Last Early Bird Crit

Even Apollo came out this morning to watch some racing.

Today turned out to be a great day, weather wise for the last early bird crit this morning. Definitely shorts weather around 10:30AM! Cat 5's were split into two groups again, and I heard that our first group was going a bit slower than the second group which was gaining on us apparently. Nonetheless, we picked it up with 3 to go, and before you know it, guess who's out front winning?! I think Rainier had time to look back too haha. He ended up winning and I got third. Thanks to all the mentors for teaching us something new and useful (most of the time anyway hehe) every Sunday morning in January. Time for some new terrain. Who's down for some Cherry Pie on Superbowl Sunday?









Rainier for the win. And my left arm in third.


Post race with the sun shining.

Photos: Saskia (who is awesome by the way, for driving us every Sunday morning to Fremont!)

-Joe

Garrett's S Works

Can't wait to see it built up complete!



-Joe

Ritte

By now you may have seen these two pics floating around various blogs. Pretty funny and clever if you ask me!






MASH's arkitip blog just posted this video too.



http://www.ritteracing.com

Tell me about the mud--you just have to jump straight in the shower with your kit on when it's this bad:



more here

-Rainier

Daily

Having to clean my bike on the daily with all this wet weather we've had lately.

Captain America

Great pics of the BMC Racing Team training camp at podiuminsight.com with great photos by Lyne Lamoureux.

595

You may or may not know Travis T from the Freewheel (pretty much the only bike shop I go to) on Hayes in San Francisco. Super cool dude who, along with Connor, helped me out with picking my Giant and is always down to talk about racing and everything it entails. This is his new Look 595. Ballin'.

Just cuz I got one

Peep Kim Kirchen's Giant from the '08 Tour while he had the yellow jersey. Nothing crazy but still sick!

Rain or Shine

It's fun to ride. Just have a cup of coffee and a nice easy meal and head out.

Tunnel Rd. and Grizzly Peak

Rode in Oakland last weekend with Mike and Kevin... well, mostly with Kevin because Mike started to feel under the weather before we started onto Tunnel Rd so he headed back home. I met Kevin at the Racing Clinic I attended back in December and he and I have been doing the early bird crits. It was actually my first time riding around Oakland and it's hills, and I had a good time. Kevin bombed down Claremont so fast I was freaking out! I think I almost went into the embankment around one turn. Look out for his new BMC that he's building up soon =).





















-Joe

Early Bird Crit #3

Almost didn't get out of bed for this one. The rain was coming down around 5am (or maybe I wast just half asleep and wanted it to be pouring so I had an excuse not to get out of bed) and I didn't know whether or not it would be raining, at the race. We said fuck it and came out to Fremont anyway. The mentoring was good and useful, as we broke up into groups of 5 or so and worked on some constant pace lines. Legs felt good - or should I say better than last week - during the race and Rainier was stretching everyone's legs out of every corner and made for a fun morning workout. The rain stayed away until right after our race finished, and the cat4 womens started! Here's a short snippet that Sas took on the sidelines.

*Hey fellow "bloggers", where you at?! I know you guys are riding out there!



-Joe

Tour Down Under

If you want to listen to a live broadcast of the Tour Down Under (aside from the Versus TV coverage which is like 30 min - 1hr only!), steephill.tv has a bunch of links that seem somewhat easy to navigate. They always have good coverage of all the major races along with their awesome "big photos". Check it out at http://www.steephill.tv/tour-down-under/#live AND http://www.ustream.tv/channel/kezzacam

Batavus

Vacansoleil's Batavus team bike

Looking good

The new BMC kits have a Darth Maul type feel to them. First look at current WC Cadel Evans + team at a Tour Down Under training ride.


(Photo: bmcracingteam.com)

Vino x Astana

(Photo: Kury Hoy via Velo News)

Wowzers...

Well I don't think Sas expected to pick this Merckx up earlier today, but she sure is happy with the "pick up". Ever since I can remember she's always talked about having an Eddy Merckx road bike. Turns out, she sold her Nagasawa track to Steve murder, and this beauty happened to come along and into her hands! I got to ride it around the block and it's awesome. She will be riding this on the daily!














(Photos: Saskia)

Early Bird Crit #2

Not much to report from this past weekend's race except that I was unfortunately involved at the tail end of a crash that occurred somewhere near the front. The blockage up front and in the middle kind of happened in a blur and almost in slow motion, and before I knew it I was OTB. Oh well, bike is okay I think, and I walked away with a bruised hip and some road rash, and I'm having a hard time walking up my stairs! Hopefully everyone else involved in the chunk of the crash is doing okay. Rainier took a small spill as well, but he and I, along with the few others got back into the race and finished. Hmmm, maybe I could have been more aware of what was happening in front of me? Maybe. Probably. Or maybe not too, who knows. Just sucks, but what can you do? I guess sometimes you just can't do anything to avoid a crash. Let's get back on the bike and keep riding.






















Not sure what category Rainier raced in his other race, but he's taking it easy on the competition!


(Photos: Saskia)

BMC 2010

As this blog serves as my personal journal of thoughts and experiences to road cycling and racing, I'm also a young fan of the sport as I am getting into it more, and learning about the teams, riders, history, bikes, etc... For some reason I've slowly become a fan of the BMC racing team and am rooting for them to do well this year. Obviously their signing of some heavy hitters like WC Cadel Evans/ Alessandro Ballan, as well as Hincapie will make them a more popular team this year even though they are a Pro Continental team, and not a Pro Tour registered team. Hopefully this will give them more of a spotlight so fans like myself can learn more about the inner workings of their team and organization. We are all rooting for Big George to do well at Paris Roubaix this year and finally take it home!

US Pro Champ


Jeff Louder's New Pro Machine in Red/White



(Photos from Above Category's twitter) abovecategorycycling.com




(Photos from bmcracingteam.com)

Some neat insider facts about the BMC kits from Neil Browne's site, neilbrowne.com:

* The BMC team has 23 pro and three U23 riders.
* Each rider will get approximately 60 pieces of cycling clothing throughout the year. Clothing is replaced when riders crash, lose them or wear out.
* Casual clothing will include Hincapie denim jeans, track suits and collared shirts. If you want to hear a fun story ask Rich what he had to do to the track jackets before they were sent to the team.
* The total amount of clothing pieces sent to the team are in the thousands (in addition to the basic kit of shorts and jersey there are many different types of gloves, various skinsuit types, various jackets and shoe covers to name just a few pieces).
* The retail cost for the amount of clothing for the team is between $300,000 to $400,000.


2010 BMC Racing Team Roster:
Alessandro Ballan (IT)
Chris Barton (USA)
Chad Beyer (USA)
Brent Bookwalter (USA)
Marcus Burghardt(GER)
Cadel Evans (AUS)
Mathias Frank (SUI)
Thomas Frei (SUI)
George Hincapie (USA)
Martin Kohler (SUI)
Alexander Kristoff (NOR)
Karsten Kroon (NED)
Jeff Louder (USA)
Steve Morabito (SUI)
Alex Moos (SUI)
John Murphy (USA)
Scott Nydam (USA)
Mauro Santambrogio (IT)
Michael Schär (SUI)
Florian Stalder (SUI)
Jackson Stewart (USA)
Danilo Wyss (SUI)
Simon Zahner (SUI)

U23 Team Members:
Chris Butler (USA)
Cole House (USA)
Larry Warbasse (USA)

Chief Sports Director:
John Lelangue (BEL)

Assistant Sports Directors:
Fabio Baldato (IT)
Noel Dejonckheere (BEL)
René Savary (SUI)
Mike Sayers (USA)

Rainy Friday

Went out for a ride yesterday with Nathan who came up from Las Vegas, and a couple of people from Salt Lake came through as well. Started out quite rainy going over the bridge, but it cleared up as the day went on. All in all, it was chilly, especially when there were 3 flats and we were doing a lot of standing around and waiting. Oh well, still had some fun riding with people I don't usually ride with. Check out the tall bike next to the small bike haha. Matt and Mike!

































-Joe