I am still alive - Riding, Training, Windham World Cup-650b and Watching the Tour

I live on.
I need to get back to blogging about bike stuff.

I've been racing here and there, training as I can, and heading to Tour of the Valley Stage Race with TeamSixOneFour next weekend.

Things with Team614 are amazing, exciting and really great this year. We've added quite a few new members and things have just clicked this year. Lots of growth, lots of great people, more ladies, and some super exciting things in the works for us for cyclocross season. Kristian and Katherine are now State Road Champions, Doug just outside the podium. Allison, showed up at our practice crits two Tuesday's in a row, then races at the Tour D' Grandview and wins her first ever Crit. Props to the team.

I traveled to the Windham World Cup UCI event last weekend, which was awesome, I've got quite a few photos from that....

I rode the course a few times and enjoyed the technical aspects of it - the climbing was brutal from a racing perspective, compared to what I'm used to riding and racing.

I spent last Saturday evening eating dinner/drinks with, Stan' of No Tubes Wife/owner, Team Kenda/Seven (Mary McConneloug and Michael Broderick) and the Stans No Tubes Women's team. Some of the nicest people I ever encountered. Mary and Mike are sponsored by Kenda and even brought us some yummy cold tea, rice crackers and dip early in our week....pro's just real pro's and down to earth people. An experience I won't ever forget.

Mike even got on my mountain bike for a quick bit on Sunday and had some setup suggestions for me - which I will implement shortly when I have some time. Mike is a detail guy and has an amazing understanding of bikes, and related technology. Mary is an amazing woman, person, bike racer and inspiration. They both, are great listeners, humble people and are just so fit, and awe inspiring to view as athletes and human beings.

I've acquired some prototype Kenda 650b tires, now installed, on my Stans NoTubes 650b crest wheels on my 26" mountain bike that created quite a buzz out in front of the Kenda Tent in the Expo area. The Argentinians, Mexico team, Dominican team, South American teams and a few others all were interested and currently racing this wheel size.

"Rumor" has it, several of the Pro XC racers will be on newly designed 650b bikes for 2013. I saw quite a few of the Euro pros - men and women - all racing various 26" bikes and new prototype 650b bikes, with 650b/27.5 wheels.

On our way out of the hotel in Big Flats, NY, Stan's wife, rolled up next to the van in her car at DunkinDognuts (who doesn't love a good doughnut). She invited us back to tour the No Tubes facility and meet Stan himself, his wife and family and other amazing nice people that work at the facility. It was impressive to say the least. Stan is a obviously a technically minded guy and continues to innovate and develop new technologies. Inside and outside of the office, he likes to perfect his bow/arrow skills. No photos were permitted inside, because of all the new and current super secret things in progress.

I acquired a new 70's Schwinn 5-speed Bike project that is coming along quite nicely. It will make a nice bike to ride around town. After taking it apart, it appears, it had never been maintained, since there was not a drop of grease in the crank, headset, or either wheel. However, whomever originally owned the bike, kept it out of the rain, all the rust was just surface and cleaned up quite nicely. Funny part is I think it might weigh 40lbs.


Looking forward to cross season for sure....assembling a few things and planning to get on the CX bike in August.

Last few stages of the Tour very, exciting. I haven't dug around for any new 2012 Tour Tech stuff....will get to it.