Cycling Odds and Ends

This company is hitting a niche hard. S&S coupler fixed gear with waxed canvas bike bag. The attention to detail on the bag may be more impressive than the frame. Leather tube protectors? Tight.

VDB brilliance from DrunkCyclist.

Handmade Bike show this weekend. Expect tons of bike porn-here is a warmup. Speedvagen track bike. Sick.

Eyes are crossing. IF carbon lugs.... must sleep. Long Ride in the morning

Belgian Kick Off

First big weekend of Belgian racing! This always gets me so stoked. Go out for a long ride and jump on the computer to read the minute by minute and search for any video. It was only a few years ago that OLN used to show Het Volk-how the times change.
Het Volk ,despite being Het Nieuwsblad (That sounds too much like News Bladder to my ears), is such an epic race-even if it is only a "semi classic". The weather is usually bad. It's got cobbled climbs, narrow roads, but is early enough in the year to provide some surpises as people are still finding their legs. 2001 win by Micheli Bartoli has always stood out to me as an amazing race.
Liquigas is sending a "done at the 1st feedzone" squad(except for Quinziatto and Franzoi) while Lampres sends no one. Ballan? I guess Sardinia and racing in short sleeves wins over Belgium in Feb! The winners of the last 4 years will all be there(Gilbertx2,Nuyens,Pozzatto). Quickstep have the firepower. I have trouble seeing a three-peat from Gilbert-would that make him the next PVP and would that be good thing? HB tips Boonen and Pozzatto, but I am picking an longshot podium Flecha,Chavanel, and Hushovd. Het Volk is shorter than Tour of Flanders so maybe some a younger rider can jump out and get it-some of my favorite young riders from last year Langeveld,Terpesta, and Maaskant will all be racing so maybe that will provide a surprise. A win here puts a lot of "next big thing" pressure on a young winner.

KBK is more of a sprinter's race and with that said Katusha and Cervelo have both been on fire and both have strong teams. I think this will come down to those two teams vs Quickstep and I give the edge to Cervelo based on their lead out peformances.
Boonen has been relatively quiet this season-and has been thwarted by the manx monkey Cavendish on a couple occasions, so he could be up to snatch a victory-or maybe he just keeps building for Roubaix and Flanders?

Death for the whole world to see CD

Death were a 3 piece ,3 brothers no less, from Detroit. This isn't the Jackson Three though. 1975. Drag City is the label. You have to grow immune to the hype that surrounds the latest "unearthed treasure" or "lost classic" and this record was getting a hype overload of MC5/Stooges garage rock blow out hyperbole.
You can tell by a lot about a band by their photos and even though their probably weren't a lot of group shot of the brothers Hackney, you can tell these guys are legit and going to rock out.
It has the odd prog/pre punk edge of say a Simply Saucer while clearly being some Detroit influence rock. Definitely grabs the energy of the stooges or MC5 but drops the hippy influence completely. You could name check Black Merda, but there is no funk influence. Definitely has the paranoid mid 70s alienation thing going on. It is melodic in the classic punk way and maybe even a touch of Thin Lizzy.
This is a killer record and you can enjoy it without having to attach a bunch of names and genres to it-so enough with the Bad Brains comparisons. I would love it if this were a Mick Collins hoax, but it it legit. How long to the

TOC-Twitter of California

Burgers and Donuts. Horner better attack on the Palomar. Twitpics are pretty good.
Basso's english is fading as he returns to Italy. Regardless this one "Im in lounge of delta with duffy and we take a coffee togheter" made me wonder which duffy? Pat? Probably not, but that would be good.

Eagle Eye

Keen eye for detail and a love of conspirary.
What is up with the Garmin Hunchbacks?
The truth is out there.

Stick to the Plan

I think the main reason, I would get a cyling coach is so I could just get a workout schedule and bang through it like a zombie. It is double torture trying to set up a training block and worrying about everything and then having to do the workouts as well.
Woke up this morning and it was cold. Rain predicted for tomorrow. Had planned a three hour ride. Was really looking for excuses not to roll out, but just suited up early and headed out to get it done. Looks like that was the right move. Went solo-which sucks. I think rides over 2 hours should be group rides-just to keep it interesting. I don't usually ride with an IPod, but did so last week and it is a nicer than listening to the voices in my head. Surprisingly(maybe only to me), reggae makes for good background music compared to the more hectic jams I usually inflict on myself. From Sizzla to Joe Gibbs to Jimmy Cliff or the Slickers, it all seems to good. Maybe the reggae was in tribute to my wife who was chilling in Negrill eating Ital with the dreads. Either way the musical accompaniement was good while it lasted. About 30 minutes into the ride, my cheap headphones gave up the ghost. Oh well.
Another new thing for this ride was "toe warmers". I have never used them, but people love to give them as presents so I figured why not-it's 27 degrees give them a try. They did the job, but were way more mellow than I would have guessed. They seemed to be on their last legs when I took them out of my shoes so I don't know about these six hour claims. Ipods and toe warmers-old dog, new tricks.
It is scary all the places your mind will wander when you are just cruising over roads you've ridden hundreds of times. From taxation to tubulars and back around the bend again. Probably should talk to myself.
Did have one good scare, coming to the end of Strawberry Hill,there was what looked like water and melting runoff in the road, I was munching a bar when I hit it and the bike started hopping and jumping over a slush/ice/water mix. Didn't require epic handling skills, but visions of a crash got my HR up. Hardly anyone out.
By the time I was rolling in, it was 10 degrees warmer and it turned out to be nice day. Moral of the story-if you are going to stress yourself out writing training plans, just stick to the plan and get it done.
Especially with less than 56 days til Battankill Roubaix. That is less than 40 workouts. Just started a tempo block. Tempo workouts are maybe the worst interval. 70ish RPM with a not so high HR. Very long and boring. Time seems to drrraaaagggg.
So tomorrow's challenge will be weather vs. trainer?


I can't believe the body count from TOC-it is worse than Tirreno-Adriatico. Freire and Kirchen both will miss major spring objectives. I wonder if they will be back? Maybe pusing it closer to the Giro would be a good move-cause the weather and the crashes are going to scare away the big guns
Astana is having a good early season-Portugal looks to be under Contador's control and Levi will win his race for the year.
Katusha and Cervelo are also off to good starts.
Cannot wait for the classics. Het Volk (I know it has a new name, but Het Nieuwsblad doesn't really roll of the tongue)next week!!! Spring is almost here.
So lots of the early season races with odd names are springing up. Trofeo Laigueglia win goes to Ginnani from Diquigiovanni-Androni(thanks cut and paste). These races are going to be like the pro tour for teams like them and Aqua Sapone. This race was no slouch Ballan, Pozzatto, Rebellin,DiLuca, Visconti, Garzelli, Soler etc. Have to mention Steve Cummings just to single out his demented 800 calorie a day and still train hell diet. Lots of coffee. Check it out in Cycle-Sport.
Then up in France you have the Tour de Haut Var. 2 days 2 stages-the kind of race JV was threatening to send Danielson to last year.