Entries from February 4, 2007 - February 10, 2007
Riding on the road...a novel concept
We finally got outside as a group today. Good times, good times. 3 hours and rolling hills mixed with flats. Tons of teams out. We had a good showing with lots of new guys. Varying skills which will fall into place so each cat can ride amongst themselves and gel. I wanted to play today and all that weight work and living like a monk has paid off. More is needed. I played mainly to see who would follow of the new guys to get a feel for what we have to work with this year. New guy Dave W, a former pro MTB'er, is an absolute steal. He's got a great attitude and an equally great motor. He played my game. Others a very cool guys, but we'll have to drill them over and over until they get some road etiquette. Their squad leaders will have to work on them.
All in all great to be on the road. Snow's coming again, but hopefully not in the same volume. It's OK, I need to work harder on strength and core so this is all good to me.
Sorry, no pics, Camera's dead.
Saturday, February 10, 2007 at 3:21PMAh Spring! Spit shine the roadie and start the LSD
Mmm. 48 degrees. Yummy. It's Africa hot as far as I am concerned. Did a nice lunchtime roll and hooking up with my team mates FINALLY so we can spin together on our first ride of the season as a group. enough rollers, enough single speed and CX bikes on the sludgy roads and snowy trails (or now) . I am looking forward to spinning long hours on the roadie with good peeps.
My boys at Ritchey gave me the kind hook up to make the roads feel that much better on my Sycip. Jeremy and Jay Sycip built me this ride in 2001 believe it or not and I can't believe how well it's stiiod the test of time. 1000's and 1000's of miles on this.
The new Ritchey stuff is like buttah. I am going with the new Streems to see what that is all about. I tend to ride on the tops of teh bars on the road so this is supposed to be more confortable. 
The fork replaces a 6 year old LOOK and this is lighter and carbon from drop outs to steerer. 
Seatpost bling will keep my heiney well positioned. 
I will do a complete write up of these after I have some time on the road. I use WCS everywhere so I expect the reviews will be stellar.
Looking forward to the LSD trip.
Dreaming of Mol
More fuel for my "Belgium 2008" chant I say to myself silently every AM.
(from http://www.rugbyreviewtoday.co.uk/)
Ives, from Baginton, just failed to make history in the event by becoming the first rider to win six World Masters Cyclo Cross titles.
He was beaten into silver medal position in the 65+ category by old rival and now five times world champion Herman Martens, three years his junior.
Ives had trained very hard to defend his championship and was a clear winner at the recent British Championships, but it is a very different ball game in Belgium, where the cyclo cross is huge and big events often attract 30,000 spectators.
The course at Mol, which Ives has raced ten times, is very fast and mainly single track through pine forests, with 500m of road and three big sand sections, some of which is rideable, the rest has to be run.
Ives has won the title five times, been second twice and third once. He has also been second three times in the UCI World Road Championships and third once in the UCI World Mountain Bike Championships.
MI Racing-EAS-Thule team mate Barrie Mitchell finished eighth in the 60+ category, just three places behind last year's World Champion Vick Barnett.
Barrie's race went exactly as expected and for the first time in five years he managed to get round without any crashes or problems.
He was happy with 8th, although he was only 15 seconds away from 6th place.
"Racing at Mol is very fast and even small time gaps are very hard to close up. Passing is also a problem as a large section of the course through the woods are on single track paths," he said.
"As usual the large sections of sand are a problem to the English riders as we have nothing like this in the UK.
"You can lose big chunks of time each lap if you are unable to ride through the sand sections. Local Belgians are very good at this as many events in Belgium are centred in sandy areas each weekend."
Primus...sailing the seas of Belgian cheese
Nice teamwork!
Richard got negged by Rabo this weekend too. They offered him a lower salary and he said take this job and shve it and drive off in his Bog Foot. He's outtie and will be picked up by another squad to try and get revenge on Rabo-Sven.
