So, I'm reading my college alumni online magazine (I went to a school called Wesleyan in Connecticut), and there's a link to an '04 graduate who is a pro bike racer. Her name is Beth Newell, and she's a champion track racer. So I follow the jump to her blog, and there on the front page is the best drug test story I've ever read. Check it out: bethbikes.blogspot.com

I'm a bit out of the loop and haven't heard about this bike builder before. Stumbled upon a mention of him in an article in the International Herald Tribune and looked him up on the web. Admittedly, I have a soft spot for Cyclocross bikes (maybe because I've gotten to watch so many pass me in cyclocross races). But I haven't ridden steel since I bought a Schwinn for $110 (earned the money mowing lawns) in the ninth grade... but this bike looks sweet!

A little tech poetry from the Sachs website: 

Any comments regarding the use of lugs must take in to account the primary task at hand—to join two steel tubes to each other. Deciding which method to employ involves either economics or emotion. Sometimes both. But rarely.

There are those who embrace the process of melting steel together with a bead, TIG welded. This group may also accept an environment in which everyone wears matching outfits. Maybe similar caps, too. Perhaps color bars on some shirt pockets to denote and differentiate status.

TIG welding is a uniform, androgynous, style-less look. In fact this is the current aesthetic of the bicycle. Welding works. It does the job. It is the fastest technique available to industry, and tech schools routinely graduate welders, thus supplying a steady stream of workers for the assembly of your next bike!

But, grab a lug and use it and you pay homage to a process chosen and perfected when the streets of time and money were less likely to intersect. And when you wouldn't find a time-clock to punch at the local framebuilders.

Sach Cyclocross

Did people already post about the Michael Maharam (textile guy) Musuem of Arts & Design show dedicated to, what else, bicycles?

Bespoke: The Handbuilt Bicycle displays the designs of six internationally renowned bicycle builders whose work in metal, as well as graphics and artifacts, elucidate this refined, intricate and deeply individual craft. Organized by Michael Maharam, owner of the eponymous textile company and an avid bicycle collector, along with master builder Sacha White of Vanilla Bicycles in Portland, Oregon, this survey is presented as part of the MADProjects exhibition series, which explores emerging trends and innovations in the design world.

Bicycle Show

Hey all. I wrote this a couple years ago intending to send it out to a west coast regional bike magazine I wrote a couple small reviews for, but I never did. I checked, and the product I liked below is still out there, and the website is still functioning, so I figured I'd post it here. 

 "A Better Training Video"

    When I purchased my trainer, I also purchased a couple of DVDs from the Spinervals Fitness Series. “Spinervals 2.0 Sweating Buckets” is a 45-minute ride touted as “a calorie-burning workout,” and “Spinervals 7.0 The Uphill Grind” is also 45 minutes and intended to work on climbing muscles. Both videos are adequate. In both, cycling coach Troy Jacobson––dressed in a sport shirt and khaki shorts––brandishes his stopwatch and shouts commands to a half-dozen people on stationary trainers. The videos are helpful, because Troy tells you what gear to put your bike in and how long to pedal for, and there’s a helpful pair of numbers on the screen and a ticking clock in case you’re a visual learner. Both videos are formatted like aerobics classes; Troy’s enthusiastic voice is about all that really keeps you going. I find them a bit boring.
    I thought it would be a neat invention for somebody to create a simple interface between the bike and my desktop computer, so I could set my computer screen in front of my bike and ride in a live bicycling video game. I’m more inspired by the sight of another rider pedaling away from me than I am by a coach shouting at me to pedal faster. But the only option I discovered like this cost over $1000.
    Eventually, I came across a training DVD called “Race Day with Robbie Ventura.” I ordered a copy after checking out the website (it was $39.95 which is about $15 more than a Spinervals DVD). The producers of “Race Day” hooked up ex-US Postal Pro rider, Robbie Ventura, with a bike-cam and entered him into a 35+ Masters criterium in California. The DVD is a rider’s-eye view of the race with a bar of information across the bottom of the screen that lets you know what kind of power and exertion Ventura is putting out at any given moment, and a ticking clock at the top.
    Cyclists attack and you and Ventura have to sprint to gather them in. They sit up, and you get to rest. It isn’t interactive, but it feels that way. I found myself leaning into corners and standing up on hills. The whole crit last about 40 minutes, not including warm-up and warm-down.
    There are various soundtrack options. The most interesting is Ventura’s live commentary during the actual race (which conveys an enormous amount of inside-the-head-of-a-pro information), but the best for fitness is his voice-over that tells you when you need to work harder and when to step it down. Unlike the Spinervals’ videos, Ventura doesn’t tell you what gear to shift into, he only indicates effort levels. But it’s pretty easy and pretty natural to shift into a smaller rear cog for tougher efforts and a bigger one for when he’s sitting up. If you’re like me, and you find it much easier to put out big watts if you’re actually chasing somebody, you’ll get more enjoyment and more work from this DVD than the ones with a coach and a stopwatch. “Race Day” is now my regular indoor ride. I’m still hoping somebody will invent some cheap interactive training software, but until they do, “Race Day” is a solid substitute.

    For more info check out:  www.realrides.tv

  If you've got insights into an inexpensive interactive computer program or other videos like the Robbie Ventura ones, please comment after the post.

I just found an interesting website that seems to know where bike frames are manufactured, and the blogger is claiming that Bianchi frames are actually made in Giant factories. And Bianchi isn't the only one. Chances are, no matter how much you paid for your bike frame, it was made by Giant or an Asian company just like Giant. Which sort of indicates to me that if you paid more for your frame than I paid for my carbon fiber Giant, then you paid a lot of extra money to have a Spanish/Italian/Canadian guy slap a sticker on it and spray paint it.

I've heard things like this in the past but never to this degree of specificity. Check out the site here: 

http://allanti.com/page.cfm?PageID=328

Hot off the wire:  Will the former Italy-based cycling team sponsored by the Vatican as a way to promote and publicize the pro-life politics of the Church wear the Blue-and-Gold of the 49th state?  Protestant fundamentalist governor Sarah Palin is said to be considering the move largely because her husband Larry or Ted (something like that) has taken up MTB riding in the off-season (Ted or Larry is a professional ski mobiler... no seriously, he is). News conference planned from Juneau on Monday.

Wow, I haven't been following cycling closely enough. These allstar manufacturers are making their own team, and presumably retiring from sponsoring other teams (Cervelo definitely is). I have never seen an array of sponsors that ever appeared to offer a genuine technological advantage before. But Cervelo & Zipp & Speedplay?

Does anybody else think that you could actually gain a minor technological edge in cycling? In other words, could you actually scrub a couple seconds off by using Cervelo over Speedplay, Zipp over Dura Ace (defiinitely, I think), Speedplay over anything? (I mean, everybody knows that there's a great advantage to using Shimano instead of Campy... that's just common knowledge, but I'm talking about an actual debate over things that are still up in the air).

So, in about four weeks, the Olympic cyclists will be racing in Beijing. As a resident of Beijing, I'm interested in seeing what the international community reports about the air quality problems there. I think the cyclists will race and survive, but I'm excited to see the international community wake up to the following facts:

-  it is common for new arrivals to Beijing to fall sick with minor ailments relating to breathing. Sore throats, ear aches, bronchitis and pneumonia are common among new arrivals and little kids.

-  the Chinese authorities block this information. They control access to the internet (blog sites are blocked in China) and their own internal media. They also control, to some extent, external media. If somebody like the New York Times or BBC reports stuff they don't like, they block their internet sites in the country, block distribution of their media in the country, revoke the visas of their journalists, and basically prevent them from both reporting and distributing in China. Because media organizations are capitalists, they are reluctant to face these problems, so they tend to be careful about what and how they report on China. As a result, you aren't getting all the facts.

- comparisons between Beijing and cities in first world countries are nonsense. The worst day of pollution in LA is the best day of pollution in Beijing.

- people don't realize this but the smog in China doesn't just cover Beijing. If you look at a satellite photo of China, most days you cannot see China. The smog stretches from the border of Mongolia to the ocean, and south to at least Shanghai, and some days further.

- increasingly, these levels of smog are common across India as well.

- in other words, the longer people put this off as China's problem, the sooner their pollution is going to grow so bad that it will make it across the Pacific and into the USA. If you think this sounds like hyperbole, read the first link I've pasted below.

- the following sites are not accessible in China:

http://asia-pacific-news.blogspot.com/2006/07/chinas-smog-reaches-us_29.html

http://mnweekly.ru/sport/20080710/55337102.html

http://www.pyongyangsquare.com/beijingair/

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1722450,00.html

Okay, I haven't been keeping up while I was in China, so forgive me if this vital topic has already been discussed up and down by all of you, but all the shake-ups with sponsors have resulted in not only tons of new teams but new kits on familiar bodies. Have to say I was disappointed with the simplistic alterations to the CSC-Saxophone uniform. Very bland.

So who has the best kit in your opinion and why? And who has the worst? And what makes a good kit in general? I have to say, I have always been a fan of FdJ's white-on-white with the big blue shamrock lottery logo. It's nice to have a graphic of some kind on a jersey. Plus the all white is just bold. I mean, imagine the cleaning bills.

Obviously, Rock Racing takes these ideas to the tacky extreme. I think a great kit would somehow simplify the sponsor names and highlight a geometric logo of some kind. Plus a bold color that's consistent on both top and bottom.

Rock Racing?  One of the coolest parts of bike racing for me has always been the bizarre anonymity of the teams -- You know them by their sponsor's names and not by some dumb-ass nickname. It made a joke of the American habit of city's adopting teams (not that I'm not guilty of this, too), when really the things are money-making franchises owned by individuals. When I was rooting for T-Mobile, I was rooting for the working athletes on the team, not the communications company.

I feel the way about Rock Racing the way that fans of acoustic Dylan feel about electric Dylan, the way that punk rockers felt about disco, the way fans of early alternative music feel now that alternative and mainstream are the same thing -- I feel like something I thought was raw and real has been co-opted by some marketing bastard to sell crap.

Rock Racing is stupid people cool. Like buying Pepsi because the commercial told you to. A certain amount of this is unavoidable -- like the taste in tattoos you had in high school and the taste in literature you had in middle school and like it's unavoidable that certain people are going to accept money to be professional skateboarders -- but grown-ups with even the vaguest familiarity with the smell of their own shit should know better.

Exhale. I feel better now. Yes I do.

Awful quiet on the site this week, so here's a question: How much did you ride last week?

Here's my answer: I live in Beijing, China, and last week I rode my cross bike across the city twice to squash practice for a grand total of about 20 miles, and my Chinese $40 bicycle to my daughter's busstop three times, for a total of 24 miles, for a grand total of 44 miles, so I'm totally jealous of those of you getting out for decent rides in decent weather (here the pollution keeps most people indoors). Maybe I'll get a chance to do a ride outside the city this weekend.

What about all you First Worlders?

Okay, like ten minutes after washing my hands of the Pro Tour, I'm back to discuss them, but only with this mildly cynical idea. These are the ten riders I would like to think never doped, and why:

1.  Jens Voigt (doping's too complicated)
   
2.  Levi Liepheimer (mum wouldn't let him)
   
3.  Cadel Evans (gee-shucks, we don't have any dope in the Northern Territory, or much else)
   
4.  Sebastian Chavanel (he spat on it... and hasn't won anything anyway)
   
5.  Sandy Casar (French sprinter... need I say more)
   
6.  Tom Boonen (because he's Tom Boonen and I'm a fool)
   
7.  Robbie McEwen (already has too much testoterone)
   
8.  Tyler Ferrar (he's just a young kid for Christ's sake!)
   
9.  Magnus Backstedt (he doesn't seem like the type... )
   
10. Sebastian Joly (basically, I think all of FdJ is dope-free, so whenever I can't think of anybody, I put in the name of a boy in white--I think Bougyues Telecom is probably clean, too, but I still can't quite pronounce their name)

Okay, I live in Beijing, China, now. And I'm finding out there are two kinds of factories in China:  Factories that are only allowed to sell their products domestically, and factories that are only allowed to sell their products abroad. In other words, I cannot buy decent bike parts in China, despite the fact that they are made here, unless I pay 10-20 percent MORE than I would in the States. Goods made in China for the foreign market can be shipped to Hong Kong, then shipped (and taxed) back into China.

These days, most bike frames, especially the carbon fiber ones, are made in China. After I ask this question, I have another one:  Was your frame made ONLY for the manufacturer you bought it from, or is it painted different colors and labeled different things and sold by several different bike companies??

You know, as a high school and college athlete, I never watched pro sports. Frankly, I could never figure out why people would want to watch others have fun. As I've gotten older, lazier and fatter (and also, I admit it, occasionally more stimulated by mental challenges than physical ones), I've actually begun to follow a couple sports, or at least a few sports teams... but if that changes, it won't be a major loss.

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I'm especially interested in Vino's finishes being counted toward the year-long VDS. I think they should be... not that he's on my team or anything.

I love LL for the following reason:  He's the one guy in the peloton who I would actually put money on as a non-doper. Something about him, he just seems too much of a dork to dope (no offense, Levi, as I'm proud of my own dorkiness, plus you're one of those dorks with a babe for a wife).

Maybe I'm being naive, but here's my Disco theory. Bruynel went out last year when the doping busts started and signed Levi as his potential non-doping GC-leader (Contador was an unproven dream at the time). The timing of the signing confirmed this idea for me. OP was breaking, it looked like dopers were done, and bang, Bruynel signs LL. Then the furor dies and Bruynel goes and covers his bases and signs Basso. If dopers reign, Disco wins, if Dopers die, Disco has a clean back-up.

What do people think? Is LL clean? Is that why he fled T-Mobile as soon as he could? Is that why Disco wanted him?

and has alot of armchair DS's eating crow. The Chicken's clean. All that's happened is we've seen what happens when you take EPO out of the Tour. Suddenly the muscular guys can't climb mountains. Not much of a surprise. You've got to be a starve-yourself-skeleton like the Chicken to kick ass up the steep parts.

And kick ass he has. Suddenly its not enough to be a great TT'er and a good climber. What an awesome sight, to see a pure climber nullify the flat-landers and carve out minute after minute in the hills.

Rasmussen's awesome. It's a joy to see somebody come along and force us all to rewrite what seemed to be accepted strategy. It's a new era.

[editor's note, by chris] Your devil's advocate...

Chris where are you? Please post our polka dot jersey debate about the strengths of Michael Rasmussen. Oh, my! Now we'll see who can climb--it'll be all about whether the Chicken can win in the mountains in the week ahead.

Watching Vino, Mayo, Evans, Valverde and the Chicken battle in the Pyrenes is going to be insane! This is probably the best Tour I have ever watched. The TT today was amazing. I've never seen the race so wide open this late. Anything can happen!  5 or 6 guys can still win it. Insane.

Interesting this new world without doping! Suddenly being the world's best climber might be enough to win the Tour? And Frenchmen are leading the charge up mountains? I'd mention Iban Mayo, but Drew might have a heart attack. Seriously, Iban Mayo threatenning in the Alpes? In the post EPO world, who knows what can happen! And I like it.

At least in Belgium. And it looks like we won't be seeing "Cofidis" on team jerseys next year!

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2007/jun07/jun07news2

The sad scandal of doping continues to wreak havoc among the already shaky skeleton of cycling.

Note to the weekend warriors and Sunday criterium contestants:  I've spotted my first pro bike sporting a compact specifically for mountains stages. http://www.cyclingnews.com/tech.php?id=/photos/2007/tech/features/giro_wrap/Giro07Tech-Time4

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After years of hearing idiotic justifications for L'Equipe's investigation of famous riders, I vote that it's time to lay off L'Equipe and accept that the newspaper is in the hands of a group of sports journalists committed to the ideals of the sports they cover.

The OP scandal has proved for me, beyond any doubt, that a MAJORITY of the biggest names in the peloton have either experimented with doping or doped regularly.

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As a postscript to an earlier diary entry, I'm curious to hear what other people's age and heart-rate max are. Actually, what I'd really like to hear is:

1.  Your age.
   
2.  The highest number your heart-rate monitor has recorded.
   
3.  Your estimated heart-rate max.

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Okay, so I've accepted that I've moved up to Cat 4, and I've bought a heart rate monitor and actually begun to think about my "training regime." Now I have a serious question about pre-race prep:  Why do all those other guys spin on their trainers before the race?  Aren't they just burning off energy they could have used to blow by me in the closing sprint at the end?

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Maybe somebody can help me figure this out. Astana picked up Eddy Mazzoleni from T-Mob. Eddy was a pretty good climber who finished third on a Pyrenes Tour stage. In short, this guy is clearly a workhorse for Salvodelli in the Giro and Vino in the Tour. So far in the Giro, he's finished a step behind Paolo. But today, Salvodelli sits up and Mazzoleni is Astana's man??

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...if the Criterium International--where the majority of the heavy hitters in cycling were racing--was actually counted toward the competition. Assuming I'm reading this right, this is a major flub and completely benefits one group:  people who have chosen Tom Boonen and the Italian classics riders.

The Flemish races (the ones that actually count toward VDS)--De Brabantse Pijl, E3 Prijs Vlaanderen, etc.--have finished exactly as expected. Boonen winning 1-day races by beating Fabien Cancellera in a sprint finish is hardly even worth reporting. Oscar Freire racing sans Boonen to beat Nick Nuyens is a little more interesting, but hardly worthy of an exclamation point.

It's the Crit International where the real action was this week...

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So I've got a half-season-old Dura Ace 12-27 with titanium big cogs but my chain (which I didn't replace when I bought the cassette) is shot. What are people's philosophies about changing chains with cassettes?

Do chains and cassettes have to be changed at the same time every time?  It makes changing cassettes for different race conditions very expensive. Opinions?

Anybody thinking about braving the cold for a few tough laps. I haven't ridden in months (well, not more than a little ride here and there).