John G and I got out for an early AM mini-epic right from our garage doors, railing Heil and Picture Rock for a few hours. Amazing that we can pedal from our houses and do a 'quick’ loop in fantastic forested land and cover 33 miles and 3200ft of climbing. A great way to start the day.

Heil Ranch and the Picture Rock connector trail (to Hall Ranch in Lyons, CO) is and has been a labor of love by the off road cycling community. From the lobbying to advocate for the use of the land to the volunteerism to create the trails by hand, it’s been a pure labor of passion and love by groups like the BMA here in Boulder.

This said, the trails up at Heil/Picture Rock are beginning to decompose in a way that is exposing some absolutely torrential baby head rocks rendering almost the entire trail system ‘abusive’ to ride. The good news is today we say a boat load of flags marking where new trails are to be cut and a gaggle of heavy equipment getting ready to do some trail retrofitting. But alas, while it’s currently abusive to the  body, it’s even more abusive on equipment….and therefore PERFECT for thrash testing of equipment like the Edge Composite’s 29’er XC Wheels.

Bottom line, the wheels were fantastic over the rough stuff. I wasn’t intentionally trying to bury the wheels into rocks, but even while riding as smoothly as you can, it’s likely you’ll fall out of rhythm and case something, which inevitably happened. The Geax tires, all Stans’d up, hooked up well and when impacted on the rocks, literally hit rim with absolutely no burping or any rim damage. Impressive. Rocks getting flipped up and banged against the rims too, happen frequently, and again, no effect on the carbon hoops.

All-in-all I’m still impressed and satisfied with the product Edge has produced. More field tests to come….

There are signs of life growing in the advertising world, my friends, and large corporations are beginning to poke their heads out of their foxholes, having been forced to bunker-in during the last year or so while the markets were pounded and companies reeled in spending to improve any aspect they could on profitability.

But alas, storms pass, and corporations are looking towards was to brand and market themselves. Web 2 and other social networking mediums are in use, but health and lifestyle are as equally important in the eyes of those attempting to associate: product<-->brand<-->lifestyle.

I'm happy to say there there IS MOMENTUM and there are motions being made to formulate new professional North American road and cyclocross teams for men and women backed by a large sponsorship. A big part of making this a reality is proving to potential sponsors that people who would be interested in their products and services are also cycling enthusiasts.

So, I am inviting you all to take this short survey (sub 5 minutes) which will help yield data to the companies investigating the viability of large-scale sponsorship.

Click Here to Take the Survey!

Also, if you feel so inspired, leave some comments on your thoughts about this below as the parties reviewing this data will be interested to see free-thought on this subject matter too.

If you’ve been on course while I’ve been at your race, you’ve likely me heard me scream, veins ripping out of my throat; HUP HUP BUTTERCUP!!! There’s no time to be a little cute buttercup flower on a ‘cross course as you better be in pain and you better be in form and you better be ‘crossy. Always. So I’m celebrating that aspect with some forthcoming limited edition T-Shirts which my dear friends at Anthem Branding (Twitter: @anthembranding) are working up for me. Designs yet to be unveiled. The one below is for sale in the store but more rad concepts on the theme coming from Ted and the gang.

Hup hup, Buttercups. 3.5 months to get ready for mud…and cowbells.

300 days of sun a year. That defines Boulder and yes, it’s unbelievable. But when it rains here, it rains…and when it snows here, it snows. And therefore for Boulder-ites, being Type A++++ and cycling mad, a rainy day can’t interrupt ‘precious’ training time and therefore will be moved indoors. And as we know, riding the rollers for an hour or more is paramount to mental torture by way of boredom. Unless, that is, you have something to take your mind away…

Welcome to Global Rides DVD training series….Hawaii Style! I was able to scope out and evaluate this fantastic training DVD series on a few of those remaining 65 non sunny days Boulder gets this spring and was pleasantly surprised with how engaging the product kept me as I spun circles, first longing to be outside in our beautiful town…then suddenly wishing to be transported to Maui given the epic scenery and rides i was ‘taken’ on.

Three DVDs came with my set called ‘Hawaii Rides’ each with a slightly different program to follow:

• Maui Rollers…has you flowing up and down the roller known as the Hana Highway. Undulating and sort of like long interval sets. Gorgeous.
• Oceanside Ride…has you thinking you are going on a flat coastal ride but punches in great efforts to up tempo.
• StrenDurance…is where you get your power on. Climbing and distance in one session that essentially has you wasted after the effort. It focuses on the need for sustained power over long-ish periods.

The neat part about the DVD’s is their production quality. From the very beginning the user is provided tons of options like if you want music or coaching…and if you want coaching, do you want it from an American an Aussie or others!

Once the course was selected, the DVD utilized some modern and ‘web 2.0’ methods to explain the route which was really clever and cool and invariably most people can understand these days…and afterwards be inspired to jump on their Macs and PC’s to go investigate a bit more with Google Maps:

Once set up and you are warmed up, you are treated to maddening sites and sounds. The music was super ambient yet motivating using a pretty quality DJ and not some music by a Fred. The coaching was ‘just intrusive’ enough….meaning its there and gives you a great framework to follow audibly, yet not a cheesy drill sergeant yelling at you incessantly. If you need that…well, you probably would be ostracized from Hawaii for being too agro.

Ultimately the videos had fantastic visuals and it was matched fairly well with what my perceived tempo was as I was on the rollers:

Each of the videos in the Hawaii Rides set were more engaging than the last and had me (re)fall in love with Hawaii…the place my wife and I spent two glorious weeks a decade ago on our honeymoon. So much so that for our 10th anniversary, these videos were inspirational enough to look into a bike tour on the islands! Cross fingers…

MSRP for this three box set is $75 although individual DVDs can be purchased as well for $30. The three seemed to work well together though in terms of weaving together a three day indoor training block if you’re forced to be inside when the weather is foul enough to make it dangerous to ride outside. You can pick them up directly here on the Global Rides Shop Site.