Get Cross
Well it is just over 1 week to go to the Scottish Cyclocross season starting which I was looking forward to but will have to cool my heels until I get this back sorted. If you want to try a bit of friendly easy to get into racing off road give Cross a try and you might even get hooked.

Dates / Venue / Organising Club

1. 1st Oct /Peebles / Peebles CC
2. 14th Oct / Blairadam Forest / Dunfermline CC
3. 21st Oct / Auchentoshan /Glasgow United
4. 28th Oct / Mugdock Country Park / Glasgow MTB Club
5. 4th Nov / Glenrothes / Kirkcaldy and District
6. 11th Nov / Carron Valley / Glasgow Ivy
7. 17th Nov / Bannerman High School / SCX Association
8. 18th Nov / Gatehouse of Fleet / Glasgow United
9. 25th Nov / Dundee / Dundee Discovery CC
10. 1 & 2 Dec / Cross at the Castle, Mull / Glasgow United
11. 9th Dec / Scottish Champs, Plean / Stirling BC

A definition of Cyclo-cross from Wikipedia:

Cyclo-cross has some obvious parallels with cross-country cycling and criterium racing. Many of the best cyclo-cross riders cross train in other cycling disciplines. However, cyclo-cross has reached a size and popularity that racers are specialists and many never race anything but cyclo-cross races. Cyclo-cross bicycles are similar to racing bicycles: lightweight, with narrow tires and drop handlebars. However, they also share characteristics with mountain bicycles in that they utilize knobby tread tires for traction, and cantilever style brakes for clearance needed due to muddy conditions. They have to be lightweight because competitors need to carry their bicycle to overcome barriers or slopes too steep to climb in the saddle. The sight of competitors struggling up a muddy slope with bicycles on their shoulders is the classic image of the sport, although unridable sections are generally a very small fraction of the race distance.

Compared with other forms of cycle racing, tactics are fairly straightforward, and the emphasis is on the rider's aerobic endurance and bike-handling skills.

A cyclo-cross rider is allowed to change bicycles and receive mechanical assistance during a race. While the rider is on the course gumming up one bicycle with mud, his or her pit crew can work quickly to clean, repair and oil the spares. Having a mechanic in the "pits" is more common for professional cyclo-cross racers. The average cyclo-cross racer might have a family member or friend holding their spare bike.

Don't worry if you have not got a Cross bike as a Mountain bike will get you started.

Have Fun!

Knackered back
Well where to start, I was getting back into shape training for the kick off to the Scottish Cyclocross season when I started getting twinges in my back. The twinges started to happen more frequent about 7 weeks ago, then about 5 weeks ago the pain got that bad I am now off the bike altogether and having trouble walking and sleeping.

So fast forward to today, I have had an x-ray with nothing showing and have just had an MRI scan yesterday which I should get the results from on Mon the 1/10. Fingers crossed that they find something wrong as I am totally sick of not being able to get about properly. Speaking to the Physio he has said that it might be a bulging disc that is pushing on the nerves but until I get the MRI scan results it is guessing.
See the pic below of the strapping the Physio had me wear last week that did give me a bit of pain relief after the first few hours of excruciating pain as my back was pulled into shape.

Gary Fisher 'Hi-Fi Carbon Pro'


After a lot of tarmac talk with the new Madone I think it was about time to get a bit dirty with some new models in the Gary Fisher/Trek stable for 08.
Starting point is this kick ass beauty from the man Fisher which for a 5in travel bike only weighs a claimed 23.3pound or 10.6kg in real money.
If you are thinking in doing a bit of cross country racing either short track or marathon stylee then this bike must be near the top of your list.
I have ridden Gary Fisher bikes for a good few years now and won the 2002 X-Country Champs and Series on a Sugar race bike which the Hi-Fi takes a lot from in terms of design cues. Something that is lighter than my old full on race bike pushing 5in of travel is going to be some ride, roll on that Fisher feeling!

E-Motion rollers

Below is a small clip of me on the rollers in the shop with me getting out of the saddle and sprinting without the bike jumping off. As well as sprinting you can let your front wheel drift over to either side without coming off them, superb!
If you watch the clip closely towards the end you can see me hitting the outside rollers with my front wheel on purpose, try this on normal rollers and you'll end up in a heap beside them.

Check them out here: E-Motion Rollers

Discovery and Madone win



First win for the new Madone by the "Goose" Valdimir Gusev after he took off on the monster stage of the Tour de Suisse from Ulrichen - Grimselpass.

Yet more Madone
This is the Madone 6.9 Pro utilizing the Trek OCLV Red Series Carbon*


*Trek's highest-performance carbon fiber, OCLV Red uses a significant percentage of high modulus carbon fiber arranged according to Treks most complex lay-up schedules.

More Madone
Lance Armstrong talking about the new Madone at the world launch.

New Trek Madone
Pic of the 2008 Trek Madone outfitted with Ultegra SL

Shimano Ultegra SL
There might not be a new Dura-Ace Gruppo on the horizon just yet but Shimano is introducing a lighter weight Ultegra groupset in "ice grey". Following will be wheel's and pedals in the same finish.

Stuffed......
Being fit has the benefit at telling you that an illness is on its way in the early stages so you can try and do something about it. I was looking forward to racing tomorrow but it is looking likely I will have to sit out, during the week I got the sore throat first and towards today I was starting to feel choked. So probably sit out this weekend and get healthy for next weekend which will be my first Grass Track event of the season which I want to be going well for.

Road Race
I have not been posting much in the last few weeks due to the shop being very busy and I have also been trying to get the training in the time I have left over. So the last few weeks I have upped the pace in the training as my season is ready to take off. Yesterday I took part in the Sam Robinson Division 1 Road Race over a lumpy course based near Callander.
As this was going to be my first Race of the season it was always going to be hard and so it was, after a few digs off the front I then sat in knowing that my legs were not going to be good this early on in the season. Out of about 47 starters only about 26 finished and I was 21 out of this so not so bad but I was hoping to do a bit more in the race. Good training anyway and I should get the benefit of the longer racing miles in my legs in the next few weeks.

More Hero Cyclists
I was at the National Museum of Scotland and paid homage to Graeme Obree's 'Old Faithful' which would give inspiration to any Cyclist or non Cyclist with the story behind it. The bike pictured was the one that was under Obree when he won the Pursuit World Champs in 1995 before it was later banned by the suits at the UCI. Obree is Still competing and winning time trials using his own bikes with eye watering gears like 67x14!!!!, one word Legend.

Real heros of British cycling


Photo from TheBikeZone.org.uk

Mallorca in the sun

Hard as nails

I Watched Gent-Wevelgem the Belgian Semi Classic on Cycling.tv today, it reminds you that the Pro riders that put on a show for our entertainment are amongst the most fearless athlete's on the planet and sometimes our entertainment turns into their nightmares. The first of two descents coming off the Kemmel there were crashes involving many riders and Jimmy Casper of Unibet.com looked like he crashed the hardest. Total respect to these guys that put their life and limb on the line so we can watch and enjoy the racing.

Real bikes have nuts

"Fillmore" (The most cruel hill of the San Francisco Grand Prix)


Out on the summer Fixed wheel yesterday - the Fillmore (44x16) as the weather was great.
The gear change felt good and the bike is a bit lighter than the Steamroller so the higher gear turned over well on the flat and as I am a bit fitter was fine on the hills.

Fillmore Street, enough said.

On the up and up.

After watching Oscar winning the M-SR in style on Sat I was up for a good run on Sunday and maybe push myself a bit for the first time after the winter build up and I can say that the feeling was good throughout the run but even better on the bits of road that I pushed it on. After the run recovery is always a good indicator of fitness and that seems to be good also, I am still on my 49x18 fixie so it is good to know that when the boys bring their carbonio stuff out I can still do a bit of damage. It is just three weeks till I head out to Mallorca for some sun on the back and back to the 'Gears' which should be interesting, although I might be onto the 'Gears' a bit quicker as there is a local Criterium that I might do before I head off.

M-SR "La Primavera"


This weekends Milan-San Remo is hitting 100 years old and if the first few races of the year are anything to go by we should be in for a cracker, a lot of the big hitters in the peleton would dearly love their palmarès to show a win on the Via Roma after 294km. The racing will be hard fought through and over some of the most famous names in cycling folklore including Passo del Turchino, Cipressa and Poggio di Sanremo.

Picture is 2006 edition from milansanremo.co.uk with Filippo Pozzato winning on Via Roma.

WEATHER WARNING!


Jees! it is not looking good for a Sunday run tomorrow with the forecast, so it might be a dose of Cycling.tv on the rollers.

I was back onto the bike on Fri after my dooring incident on Tue past and feeling good with the enforced rest that I had, hope I can get out tomorrow on the road to keep the training up.
Ciao.

Forecast from MetCheck.com