Century prep advice

So Saturday a few of us went out and rode part of the metric route. It was really nice, and i think it will provide everyone with a safe, fun experience. The route is beautiful, and there is a long downhill stretch from Spanish Fork to Salem on a nice farm road. There is one climb from Springville to Mapleton that is a pain, and some wind from there to the mouth of Spanish Fork Canyon, but it's smooth sailing from there. During the 45 miles saturday, i began thinking about a couple of things i should pass along to make your ride safer and more enjoyable. here they are.

1) Group riding dynamics. Groups usually will ride in a "paceline" meaning that for a lot of the ride, everyone will ride single file and close to each other to get the benefits of drafting. If you have limited experience with this, it can seem scary, but is not too hard. The idea is to get within a bike length of the person in front of you, and not run into them. It helps to keep your eyes up-- not at their tire-- so you can see what is coming up in the road. When you get to the front, ride there for a minute or so (take your "pull") and then check to make sure cars aren't coming, pull to the left, and drift back to the end of the line. It's not too hard, and will make a long ride easier and keep the pace a bit higher.

2) Road safety. You are responsible to not get hit by a car or run your bike off the road. Please be cautious and aware at all times. The course is open to traffic, and there are some sections where we could ride in a bit of traffic. Just be careful.

3) Shorts comfort. A couple of things about cycling shorts, for those of you who are new to the spandex mafia. First, although it might feel weird to have only a thin layer of spandex between you and the world, you should not wear anything under your shorts. Underwear of any kind rubs and chafes-- a bad thing when you are on your bike for 60 miles. Take care of yourself, and trust me on this one. Also, shorts are more comfortable with some sort of lubricant on the chamois (the pad). Bike shops sell chamois cream, i use bodyglide (you find that at running shops-- it looks like a stick of deodorant), and some people even use a bit of Vaseline, or something like that. It might feel a little slimy at first, but ten miles in you'll thank yourself. Sorry to get intimate on the blog. I just thought it would be a good forum to keep you feeling good on the ride.

Good luck in your final prep-- if you're doing any. We hope to see you out there two saturdays from now. It will be a lot of fun.

Spencer

Two more things

I guess i should mention that you should give me (Spencer) your five bucks. I'll keep track of who has paid up. Second, Feel free to invite friends. We love more people.

Pre-century mechanical and fit help

Just one more thing. If any of you need some work on your bike before the ride, i would be happy to help. Just email me-- spenbro@byulaw.net-- and we can get together. You want your bike in good condition for such a long ride, and also want it to fit right. Here are some things to think about:

Clean and lube: you want your drivetrain to be clean, and need to have your chain and other moving parts lubed with a bike specific lube. your frame and wheels should also be clean.

Shifting: You don't want your chain rubbing, skipping gears, or making funny noises. You want your shifts to be crisp and accurate.

Tires: don't want excessive wear.

Breaks: you want them to work, duh. If you can't stop fairly quick, or if your pads look worn, it might be time to replace them. Other adjustments are simple.

Wheels: Spin your wheels and make sure they are true. If they are wobbling, lets straighten them out before the ride.

Fit: This one is key. If you have any pain or discomfort on moderately long rides in your knees, neck, or back, or anywhere really, you might need to adjust the fit of your bike. I can help you with that as well. Just email me.

Hope you all can come on the ride. Again, if you need any help just let me know.

Spencer

The First Annual Legal Spin Century

So the time is now. Less than a month before the metric century. The ride, for those who haven't heard, is on August 23 at 7:00 A.M. All members of legal spin are invited, and encouraged to bring spouses, friends, and anyone else interested. Members are expected to pay dues before the ride ($5), and we ask that any others please chip in as well to provide for food, spare tubes, and fuel for the support car. THE DEADLINE TO COMMIT TO COME IS AUGUST 15!!! Email spenbro@byulaw.net if you are coming.

Route: The route is a tour of southern Utah county and is mostly flat. A route map can be found at www.usatf.org/routes/view.asp?rID=234097. It starts and ends at my house at 775 East 820 North in Provo (across the street from Thai Ruby). We will check out the route before the ride, and it is subject to change in order to provide a safe, fun ride for everyone.

Pace: we will do our best to keep a comfortable pace for all, and may end up breaking into groups and regrouping at rest stops at Salem Pond, Genola, and Lincoln Beach. Cate has volunteered to bring up the rear, but please help her to have a fun ride and be sure to keep moving.

Training required: If you haven't ridden all summer, now is the time. You should be able to get out and do a 30-40 mile ride without much difficulty. If you haven't done it yet, try this week. Some of us will be riding part of the route Saturday, August 9 @ 7:00 a.m. starting from my house. Please email me at spenbro@byulaw.net if you are interested.

Support: We will have a support vehicle that will meet us at several locations along the course, and will have water, some emergency food, and some spare tubes and tools. The car can be reached by cell phone as well in the event of emergency. If you need a ride for a while, we can do that too for up to two riders at a time. You can also drop off any food you want to bring at the support car, carrying anything more than can fit in a jersey pocket is not necessary.

What you need to bring: Enough water to make it at least 30 miles. We will bring more water and sports drink powder, but you've got to be able to carry some with you. Two bottles is preferable. You will also need to bring any on the bike food you need. Bars and gels are popular, and good choices for quick calories. However, you may want to leave something more solid in the support car. Turkey sandwiches are a good bet, as are other salty foods. Make sure you have enough calories to compensate for that which you burn. It could be upwards of 3000 over the 63 miles.

What we need from you: your $5. Also, we are still looking for a driver for the support car. They have to be able to drive a stick and willing to commit to 4-5 hours of relatively boring driving and sitting and waiting. If you can get someone, please email me ASAP.

Carlos Sastre-- A big win for clean cycling.

CSC Saxo-Bank's Carlos Sastre has won the Tour de France. The spanish rider won the yellow jersey with the help of his powerful CSC squad with an attack at the base of L' Alpe De Huez, cycling's most fabled climb. Sastre won the stage solo--by more than two minutes-- taking the jersey from teammate Frank Schleck, and putting 1:34 into rival Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) coming into the final time trial. Evans, a superior time trialist, was expected to make up the time and win the race, but Sastre rode away only allowing Evans to cut about 30 seconds out of his time.

Sastre's victory is big for cycling. First, it was clearly a team victory. Sastre's individual effort on L' Alpe and on the stage 20 time trial were incredible, but his very strong team set him up. CSC whittled down GC contenders essentially by taking advantage of the overwhelming team strength, and by creating a plan to put one of the Schleck brothers in yellow to take pressure off Sastre until he could attack late in the race. CSC was by far the strongest team, and each rider gave up individual aspirations of stage wins to fight for Sastre to wear yellow in paris. Essentially, the CSC strategy worked like this in the mountain stages: each alp stage, with the exception of stage 17 had two off category climbs. The team would work together to get everyone over the first climb, including power houses Jens Voight and Fabian Cancellara who are not climbers. After the first decent, CSC would try to blow up the peleton by placing Cancellara-- the world time trial champion and arguably the strongest rider in the world-- on the front to set a blistering pace. This isolated Evans and the rest of the GC contenders, making it hard for them to hang on and hard for them to endure multiple stages. When things went uphill, Jens Voight would take a pull followed by other riders including Andy Schleck-- winner of this year's best young riders' jersey-- and then Frank Schleck or Sastre would attack. It was a masterful team effort. No other team was able to work like this. The consequence was that Cancellara, Voight, and both of the Schlecks failed to win stages, something they all regularly do. But the team won the team classification, and Sastre won the tour. Go teamwork.

Finally Sastre's victory was a victory for cycling. He rides for a "clean team," one of a handful of teams that have strong independent doping controls. After the tour, he said, "i believe in clean cycling because i am clean." It's nice to have a champion who you can have confidence in. Sastre's A sample won't come back positive. That's a victory for the sport.

Stay tuned for info about the Legal Spin Century on August 23 at 7:00 A.M.

Ricco busted!

This does my heart good. By the way, if you want to follow the tour, check velonews.com

Tour Drama

I have quite the love-hate relationship with July. Most of that has to do with the tour and the drama that surrounds it. Already, we have seen a split between the UCI, cycling's governing body, and the ASO, the organizer of the tour. Also, we have seen three riders pulled from the tour as a result of failed doping tests. Most recently, and most shockingly for some was today's announcement that Italian climber, KOM and Best Young Rider jersey leader, Riccardo Ricco tested positive for EPO. The entier Saunier Duval team left the tour as a result, since Ricco is thier GC man. Frankly, i'm not surprised. Ricco was the type of rider that seemed to be able to turn on a stage win whenever he wanted to. At 23, he finished 2nd in this year's Giro and had already won two stages of the Tour. His unbelievable performance was just that: unbelievable. I am saddened by the news, however. Not because i liked Ricco, but because i was really hoping for a quieter tour this year with the attention drawn to the phenomenal rides, the dramatic stage wins, and the new tech. The other two doping cases involved support riders, and were fairly quiet. This one will draw a lot of attention, especially since it caused SD, a team that has won three stages already, to withdraw from the race.

My other beef with this year's tour is the course. The climbs will be phenomenal, but the flat stages look like they are almost intentionally designed to prevent a Cancellara win. First of all, there was no prologue this year. Cancellara has won the prologue twice previously, and is the best rider in the world at short, flat time trials. Last year, he dominated the prologue and actually ran up on a motorcycle frantically trying to get out of the way. He didn't get that chance this year. The early flat stages were not right for him, as all had uphill finishes, which prevent a late attack-- his signature winning move. However, the tour did throw him a stage 4 time trial that was short and relatively flat. It was a homerun ball that he simply didn't hit, only taking 5th. However, he did ride strong, and drove a chase group at a blistering pace three stages ago, splitting the pack and eliminating several GC riders and setting up teammate Frank Schleck to move into second overall.

Riders i've been impressed with: 1)Cavandish. 3 stage wins as of today. He's a phenomenal sprinter, and may be the fastest man in the world right now. 2)Christian Vande Velde. The young American is doing very well for his first time as a team leader. He's sitting in 3rd overall at 30 seconds back. 3) Team Columbia. They are awesome, and have really controlled the race early-- allowing Cavandish to win 3 stages. 4)Garmin. Same goes for this first-time american team. They are surprising. 5)CSC-Saxo Bank. By far the strongest team. Look for another Jens voight-- Fabian Cancellara controlled stage in the Alps, hopefully to set up Schleck and Sastre.

No props for: 1)SD and Ricco. They suck. Period. 2) Robbie McEwen. Where's pocket rocket? not a single stage win? 3)Val Verde. I can't believe he dropped from GC contention so easily. 4) Tom Boonen. He could be here winning stages right and left, but he's not. Crack is wack. 5) Ricco. Again. he sucks. Dopers suck.