Lock, Stock, And Barrel Adjusters

They can have my bike when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers.

There is a willful stupidity among professional cyclists when it comes to the security of their equipment.  The latest team to be robbed, Garmin-Sharp, lost 16 road bikes last night and was forced to pull out of the Tour Méditerranéen.  What don’t you people get?  It’s not like this has never happened before.

• May 2006—Six Landbouwkrediet-Colnago team bikes are stolen during the Four Days of Dunkirk stage race.
• October 2006—American cyclocross champion Katie Compton loses her bike and a carbon wheelset to thieves in Boulder CO.
• Sept./Oct. 2007—Nine road bikes are stolen from the Canadian national team’s trailer on the eve of the UCI World Championships in Germany.  The teams from Italy and Brazil lose their bikes after a break-in at their hotel.
• July 2008—The entire Subaru/Gary Fisher mountain bike team truck is stolen in Quebec.  Fortunately it is not connected to the trailer, so the bikes are not lost.
• February 2009—Lance Armstrong’s time trial bike is stolen at the Tour of California.  In Italy, Team Barloworld loses 21 bikes from a storage room at its training camp hotel.
• March 2011—Team Type 1 loses bikes and other equipment valued at €500,000 at the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali in Italy.
• May 2012—Team TIBCO loses 14 bikes from its trailer at the team’s hotel in Boise ID.

There are other examples, but you get the idea.  It takes just one guy with a radio, a shotgun and a Thermos full of coffee to secure a team trailer overnight.  Make it happen, JV.

By the way, there’s still a 5812 Johnson Street in West Hollywood FL.  The space is now occupied by We-Kill, a pest control company that probably has access to things like rat traps and nasty chemicals but probably offers nothing with the theft deterrent impact of a firearm.  The J. Chenette Company is gone, alas.  I think the man behind the company was Joseph C. Chenette, a transplant from Michigan.  There are several patents either issued to him or that reference his metalwork.  As an inventor for the bicycle industry, it looks like he was a one-trick pony, but that didn’t stop him from marketing the same device for both firearms and fishing poles:

Boys’ Life Magazine, August 1962

Chenette must have been a great tinkerer, someone who could have fashioned a security device simple enough even for pro cycling teams to use.

Turn 4 The Better

In recent years, the quiet streets of the Wingate Creek Business Park provided a safe place for criterium racers to practice.  Turnouts were small—if you knew the practices existed, you probably were a friend or teammate of all the participants—and the competition was spirited but not cutthroat.  I never had any criterium ambitions, but I participated in the practice sessions on a few occasions and found them to be great workouts.

This year the series will be more organized and, I’m willing to bet, more popular.  Now sanctioned by USA Cycling, the series will be an incubator for new racers who want to build confidence and experience.  And it should remain popular with veteran racers, who will come not just for training but also for the prizes that the series organizer has secured from various sponsors.  I still don’t have any criterium ambitions and my racing license covers only mountain biking and cyclocross, so I’ll probably regard the series as an interested bystander.  But I do want the series to be a success, so maybe I can help at the registration table or as a corner marshal.  See you there!

Almost Blue

One week from today I will begin my bike-specific training plan for the 2013 racing season.  The plan will cover 12 weeks, bringing me into early May with good fitness for WORS, WEMS or whatever.  At the moment it still looks like I won’t do any racing until early June, but if my plans change I want to be ready for some combination of Iola, Greenbush and Rhinelander.

Indoor trainer rides will be an important part of my plan until consistently warmer and drier weather returns.  I’m going to alter the plan somewhat; I have been using the same plan for the last 3 years but I was never very happy with its 5-days-a-week schedule.  This year I’m cutting back to just 4 days per week.  Tuesdays and Thursdays will be short, hard efforts.  Saturdays and Sundays will be long base-builders.

A long trainer ride can be a drag, but not when I have company.  On Saturday, Feb. 16, I’m going to join what should be a big, fun group for the Police Unity Tour Wisconsin Riders Spinathon.  The event will take place at the Pleasant Valley Tennis & Fitness Club from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.  It’s a fundraiser for the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington DC.  If you’d like to make a donation, then contact me soon.  If you’d like to attend, then see the Facebook event page, or email putwiriders@gmail.com, or call (262) 353-1904, or simply show up for same-day registration.

Since 1997, law enforcement officers from all over the United States have participated in the Police Unity Tour, a 4-day bike tour that begins in New Jersey and ends at the memorial.  This will be the sixth year for the team from Wisconsin, a team that includes riders from the State Patrol, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, and the police departments of West Bend, Hartford, Jackson and Slinger, plus other agencies.

There’s no Washington County Winter Bike Day this year, and no trainer party series.  So, I’m looking forward to the spinathon as my only indoor group training event this offseason.  I’ll probably be there for the 10 a.m. start so that I can bang out a couple of hours and then relax a little before the Washington County Bicycle Club’s annual business meeting later that day.

My Super Bowl Was Yesterday

Let’s Get Small

No more treats for you!

If you made a New Year’s resolution a month ago, how’s that going?  I didn’t make a resolution, officially, but I also didn’t realize the weight loss for which I was hoping, unofficially.  Basically, I fought January to a draw.  I began the month at 203 and ended it at 201.  I have started to undo the damage of the holiday season but I’m a long way from where I should be.

Sometime around Thanksgiving I abandoned the practice of logging my meals and snacks.  Today I resumed my food journal, hoping that it will encourage me not to eat or drink bad things.

In January I spent 13.5 hours on the treadmill at Planet Fitness, went snowshoeing once, rode my bike outside on five occasions for a total of 83 miles, completed 12 upper body strength training workouts in my home gym, and used my foam roller as part of my stretching and self-massage routine every single day.  That’s not a bad amount of activity for January, but a permissive approach to my diet prevented meaningful weight loss.

Now it’s February.  I couldn’t get to Planet Fitness yesterday, so I went today on what otherwise would not have been a treadmill day.  As I burned 500 calories during a 1-hour workout, I noticed that the gym was far less busy than it had been just a couple of weeks ago.  I think a lot of New Year’s resolutions are failing.  For me, February provides another framework in which to start over.  It’s the shortest month of the year.  Surely I can show some discipline and restraint over just 4 weeks.  With a combination of exercise and responsible eating, I know I created a calorie deficit today.  One day down, 27 to go.

And where do I want to be?  I’ve got a number in my head that sounds good.  Certainly, I won’t reach this target by March 1 but maybe I could get there by June 1.  I think 175 is the weight I need to reach to be as competitive in my racing endeavors as I can be.  My bike-specific, preseason training plan will begin on Feb.12, but no amount of training will yield as much real-world benefit as simply losing weight.  How much does your bike weigh?  Do you obsess over every gram?  If I can lose 26 pounds over the next 4 months, it will be as if my bike weighs nothing!

This is ambitious, I know.  Fanciful?  Unrealistic?  Maybe.  But I am resolved to take my best shot for these 28 days of February and then revisit the plan as March begins.  If I see good progress this month, then I will be encouraged to keep pushing.  If I don’t, then maybe I’ll just accept the “big for a bike racer” label, plod through a couple of seasons with mid-pack results, and return to the podium when time takes away your quickness but leaves my toughness largely untouched.

Be It Ever So Humble

The bane of my existence is a shower surround that just loves to leak.

I will race in 2013 but don’t ask me when.  Not yet.  I thought my plans were coming into focus, but suddenly they are less clear.

On Friday my employer told me to prepare for a business trip in May.  If that trip happens—right now it’s just an idea—then I will miss the WORS race at Rhinelander.  This could be a blessing in disguise.  I was already expecting to do fewer WORS events this year and if Rhinelander is off my schedule then Iola probably is too.  Delaying the start of my mountain biking season until June might allow me to conserve enough energy, enthusiasm and money to make it through the cyclocross season that follows.  I don’t want to hit the wall again like I did last fall.

On Saturday my 20-year-old washing machine died.  There goes $750 and any remaining thoughts of driving down to Louisville for this weekend’s UCI World Cyclocross Championships.  Fortunately the races will stream live on the Internet and I will enjoy them from the comfort of my home.

And home is comfortable, much more so today than it was just a couple of years ago.  But it’s still far from the home it could be, and there are more big expenses on the horizon.  The demise of the washing machine didn’t catch me off-guard; it was one of several items at/near the end of its service life.  How much longer before I have to replace the kitchen oven (1995), the furnace (1995), the water heater (1999), the refrigerator (2001), or something newer that gives out before its time?  Even if I get through 2013 without any trouble from those aging appliances, there are other things around the house that require attention.

My wife and I bought our house in 2001 from the couple who built it back in 1972.  For a long time we simply enjoyed the benefits that came from the good choices they made during construction and subsequent renovations.  Now their paint is peeling and their carpet is worn.  Now we know that an annual outlay of 1-3 percent of fair market value is a good rule of thumb when budgeting for home repairs and maintenance, but for many years we fixed only what could no longer be ignored.  If you think upkeep is expensive, wait until you see the bill for neglect!  I’ve learned my lesson.  I started working from home two years ago and constant exposure to the flaws made them intolerable.  There has been steady progress ever since, and it must continue.

I spent freely on cycling in 2012 and—despite the promise of a pay raise this spring—I may exercise more restraint this year.  The equipment is in good shape.  Upgrades that would be nice aren’t really necessary.  Last year I did 12 mountain bike races but I don’t think I would feel cheated if I pared this year’s schedule down to these eight:

6/02    Red Eye Rendezvous @ Wausau (WORS)
7/06    Stump Farm 12 @ Suamico (WEMS)
7/14    Subaru Cup @ Mt. Morris (WORS)
8/04    Sunburst Showdown @ Kewaskum (WORS)
8/18    Alterra Coffee Bean Classic @ Franklin (WORS)
8/25    Reforestation Ramble @ Suamico (WORS)
9/08    Treadfest @ Lake Geneva (WORS)
9/14    Northern Kettles Fall Epic @ New Fane (WEMS)

With six WORS races I would still be part of the series during a transition year in which I must adjust to a higher level of competition and not worry about my standing in the points.  If in 2013 my main competitive focus is cyclocross, then this mountain biking schedule would be a solid component of my preparations.  And it wouldn’t break the bank … which is more than I can say for the house.

What Do You Want For Nothing?

On Facebook this week I participated in a discussion about NBC Sports Network’s coverage of the Tour Down Under.  Most of the comments were pretty negative.  The biggest complaints were that the 30-minute highlight shows contain only a few minutes of actual race footage and that the shows air in the middle of the afternoon when many people are at work.  I can’t refute the first claim; NBC is spending too much time on prior-day recaps, rider interviews and course profiles.

But I have mixed feelings about the second claim.  True, the mid-afternoon broadcast is inconvenient for a lot of people, but who doesn’t have a DVR or VCR option?  Record the program and watch it when you get home … if you’re still interested.  As plugged into cycling news as I am, it would be impossible for me not to learn the outcome of the stage long before the broadcast.  That’s because NBC is showing highlights of each stage 14-17 hours after they actually occur.  If you watch the highlight show this afternoon, you’ll see the race that happened while you were getting ready for bed last night.

I have been watching the stages live thanks to streaming coverage on the Internet.   The picture quality isn’t as good as that of a cable TV broadcast, but I still get the Phil Liggett / Paul Sherwen / Robbie McEwen commentary.  And it all wraps up by about 10:30 p.m., which leads one to question why NBC doesn’t just air it in real time.  I suspect the answer is that cycling simply isn’t as popular with American audiences as NBC’s other live sports offerings, like hockey.  Would NBC have given us the Tour Down Under as a live broadcast if the NHL strike had continued?  I don’t know, but I am sure that it wouldn’t have given us each stage in its entirety.  Not even the Internet stream provides that.  Yesterday’s stage took a little more than 3 hours and finished, inevitably, in a bunch sprint.  If you saw the last 3 minutes, then you saw just about everything of interest.

Of course, in any bike race the decisive move can occur at any moment.  Sometimes a breakaway in the first kilometer succeeds.  But usually it doesn’t.  As fans, we know and accept that.  I’ve watched my share of boring bike races.  Moments of high drama are few and far between, but I keep watching because I’m looking at everything.  NBC knows that there aren’t many fans like me.  Most viewers are better served by a highlight show than by a live broadcast.  Or, at least, they’re better served by coverage that joins the race in progress, gives them highlights of earlier action, then takes them to the live finish.

Then there’s the question of American participation in the Tour Down Under.  Tim Duggan and Tyler Farrar were the only Americans to begin the race.  (Duggan broke his collarbone and dropped out of the race on Stage 3.)  Would NBC’s coverage be more robust if more Americans were in the race?  Does NBC assume that its American audience is not as interested when a race contains so few Americans … and no serious GC contender?  Difficult to say.  The Australian Open is also in progress and American audiences don’t seem to mind the absence of American men from the highest ranks of professional tennis.

But it’s not difficult to criticize NBC for a lack of information about its 2013 cycling schedule, now two weeks behind last year’s release date.  As the Tour Down Under approached, NBC mentioned it only sporadically on its website, on Facebook and on the air.  Next on the schedule are the tours of Qatar and Oman—races that will be over long before the broadcasts.  The Tour of Qatar will run Feb. 3-8, but the highlights won’t air until Feb. 17.  The Tour of Oman will run Feb. 11-16, but the highlights won’t air until March 3.  After that, who knows?  Paris-Nice begins on March 3, so maybe the Oman highlights will just be an hors d’oeuvre before we finally get some live coverage.

Belgianwerkx

(L-R) manager Nick Moroder, local cyclocross legend Patrick Brock and store owner Bill Koehler

On Monday a new bike shop opened in Mequon and this evening I got to see it for the first time.  Simply put, Belgianwerkx is like no other shop in the area.  From the understated and elegant presentation of the sales floor to the cutting edge Retül bike fit studio, Belgianwerkx offers superior equipment and services for cyclists who take their sport seriously.  Jeff Wren and I spent an hour learning the basics of the amazing Retül technology and lusting for the gorgeous road and cyclocross bikes from Cannondale, Focus and Ridley.  Belgianwerkx is also a retail partner for made-to-order Seven bicycles, passing a customer’s Retül measurements to the manufacturer to ensure a perfect fit.  Impressive stuff … and surprisingly affordable for the level of equipment and expertise on offer.

Belgianwerkx is new but it’s already making an impact on cycling in the area.  Sounds like there might be a Monday shop ride (recovery pace) for the racer crowd this spring.  The shop will sponsor the Giro d’Grafton criterium in this summer’s Tour of America’s Dairyland.  In the fall, the shop will sponsor a Masters cyclocross team.  And despite an absence of mountain bikes from its retail lineup, the shop is already working with the volunteer group that will build a new Ozaukee County trail system later this year at Pleasant Valley Nature Park.  It’s a great start.  Wishing you all the best, guys!

Presenting The 2013 Cheesehead Roubaix

If you have to ask ...

Cheesehead Roubaix returns to southeastern Wisconsin’s most primitive roads on Sunday, Apr. 28, departing Fireman's Park in Newburg at 9 a.m.  Designed as a challenging metric century in the style of races like Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders, this ride will test your fitness as the new racing season begins.  Be prepared to fight brutal headwinds as you traverse a route that features more than 10 miles of unpaved public roads.

Go here to download your copies of the cuesheet, elevation profile and map.  There’s also a data file for GPS devices.

As in years past, Cheesehead Roubaix is free of charge and there’s no SAG.  I provide the route and a time for people to meet.  You’re on your own for food, water and mechanical support.  Registration is not necessary but if you plan to attend please let me know on the Facebook events page or in the comments below.

Now in its fourth year, the ride features a very slightly altered course from previous editions.  I think you’ll love it.  See you 15 weeks from today!

13 For '13

To the person who plowed the old Woodford Drive bridge: Thanks! ... And, why?

It wasn’t much of a ride, but it was a ride.  I took the 29er out for a 13-mile spin on my lunch break today, mostly sticking to the Eisenbahn State Trail but making occasional forays through city parks and quiet residential areas.  Last year I did my first ride on Jan. 5, but I didn’t do another one until Jan. 10.  Tomorrow’s weather should be nice enough to allow me to get ahead of last year’s pace … unless high winds keep me sidelined, as they did on Monday.  Whatever: any outdoor miles in January are bonus miles.