By far one of my FAVORITE signs I’ve seen this week!
aw snap. I love the smell of logic in the afternoon
I haven’t been reblogging many of these but I like this one.
@shortandsweetvelo / shortandsweetvelo.tumblr.com
By far one of my FAVORITE signs I’ve seen this week!
aw snap. I love the smell of logic in the afternoon
I haven’t been reblogging many of these but I like this one.
Ultegra 6800 wheel long-term review.
Shimano has a reputation for reliability for good reason. A year ago, I was in the market for a lightweight training wheelset with good weight and acceptable aerodynamics. The were to act as a spare clincher wheelset if needed and would be good for local wednesday nighters. If money were no object I would consider the Dura-Ace C24s because of their light weight the predictability of aluminum in wet conditions. A little known fact is that old 7800 Shimano factory clinchers have similar aerodynamics to some 50mm deep wheels due to their low spoke count. My feeling is that this is still the case despite the new wider rims of the 6800s compared to the 6700s. However, I have no data to substantiate my belief.
In use the wheels work well and look fine after a number of months of riding. I haven’t had to true them and I don’t notice any deficits compared to higher spoke wheels. The caveat being that I race in the 150lb range so probably don’t apply much lateral torsion when sprinting or from out of the saddle climbing.
One factor to consider is that the wheels are tubeless compatible which means that the rims are designed to provide a tight interface with tubeless tires. This means that mounting normal clinchers can be arduous and the risk of perforating a tube while doing so is high. This is certainly something to consider when biking far from home. Since owning these wheels, I’ve learnt to seat the tire bead in the middle channel and carefully seat the tube inside the rim before rolling the last sections of the tire on.
To minimise the probability in flatting in winter, I decided to try tubeless. The chance of flatting is much lower because pinches are averted and minor cuts will self-seal. Also, I want to get a sense if the setup is suitable for races on poor surfaces. Ejecting from the pack due to a flat is often a race ender even for the strongest riders. I settled on the Hutchison Fusion 3s. In comparison to the Vittoria Paves used last winter they are not nearly as supple and the bead is thick. At this point I think the tires are a compromise in terms or rolling resistance and grip but may be useful in some circumstances. On a final note, these tires were very difficult to mount the first time. The guy below reports that mounting is difficult even with leather gloves.
d you know that Victoria is one of the Canada’s foremost producers of professional cyclists? You’ve probably heard of Olympic gold medalist and triathlete Simon Whitfield, and if you follow competitive cycling at all, you’ll definitely have heard of Ryder Hesjedal —the first Canadian to win a Grand Tour, the 2012 Giro D’Italia.
What makes Victoria such a great city for cycling? Temperate weather, great roads and scenery are the usual answers, but I think we would be remiss not to mention the great local, healthy food that’s grown right here on the island. Like any professional sport, nutrition is a big part of an athlete’s success, and if like me you’re taking furtive steps into the amateur world of cycling, what to eat can be one of the most confusing questions.
http://eatmagazine.ca/take-it-from-a-pro-how-to-fuel-yourself-for-cycling/
I talked to three of Victoria’s well-regarded competitive cyclists to hear their thoughts on fueling your two-cylinder, half horsepower motor.
Rob Britton — professional rider for US Team SmartStop
Lead photo of Rob, courtesy Team SmartStop
Why is good nutrition so important to fitness?
“I think when you start out you learn pretty quickly that you can’t just get by on pizza, beers and coke! That being said a lot of people back then said all you should eat was pasta. At the end of the day there’s a lot of guidelines but really no secret formula that works for everyone. To this day far and away the BEST advice I’d ever received was, you have to eat food every day for the rest of your life, so you might as well make an effort to do it well. So that is more or less how I treat my nutrition.”
What is unique about the type of riding you do, and the nutrition needed for it?
“With stage racing it ranges anywhere from three days of a local race like the Victoria Cycling Fest all the way up to the 21 day Tour de France. It all comes down to day to day recovery, and the food you eat has a huge role to play in that. During these races the big thing is replacing your glycogen stores, and the easiest way to do that is to hit the carbs — pasta, rice, maybe even some good bread, but you also have to keep up with protein and nutrients of veggies.
An average day for something like the Amgen Tour of California might be something like: Breakfast: 2 cups of coffee, some eggs, a piece of bacon, and oats (warm or cold)
During the stage: 2-3 Prima bars, 4+ energy gels and a couple homemade savoury rice cakes if its a longer stage, plus 5-10+ bottles of electrolyte mix.
Post stage: rice with a little bacon and eggs, a recovery mix and lots of water.
In the evening: lots of rice, some meat (fish or chicken), lots of veggies or salad. I have a big sweet tooth so usually 1 or 2 pieces of dessert.
What’s your go-to for a typical training ride? What are your favorite snacks to bring, and why?
“Always eat and drink before you’re hungry. Too many people think if you do a long ride and skip on the eating you’ll lose weight. In reality you’re shooting yourself in the foot. If you’re riding your bike you gotta eat.
As I mentioned before I love real food. I almost never train with mass production bars and never gels. A friend of mine started the company Prima (read our article on them here!) and I’ve been lucky enough to have support from him and so I get to eat real bars when I train which is awesome, but that being said… I am an absolute fiend for a king size Snickers and a can of coke on a hard long ride!”
Steven Grandy — professional bike messenger, cat 1/2 racer for Broad Street Cycles
Why is good eating so important to fitness?
“Cycling is a logistical sport where tactics are played out between riders on the best logistical footing. Nutrition is an extension of that. Another way to look at it is that a race is essentially an emergency situation for your body, your body is burning more fuel than it can process and at times the body is in oxygen debt.”
Riders train their energy systems to work at a high capacity. The goal is to burn fat at a high rate as possible and retain muscle/liver glycogen for decisive moments. I think the first few years, I expected my body to respond primarily from training but I eventually broke through a plateau by taking my nutrition seriously.”
What is unique about the type of nutrition needed for the kind of riding you do?
“I think the high fatigue load from being constantly active demands close attention to nutrition and rest. If I deplete calories for a few days, recovery suffers. My strategy is to avoid eating foods that are counterproductive to recovery. So I avoid packaged foods, sugar, and alcohol.”
What’s your go-to for a typical training ride? What are your favorite snacks to bring, and why?
“For short rides less than an hour I usually drink water only, 500-700ml per hour. Then I aim to eat about 200 calories per hour of carbohydrate. New athletes make the mistake of over consuming food on rides; for example, you’ll find the seawall in Vancouver littered with gels from runners who have gone for a 30-45 minute jog. Your body has enough glycogen to manage a 40-minute run at high intensity. I would say that bananas are a common staple, but sometimes I make energy bars out of rice, cocoa powder, and cream cheese. Baked yams wrapped in tinfoil are a treat as well.”
Emile Fromet de Rosnay — Cat 1 road racer for Langlois Brown Racing (Vancouver); bronze medalist at Canadian Track Nationals.
Why is good eating so important to fitness?
“What you eat is key in competitive cycling because being healthy is the difference between being fast or not. Elite athletes need to make sacrifices, and for that reason, it’s not as glamorous a lifestyle as we think. Sometimes, success in sport comes down to how well you eat. But even elite athletes need to let go sometimes.”
You won two bronze medals in 2009 at the Canadian Track Cycling Championships — what is unique about nutrition for track cycling?
“Most endurance track cyclists like me are also road cyclists. What makes trackies different is how they train, but their diets don’t differ that much. That said, nutrition during track racing is different than for road racing. Track meets last several days (3 to 6) and you might be racing shorter races throughout the day. It can be disastrous to eat a heavy meal, but you need the calories. Additionally, even though you’re doing a lot of high intensity racing, you can’t eat too much sugar, otherwise your system will crash. That’s why I like to eat rice. My favourite is a burrito — mostly beans and rice without too much heavy protein or fat.”
What’s your go-to for a typical training ride? What are your favorite snacks to bring, and why?
“It depends on the type of ride. For long endurance rides (4-6 hours) that don’t involve high intensity, I avoid drink mix and stick to water, and eat solid foods like bananas, figs, dates, while avoiding high-fibre fruits like apricots. I also have a homemade energy bar that I call “the snack.” It’s easy to make and a lot cheaper than store-bought bars: it’s a solid mixture of crunchy natural peanut butter, honey, sea salt and quick oats, wrapped in cling film. Occasionally, I add chocolate chips. It tastes amazing after 2 hours when you start to get hungry.”
For easy rides less than 3 hours, I won’t even bring food, just water with a pinch of salt, maybe an energy bar just in case I get the “hunger knock”. For high-intensity workouts, it’s different. If a workout simply involves a warm-up, intervals and cool-down, and the whole thing lasts between 1 and 3 hours, I will use drink mix like Gatorade. I’ll also eat a banana or “the snack” on the way home while cooling down.
The long, hard rides (more than 3 hours that involve high-intensity) require everything. I will usually have one or two bottles with mix, and “the snack”, bananas or some other fruit. I will usually stop at the gas station, coffee shop or store to get water and extra food such as a banana, croissant, muffin, and/or a chocolate bar (Snickers is my favourite), and caffeinated pop or coffee. At that rate, I’m burning through more than 700+ calories per hour, so anything goes in my gullet.”
Quantity is an interesting issue. I avoid eating too much, especially sugar, because it will cause gastric distress; but not eating enough is also dangerous, especially in stage races. I actually have to train myself to eat more in race situations because I’ve been unable to eat enough and have paid for it by bonking (re: running out of fuel). The standard calorie guidelines are helpful: replace what you burn. But this doesn’t necessarily apply for endurance rides, since they are partly for burning fat (you want a calorie deficit). However, a strict guideline isn’t good since everyone has different fat-burning levels, and it takes time to develop your ability to use stored fat during exercise.”
There you have it! I’m gonna go make a few “the snack” bars — stay classy out there.
http://eatmagazine.ca/take-it-from-a-pro-how-to-fuel-yourself-for-cycling/
BSC sponsored rider Steven Grandy is a talented road racing veteran, and while he’s got a lock on nutrition, training, and strategy, this is his first serious season of racing cyclocross here on Vancouver Island. We caught up with Grandy to talk making that transition from asphalt to mud, sand, dirt, and grass. Be sure to check out Steven’s Tumblr for more content: videos, pics, write-ups, all that stuff.
Words by Steven Grandy (Insta: @stevengrandy; Twitter: @stevengrandy)
I’ve been thinking, lately, about how my road season has tied into my cyclocross season. As we approach the final races of the fall I can only say that it indirectly contributed. First off, cross has a specific duration and intensity. If I could have done anything differently, I would have done a few more 5-20 minute intervals leading into the season. Most importantly, I would have further tuned my handling by doing more cross rides. On the Island, the cross races are highly technical and favor riders with a mountain bike background, who claim that the cross races aren’t overly technical but that’s my point entirely.
Photo courtesy of Steven Grandy (http://shortandsweetvelo.tumblr.com/)
In terms of training, in the weeks leading up to the season I did a few 150-160km rides back to back. Mostly for their own sake, but also because a solid base permits future intensity, and supposedly with a strong base fitness does not drop as much if you are sick or injured. My personal observation (thanks to some bad early season luck) is that 2-3 weeks off the bike due to sickness or injury is fatal to a cross season (regardless of base).
Photo courtesy of @Palleus (https://www.flickr.com/photos/palleus/with/15703938831/)
So in short, I don’t feel that a road season directly contributes significantly to future performance during cross. Indirectly, I think it helps as body composition and technique remains in check, and of course involvement in the cycling community means shared excitement about a shake up of the season, training, and the kind of riding you’re doing. Of course, there’s that brief window of time where getting new brakes and new gear implies that the coming season will be a success, but this is simply because the imagination has not met the constraints of performance.
Steven’s ride for 2014 CX. Photo courtesy of Steven Grandy (http://shortandsweetvelo.tumblr.com/)
Equipment Considerations
I want to include this because I still consider myself a beginner. My first few races I used clincher tires at 60psi. My aim was to not pinch flat, but this is a common rookie mistake. Such a high psi resulted in a number of crashes on grass and on undulating terrain because 60 psi does not absorb shock well. Since switching to tubulars, I run 20-25psi depending on the course, and they seem to handle better close to 20. I switched from TRP Cantis to TRP Mini-Vs, and now realize that it’s possible to bleed speed going into corners (re: the Mini-Vs work really well). Also, in terms of brakes, it’s important to learn how to get the bike operational after a crash. If the handlebars are knocked out of alignment or the hoods are displaced, then braking and shifting are potentially affected. So In my mind, it’s best to inspect the bike from the front before attending to the fine tuning of the brakes. I had a strategy for remembering which direction to turn my barrel adjusters in a race but still forget under pressure.
Three weeks before cross season started, I began focusing on core strength. Sure, core helps power transfer from your hips to your legs but I was also it prevents injury. On a personal level I missed the entire cross season after injuring my back on the first practice session due to weak core muscles. Which particular instance was it? I could have been shouldering my bike or it could have been from taking a drop off. The point is that I did not know until the following morning.
So, what’s the best core workout for you or me? The short answer is that there is no secret formula. The formula is certainly not in a 5 point article in your favourite fitness magazine. You should become enough of an expert through practice to determine what weekly intensity and frequency is best for you. Personally, less than two session per week leads to a decline in strength. This usually affects my posture on the bike.
I do a mix of crunches, bridges, leg raises, planks, side planks and hanging leg raises at the gym. (When you get stronger, add sub-variations such as shifting weight or focusing on one limb at a time for novelty) The first few sessions are embarrassingly difficult but the aim is for frequency. A mediocre workout contributes to a moderately better future workout and eventually it becomes a simple routine that you enjoy to maintain. Ie volume enables future intensity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENJ7BFnxVJg
The Windsor Park Criterium is a wide open flat criterium in Oak Bay put on by OBB. Coincidentally, it’s the course for my first ever bike race. The turnout was good (45 in the As) because no other races conflict on the calendar. In a flat, non-selective race there is still in fact an order to things. The accelerations and pace order the riders based on fitness, experience and handling ability. Stronger riders exchange pulls and attacks at the front while those unable to spend much time in the wind, draft. Some riders with lower tt ability can stay at the front based on their handling ability while some tt powerhouses drift mid-pack due to weaker accelerations or lower handling proficiency. I personally separate the field into thirds and try my best to stay near the front. Assuming the race finishes in a sprint. it’s best to be in the front few wheels on the final corner as it may be impossible to overtake a closely matched sprinter. Vying for position anywhere much farther back rarely yields much benefit. So the questions is, why attack or go off the front if breaks are bound to fail? If you are not a dominant sprinter, then a break is a mini-field sprint. Even for non-sprinters, a break with 3 riders guarantees a podium position in what can be loosely considered a field sprint. How does a break succeed? A break is more likely to succeed if the most represented teams have at least one rider in the break and they feel that their rider has an option to win. This example is most obvious in the 2014 Bastion Square Provincial Criterium Championships. Initially, there was a break with two teams represented for 20-laps. (H&R + Trek.) Then, once the break was caught a new one was formed with the three dominant teams and the group lapped the field in at most 7 laps. Late breaks have better chance of succeeding because of opponent fatigue and bureaucratic imputus. Race organizers know this and give primes to keep races dynamic and interesting. Riders in big criteriums may choose to throw away their chances at winning the race because of a lucrative crowd prime. FYI, prime means bonus in French. If you don’t trust me, look at your bilingual food packaging. So the Winsor cirterium was animated early on with a number of break attempts from various riders. From the early the first few laps a group of 6-8 broke away but it was chased down before it would stick. I tried a number of times to stretch the elastic and form a fresh break but to no avail. In the final three laps Gillian Careton offered a lead out for a sprint. It’s remarkable but no surprise that she can maintain such a calm demeanour in the crucial final laps of crit . On the final lap at corner one, Dustin Andrews from Trek Red Truck made a late dash and managed to hold it to the line with Cid Martinez in close pursuit with Issac Leblanc a few lengths behind. For me it was a mix of chasing wheels and trying to bridge to Gillian on the final stretch. Emile Derosnay had fresher legs and drag raced his way to 4th in front of me. Thanks to Gillian as I wouldn't have felt as confident moving to the front without a last minute game plan.
Gastown Grand Prix 2014 Race report..
From what I can tell the Grand Prix is growing with every year. In 2012 there were 60 finishers and this time where was close to a hundred. In my opinion this is the most exciting, intense race one ferry ride from Victoria. Imagine going to a Hockey game but being inside the arena with a mass of excited fans. This is Gastown for me, basically the corners are filled 5-6 deep for hundreds of meters and only thinning out in parts of the straightaways.
So what level of talent could draw this type of crowd? Well firstly, United Health Care and Optum, then of course team Heisomat. I heard in an interview with one of UHC riders that the German riders were to be kept in safe distance because their capability to ride away. A quick look at their stats on procyclingstats.com shows that they are no stranger to 200km races. Or 550km of racing in 4 days with 232kms being the longest. There were a number of other pro teams from Canada and the US as well as a U23 development team from Columbia.
Broadly speaking my preparation for this race was a large number of weekends beginning in May riding high volume and good intensity. Sometimes I did a few longer 20 minute intervals and the week before I cut all volume and did 1-2 hour session with 2 minute intervals. Most of the time I was simulating the 1-2 minute intervals that would happen out of corners. The goal was to arrive rested for the race with little to no fatigue and hopefully finish with the pack. My race calendar this year has been sparse so there was some uncertainty as to whether I was sufficiently prepared.
The commissaries established at the start that riders caught behind a crash would not get a free lap. So predictably there was a crash sometime around the third lap causing a bottleneck and leaving me and a few others to close a 15 second gap. Usually in a high level criterium, this is a death sentence. According to Strava, Steve Fisher from Jelly belly had the fastest lap time at 58km/h with some laps settling to 46km/h. Fortunately I was caught out with some stronger riders and the gap was closed. The rest of the race involved slotting into small spaces and accelerating out while avoiding errant wheels. In the previous two years I could only hang onto wheels for dear life, now, I was able to move up at different stretches. Any move forward was an anaerobic effort so I had to be judicious with the efforts as there is a small window of vulnerability after. Ie sprinting for position on back the straight (Cordova)meant fresh riders could overtake on the incline on Water Street.
In terms of equipment I rode a Focus Cayo with aluminum deep dish tubulars. The bike weighed 17.5 lbs and would in most people’s eyes have heavy wheels (1700g). I feel that getting into a draft and spending as much time humanly possible in the drops trumps the advantage of aero wheels. Many of the other riders were racing Ultegra equipped bikes and sometimes box section aluminum rims. I have to thank Hal, Renny and Parker for tuning my bike to race readiness and of course Broad Street Bikes for the exceptional support and encouragement. Gastown is a race anyone capable of finishing should slot on their calander, the crowd excitement is infectious. I normally don’t high-five strangers along the barricades but this scenario warranted it. For me the race was a success.
Know the difference between a catastrophe and an inconvenience. — To realize that it's just an inconvenience, that it is not a catastrophe, but just an unpleasantness, is part of coming into your own, part of waking up. - Bruce Lee
I'm fond of the vintage pic.
After three years of trying, I finally managed to stick with the pack at the Gastown Grand Prix. The riders around me were experienced crit riders so the biggest difference I noticed was their experience in slotting into small spaces. This isn't to say that the moves were dangerous, it's just that the shuffle is relentless. UHC and Optum were at the front most of the race so obviously they took the win over the other minor pro teams. Points to take note of: There was probably an equal distribution of Ultegra and Dura-ace equipped bikes. Also, some riders rode box section aluminum rims without any noticeable deficit. Race weight for the setup pictures is 17.5 lbs. Thankfully the Mavic cosmic carbones are 11 speed compatible. The weight would be considered high but I feel that they are durable and can handle rough roads. (Criteriums are held by and large on perfectly smooth surfaces?)
http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/global-relay-gastown-grand-prix-2014/results