Why I love Cyclocross

First and foremost. It is by far the most difficult racing I have done. Sure, I've probably put more effort into a mountain bike racers, and suffered more during a road race. But there's just so much more involved in cyclocross. It's the pure fact that everyone is packed into a smaller course, during a much shorter course. It all comes at you so fast, and you have no time to recover.

Second, it's a whole hell of a lot of fun. If you step back and look at the sport, you can see the absurdity of the whole thing. Let's take road bikes with slightly knobby tires, make a arbitrary course in a park somewhere and make them ride around in the mud, jump over plywood and watch as they trundle up hills. All during a time when most our hanging up their bikes. Unlike road racing or mountain bike racing where you go from point a to point b, there's no destination. It just looks like a bunch of road cyclist got lost in a field and can't find their way out. I love that, and it takes some of the pressure of me as a racer. I can just enjoy myself, and truthfully, that's when I do best.

The fellowship, we are a close knit group of masochists who enjoy the suffering.

The gear! There's not sport where it's normal to show up with two bikes, and panoply of wheels. Along with a ton of different clothes to match the weather. I'm a gear nerd and love perfecting my bike, and my tire selection. Playing around with tire pressure.

It gives me something to do after a long season. I'm surrounded by roadies and mountain bikers who are all sad because their seasons have ended or are close to ending. I on the other hand have something to look forward to and I can get excited about. Something that's similar but different enough to keep me interested, after doing the same routine since January.

Lastly, and for me this year most importanly, it gives me a second chance. If you've not met the goals for your road or mountain bike season, you get a second chance at redemption. There were 2-3 weeks between the last road race and the first cyclocross race which gives you a couple days of recovery and then you can start from scratch and reinvent yourself.

More Doping News

Tyler Hamilton is set appear on 60 minutes this Sunday where it is said that he admits to doping and also says that he witnessed Lance Armstrong dope. This is the second high profile rider to go on record as saying he witnessed Lance dope. Now only two have officially came out and said so much, the first was Floyd Landis, who after years of denial and spending his fans money on denying her doped came out roughly this time last year. Now, Hamilton, does the same, on the day that Lance's ex-teammate Chris Horner takes over the race lead at the tour of California.

Lance's publicist has of course denied the that he is a credible source, but lends no claims other than "He's was the most tested athlete" and that Mr. Hamilton is only doing this to gain publicity for his book. Now this is what we call in the Philosophy world as a Red Herring and a personal attack. Neither one of these refutes the claim and is only a way to distract the listener from the fact that there's really no claim being made.

Now, I will lay out I do believe at one point in his career lance took a banned substance. I don't know when it was or how long or in what context. Though, I do believe that an important step forward is to accept that the sport has a problem and then learn from it. If for no other reason than to give hope to individuals who are trying to make it into the pro ranks now. The first step to cleaning the peloton is airing out it's "dirty laundry" so that we can start to solve the problem in it's entirety. Make it transparent, we don't have to know everyones Biological Passport and their test results, but knowing what the doping agencies are doing to combat this horrible scourge of the peloton would be a good start. The problem has to be attacked head on, and I'm sure a lot of Pro's and team members will be hurt and lose their job, but it will be in no way even close to how much they've already hurt the sport.

What the UCI dope list means?

Today, Le Equipe published a list, ranking every rider from last year's Tour De France on how likely they were to be doping based on their Biological Passport. That Biological Passport is a health record of every pro rider, chronicling their blood values over their career, the idea behind it is that if levels change in a dramatic and erratic fashion it can point to someone who is doping. What does this list mean then, well each rider is placed in a number from 0 (no suspicion of doping) to 10 (high suspicion or evidence of doping) with anything under 5 being unlikely to have doped. This list was supposed to be used as a tool to guide testers on who to test during the tour. It should be noted that none of this proves that someone has or hasn't doped. There's no proof in this evidence at all, and the numbers can be swayed by a large amount of factors (illness, crashes, even a rider who is completely clean can have a higher than normal reading because of getting into shape.)

So what does this mean? Well, first and foremost, it means they are actually using the biological passport. We haven't heard much from the UCI and WADA in regards to actually being able to catch someone in the act. So it's good news for all of us fans to know that they are using this information to clean up the sport of cycling.

Second, that most of the peloton was in under level 5. Out of 198 riders, only 42 riders where above the upper limits, meaning 156 riders were below the upper limits. That's a good majority in the lower half, or safe zone. Even ten years ago, if they had this the numbers would surely have been swapped. Even the highest zone 10 only had two riders, Carlos Barredo (Quick Step), and Yarasloz Popovych (Radioshack.) In fact if you put all the members of the team together. The top three times most likely to dope are HTC, Astana, and Radioshack. All 4 french teams were the least likely to dope, followed by Garmin and Cervelo.

Overall, I think this is good news for cycling fans and the majority of the peloton, and can only hope bad news for anyone in the upper 5.

The Buildup

Ahh Fuck. That's what's going through my mind right now. I wish I was one of those confident people, man that would be awesome. No, I'm neurotic. I've hidden it since my first race, you don't want your competition see your weakness, they are a ruthless and cutthroat lot. You show them where you don't feel good and they will eat you and shat you out the back, (pun semi intended.) So you put on a stoic face, and soldier on keeping the pain inside, that is unless you're Jens Voight, because then you'll just slaughter your competition into dust. That's not in my skill set though. My skill set is hold on till I can't anymore and then attack.

So what? Here I sit, in that nervous state that precedes any race. It will only grow from here, I'll toss and turn all night and wake up groggy. Then as the race gets closer it will reach a feverish pitch of overwhelming dread. Then the starter lets us go and within one pedal stroke everything changes. In a matter of seconds nothing else matters, except for the wheel in front of mine, the gap that's opening up. Should I move up? Yes, I should definitely move up. Should I push the pace, or should I just let it stay slow. No, if I'm resting so is everyone else. Off the front I go.

Did I breakaway? I can't see past the rider behind me! I'm either doing something good, or I'm pulling the field. Oh well, either way I'm sure making someone hurt. The next turn I can see that I'm pulling the pack. I flick my elbow out and pull off to sit in the back. I've done my part to liven up the race. Should I go for the primes? My legs do feel good. I won't go for the money (everyone goes for those), I'll go for the lesser ones. They are much easier and less effort.

Ok one lap to go. Get to the front. I don't know if I have the energy to do this, ok if I finish strong I can have a whole pizza and that gelato. I must, I'm much to close. I made it to the front, I'm committed, I'm here I have to give it a go. 500 meters to go, 400, wait for it, 300, way to early, 250, Please no one jump, 200, GO!!!!

Dusty Spokes is Back!!

Well, I'm back. Did you miss me? After too long I'm back at it. For those that haven't heard I did go into surgery. I spent an entire month in bed, because it hurt to sit up. I stayed off the bike all the way through the new year, well I'm come clean. I did have some rides during that time. Just don't tell my doctor. Most were short, a lot of them I turned around because it hurt too much. But on Christmas eve eve, I got the ok from the doctor to start riding again. On New Years Day I returned and now after a month of taking it easy to cage how I would ride, I started training again! So hopefully this year I'll update more regularly.

In the time off I got a call from Snakebite Racing, actually it was a Facebook message but that sounds a lot less professional. It was the first month off and I was sitting at home, I had barricaded myself from the cycling world because it was way to depressing. I had spent the week of the Big Valley Race being asked where I was. It had gotten to much so I had just walled myself in. The message was asking me to join the team. I had thought about switching up teams for a while, but it seemed like now was a good time.

Now, that is not to allude that I wasn't happy at CAMBA. Truth be told, I was rather happy at CAMBA, everyone was awesome and very helpful. They were always there to answer questions and I must give thanks to them as they helped me progress as a rider. It came down to two things; my desire to get more into road racing, and me wanting to push myself further. With those two things on my mind, I accepted the spot on SnakeBite Racing.

The other thing that happened was me really come into my own at work. I had just picked up the Head Mechanic position when I got hurt, and after coming back I made sure the make my mark on the shop. I have already impressed my manager, District Manager and Corporate. So much so that I have been featured in the company blog (blog.performance.com), the FYI that goes out to each store and an e-mail sent out to our stores mailing list. Below is the e-mail.

In other news, I have moved to just outside the Cuyahoga Valley so I'll be right down the road, and when I say right down the road I mean just a downhill to the Valley. So hopefully, I'll be getting in a lot of a good training in. Well this post was supposed to be about why I love the early season training, but I got of on a tangent. So I'll be back with why I love early season training. That is, if I remember why I love it tomorrow.

How to Win the Polka Dot Jersey

So I've been thinking about how I climb recently. Last year I mainly climbed standing up. It cam from riding a lot of short steep hills, and also poor fit. I was to far back so I wasn't over the pedals, blah blah blah, Doesn't matter the specifics but needless to say the proper fit has changed my riding style so that I can do things I couldn't before. Thanks to Mike at Performance in Green for that.

Well, this year I've been trying out new things and watching races on tv and youtube seeing how I can better myself. Trying to figure out how they got away. I've come to three different versions of winning a Polka Dot Jersey.

1) The Contador (aka uphill sprint)
The first one is best exemplified by Alberto Contador, and Armstrong (in his heyday). For those keeping track that is the first time I mentioned Armstrong in a blog post. What this consists of is waiting till the last moment and standing up and sprinting to the top of the climb, much like a final sprint. The goal is to get enough of a gap on the followers and then either keep lengthening that gap or just not letting it close. The benefit of this style is you can surprise the other riders and if they aren't watching it can be easy to close that gap. It's best to do this when you see your other competitors tiring and won't be able to respond. The downside of this tactic is you go past your anaerobic very quickly and if you can't get away it gives the other riders a chance to attack while you recover. This is probably my used tactic and does work if you can get going fast. Here's Alberto Contador attacking on Verbier. It's a textbook example.



2)The Spartacus (upping the cadence)
This one is a little more sly. All it involves is upping the cadence, thus upping your speed until you pull away from the other rider. The beauty of this one, unlike the uphill sprint, is that you don't show your cards before hand. Stay seated pick an easy lower gear than normal, wait for your moment and just spin up. I've done it where the other rider didn't even know I attacked, the next thing he know I was 50 feet up the hill and by then I was gone. The beauty of this one is that you stay aerobic so if it doesn't work you aren't in the red zone as bad. Fabian Cancellara used this tactic to win this years Tour of Flanders on the Kappelmur. Watch the video below about 1:14 in they hit the climb and watch the gap he gets in a short amount of time.



3) The Cadel (uphill grind)
Ok so this one isn't an attack, per se. All it is is just keeping the pace high enough so that your competitors drop off the back. It's that simple. No videos of this because there's really nothing much to watch on this one.

Hope you enjoyed reading this. Up next is a review of the Cannondale Cross bike I wont from OMBC, and the transformation of my ratty white Fixed gear into something I want to ride.

Winter Training and Scheduling

Not much exciting has been going on. A lot of indoor training work outs. I have been working on my 2010 race schedule. I figured this year going in with a clear cut schedule of where I'm going to race and what races I want to peak for is going to help my training a lot. There's still wiggle room on some of the training races. I'm sure there will be races that will pop up that I didn't plan on racing but I will just be in the mood or I'll find out about it during the season. There will also be races that I can't make whether it be prior commitments or just overworked. It appears that march through July will be spent mainly on the road bike, then in August I will switch over my focus to mountain bike for the power series in september and then after that I will transition over to cyclocross.

The other news is I get a bike fitting this week, it was much needed because I was going by feel and now I'm properly tuned into the bike. I can already feel the difference in the amount of power I can put down. The bad news on this is I went to move the fit from my road bike to my mountain bike and it clearly was to small for me. The seatpost was an inch over the max seatpost point. So it looks like to race on a hardtail I'll be buying a new frame. Though I'll probably hold back on this until later in the season as the my full suspension bike fits into the new fit.

Well that's it for now I'm sure the updates will be coming soon.

What I've learned

So the year is slowly winding to a close. The leaves are starting to fall, old men are selling apple cider around the Tallmadge circle and I haven't shaved my legs, face or head for over a month. For me it signals the end of the summer and the racing season, October 25th will be my last competitive race. It's sad and I'm glad at the same time. I'm going to miss all the riding and the good weather, but the training has taking it's toll on me. I'm ready to take a vacation from cycling and enjoy some of my other interests. I plan to keep riding, of course, but slower paced and shorter rides mainly to enjoy being on a bike. I'm hoping to get into running and doing some trail running around the metro parks and the valley. Wouldn't mind getting into rock climbing again. Who knows. I still have 3 Cyclocross races so I won't be totally off the bike.

It has got my thinking about how my life has changed over the summer. First off what this year has done to me personally has been great. I'm feeling the best I have ever physically or mentally. I'm generally happy with my life. I've met some great people in the process. My CAMBA bro's Brian Lennon, Brian Jay, Brett Zink, Micheal Farley, Bill Braum, Esther Gates, Micheal Ryba, Tim Rhodes, Glynis, Micheal Bloomhuff, and too many more to list. A ton of people I've met at races: Roger Sommers, Even Krekeler, Steven Mieskoski, Dirk, Ted Rauh, The Spisak brothers, can't pass up my main bro Johnny P. Can't forget the Srokas. Most importantly I can't miss Sara. A random chance meeting in a parking lot after a ride has lead so much more and I'm lucky to have met her.

Then there's the accomplishments, so far I've done 2391 miles this year on 166 different rides, up 1563 miles from last year. I've competed in 13 races. Finished 12, top 10 in 10 of those races, Stood on the podium at 7, and won 5. I finished 2nd overall in the NEO Powerseries, I have podiumed in two different disciplines (Mountain and Road.) Truthfully not a bad year.


These pictures are some of my favorite of the year.

26 Hardtail is dead?

Velonews.com's Matt Pacocha has been experimenting with different wheel sizes and different platforms this summer. It all started in his article on the National Championships where in the top 5 a 26 ht wasn't represented. A 26 hardtail wasn't represented until 6th place. Interesting fact, out of the top five in the mens category three were Gary Fisher Superflys. His conclusion that technology had progressed in suspension design and in the design of 29ers that it would only be time until the 26 hardtail was dead.

The most interesting part of the article was this paragraph that ended the article,

"Is the 26-inch hardtail dead? Yes, I think so. Of course, you’ll continue to see the traditionalists and Europeans using them. And you’ll also some of the world’s most talented riders, like Orbea’s Julien Absalon, on them. But I would suspect that if these racers aren’t careful they’ll eventually be caught out. Maybe then, if the manufacturers can keep the steep technological development curve going, it’ll mean our U.S. racers who are willing to accept 29-inch wheels and full suspension will have the upper hand they need to win some big races."

Now there's a couple things that this paragraph entails:

1) The current US riders are using inadequete bikes, and that with more technological development the 29er and full suspension bikes will eventually be the better bike.

2)Europeans appearantly are staunch tradiontionalist and won't switch over away from 26 ht's and if they do it will be too late.

3)And most importantly an American will only win when they have bike that gives them an advantage.

His second article which was titled "Despiste the world's results, Velonew's Matt Pacocha says tests show 29-inch wheels are faster." In this article he did a test to see which one platform was fastest. The 26 hardtail, 26 full-suspension or 29 hardtail. Here's him describing the test:

"Over the course of 14 days I rode a full-suspension bike and hardtail bike 28 times on our 3.1-mile test course. Both bikes were built from aluminum and the position of the bikes was matched. The weight of the bikes differed by roughly one pound. The same wheelset was used on both bikes and tire pressure was kept the same. The bikes also used the same gearing. They were ridden in the same smooth-pedaling manner; riding out of the saddle created power spikes and was therefore avoided. Data was gathered using Garmin’s 705 GPS unit and a PowerTap Disc hub."

Now I give him the benefit of the doubt for trying to make the test as scientific as possible, however, his real world tests weren’t real world. Well let’s be serious it’s the real world that defeats any test of a bike. The most blatant and hard thing to control is the human factor, each riders size, style and skill will determine what bike will be best for them. He doesn’t give us any information on what the human factors. We also don’t know what bike’s he was riding. He states that “positions” of the bikes are the same. That is all well and good, but it doesn’t say the dimensions where the same. A different head angle, shorter wheelbase all lead to a different ride. If we really want to know what’s faster in wheel size, then the test should be the same dimensions with the only difference being the wheel size.

I also feel that taking away standing skews the results because that is the main reason why I chose my 26 hardtail as my race bike, I spend a lot of my time when I climb out of the saddle, I also sprint a lot more and it’s those features that make a 26 hardtail what it is.

Now the course description:

“The test course consisted of just under a mile of rolling, lightly technical terrain, a half-mile climb gaining 50 feet in elevation, 1.2 miles of non-technical but bumpy flat double track and a half-mile of twisty, fast-descending singletrack with three moderately technical sections.”

Roughly 3 miles of riding? I understand wanting to make it a smaller course to keep rider mistake out of the equation, but how often do most riders do a three miles loop? The other thing is 50 feet of climbing in half a mile is not a climb. That’s a 1% grade. Which isn’t enough to test the climbing prowess of each bike.

So, the conclusion of the test was that the 29er was a minute faster than any other bike and the Full suspension bike was second. Hence, the 26 hardtail was dead. Now I’m a numbers person on the bike, I keep all my information from my Garmin. Now on my 3.6 mile loop I’ve found the fastest times have been on my 26 inch fully rigid single speed. Now on other trails, my Full suspension is faster (think West Branch). Even on different days a different bike may be faster because of my fatigue level and line choice.

I think instead of arguing which one is faster, cause no matter what bike your choose it’s your legs that are powering it, instead lets focus on the good. Now we have an excuse to have another bike. No matter what bike you choose it’s going to be the rider who makes it faster. So stop the fighting, ride what you brought and have fun!