Go Clipless

Let's see the doping evidence

I suspect they're guilty (nearly everyone in pro cycling that is - not just Ullrich and Basso), but let's see the evidence. I'm no pro cycling insider but it sure seems like the politics run rampant between all of the organizations involved in organizing or monitoring the sport. I'm with Cyclocosm on this one...why can't anyone get a look at the actual documents in question?

Take a look at what the manager of T-Mobile said regarding Ullrich and his teammate's suspension from the Tour (from an article on ESPN.com via TdFBlog:

Another T-Mobile spokesman, Stefan Wagner, told Germany's n-tv television that the team was acting on information indicating "that there was contact between the two riders and Rudi Pevenage and the Spanish doctor ... who is at the center of this doping story."

Asked whether T-Mobile would consider cutting ties with Ullrich completely, he replied "certainly ... we are now demanding evidence of his innocence."

   "If this evidence can be provided, then we have a completely new situation," he said. "If it cannot be provided, nothing will change about this situation."

So let me get this straight. There's evidence that the riders came in contact with a doctor who may be implicated in a separate doping case. This is not evidence of doping use. Basically the riders are being asked to prove a negative.

Again, I'm going to guess that they did it, but, what if they didn't? Do we have enough to work with here? I don't think so. And, if we do, then let's see it.

Ride harder

Move over EPO. Steroids be gone. There's a new game in town and it comes in the form of a little blue pill. That's right, the results of a new study show that Viagra could improve your cycling performance by as much as forty-five percent. While the study tested male cyclists, I see no reason why this wouldn't work for women as well, according to my own detailed analysis of the study (ok...I read the article...but it doesn't seem like too much of a leap).

So will it be banned? And, if so will some pro cyclist's significant others be doomed to a life of less than satisfying sex?

Come to think of it they say that improperly set up bike seats can lead to erectile dysfunction problems. Maybe the extraordinary comebacks and performances from otherwise washed up pro cyclists in recent years can be traced to little blue (shouldn't it be called big blue?) instead of EPO. Hmmmmm?

(Via TdFBlog)

WashCycle's Bike Map and more Google Maps

By now you know the fondness I have for the Google Maps mashup. Especially when it's one that promotes the bike paths in my own backyard. The WashCycle has now completed its map of the major bike paths in the Washington D.C. area. I guess I'd like to see the Fairfax Cross County Trail added as well, but hey...I'm not complaining. It's a living document isn't it?

Meanwhile Gwadzilla points us to Wayfaring a community based map exchange site.

And don't forget Bikely, the new Australian based (but most certainly international) bike route exchange site.

The roundup wouldn't be complete without reminding you of these great mountain bike specific mashups.

As a bonus mashup here's Bloc Party vs. The Streets (via Between Thought and Expression)

Interbike starts blogging

It's that time of year again. The time when the cycling industry begins preparing for the biggest cycling event on earth - Interbike. Thousands of bike retailers converge on Las Vegas at the end of September to see the latest and greatest from the cycling industrialists.

Interbike is a closed event, however. You have to be a bicycle dealer, supplier, distributor, manufacturer, or member of the media to attend. So how did your humble blogger get a ticket to this illustrious event last year, well as media of course. Yes. You see, Interbike did something rather progressive. They invited bloggers that cover the cycling community or industry to attend Interbike as members of the working media. A shrewd move on their part as dozens of bloggers covered the news and events of the show in near real time. Word of mouth spread through the blogoshpere as those bloggers that did not attend had a chance to peer into the conference through the eyes of others and add their own commentary to the happenings. This helps to create an electric atmosphere around the show and helps the organizers of Interbike as well as the vendors that exhibit.

This year Interbike is embracing the blogosphere a step further, by diving in with a blog of their own - InterbikeTimes. Attendees of the show will recognize the InterbikeTimes as the daily newspaper provided at the beginning of each day that highlights the news from the previous day and the upcoming schedule. Interbike is taking this on line, but with a twist.

The blog is just getting started, but it is kicking off with a call for past attendees to share their Interbike stories and memories in honor of the show's 25th anniversary. Anyone can register as a guest author and post up their own story complete with pictures and all. Your article is saved as a draft and then posted upon approval by the blogs owner (as of this writing my guest submission is still pending approval). Your submission will not only make it onto the blog, but may also appear in the print edition during the show. What a great way to keep the blogoshpere engaged with Interbike and tie in the print version of the InterbikeTimes with the online version.

It'll be interesting to see where they take this blog next. One thought I have is that the author can engage the blogosphere further during the show and post up links to blogs and other news sites that are covering Interbike. The InterbikeTimes would serve as the aggregator of Interbike news and information and would be the definitive place to get started on your online Interbike journey. Better yet, maybe they'll permit me to use my guest authorship to post up an article directing them to my own postings on the show.

Anyway, just a couple of ideas. We'll see where it goes, but if you are a cycling or Interbike junkie it may well be worth keeping an eye on it.

Postscript: Thanks to Jonathan Maus of BikePortland.org for the heads up on this new industry resource that shouldn't go unnoticed.

Who can tire of the Marla Streb story?

Amazing! I've said it several times before, but I am in complete awe of this woman. Marla's back on the podium in only a few months since having the baby.

Talk about snapping back!

Whew!

From the MarketingProfs on why blog post frequency does not matter anymore:

"Thou shall post every day” is the most fundamental and most well known principle of blogging....

Wrong. Daily posts are a legacy of a Web 1.0 mindset and early Web 2.0 days (meaning 12 months ago!). The pressure around posting frequency will ultimately become a significant barrier to the maturity of blogging. Here are 10 reasons why. [Ed. note: Go read this and come right on back to discuss. Thanks.]

For me this comes down to quality vs. quantity. And I'm not just talking about the content, but also the quality of the visitors. Ok, ok, before you go crazy racking your brains trying to decide if you fit into the quality category allow me to explain.

As you can tell I don't post everyday. I'd like to, but I just don't have the time. Instead I try to concentrate on putting out a few quality posts a week. I probably average about three. Now I'm not trying to say that everything I put out there is quality. I have definitely posted some inane stuff and made some mistakes along the way, but for the most part I think people enjoy this blog.

And, I have the data to back it up. Here's where this relates back to the point made in the post referenced above. The way I see it is there are two types of visitors to this blog: searchers and regulars.

The searchers are typically trying to do one specific thing. They want to find the answer to their question and move along. Obviously some of these people find their answer here (or something we've written gets them closer to the answer) and decide to stick around. They become regulars. But, for the most part, these visitors do not engage in the conversation. Still, this group is growing, but not at the rate that I'm sure blogs that are focused on search engine optimization grow.

Regulars, on the other hand, participate in the discussion at a higher percentage than the searchers. These are the people that subscribe to the feed or come back a couple of times a week to check if anything is new. This is the audience I am targeting. This is the audience that is growing. Not totally exponentially; I'd say it's growing in more of a compound fashion.

It's a bit of a chicken or egg scenario, but I think the best long term growth strategy (for what, I still don't know) is to stay the course and focus on the regulars. Anyway, this isn't a post to get you to comment on the quality (or lack thereof) of content on this site. Instead, I'm curious if other bloggers out there have considered any of the points made in the article referenced above. Care to share your strategy? To the blog readers out there, are you overwhelmed with the number of posts from your favorite blogs?

The coolest cycling t-shirts

A fellow Washington, D.C. area blogger posted a great round up of some of the hippest t-shirt retailers on the Net (via DC Blogs). The whole t-shirt phenomenon is just amazing. It reminds me a bit of the blogging phenomenon. You know, once the cost of posting web content became free everyone suddenly became a writer. Well, with the advent of sites like CafePress and Zazzle anyone can design a t-shirt these days.

It got me thinking about sites I have seen over the years that have had some of the coolest cycling related t-shirts. So I went culling through my bookmarks and found some of the links I have collected. There are some pretty cool t-shirt designs in this collection, but I am sure there must be more and maybe better out there.

Nonetheless, I will present you with my list. If you know of any cool cycling t-shirt sites out there let us know. Or just let us know your favorites. And here they are (in no particular order):

Fortyninesixteen: Perhaps one of my favorites. A very urban messenger like style that exudes cool.

Laek House: One or two designs that are destined to be classics.

Twin Six: Makes a few cool T's in addition to their jerseys and other cycling gear.

Microcosm Publishing: A publishing company that makes a few rebellion oriented cycling T's.

Verge Sport: Has a few cycling cartoon images available on shirts.

CafePress: Some interesting designs on ho-hum apparel. Do a search on different keywords.

Zazzle: Same as CafePress.

Added the following on November 21, 2006:

Flirtees: Pretty and strong T's for women. Very cute!

Art by Opsal: Racing classics represented on skinny T's.

Evomo: Emotional and raw designs for apres riding.

P.S. The image above is of a Laek House designed T called Boy vs. Door. Image from NYVelocity.com.

Battle of the Buyer's Guides

Every Spring the bicycling magazines put out a rash of so called "buyer's guides." Wow...that sounds so much more sarcastic then I actually mean it to be...well you'll see what I mean in a minute.

I am a voracious magazine reader. And, like many of you, crave any bit of information I can get about bikes. So when its buyers guide season, I'm in my glory. I'll walk through an airport newsstand, Barnes & Noble, or Tower Records and start snatching any bicycle buyers guide I can find in all of their glossy goodness.

The trouble is that they almost always fall flat. Buyer's guides tend to fall into one of two main categories. First there are those that are nothing more than lists. Long laundry lists of every conceivable detail. Geometry specs down to the sixteenth of an inch...drive-train information down to the brand of chain...no detail is too small...except for weight. They never seem to include the weight of the bike in these lists...but then...that's a post for another day. Nonetheless, I have trouble finding the value of these guides beyond the manufacturer's Web sites.

The second type of guide I call a "hot" report. Basically, these guides report on what's hot or popular at the moment. The guides are usually far from comprehensive and seem to include a random collection of bikes of which the criteria used for selection is vague at best. Nevertheless, the hot bike of the year...the new release...always comes out on top. Some of these bikes are deserving, no doubt, however, it is hard to distinguish the magazine write up from the press release. Therefore, it casts doubt on the entire guide and even calls into question the credibility of the magazine itself.

In subsequent posts I'll review each of the buyers guides that I have obtained including, Bike, Bicycling, Mountain Bike, Outside, and Mountain Bike Rider (from the U.K.). Before I start the reviews, my next post in this series will define the anatomy of the ideal buyer's guide. I don't claim to be an expert on buyer's guides or the cycling media, so I hope you'll help me explore some of the ideas I propose and bring some of your own to the table.

Oh, and from an administrative perspective, I probably won't do all of these posts in a row. The thing is that I will need to go back to each of these magazines and leaf through them, make notes, etc. I know myself, and I know that I will be too exhausted to do that some nights so I'll probably spread them out over the next few weeks and pepper in other stuff to keep things going. Don't worry...I'll reference each of the related posts as we move along.

A paradox, utility bikes, stolen bikes, Cyclocosm, and some electro beats

Isn't it interesting that developed industrial nations seem to be in a renaissance period with bicycles while emerging countries like China are embracing the automobile?

On a related note...check out the recent post from Spinopsys (and ensuing conversation) about the rise of the utility bike niche in the cycling industry.

BikePortland is tracking a new service (not yet released) that would help victims of stolen bikes scan Ebay, Craigslist, and the like to help recover their bikes.

Get pro road racing coverage with wry wit, skepticism, and wisdom. Cyclocosm covers the pro scene in a most unique way. Even though I don't always know what he is talking about it is always an entertaining read. Not sure if it is my naivete of the road racing scene or the blog is just over my head. Anyway, this site has been added to my blogroll. Check it out.

Picked up a few more CDs at Tower...four to be exact. I seem to be getting back into the dance scene a bit. Maybe it's the time of year. For those of you that don't understand dance music, let me help you out. It's about sex. That's it. Period end of story.

If you like sex then you should like dance music. Right? Ok...I know it doesn't work that way. But it should. Uh oh...I think I hear Dr. P ready to put a comment beat down on my ass...haha.

My latest foray into dance music is a bit retro-electro. New dance music with an eighties electronic feel that's sometimes pop-py and sometimes industrial. First I bought Ultra Electro, a compilation album that includes remixes of new New Order, Depeche Mode, Daft Punk, among others. It's always cool to hear remixes of bands that you like, because it seems to breathe new life into songs that may be played out, however, this one doesn't blow me away. I need to give it a little more time to brew though.

Miss Kittin on the other hand. She's my bytch! Errr...maybe I mean I am hers. On this disc she's purring all get down and lick my boots don't care if your a boy or a girl goth style. This ones a keeper and down right hilarious on the eighth track titled "Modeselektor." I won't quote the lyrics here...but you won't get the full vibe if you listen to a 30 second preview clip. You'll have to spend the 99 cents on iTunes if you want the full effect.

I'll get to the other two albums in another post. Meantime you can always peruse my music reviews in 10 words or less along the sidebar. (Yeah, they link you to Amazon, but trust me it's not a money making venture. My blog service has a nice utility that links to Amazon and grabs the image, title, etc. and formats it nicely for me.)

Question of the day: Why can I mountain bike 30 plus miles over the course of a few hours and still get winded walking up four flights of stairs?

Too much friction

It was definitely one of those days. One of those days at work when everything just got in the way. One step forward. Two steps back. Jaw clenched tight. I just had to go on a ride. I hadn't even biked to work so I couldn't spin it out on the way home either.

Went to check if J-vish was available to ride. He hemmed and hawed a bit, but he was 90%. Checked in with the Kgirl to see if a ride could be in the future. No soccer for the kids, so it was a go. 5:30pm came around and I'm headed home. Called Vish to coordinate the rendezvous time at the trail. Ring. Ring. No Vish. What's up with that? Guess I'll be riding alone. Friction.

Got to the house...no one home...how rare. Got to find some fresh riding gear, clean the Camelback, check out the bike. Wait...what's that? An opened bill on the table that's late (I forgot to pay). Kgirl's going to kill me. I know where my bread is buttered so I get on the PC and shoot the bill out real fast. Friction.

Kgirl arrived home and by now it's 6:30pm.

Kgirl: Aren't you going riding?

Me (all flustered and still in work clothes): Nah, I've got to pay this bill...still have to find my gear...no...I think it's too late...it's not worth it.

Kgirl: Don't be ridiculous. You should go. It's gorgeous out.

She doesn't know it, but that encouragement made all the difference.

Still flustered...I'm now running around all decapitated chicken style. No time to clean the Camelback. Grabbed the bike. Shhhyyt...front tire is very low...clearly one of those sneaky pinch flats. No time to change the tire...I'll pump it up and hope for the best. Only riding 10 miles at Colts Neck. Friction.

Threw the bike in the car. Shoes? Check. Helmet? Check. Pump? Check. Looked around for Miss Kittin for some jamming in the car on the way. Can't find it. Friction. Luckily Kgirl had Angels and Airwaves already loaded in the cd player. Mood is starting to change...but still harried.

The light at the corner of West Ox and West Ox (don't ask)...3 minutes.

Caught at every light on Reston Parkway.

Another 2 minutes at Whiele and Sunrise Valley.

Even stuck momentarily at Michael Faraday...that never happens.

Friction. Friction. Friction.

Finally made it to the parking lot. Most had finished their rides. One was late like me. He took off while I was giving my tire one last pump. Cool I'll have a challenge out there trying to see if I can catch up. With so much frustration...I dropped into the trail too hot. Nearly fell from the get go. Not good. Need to calm down. Get the flow. That's what this trail is good for...super fast.

Caught up to the rider at the bottom of the hill as his bike was upside down. "Need some help?" I held is bike while he tightened up a loose seat bolt. We introduced ourselves and decided to ride the loop together. Matt was good...in shape...and fast. He knew this trail as well as I. He led through to the cricket fields and I stayed on his ass to make sure he knew I could hang.

I led for the second half. Kept it in the big ring the entire time to keep the pace high. This was perfect. We took no breaks.

On the drive home I finally felt relaxed. Got a good ride in. Tire held up. Made a new friend. And all of the lights were green. Pop! My jaw came unclenched. Now I could relax. Now I felt good.

That's it. Can't think of anything really interesting to end this story. Kind of anti-climatic I guess. Sorry. Just had to get it out there. There's a lesson or two in there somewhere.