ian dewar - circling the world on two wheels

Cross Country Cyclo Cross

In cyclocross there are three levels of UCI races.  In order of importance it goes World Cups, C1 then C2.   Results and points are important because they dictate where you start for each race.  The more points the closer to the front.  The World Cup hasn’t started yet so C1 races are the most important.   There are only 10 C1 races in the USA and this weekend there were two on the same day – crazy I know.  The second stop of the USGP series had a C1 (Saturday) and C2 (Sunday) in Fort Collins while on the East coast the long running Providence cyclocross festival had the same C1 (Saturday) C2 (Sunday) schedule.

With some money on the line for USGP overall the vast majority of top US cross racers headed West to Fort Collins – leaving at lot of points available in Providence.

USGP thoughts

A cold wet muddy day saw Ryan Trebon take the win – no real surprise there – he’s great in the bad weather and with Nationals this year in January in Madison, WI the more practice he gets racing in the bad, cold weather the more a favorite he has to be.  Not surprising the top 10 was full of mountain bikers with Geoff Kabush 2^nd, Chris Shepard 6^th, Troy Wells 7^th and ex US National mountain bike champ JHK finishing just outside in 12^th.  J-Powers did better then expected with a strong 3^rd place Saturday and Tim Johnson and Christian Heule did worse.  Heule did crash hard last weekend so is obviously still not back up to speed.  Other surprisingly bad races came from Brian Matter (19), Chris Jones (21) and Tristan Schouten (27).   The ride of the day Saturday was definitely U-23 rider Yannick Eckmann who finished 5^th overall… crushing the other U-23s  Zack McDonald and Cody Kaiser by 1 minute and 3 minutes respectively. 

Sunday was back to fast dirt – again a bit more like a dirt crit and as usual J-Powers took to the front and if he hadn’t had a slight crash with 5 to go would have been long gone.  As it was he chased back from about 10-12 sec down to catch Trebon and take the win.  Trebon was 1sec back and way clear of the rest.  No real surprised on Sunday except Tim Johnson is still struggling with the fast start of these races.  He was was back in about 15^th place after one lap and took the whole race to claw back to 4^th only to get passed by Schouten on the final lap for a 5^th place.   Chris Jones was back in his element – dirt crits – and did what is expected from him. Launch off the front by lap 3 and get caught 2 to 3 laps later.  He hung on for a top 10 finish and shouldn’t be counted out for a podium at any dry fast races coming up.

Providence thoughts

It’s hard to get excited about a race that is missing all the top cross guys but as expected the race was still extremely well run and provided some exciting east coast racing for guys who either can’t afford to fly west or don’t care about USGP overall points.  Plus a bunch of Canadians came down to mix it up in preparation for their National Championships in only three weeks.

Justin Lindine won both days – and is in a good position with UCI points when they re-set after next weekend for the 2011 / 12 season.   A couple of Canadians – Evan McNeely (on Saturday) and Derek St. John (on Sunday) picked up podium finishes.  Nice to grab a few UCI points before Nationals.

Next Weekend

The first UCI World Cup of the season is next weekend in Plzen Czech Repulic and after today’s Belgian domination at the first SuperPrestige look for a very, very, very fast race as they try to take Stybar down in his home country.  A few American’s are heading over (J-Pow, Tim Johnson maybe and Jamey Driscoll) its going to be a tough day out there for them based on how the Belgians rode today.

Here in the USA there are more UCI races with Spooky Cross in Irvine, CA and Granogue CX in Wilmington, DE.   Those are all C2 but expect Trebon to get some easy point in the west and probably Lindine back est.

Here are my thoughts on the top 10 guys in the USA right now…

USA Cyclocross Power Rankings after three weeks:

1. Ryan Trebon – he got caught on Sunday by J-Pow on the fast dry conditions, but when the weather gets rough there is no one better in the USA
2. Jeremy Powers – clearly the man to beat on fast dry conditions.  If the rest of the season stays dry he’s going to win a lot more races
3. Geoff Kabush – strong results in Fort Collins with 2^nd in the mud and 3^rd in the dry conditions
4. Jamie Driscoll – solid performances in all races with a pile of 4^th, 5^th and 6^th place finishes
5. Tim Johnson – terrible day on Saturday but a 5^th place finish on Sunday shows he’s continuing his way back up to the front
6. Yannick Eckmann  - Awesome result for the U-23 rider in the mud on Saturday to finish 5^th in the Elite men’s race
7. Zack McDonald – also U-23 and finished ahead of Eckmann on Sunday.  Consistently top 10-15 in Elite races
8. Christian Heule – had a bad crash last weekend and a 9^th place finish on Saturday before dropping out Sunday
9. Ben Berden – a long time pro in Belgium who’s spending this season racing in the USA.  Lots of podiums on the east coast and now racing with the rest of the top guys.
10. Tristan Schouten – had a very bad Saturday race, but bounced back for 4^th place on Sunday.  Couple that with some good results back East and he replaces his fellow Wisconsinite Brian Matter as my 10^th best guy right now.

Check back later in the week for a look at women's cyclocross right now in the USA...

You wanna see some FAST cross action – check out this: 

Superprestige 2011-2012 from jef cleemput on Vimeo.

World Cups and Superprestige are live on Sporza online (www.sporza.be) – check www.cyclingfans.com for dates and times.

 

 

USGP Madison Cyclocross

Madison Wisconsin kicked off the National USGP series with a double-header of racing.  Perfect September cyclocross weather greeted racers on Saturday and classic cyclocross rain and mud rolled in Sunday.   With almost all the major US cyclocross racers in attendance this race solidifies the kickoff to the season. 

Men’s Race Summary

Who looked great:

Ryan Trebon (9 of 10) is definitely for real this season.  After driving the case for almost an hour at Cross Vegas we knew Trebon was in good shape, but after riding away from Jeremy Powers and two time world champion Bart Wellens he proved he is fit, serious and ready for this season.  First on Saturday and third on Sunday prove he’s just as good in dry fast conditions as he is in wet, muddy ones.

Bart Wellens (9 of 10) is a two time world champion for a good reason.  He’s also consistently one of the top Belgian cyclocross racers in a country that has a lock on the top of the UCI standings.  That Bart only won three of the five UCI races he did on his USA tour is a testament to the quality of racing in America today.  When he won on Sunday in the mud it was proof that when conditions are bad the Belgians excel.  The huge efforts he made on Saturday chasing down Jeremy Powers opened the door for Trebon’s win – but an off-result for Bart still put him in second place.  Not a bad trip to the USA for him.

Who looked great on Saturday:

Jeremy Powers (6 of 10) is going all-in on cyclocross this year.  His road season was simply a prep for this fall and he’s made it clear the National Championship is his goal for January 2012 with an eye on 2013’s World Championship in Louisville, KY.  On Saturday his attacking style may have cost him the race as he went to the front every time they pulled back an attack.  He still finished a solid 3^rd on the back of a Wednesday night win and 4^th last week at Cross Vegas. On Sunday he was never in the race.  He’s going to have to get better in the mud if he wants to compete in the World Cups and rest of this season.

Jamie Driscoll (7 of 10) was consistent both days hovering just inside or outside of 5^th place.  He finished 5th and 6th and was definitely solid on both days in the fast dry and slow mud.  Driscoll is also all-in on cross this year and should be set to take some solid wins later this season as race conditions worsen.

Who looked great on Sunday:

Jonathan Page (6 of 10) finally put together a good race on Sunday.  After a terrible CrossVegas and Saturday race in dry fast conditions Page immediately went after Rob Peters' lap 1 attack in the rain on Sunday and rode a technically perfect race.  His results will be better in muddy and sandy European races then American dry and fast races like last year’s USGP races.  Bend in December and nationals in Madison should favor him.  His speed is still off – he lost time on the flats and made it back in the technical mud sections. He’ll need to get that back up to contend in Europe and at nationals.

Rob Peters (7 of 10) put in a huge attack mid race on Saturday and to start the race on Sunday – trying to losen things up for Bart – by the mid-point of both race the top five were Peters, Wellens and Heule (all Euros), Jonathan Page (huge Euro experience) and only Trebon left of the regular American cross racers.  Peters couldn’t maintain either of his huge attacks on Saturday or Sunday to win – but with 4^th place finishes each day he’s solid for the rest of the season.

Christian Heule (6 of 10) rode really well Sunday in the rain and mud, but was completely out of the race Saturday.  He’s been travelling a lot since his 2nd place finish at Cross Vegas – so the incredibly fast start Saturday may have been a shock to him.  It’s a rude awakening mistake that he won’t make again.  No matter what the conditions in Fort Collins in two weeks look for Christian to be ready.

Who’s having a rough start to the season:

Tim Johnson (6 of 10) looked good at Cross Vegas until he crashed and chased back to 5^th place on Saturday after the early speed put him into trouble. 

Todd Wells (5 of 10) has had some bad luck so far this season – a tough 10^th place at Cross Vegas and a broken chain on Saturday put him into last place at the end of lap 1.  He chased back through more then 40 guys to finish 20^th but with a limited season this year to focus on making the Olympic mountain bike team next year Wells is going to only have a few more chances to notch some wins this season.

Geoff Kabush (5 of 10) rode well enough for top 15 in Vegas and top 10s both days in Madison but isn’t anywhere near the CX form that saw him winning races last year.  He’ll need to get his starting speed back up to content in future races as he’s been on the chase from the start in both wet and dry races so far this year.

Who’s missing:

Chris Jones from Rapha-Focus hasn’t started his season yet. With his fast starts and road fitness he should be a good rabbit to take some pressure off Jeremy Powers in dry races – but his wet racing skills aren’t the best and he’ll need to have top fitness to stay away from a fast starting Trebon this year. 

USA Cyclocross Power Rankings after three weeks:

1. Ryan Trebon – fast when it’s dry, faster when its wet
2. Jeremy Powers – good when dry, terrible when wet
3. Jonathan Page – good when wet, terrible when dry
4. Christian Heule – good in Vegas, flat race on Saturday, better on Sunday
5. Jamie Driscoll – solid performances in all races, good attack in Vegas
6. Tim Johnson – bad luck has seen crashes in 2 of 3 races
7. Todd Wells – good fitness but doesn’t have the fast snap of the front 3-4
8. Geoff Kabush – consistent top 10 but never in the top 5
9. Yannick Eckmann  - the top U23 rider on Saturday and 2nd best Sunday in Madison
10. Brian Matter – local boy and Chequomegon 40 mtb winner had a great pair of races with the big boys in Madison. Can he keep it up all season?

Here's a cool video from Sunday's USGP!

 

USGP Barriers on Saturday

 

 

San Francisco by Bike (by Ian)

My blog posts have been long lately so here’s a short one with a bunch of photos. I went up to San Francisco on Monday for the opening ceremonies of ThinkBike a two day workshop collaboration between cycling infrastructure experts from the Netherlands and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.   Building on a week long trip some city officials did last year to the Netherlands with Bikes Belong this session allowed city officials to highlight three specific areas that are slated for cycling improvement; Market Street; Polk Street and the Wiggle. 

It goes without saying that this type of collaboration is exactly what we need to jump start bike infrastructure development in American cities. But the truth is that these events will not happen without a lot of work and it takes a very committed group of people to accomplish this huge change in attitudes toward transportation.  In this case it included; the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition; the Board of Supervisors (the president of the board David Chu joined the trip last summer); the Department of Transportation (the new head XXX XX also joined the trip); the majors office (new Major XXX Lee is an unashamed supporter of cycling for San Francisco; the Dutch consulate; the Dutch cycling union (CROW); Bikes Belong; and countless overs who worked to help make this happen.

I look forward to following the progress of the committee recommendations as they work to make San Francisco an even more cycling friendly city.   In just the two short years since a moratorium on cycle track development was lifted the city is way more bikeable.  Here are some of the things I saw:

Large group of Dutch cycling experts, city employees and SFBC staff head out to inspect the different areas of study.  Interesting to note no one is wearing cycling specific clothing.  Being able to create a way for people to ride to work in work clothing is paramount to making a city more cycle friendly.

Newly painted green bike lanes on Market Street.  What a difference some color and plastic dividers make to increase the confidence level of cyclists.  With safety as the main concern for cycle commuters, these small changes have a huge effect.

In the past sharrows (arrows with bike logos) were painted in intersections.  By adding the green box the sharrow becomes so much more visible. 

Everything isn’t perfect yet – but with a plan in place to create bike lanes, bus lanes and vehicle lanes the city will continue to make the trip up and down Market Street a key way to access the city from the bay.

Of course any trip to the city isn’t complete without expensive hipster coffee at Blue Bottle and an almost perfect day to sit outside and enjoy it.  By creating a bike lane all the way from the Ferry building up to City Hall the city is further increasing the transportation options for people who don’t want to drive their car into the city.  Imagine a commute that involved a ferry and a bike ride rather then 45 minutes in your car every day.  Awesome.

Thank you Globe Daily for taking me on another city adventure.  I love your basket, your riveted-saddle and your single speed.  May we have many more adventures together.  Now if only I can figure out how to keep my white tires white…

Vegas By Bike – An Impossible Task

Las Vegas has hosted the Interbike bicycle trade show for years, and every year thousands of cyclists descent on the city – some even bring bikes.   For the first time in five years this year I decided to bring one with me so I didn’t have to take cabs everywhere.  I figure most years I spend somewhere near $200 getting around – it’s $25 from the airport, $20 from any hotel to any other hotel on the strip, $30 to get to dinner the way the cabs go back and forth.  So even though I was only staying a mile and a half from the convention center I made a point to ride as much as possible.

WOW.  My first reaction to riding is Vegas was just how car centric the city is and how build around limo and taxi traffic.  Even out on the east side in Henderson where I stayed the first two nights there were sections of roads without even sidewalks.  Getting to the grocery store my first day in Vegas involved a 2 mile ride on a road aptly named Boulder Highway – even though it was only about a half mile from a real highway.  Riding up the sidewalkless road I got stares as if I were riding a camel.  Once I arrived at the grocery store the lack of any safe bike parking made the experience complete.  I figured maybe it was just the store – so I rode all around the mini-mall looking for anything to lock my bike to.  Nothing.  No racks, no railing, nothing.  So I guess that isn’t exactly surprising given that the road leading to this shopping center (ok almost ALL shopping centers in Vegas) was four lanes wide.

As I got back into town the lack of any sort of bike support did surprise me.  In five days of riding around the strip I never once saw a bike race or a safe place to lock my bike.   Among the places I locked my bike in five days included:

• The motorcycle parking at TI (level 3 by the employee parking)
• A railing at the Fashion Mall with everyone looking at me like I was an idiot
• At valet parking at the Venetian (only cost a $5 tip to get it back)
• A railing outside Mirage (before I got yelled at)

To be honest the other thing was even more difficult then finding bike parking was riding safely around Vegas near the big hotels.  Basically there are three options;

1) Ride on the sidewalk

2) Ride on side streets and through parking garages the way cabbies do

3) Just ride balls out like you own the road

None of the options offered any level of safety that would make cyclists feel good about riding and none of them are a real viable cycling solution.  I realize that cyclists who ride into and out of the Strip or Downtown Vegas are definitely few and far between… but it’s crazy to see just how car centric the city really is.

I’m a pretty confident rider and riding The Strip at night was one of the craziest 2 miles of riding I’ve ever been on.  Fun – yes. Dangerous – for sure. Unrideable – not quite.  

Small Victories

Ironically this week was also when Andy Clarke from the League of American Bicyclists gave 11 new and 14 renewing Bicycle Friendly Communities awards.

But out in Henderson some awesome separated bike lanes and paths are being build – so there are examples the city can look to.

I guess the one benefit of seeing this starting point is that future of cycling in Vegas can only get better… man it’s definitely starting from the bottom.  I look forward to returning next year – I’ll stay a bit away from the convention center again; and I’ll bring my bike with me again.  Hopefully there are small improvements I can report back.

On the plus side Interbike always brings out some unique cycling with it… here’s a couple videos from Cross Vegas and from the Circulus Race between J-Pow and TJ.

 

 

Portland – Ride, Walk, Drink Beer, Repeat

Of course Portland’s hipster cred is never in doubt.  It would be foolish for me to write a blog-report on “how cycle-hip is Portland”… In fact I was reading that actual story in a cycling magazine that I picked up upon arrival in Portland.  How’s that for hipster irony. I bought a bike magazine in Portland with a story about Portland with a list of things to do and places to see that I’d already been to.  Glad to know my trip was hipster approved!

More then just the ever expanding hipsters on fixies – the bike culture of Portland has expanded because of two main reasons – better ways to ride bikes and more need for people to ride bikes…  Sounds pretty obvious, but the building of bicycle infrastructure in Portland is the main reason more people ride.  Shocking I know – and second an expanding urban workforce with housing within riding distance (1 to 5 miles) of employment has meant that an expanding workforce that lives close to their work can ride safer to work.  Again – a shockingly obvious observation – but in most cities in the USA there are two main reasons people give for not riding: Not Safe and Too Far.  In Portland infrastructure development helped solve the first problem and regional economic development helped solve the second one.

Some of the awesome things I saw in Portland include:

A green bike lane with a waiting Bike Box at dangerous intersections.  These Bike Boxes were all over Portland and the green lanes highlighted dangerous areas. This lane was a the end of a bridge with a dangerous turn on it and makes the cycle-lane more visible for car drivers and cyclists alike. What a perfect way to make it safer to ride without a huge building cost.

 

 

 

Across Portland small additions like this make cycling safer at intersections; on busier car streets and create clear cycle routes to put cyclists into safer environments.

Bike parking was everyone – in Portland there never seemed to be a loss for places to park bikes, but at the same time – they were in constant use.  I would estimate at any time at least 60-70% of available parking was being used.  In high traffic areas additional parking was created.  Here are some awesome examples:

Powell’s Book Store is an obvious spot for cyclists to park, but so is the bike parking at the Oregon Health and Science University. 

In fact there were so many bikes parked at OHSU that the school in cooperation with a local grant put on a four week FREE BIKE VALET PARKING experiment to see how popular it would be.   It should go without saying that the experiment showed students, doctors and professors alike all loved it.  The next step is finding out what the value of the service is.  Like many cycling projects once built they are incredibly popular – and like many cycling projects the biggest concern is who pays for the project?  The users (cyclists), the other users benefiting from less cars on the road (the University), the user group who don’t cycle and require more space to park (the drivers)?  As OHSU continues to look at how to offer more alternative transportation options it’s great to see Bike Valet included as a real viable option to reducing car congestion around the university and hospital.

Touring around Portland by bike – and many hotels in Portland offer bike rentals as an option – it becomes clear that much thought has been put into not only the cycle track layout but also the signage that goes along with it.

Of course it’s not all about just making it easier to ride to and from work.  One of the most exciting things about Portland’s continued investment in cycling includes making sure that it’s as easy to ride to dinner, bars, theatres, shopping as it is to ride to work and home.  Throughout the city there were bike-parking additions carved out of what used to be car parking. 

These 8, 10 and 12 bike racks were built up all over the city and especially on the east side where urban renewal is happening at a rapid pace. 

Build in front of coffee shops, restaurants and old warehouses now turned into office buildings these bike racks take up the space of two cars, but allow for 12 to 20 bikes to be safely parked.  Easy to install, relatively inexpensive and able to be put up almost everywhere these bike racks continue to add to the bikeability of the city. 

The best part about riding in Portland is not just that everyone else is riding – it’s that it’s fun and makes you want to ride more.  With safer roads, more places to safely park bikes, lots of housing within riding distance of great housing options and a high density of great restaurants, bars, clubs and hotels – Portland makes riding not only an easy option – but also a cheaper and faster option in many cases. 

Portland Recommendations

Finally in the vein of Portland-as-hipster-cyclists-destination here are a few awesome recommendations of places to go by bike while visiting.

Jupiter Hotel – www.jupiterhotel.com - 800 East Burnside 

The Jupiter falls squarely in the neo-hip hotel position but lives up to it’s hipster billing with a great restaurant, inexpensive bar and a live-music venue. The Doug Fir restaurant and club make it hard to leave the hotel but the location within walking or cycling distance to a ton of new places make it a perfect spot.  Of course they have bike rentals and the TVs have Universal Sports so you can watch cycling while hung-over in the morning if you’re staying during a grand tour.

Le Pigeon – www.lepigeon.com 738 E Burnside St

Right next to Jupiter this small restaurant (only has about 25 seats) is the darling of the neo-hip-food-revolution taking place in Portland.  Tattooed chefs, waiters who ride fixies to work, foie-gras raviolis, a single page but extensive wine list, what’s not to love?  Make a reservation ahead of time and don’t be offended if you sit at the long communal table with other people you don’t know.   Order a few small plates before selecting an entre.  Don’t rush your dinner and unless you have a clear provision against it order an Oregon Pinot Noir.

                                   pick a winner!!!

Beaker and Flask – http://beakerandflask.com/  727 SE Washington St

Beaker and Flask is to drinks what Le Pigeon is to appetizers: inventive, unusual, and always changing.  Based on what fresh fruit they have available to make mixers and XXX (drink sweeteners??) the drinks are ever changing and include every combination of mixer.  Not to be outdone the food also changes with what’s available – sometimes there are more small plates, sometimes more entrees.  Make your choice wisely – the drinks will make you want to order another… and another.

Sweet Pea Bakery – http://sweetpeabaking.com/ - 1205 SE Stark St.

Trying to offer a balance to the voodoo donut crazy expanding in Portland… Sweet Pea Bakeryoffers dark coffee, fresh vegan pastries and a lot of space.  With reclaimed space bike parking out front there's no reason not to head down for an early morning start.  As a bonus on Saturday they make donuts!  yum.  oh yea and they serve sandwhiches too if you want to pretend to have a lunch meeting so you can write off your trip to Portland.  

Finally no story about Portland would be complete without a picture of classic hipster.  Enjoy!

THE FUTURE IS NOW… (OR IS IT?)

The USA Pro Challenge wrapped up yesterday in Colorado with a quarter of a million people watching the race.  Big time bike racing is definitely back in Colorado – now can the race (and the state) figure out how to pay for it… I guess we’ll find out next year since the race organizers claim they have the funding already in place for a 2012 race.

While 37 year old Levi Leipheimer beat 35 year old Christian Vandevelde in Colorado yesterday – young guns Taylor Phinney (21), Christopher Froome (26) and Tony Martin (26) battled it out at the Tour of Spain time trail.  Martin came away with the stage win and Froome is currently race leader. 

The future of cycling is knocking on the door – can they get in?  Tejay Van Garderen almost upset Levi and CVV in Colorado but just didn’t have the power on Vail’s uphill time trial to maintain his leaders jersey…

This is an interesting year for professional cycling – there are a lot of good riders still unsigned for next year – so the teams can pick the best among them – and there are a lot of vets who aren’t interested in retiring… especially the Radio Shack trio of Horner, Leipheimer and Kloden.. Taylor Phinney’s decision to not sign with Radio Shack seems a lot smarter now that the old guard refuses to move on…

There weren’t any real surprises today at the Vuelta’s time trail – just some exciting racing to come and the jersey changed hands again for the 7^th time in 10 stages this race.  Nothing was really decided in today’s time trail as there are still 16 riders within 3:30 of the race lead and 3 mountain top finishes to come and no time trails.  The climbers like Nibali, Van den Broeck and even Rodriguez are still close enough to take time back.  The only real contenders who have to be considered as totally out of final contention are Michele Scarponi (4:41 down), Dan Martin (4:58 down) and Carlos Sastre (6:48 down). 

Look for Radio Shack, Leopard Trek and Sky who all have two riders in the top 10 to start to dictate some team tactics and look for some exciting and attacking racing over the next 10 stages before the ceremonial circuit race in Madrid. 

Colorado Winners

Exciting racing in Colorado was really good for the sport and really good for cycling in the USA.  With American athletes in the top 5 GC spots and American bikes winnng every stage except one – the future of cycling looks great.  One struggle US races are going to have to start dealing with is what opportunities are out there for no Pro-Tour teams?  Look at the Colorado Results.

• All stages won by Pro Tour Riders
• Top 5 on GC by Pro Tour Riders (and 8 of top 10)
• Top 5 on Points by Pro Tour Riders
• Best Young Rider is Pro Tour Rider
• 4 of top 5 Teams are Pro Tour
• Only the Mountain classification saw 4 Columbians and a Skil-Shimano rider chase those points and win the jersey.

For the smaller teams there are fewer and fewer opportunities. This year only three  US Continental teams did the race (Jelly Belly, Bissell and Team Exergy).  The rest of the spots were filled with Pro Tour teams (8 teams), South American Pro Continental teams (2) and North American Pro Continental (3). 

Next year two of the three UCI stage races in USA are confirmed – Tour of California will return in May again and USA Pro Challenge in Colorado is also confirmed.   With Utah making a nice prelude to Colorado racing – look for more of the Pro Tour teams to include the Utah / Colorado double in next years schedule.  Three weeks of training at altitude doesn’t hurt in World Championship preparation either.

Tomorrow is a rest day at the Vuelta so look for our update on the status-of-the-teams!

THESE RACES ARE GOING DOWNHILL FAST

Some lessons are best learned the hard way.  And the lessons of yesterday’s Tour of Colorado, er USA Pro Cycling Challenge were obviously lost on the riders in Spain this morning. 

At least in Spain we got to see the textbook downhill attack that Liquigas orchestrated on the final descent of the day.  Yesterday in Colorado we got to see the finish line while the attack of the week took place and young gun Tejay van Garderen put the stick to Levi Leipheimer.  Phil Liggett gave Levi some credit saying – maybe at his age he was more cautious on the wet descent – but that certainly doesn’t explain why 38 year old George Hincapie went with Tejay’s downhill attack and easily out sprinted him and four others to win the stage.

Two examples of perfectly timed attacks on courses that weren’t supposed to be won on the downhill.  That’s why we race and that’s why a PRO needs to pay attention in every race.  The future of cycling looks very good right now – Tejay is takin’ it to the old men and Nibali and Sagan are double teaming the way-we-used-to-race.  Impressive.  The way Sagan sat back until he knew Nebali couldn’t take it and then easily accelerated around to win the stage was impressive.

Watch this perfectly timed quad-attack!

Peter Sagan Wins Vuelta Stage 6 - from Universal Sports - Click here for the funniest movie of the week

 

Tomorrow is supposed to be a sprint stage… with very few sprinters in the race it’ll probably end up being Boonen vs. Bennati  in a cluster of a finish.  I’d like to pick Boonen, but that guy doesn’t like the heat and still isn’t back to 100%  - so I’m going with Bennati for tomorrow.  A Trek rider won today in Colorado so maybe a Trek rider can win tomorrow in Spain.

Are we gonna see this tomorrow? Oh and more to the point will this jersey have more on it next year?

NOT ALL BIKES GO FAST

Check out what's going on in Chicago right now!!!!  Building bike lanes one mile at a time.

Emanuel checks bike paths off the list

But the mayor still has miles to go

by Lauren Chooljian Aug. 24, 2011

In his transition plan for the city, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said he wanted to plot out two miles of protected bike lanes by his 100^th day in office. It’s part of his larger goal of making Chicago part of a "world-class" bike network--a goal he announced before he stepped into his City Hall Office.

"I announced in the campaign that we're going to do 25 miles of bike lanes a year," Emanuel said. The Mayor said he wants 100 miles of these lanes before his first term ends.

The new lanes put bikers directly between the curb and a parking lane divided by plastic barriers. The Mayor promised the city would select a pilot location--emphasis on the select--for the first two miles of the project. The transition plan outlines that locations would be selected based on "high community demand and cycling activity combined with sufficient physical room to create protected lanes."

see the rest here:  http://www.wbez.org/story/emanuel-checks-bike-paths-list-90943#

 

A TALE OF TWO RACES

Yesterday saw almost the whole top 10 of the 2011 Tour de France racing – 

Cadel Evans – Colorado Pro Challenge

Andy Schleck – Colorado Pro Challenge

Frank Schleck – Colorado Pro Challenge

Ivan Basso – Colorado Pro Challenge

Tom Danielson – Colorado Pro Challenge

Thomas Voeckler – Tour du Poitou Charentes

Jean-Christophe Peraud – Tour du Poitou Charentes

Three riders from the top 10 aren’t racing this week – Alberto Contador has ended his season and is preparing for his CAS defense for November.  Sammy Sanchez is racing in Spain this month but chose not to go to the Vuelta and Damiano Cunego is back in Italy getting ready for his own meeting with Italian doping investigators in early September.

The (lack of) Rain in Spain

But what’s obviously missing here is who’s racing the Vuelta?  With none of the Tour stars coming to the Vuelta it makes for a more open race – but without the big name recognition the race has an uphill public perception battle.   The Vuelta has a reputation as a second chance race these days – for riders who crashed out of the Tour like Wiggins, Van de Walle or Brajkovic, or riders who didn’t have the Tour they expected like Tony Martin or Nicolas Roche.  The former typically do better while the latter have to deal with the expectation that they are chasing a result to salvage their season. It’s pretty hard to have a great three week race only four weeks after ending a disappointing three week race. 

Looking at the racing the Vuelta has already had three very exciting days – a huge mountain top finish yesterday showed who’s got the legs for the overall (Dan Martin, Sorensen, Rodriguez, Wiggins, Scarponi, Nibali, Brajkovic…)  and who among the favorites are already in trouble like Igor Anton who lost 1:36 and Andreas Kloden who is clearly un-interested in racing this Vuelta and lost over 18 minutes.  I’d be surprised if he finished the race.

Then today’s double cat 2 climb and steep steep steep (up to 24%) finish saw more time gaps and another tough day for pre-race favorite Igor Anton.  Key GC favorites did well to stick close and now with only five stages done there is a clear list of race favorites including – Rodriguez, Scarponi, Van Den Broeck, Nibali, Wiggins and Nicholas Roche.  A few nice surprises so far in the are the success of Jakob Fuglsang, Sergio Pardilla and Bauke Mollema. 

The racing has been exciting, fast and already showing some variation.  One of the great things about the Vuelta is that since the teams are not as strong as they are at the Tour there are more gaps, less control of the peloton, more breakaways and ultimately more head-to-head racing rather then team-vs-team.

With the GC selection starting to shake out the Vuelta takes a bit of a break – two flat stages for Thursday and Friday before Saturday’s big climbing stage again.  This should give Sylvain Chavanel a chance to keep the leaders jersey for a couple more days and a chance for Quick Step to get some good TV time / euro-press after a very disappointing Tour de France. 

Look for Saturday’s climbing stage to show who is for real at this year’s Vuelta and who’s still riding out some summer fitness this week.  This is probably going to shape up to be the best race no one watches!

ONTO THE MAIN EVENT!!! 

Just like the post-Tour criteriums where the stars of the Tour de France ride around in a circle withstanding some impressive looking attacks, launch their own and then a pre-determined winner takes the race – the Tour of Colorado, er Quiznos Pro Challenge, er, Colorado Pro Challenge, er USA Pro Cycling Challenge kicked off this week for seven days of UCI racing in America.  This is like the revolving door of UCI races in America.  It’s not the Tour de Georgia, it’s not the Tour of Missouri, it’s not the Tour of Utah (but that does still exists if you missed it with all the Leadville 100 news).  At least this race isn’t called the Tour de whatever-state-wants-to-give-Medalist-a-million-dollars…

So the biggest athletes in the world are here in the USA to race for their major USA based bike sponsors.  We have Levi Leipheimer on Trek, Frank and Andy Schleck and Jens Voigt on Trek, Christian VandeVelde and Tommy D on Cervelo (ok Canada – USA whatever), Tejay van Gardaren on Specialized, and Laurent Didier from Saxo Bank on Specialized --- wait a second… Laurent Didier?? That’s the best Bjarne Riis can come up with for an American sponsor at a race in the USA?  Wow.  Ok so they also brought Gustav Larsson but he’s already a minute back so that’s the end of that.

After a mini-prologue and a stage that ended in a hard 3-mile steep uphill the top 15 is firmed up – 11 Pro-Tour riders, 1 US domestic rider,  2 Columbians no one has ever heard of and 1 athlete who failed a dope test a year ago and still hasn’t been sanctioned.

Now they just ride around the state for five more days and try to figure out how to keep the Columbians from winning the race.   

Today’s big stage might actually show some exciting racing – mainly because the Columbians will certainly launch a big attack and the guys from Europe will get confused when their directors make them chase… “Wait a minute – this isn’t like a Post-Tour crit where we get an envelope full of cash and chase down half-baked attacks?” 

Certainly when Sevilla and Henao head up the road on Independence pass if the team directors don’t launch a chase Medalist Sports will…  After the debacle of Jani Backovic winning (and putting nail #1 in the coffin of) the Tour de Georgia, Medalist and the USA Pro Cycling Challenge management are almost 100% dependent on a recognizable winner to keep this race going.  They must have broken out the champagne when Levi took stage 1… even with his questionable status for next year – Levi is a bankable winner and while he provides boring sound bites – at least they are in English!

What’s going on today?  Levi and RadioShack will look to keep the Columbian climbing specialists under control and the race organizers will hope at least one of the Schlecks offer up an attack they can use for their promo-video.

These downhill stages are hard to predict – but tell you what it won’t be a Schleck that wins today!  Look for Tommy D, CVV and Ryder Hesjedal to all try to get away at the end of the climb or on the descent… Garmin – Cervelo will want to win a stage today if they can.

Exciting racing is on tap for both sides of the Atlantic today.

CAN ONE TEAM HANDLE THIS MANY JERSEYS?

The BMC free-spending summer continues as Andy Rihs and Jim Ochowicz seem to sign any athlete that’s available.  Gilbert confirmed what was reported in Equipe over a month ago – a 3 year deal with BMC.  This comes on the heels of Thor Hushovd’s 3 year deal.  Rumor also says they have Tejay van Garderen already signed (presumably to another three year deal).   

The team has wisely combined some veterans with the best young talent coming out of the United States – they now have future TT and classics contender Taylor Phinney and now future GC contender Tejay both locked up for when their current crop starts to fade… But are there enough races to win to keep this crew happy?  Cadel has already complained about how Thor can’t take his support at the TdF as he want’s 100% support in his title defense…

Next year’s teams are starting to become clearer even as the third Grand Tour of the season builds to it’s start tomorrow.  With the demise of HTC there are a lot of good riders available – also as Omega Pharma and Lotto split the future of half that team is still unknown. Will they join antoher team like Leopard-Trek or Vacansoleil?  Both have been rumored to be getting some Belgian Lotto money – or will they try and run their own team?  And who controls the contracts of the riders who still have agreements?  No one knows and the UCI seems unwilling to offer any help.

Again the season has started to wind down and the future of the sport is very much unknown.  However a clear pattern of free spending billionaires with their teams is starting to become clearer.   All the top teams heading into next year will have some sort of private money or a single Super-Fan spending his companies marketing dollars to allow him to hang out with pro cyclists…

 

The Vuelta – yes it’s still important…

Does this man look like a Grant Tour winner?

So you might be excused for not knowing the Vuelta starts tomorrow…  a quick look at Velonews today has stories on Junior Track racing and a women’s stage race in Aspen as higher priority then the Vuelta preview story.  And no news today – the day before the race.  I think the US media has made their choices clear. 

So why is the Vuelta actually important – turns out if you do some research the winner of the World Championship road race for the past ten years has always ridden the Vuelts – and in almost all years has won a stage there too…  So a guy like Thor Hushovd who will miss out now as team politics boils up at the end of season will have to use races like the Tour of Britain and GP Ouest France to get ready… Not exactly optimal preparation.

Also the Vuelta is usually the first grand tour for many young racers – there are always empty slots on most teams in the 7, 8 and 9 positions… this will be Taylor Phinney’s first attempt at three weeks of racing.  I predict he won’t finish – but will issue a lot of humorous tweets about how hard the racing is and how he almost missed the time cut… again.

So if the Vuelta is the stepping stone to future grand tour success how many Vuelta winers have gone on to win other grand tours?  Actually not very many.

In the last 20 years a grand total of three winners have won Grand Tours after their Vuelta win – Tony Tominger took three Vueltas from ‘92-‘94 and won the Giro in ’95. Denis Menchov won in 2007 and won the Giro in 2009.  Alberto Contador won in 2008 and won the Tour in 09, maybe ’10 and the maybe the Giro in ’11.

More often the Vuelta is the consolation prize for riders who couldn’t get it done at the Tour.  Ulrich won in 1999 after missing the Tour.  Roberto Heras never did much at the Tour and once he signed with US Postal as a worker for Armstrong he had the Vuelta as consolation.  Menchov, Vinokourov and Valverde are all riders who never quite managed to be real contenders at the Tour but won the Vuelta.

This year three Tour potentials who crashed out; Bradley Wiggins; Jurgen Van den Broeck and Janez Brajkovic are back to try and salvage their season (and get some UCI points) with success in Spain.  Add to that a list of climbing Spaniards and climbing Italians and the race is shaping up to look like the flight for 10^th place at the Tour looked.  Exciting but ultimately missing the highest level of racing.

Tomorrow’s TTT starts the race – almost all the climbing favorites will lose time as Lampre, Euskaltel and Katusha aren’t known for their TT prowess.  Look for Wiggins and Sky to win the stages with Garmin, Radio Shack, HTC, Saxo and Rabobank rounding out the top 5.  Wiggo won’t want to keep the jersey – but should do everything he can to look good. This is going to be his best chance for race leadership – next year in the Tour he’ll be so blown out by the Schleck-mountain express that he’ll need these fond memories.

Predictions:

Vuelta Stage 1:  16km TTT in Benidorm

Winner: Team Sky

Red Leaders Jersey: Bradley Wiggins

To get ready for Vuelta here's a clip of Jan Ullrich putting the hurt (on himself) in the '99 Vuelta - plus it's got a great sound-track!