I should mention that a Canadian winning a Grand Tour is pretty special

There you go, I mentioned it. Normally it goes the Italians' way and any "outside" win is special. And Hesjedal winning is extra special as he has stuck with his boss, Jonathan Vaughters, and "believed" for so long. Where others have had Vaughter's blessing and support and blown it, Hesjedal has quietly grown and accomplished his goals. And how he won is special, too, by riding a strong time trial and following the key moves. He stuck at it, yet never appeared overly confident. He kept close. Only in week 3 did he seem to realise that the others weren't foxing. He really was the best rider over 3 weeks.  Does this now mean he gets 100% team support in Le Tour, this year or, perhaps more likely, the next?  Or does he aim for the Vuelta?

Hesjedal creates Grand Tour history in Italy : Cycling Central on SBS

Garmin-Barracuda's Ryder Hesjedal created cycling history overnight when he became the first Canadian to win a Grand Tour at the Giro d'Italia.

Good to see Canberran Rogers getting back to top form. Sky will have a potent stage winning - and perhaps overall GC-winning team at Le Tour 2012, indeed. Wiggins will have to fire with this level of classy support.

Bayern-Rundfahrt 2012: Stage 5 Results | Cyclingnews.com

Rogers said, "It’s great to get the wins here. I haven’t won a field race like on Thursday since 2006. That was a relief but wherever you win it’s always nice. I don’t feel like I’m at my peak yet. I’ve pretty much come straight off a heavy training camp with a few days’ rest. It’s quite exciting times if we can achieve results like this coming off the back of quite an intense camp. I think that’s a sign of the team’s strength. I’m looking forward to hopefully seeing more of Team Sky riding on the front."

Worth noting that Petacchi is firing, too. Coupled with Allan Davis close on his heels and the thought of Goss joining him at Le Tour it looks like a hot green jersey competition this year. Even if Cav is cooked and doesn't finish. 

I'll believe it when I see it: contactless bicycle dynamo uses eddy currents, not magnets or tyre sidewalls.

It'll be a good thing, especially when they add a capacitor and keep the lights running when you stop. I don't have fond memories of dynamos myself, especially when reaching "bulb-blowing" speeds. And bikes need lights at night. So bring it on.

Magnic Light claims new form of no-contact bicycle dynamo lighting

According to Strothmann, his fork- or brake caliper-mounted Magnic Light works with any type of metallic wheel rims. While other contactless dynamos do exist, those incorporate wheel-mounted magnets. Dirk's product, however, has the magnets in the dynamo, and utilizes eddy currents. In a nutshell, these are electrical currents that are induced in a conductor, when that conductor is exposed to a changing magnetic field.

A different sort of on-bike video (Felt F75 in motion)

This is what happens when I manage to shoot some simple video on the bike and then edit it to death in AVS Video Editor. It's a Felt F75, it's me, I'm fat and slow and way past my prime but there you go. All visuals and audio by me, sound produced and mixed in Mixcraft.

Moser the Sheriff takes on a local club race - wonderful cycling story

If nothing else it proves Moser hasn't stopped riding, or racing, apparently. Or how an impromptu invitation led to one of the cycling legends racing around a park. Great story. 

MOSER GOES TO NEW YORK | NY Velocity - New York bike racing culture, news and events

“Hey Charlie, are you sitting down? Francesco Moser wants to come to the park race on Saturday… and he wants to race…”

That’s how my conversation began with Charlie Issendorf, organizer of the Prospect Park Race series, began.

Just two days prior my wife had taken me to Lunetta, a local Brooklyn restaurant for my birthday; Francesco Moser and his son Carlo were in attendance there promoting their winery, Cantine Moser. Over a delicious meal the guests chatted with the gregarious (and multi-lingual) living legend and his son. Stories were told by the elder Moser in Italian, Spanish and French throughout the evening. As the wine flowed the local amateur racers began their campaign to get “the Sheriff” to attend Saturday’s first race of the spring series in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. “He loves everything related to ‘cyclismo,’” said Marco Moser. “Perhaps he will come to watch.”

“Watch?” we joked. “He is welcome to race!”

Felt seat post bolt went 'snap'

Seat post bolt_1674, a photo by gtveloce on Flickr.

Having previously broken the clamps it was inevitable that the bolt would be next. It went 'crack' over some bumps at about 40kmh. Clearly something has broken, I thought.

The saddle fell off as I battled to keep straight and slowly brake around a curving road through the Davo swamp. The bolt and the clamps landed and bounced on the road as I continued onward another 20-30m so so. They were a bit hard to find but I got the important bits.

Luckily the saddle was tied by its rails to the post with a tyre-sock or I would have been searching the roadside for it, too. I sat it on the post for the slow, mostly-out-of-the-saddle trip home. (Once before I had done this on a Gitane and rode over 30km back home, out of the saddle.)

Could have been worse.

Cycling jacket with 64 embedded LEDs? Plus motion sensors? And programmable?

Well it could end up somewhere good, but right now it's probably a bit scary. Do we need cycling gear that senses our actions and makes the appropriate signalling? Maybe we do. Do we need to bring more attention to our presence on the road? Yes. Do we need yet more distraction, especially when our mobile phone rings? No.

I can see the potential benefit but it seems a costly way to add a few more LEDs to our bike. And if we forget to put it on - or if it's too hot to wear - then what's the (blinking LED) point? Still. it may actually point the way to truly noticeable and intelligent cycling gear.

Sporty Supaheroe cycle jacket boasts "intelligent" sensors and dynamic LEDs

With its Sporty Supaheroe cycling jacket, the Utope Project aims to achieve just that - integrating 64 RGB LEDs into its stretchable, wearable circuit boards. And the inclusion of in-built sensors means the LED array can display a variety of patterns depending on circumstance.

The Sport Supaheroe integrates 64 RGB LEDs into its stretchable, wearable circuit boards
One mode, with white light on the jacket's front panels and red light to the red, is clear...
The inclusion of in-built sensors means the LED array can display a variety of patterns de...
It isn't absolutely clear how the LEDs are driven, but presumably the jacket integrates a ...
View all

Together, an integrated "acceleration sensor" and gyroscope track the cyclist's movement, conveying information for all to see on the jacket itself. Conceivably, this means that the jacket's rear panels could glow red under braking, or flash on one side if the cyclist moves sideways. A particularly nice touch is a smartphone call alert system, which we gather employs a simple light sensor in the jacket's inner pocket wired to the jackets outer LEDs. When an incoming call is received your smartphone screen lights up, triggering the sensor and LEDs. That said, anything that makes a telephone harder to ignore when cycling should be used with caution.

3TTT seatpost failure - a reminder

3TTT seatpost failure_0432, a photo by gtveloce on Flickr.

It's true - aluminium snaps! And it can be very quick (and just as you round a corner)...

Pick the problem here

Pick the problem_1644, a photo by gtveloce on Flickr.

Yep, it's a broken Felt F75 2009 model single-bolt seat post clamp. Ouch.

And yes, it was a Central Coast pot hole - or sub-optimally completed "road works" if you like. Blew 2 tyres (noticed that!) but didn't notice the fractured clamp for another 3 weeks or so.

Well I noticed that the saddle felt a bit "wonky" but couldn't quite pin down why... until finally the gap widened sufficiently that it wobbled up and down enough to be annoying.... I stopped, inspected and went, "oh, there's the problem, right there!". D'oh, as they say. And other cliches.

You may recall that over the years I have also broken a post (completely, I mean, as in sheared off) and snapped off the bolt that holds the saddle to the post. None of this is recommended practice.

Do you really need a $10K bike? (Short answer = no.)

But if you have the money to spare, why not?

A $10K bike will absolutely fly, even with me riding it. And it will look great. And it will start conversations and draw admiring glances. Well so you hope, I guess. But the law of diminishing returns applies to bike hardware, big time. That last extra $1K you spend gets you maybe 0.5% more performance. And the preceding additional $5K got you 2%. If that.

Well 2% extra oomph is still worth having, isn't it? You'll win with that, surely? Well, it depends. A $4K bike - or even a $2K one - will be almost as well built and reliable as a $10K one. Sure there will be differences, a top-name brand may indeed be better put together and will most likely weigh less and slip through the air easier, but the differences aren't as major as the marketers and magazine reviewers would like you to think.

A human bieing pedalling a chain driven bike is very efficient anyway and there is little to be gained from the transmission alone. And a triangular frame of any material is stiff by design, so any stiffness (and concomitant power transmission) gains are tiny. And if you think that crank stiffness really matters then you are doing too much time in the gym or are a track sprinter, or both.

You may get some aerodynamic gains - but these don't really matter below 30km/h and only pay off significantly over 40km/h. But even these gains don't really matter unless you are in a solo break, time-trialling or fronting the bunch over long distances. If you are drafting then the savings are non-existent to vanishingly small. But if you are a solo-break kinda rider, especially one with a big personal frontal area,  then it may matter; if only to give you more confidence and motivation to stay out there and fry.

You will get some comfort gains, perhaps, or improvements in feel, and maybe - just maybe - better handling from a more expensive bike. But all bike designers know how to make a bike handle, it's not really a black art. And handling will vary with your personal setup and skill in shifting your weight around on the move. So a cheaper bike will likely as not perform much the same as a top-spec one. You may notice a difference when you swap from bike to bike but whether it helps you in a race is debatable. It may all be in the mind.         

Mind you, I can't talk: I spent $5K on a Look carbon bike in 1990. That was a lot back then and I thought it would revitalise my racing and training. It was a motivational aid, if you will, and it worked for a while. Until it just became another bike. And then I swapped the groupset to my favourite steel-framed ctit bike and hung the carbon frame up for a while. Mind you, unlike most of my other bikes - and especially the steel ones (all rusted out or sold on) - it's still in my hands and rideable. And it remains light and fast. So it wasn't a bad investment, really.

But did I need to spend top dollar? No. My winningest bike was my first "race" bike, or first bike I raced anyway. It was steel and made in Japan. It was a Shogun. It had mid-spec Shimano components. It was around $700 new in the early '80s. It worked. It won. And as I went up the grades I ugraded from clinchers to tubulars (glue-ons or singles). It went faster still - and still won. But it really wasn't the bike, it was me.

I was motivated, racing was new and fresh to me and I liked winning. So I trained hard and raced even harder. Although I "upgraded" the bike many times (to Gitane, Colnago, Look and a semi-custom steel frame) and went as far as I could go in the local crit grades I never really did any better than I did on that relatively heavy, low-end Shogun.

And to be honest the biggest improvement I ever made to a bike was swapping from clinchers to tubulars. If you really want to go faster, invest in better wheels.

Now if spending big on a bike motivates you to train and race then so be it. Spend the money. You may not get the performance enhancement you expected but you may get a nicer bike that will last longer. And - most importantly - keep you cycling.  

Cinelli leather hairnet - blast from the past

Cinelli leather hairnet_0144, a photo by gtveloce on Flickr.

A what?

Once, long ago, this is what racing cyclists wore on their heads to ward off evil spirits (if they didn't wear a cap and a cabbage leaf as well, anyway). Now they wear plastic and polystyrene foam. Which is weirder?

They were light and cool. They fastened with a simple strap and buckle. They did little to protect the head from anything other than minor object impact. But it's what we had, at least until the "esky" was invented, circa 1980.

The esky was a bulky, hot and heavy alternative that provided much better impact protection but suffered from being, umm, hot and heavy. It was avoided as much as possible - even scorned - at least until the design improved and it evolved into the lightweight, cooler and more effective helmets we wear today.

Another astute signing - Riis signs Cantwell as leadout/sprinter

The problem with riding and winning consistently in the US is that you get typecast as a "US-based" rider; especially so when you win crit after crit. Everyone knows you are good - but who wants a 'crit specialist' in a WorldTour team? Well Bjarne Riis is taking a punt on one such prolific Aussie rider and I suspect he'll prove a valuable signing for 2012.

Cantwell To Saxo Bank-SunGard For 2012 | Cyclingnews.com

"Jonathan has won many races in the past four years whilst riding in Australia and the States and has shown he is a winner,” said team owner  Bjarne Riis​. “I feel he now deserves a shot at the very top level. He is a hard working person and a tough guy, and I believe he can further lift his level. So I see Jonathan as an asset for us in the stage races, when it comes to helping out J.J. Haedo in the sprints, or going for a win himself.”

 

Interesting SBS story on Adam Hansen's adaptation to a new pro team

Wonder what happened to Adam Hansen? Big news one day, sorta forgotten the next? Well a change of team was on the cards anyway but he jumped ship a bit earlier and perhaps paid the price. He certainly took a while to get his skill-set noticed and used to good effect in his new team. Something to remember when changing teams - or clubs. Unless you are clearly a winning sprinter or top GC rider you have to rebuild your reputation a bit, gain some respect and market yourself. All over again.

It's a good read...  

Lotto-Ridley set to strike: Hansen : Cycling Central on SBS

Australian super domestique Adam Hansen is tipping big things for the new-look Lotto-Ridley team and marquee sprinter Andre Greipel in 2012 after a season spent adapting to the outfit.

Prior user Sevilla pinged 6 months for potential masking agent - and other moral dilemmas

Not that I'm against it at all, doping in sport is as legitimate as breaching technical regs in any sport - or in life generally. After all it's as human to lie, cheat and deceive as it is to be decent, sober and honest. What you are doing is running a calculated risk. If it was motor sport we could almost admire the cheats for their cunning - think about a certain famous Aussie racing driver activating his fortuitously aimed engine-bay fire extinguishers just when his turbo-charged engine needed a denser dose of air - and just let it ride. But when we are the engine on top of the machine it becomes somewhat more of a dilemma. Someone could permanently injure their health by that form of cheating. Should that matter to us, or should we just address the inequity in performance enhancement by drugs?

So by enhancing yourself with a product - any product really - then you are taking yourself into ethically interesting territory. It's just a matter of distinction by degree where you personally draw the line. Drugs vary by effect and danger. Altitude training and cryotherapy costs money and isn't available to all. Some bike makers claim weight, stiffness or aerodynamic advantages that aren't available to others. And so on. How you personally address your individual ethical situation is up to you. You can take a stricter or looser approach and balance your risks accordingly.

Now Oscar Sevilla has previous form here but we should forget that and just look at the situation as it stands. He's a good rider, perhaps even a great one, who has taken decisions that have led to various penalties. He's paid the price. And now he's paying again. Is it any different from speeding in your car and paying the fine or accepting the disqualification?   

Sevilla Given Six Month Ban For Hydroxyethyl Starch Positive | Cyclingnews.com

Oscar Sevilla (Gobernacion De Antioquia-Indeportes Antiquia) has been handed a six month suspension by the Spanish Cycling Federation for his Hydroxyethyl Starch (HES) positive that occurred in last year’s Vuelta a Colombia.

Nice work by Durbridge, Hepburn, Allen at road world champs. Blurred vision and up over the footpath

It's not just that they are Aussies, it's the style in which they have claimed their medals, too.

Durbridge's blurred vision on lap 1 says it all. Any athlete who has pushed themselves to their limit knows the feeling. Personally I - lowly clubbie that I am - found it easier to achieve on the track in a 1km time trial or 4km pursuit, although I've had it happen on the road when I've been coming back from injury or illness and have tried just a bit too hard to keep up with faster guys or gals in the hills. For the uninitiated it's unnerving and just a little unsafe. You go a bit light-headed and the vision strays a bit. It's a struggle to keep both eyes focused on the one spot. I'm sure many people hold back at that point, if they reach it at all. If you go further then you get the "seeing stars" effect and a general dimming of the lights. Your legs lose their power and you feel all over the place. Now you've gone too deep. (Don't even try it without many months of serious training. And don't blame me if you push your body over the edge and can't come back.)  

UCI Road World Championships: U23 Men Time Trial, Route Maps & Results | Cyclingnews.com

"About a lap in, I was 20 seconds up and then 25 seconds. James (from the team car) told me to keep concentrating and I had little bit of blurred vision because I started fast. But the course suited me and it was just about grinding it out on the flat. In the last 10km, I started to enjoy it. I knew I was up and only had to stay up and bring it home."

Hepburn also had a go, but demonstrated another side of pushing the limits:

UCI Road World Championships: U23 Men Time Trial, Route Maps & Results | Cyclingnews.com

Michael Hepburn of Australia was also favoured for a medal, and set a new best time halfway time. But he appeared to be pushing too hard, one time going up on a pavement after a turn. The final blow came when he took a left hand turn too fast, had his front wheel slip away and down he went. A ripped kit was not the least of his worries, as he had to change bikes as well.

Still, a bronze ain't bad and he certainly got noticed. Sometimes it just doesn't work out. You aim to be fast and smooth but you get fast and ragged instead. One off-line corner leads to a worse one until you are way off course and up on the footpath, or hard on the brakes. Or on the ground.

Nice job by Allen, too:

Allen wins gold for Australia at road world titles : Cycling Central on SBS

Jessica Allen opened Australia’s medal count at the 2011 UCI Road World Championships​ winning gold in the junior women’s time trial.

And that was just day one.

Nice debut GT win for Sutton at Vuelta - Farrar, Boonen, Petacchi miss out

I've never met Chris Sutton - but his dad (a world champ on the bike) sold me a track bike once. How's that for a connection? Oh, and I kept a safe riding distance from his hot-headed uncle Shane, too! (I think he's a bit less tense these days.) 

Anyway, a nice debut win in a Grand Tour, especially so in front of his mum. I'm sure Uncle Shane wasn't far away either. 

Vuelta A España: Stage 2, Route Maps & Results | Cyclingnews.com

Chris Sutton took his debut stage win at a grand tour, out-sprinting Vicente Reynes (Omega Pharma-Lotto) at the end of a disorganised sprint into Playas de Orihuela. The Australian timed his final surge perfectly, jumping in behind Reynes as the Spaniard hit out for the line from the top of the final rise with 300 meters remaining.

One for the trainspotter, the film buff and the freaky bike rider

Oh I think I can do maybe 1 or even 2% of what this guy can do on a bike. And I'm not going out there now to try some of this out.

It's a nice bit of editing in its own right. Called "Industrial Revolutions", starring street trials rider Danny Macaskill. He's freaky, in a good way. It's been filmed in a deserted Ayrshire industrial area, including a train yard and some derelict buildings. Directed by Stu Thomson. Wow.

Why cycling really isn't a team sport

A couple of weeks after Cadel Evans has won Le Tour 2011 and I can confidently assert, not for the first time, that cycling is simply, definitely not a team sport. Sure, we dress it up like it is, and we cobble together a passing representation of a team sport at times - look at the team time trial for example - but when it really matters, when the winners stand on the podium, it's clearly, obviously, all about the individual: Cadel won. We glorify the man, who politely thanks his team. But his team, BMC, didn't even get the team prize at Le Tour. Instead they got one man standing atop a podium and a shared prize pool. 

This individualism is what appealed to me in the first place. You don't need a team to ride, or to train, or to race. You don't even need a specific time or even an agreed place - you just need you, a bike, some time to spare and some terrain to ride on. After all, it's far more like walking or running than like football or netball, isn't it? Sure, we wrap it all up in an organisation, 'cause people need to organsie things and make it all tidy and legit, but at its essence it's just you and a bike. You call the shots, you hurt, you suffer, you win. Or get dropped. Or whatever.

OK, the teams aspect is real enough at times, true. Cadel didn't win on his own, although at times it looked that way. He had a team behind him who protected him and kept him out of trouble. But when he had to ride, he rode alone against the other talented loners. All of these guys are used to riding long miles on their own. Sure it's great to ride with others, be they teammates or just a loose arrangement of riders you stumble upon. It's fun. It's natural to form a bunch and ride together. But it's neither essential nor the point. Just as surely as it's not about the bike, it's also not about the team, your teammates or your club. Or even your coach. It's about you. And deep down we all know that.

Don't see Gerrans leading the Tour of Denmark every day, do you?

Lots of Aussies in the mix in Denmark but it's Simon Gerrans who has taken the GC lead. (Nice stage win by Fuglsang, too.)

3 stages to go, including a TT. I suspect Gerrans will be overtaken but I'm not sure when or how. The TT may be the real stumbling block for the Victorian classics and hilly-stage specialist.


Tour Of Denmark: Stage 3, Route Maps & Results | Cyclingnews.com

General classification after stage 3 Result
1 Simon Gerrans (Aus) Sky Procycling 13:03:15
2 Matti Breschel (Den) Rabobank Cycling Team 0:00:04
3 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Leopard Trek 0:00:08

Good, short summary by Millar on why Evans won

Worth a read. Not mind-blowing but incisive and concise nonetheless. Robert Millar was the Scottish climber who really should have won Le Tour but fell short. Life's like that, try and try again as you will but sometimes there's nothing more you can do. Luck can be a factor, as can the presence of another in-form GC guy who just has a better team or better prep. Millar's grasp of the issues makes it plain that the early know-it-all commentary that Cadel's team was wasting energy has a flip-side. But you knew that already, of course. 

Why Evans Beat The Schleck Brothers | Cyclingnews.com

In the end, confidence was probably the difference. The whole race, Cadel Evans looked like he was riding to win the Tour, while the Schleck brothers looked like they were trying not to lose.

FWIW I agree with Mia. And I reckon Cadel would, too

Not that I would presume to know Cadel Evans well enough - or at all - to imagine what he'd think. But I don't believe he'd be so self-opinionated as to back the vitriol that's been poured on Mia Freedman just because she's not prepared to label sportspeople as "heroes". Frankly, it's all about perspective. Athletes, sports personalities, whatever - they may be good, or even great at what they do, they may even inspire you in some way. And that's fantastic. In that way they can be seen as a personal hero - but as a national hero? Well, it's a stretch. Whilst I accept that sportspeople are prominent in Australia's recognised or 'popular' cultural pantheon, if you like, that may have a lot to do with our short history as colonisers here and our lack of knowledge - or recognition - of what came before the British invasion. In time we may well achieve more balance and recognition for others from a wider, more varied selection of fields.

Hopefully from here on we can embrace all achievements in any field and not over-emphasise sport - or Ned Kelly for that matter - over all else. Public holiday for winning Le Tour? I don't think so. However I think there's room here for celebrating Cadel's achievement and recognising that - as he himself has said - he's just a guy riding a bike. 

Cadel Evans - is he a hero? Mamamia

I think pursuing a life doing something you’re good at for the benefit of yourself is not heroic. It’s not a BAD thing, I’m not dissing Cadel (of course not!) but the idea that a sports person should be idolised because they can ride far or jump high or swim fast is, to me, a bit odd. I guess I’m just flagging the fact that if you do well in sport, the country and the media stop to worship you in a way that doesn’t happen to anyone else for doing anything else.

The abuse I received was instant and it continues, seemingly unabated. I have a pretty thick skin but by 8:15 I was in tears. I genuinely miscalculated the level of viciousness my comments (which I have made many times before) would provoke. My bad. Not for stating my opinion but perhaps for misreading the mood and the audience.

Many people have made the point that it’s great to have role models for kids to look up to, to encourage them to get on a bike or kick a ball. I agree absolutely. They’re certainly better role models than rappers or reality TV stars.

But I only wish other kinds of heroes would receive the same media and popular adulation, that kids could see that you could be wildly popular for helping others or doing something other than having a physical skill.