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Race Report: Tour of the Hilltowns 2009
If you know me, you know that this is not my kind of race. I can attack rollers and 3 minute climbs all day, but put a real climb in front of me and I wither. Despite the course’s not suiting my skillset, I have raced Hilltowns 3 years in a row. It is one of the few selective, single loop hilly races in New England. If the word wasn’t so overused, I may even call it epic.The course is fairly
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Artificially Beefing Up Elite Fields: Why?
Both mountain biking and the Verge series have taken steps to allow (read force) lower category riders to race as pro and elites respectively. Mountain bike categories changed this year, which effectively combined the former semi pro category with the pro category. Squirtgunshow (1, 2, 3) has done a great job of pointing out the various follies in the new scheme, so I won’t belabor the point.
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Creeping Fees in Competitive Cycling: An Economics Lesson.
Race fees are rising steadily. One expects race fees to rise over time due to inflation. In some cases the costs associated with putting on a race also rise, requiring promoters to increase race fees to meet basic expenses. These price increases are natural and perfectly acceptable. While we may complain that races no longer cost , for the most part, our salaries keep pace with
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Verge Addresses Sandbagging: Will It Have Any Effect?
For years people have been justifiably complaining about blatant sandbagging in cyclocross. The accepted wisdom is that as you progress and come to dominate a category, you should graciously upgrade. Of course no one begrudges you a good result here and there, but if you are consistently placing top ten, along with 9 other guys who are also consistently placing top ten, then you and your 9
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Product Review: PBK Chamois Creme–Big T Says it Smells Like Cheap Old Lady Lotion
So a teammate has this huge tub of chamois creme at the track. It makes my diminutive jar of the good stuff look silly. He says that it is Pro Bike Kit branded chamois creme by Morgan Blue. He also says that he likes it. The next time I am ordering from PBK, I throw a jar of the bum grease into the basket. It was cheap enough…PBKCC comes in this brittle plastic container, that would
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Race Report: Pat’s Peak Mountain Bike Festival Cat 2 30-39 2009
I hate mud. I hate it so much that I don’t even own mud tires. My bike and my team kit has an excess of the white colorway. Secondly, I hate roots. I suck at descending. Roots covered with mud have haunted my dreams since I began regularly racing mountain bikes this year. Roots covered with mud on a steep descent are enough to transform me from my normal placid self into a raving lunatic
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Product Reviews: Handlebar Tape Mini Reviews.
I have used a few different bar tapes and they all have their advantages and disadvantages. While I believe in trial and error, I also believe that hearing what I have to say could allow you to avoid getting something that you will definitely not like.Cinelli Cork RibbonFor many years this was the benchmark by which other tapes were rated against. I have had lots of experience with this tape.
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The Pastry Ride
Competitive cyclists abuse the hell out of themselves all week and especially on weekends. We spend a good portion of our waking hours with sore legs. We put in inhuman efforts at Tuesday night training races (which mind as well be PRO races), intense weeknight track racing, viciously fast and dangerous downtown criteriums, grinding multi-day stage races, grueling all-out one day road races and
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While the Rest of You Were Racing Fitchburg…Domnarski Farm MTB Race Report 2009
I have caught lots of shit about my decision not to race Fitchburg this year. From teammates who would have liked support, to friends who feared that I was leaving road racing, to competitors who were deprived of an another opportunity to thrash me; I found myself explainng my reasons for not stage racing repeatedly. For the record here are the reasons:1. Money- I am broke and stage racing
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02139: RMM Pesters City and They Cave, Check Out RMM’s Bike Rack
Actually, I just emailed the city bicycle office and asked them to install some bike parking in front of my house. It took a few weeks, but they called late last week to tell me that they had approved my request. Yesterday I awoke to the sound of jackhammers…Just another reason that Cambridge is the best city in the world.
