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

OUCH!
I GOT DOORED

Today I came off the fixed wheel and I am nursing a sore hip and right arm. The off was on my normal commute up to Dunfermline, I was cycling down the inside of stationary traffic when a nice wee school girl opened her passenger door on me which I then caught with my right forearm sending me flying over the bars onto the side of the road!

I would always normally ride down the outside of stationary traffic to avoid this kind of thing but today I was on the inside as the traffic light crossing had turned green ahead which I thought meant the traffic would start moving, instead the traffic had still been stopped by a lollipop lady meaning the Dad of the school girl in the car had told said school girl to jump out and right into my path...........BOLLOCKS!

So I am now trying to recover for tomorrows ride in to the shop as the arm is well stiff and sore at the moment although this typing has eased it off slightly.

On a good note the beauty of riding a fixed wheel is there is nothing on it to break or bend as there is nothing hanging off it, so apart from a little scuff to the bar tape and left lever the bike is perfect which helps make my sore bits feel a bit less sore.

Sketch pic from RoadKillBill.com

A great day..........

Here is the last time Lance would be coming on to the Champs-elysees as a Tour winner, just listen as the crowd gets to fever pitch.
Although you can not get the same feeling and sound looking at a small clip I can say that when I took this small clip it had the hairs on the back of my neck standing up, viva le Tour!