 15 minutes in my legs will be so loaded It will be unlikely I can push out 250w
• I'm going to be smiling the whole time and show boating
  
• The race will end. The onslaught of 'cross gut' will happen as soon as I stop a few meters after the finish line and dredge up the beautiful memories of cross season. You KNOW what I'm talking about. That bowel turmoil after a 'cross race that you get even when you are in peak form that feels like you will smash your chamois with the brown stuff if you even slightly move your body a millimeter in the wrong way

Oh, Tommeke, you f-ing fool. Amature hour, for sure. Shame that all of that fame and fortune is getting to your head. You're awesome. Totally gifted. Blowing it, you retard. I wonder what the next comic strip will entail you doing in your adventures. What'r all the young Belgie kids gonna read?

"An den, I ripped six rails, and road za cobbles like Johan Museeuw, mijn hero."

What a joke.

So, therefore you need to update your wardrobe with this new Limited Edition beauty. Dubba, you made me spit my meatball out when I saw this..Buy one from DopersSuck and wear it with pride. All hail Ben Jacques-Mayne. We need something real to believe in.

SWEET. And they even got in a pic of my bro Bill. Update your blog Bill!

Singletrack coming to Valmont?

LOCALS MAY WEIGH IN ON PLANS FOR NORTH BOULDER PARK

By RICHARD VALENTY Colorado Daily Staff Writer
Originally published 08:50 p.m., June 9, 2008
Updated 08:50 p.m., June 9, 2008

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