Velochimp

My co-workers revel in their Fredness. However, we often wonder what truly makes a Fred and what makes a Pro. Also, how much of a fred or a Pro can you consider yourself? With this perplexing problem I finally discovered an awesome infographic that will help you figure this all out. See Fred or Pro a site dedicated to this very question.

Click for larger version

Lt Pike is making his rounds with the pepper spray.

I was looking back at the 2010 Tour and realized what caused the Andy Schleck’s chain to slip.

Earlier

The Giro organizers have been embracing social media to help promote the race and get excitement going throughout the year. The race is not until May, but RCS Sport has been steadily promoting various aspects of the Giro to the fans. Next up is a promo to let fans be the next “Pink Fighter”. You can post your pic to the Giro Facebook page.

From November 21st to 28th anyone who aims to be the next “Pink Fighter” can post his photos directly on the Corsa Rosa Facebook profile (www.facebook.com/giroditalia).

From November 29th to December 1st,the 10 ten profiles will be selected.

From December 2nd to 5th Giro fans will get to choose from the top ten profiles selected.

On December 12th will be the time of the photo shoot of the three profiles.
Thursday, December 15th will be the last great day: the Giro d’Italia 2012 Pink Fighter will be chosen.

The Giro d’Italia 2012 will start on Saturday, May 5th, 2012, from Herning, Denmark, and ends Sunday, May 27th, in Milan.

Feeling the pain on Faso Hill during Power Cross today.

Video of the Master’s Race with Wayne Bray and Dave Faso in the lead. The pain on the face of all the racers gives you an idea of the difficulty.

The Saturday before Halloween brings Syracross, the first year event by the Mello Velo team. Syracross promotor Brian Nilsson promised a fun time and a challenging course. He delivered on both counts. With several unique features such as the tree maze that made me feel like I was in a hall of mirrors and some tough climbs this race will be a classic.

(Dan Timmerman slicing through the Hall of Mirrors)

Saturday morning brought out some very cold weather. Snow was flying only a day earlier in higher elevations across Central New York which includes Highland Forest. The temperature reading in my car never left the 30s. Temps reached up to about 39 before sinking down to around 30 as I arrived at the chilly parking lot for the start of Syracross.

I love the name that they chose for the race. In fact I am tempted to write it in all caps each time and say it loudly in a frat boy like scream.

This week I decided to race in the Master’s 35+ race. Brian opened up the race to cat 1-4 allowing me to enter. My motivation to race the Masters was to get 45 mins vs 30 mins of racing. However, the Cat 4 race time was extended to 45 mins and the Masters field is stacked with some very fast and competent racers. This was going to be a tough race.

Getting used to the much colder conditions at Highland was tough. I packed on extra layers to stay warm during the warm up laps. I wore tights under my bib shorts, a long sleeve jersey, arm warmers, a De Marchi jacket under my jersey and a hat under my helmet. With all these clothes I felt like a stuffed sausage rolling on my bike.

Once the race started I had a poor start. No real excuse on this one, but it was a disappointment after having an awesome chance at the holeshot at the Syracuse GP. I settled into the big group and eventually found some space as the fast guys ahead made some gaps on me.

The course at Highland was mostly through the forest. The start has a section that went through snow covered grass that eventually gave way to mud leading up to some grassy areas to a hairpin section then back down to some barriers that had flames painted in them.

Then some singletrack like trails with a very muddy climb. After that it leveled off to a fire road then another climb followed by a fast descent back to the fire road and into the Hall of Mirrors. Then back to the fire road to another fast descent to the paved road that was the start/finish area.

The course was a blast and I had my fastest race speed at about 24 mph. Most races have been much slower and I never really went above 20 since there was not a fast descent at many of the races.

My overall race performance was much worse, or felt much worse than recent races. Not sure if it was the lack of recent miles, the cold or just the end of a long season. Perhaps it was racing against some really fast people in the Masters. All of those factors came together to make this race feel very tough.

(It was close to Halloween. This was the best costume by far)

Each cross race that I completed this year seemed to be the toughest race yet. They each have a specific challenge that makes the race. Kirkland has loads of mud, and so did Ommegang with a slick climb too. Swandrome was fast with a long course. Syracuse GP was fast and very muddy in some places. This year will be remembered for the mud. Lots of it, all over my bike and clothes. The feeling of having mud everywhere is somewhat cathartic. Roadies can spend an entire year and never get much dirt. In fact if you don’t ride in the rain you and your bike can be sparkly clean for the entire year. In cross you are down in the elements bringing out this primal feeling. You and the earth are one during the race. You are fully in the elements and they are not forgiving. Then when you are done you get beer and some waffles.

Once the race ended there were Belgian waffles and beer on tap to help ease the pain. A makeshift fire was burning and racers were huddled around it for warmth. It was a fun low-key setting. Too bad it was so cold that I was shivering just drinking beer. I had to switch to coffee to get warmed up.

Overall this was a great inaugural race hosted by the Mello Velo team. Brian Nilsson and his crew did a fantastic job hosting the race in tough conditions. I can’t wait to be back a Highland next year.

More pics from the race courtesy of Jamie Young.

Great promo video for the 2012 Giro, awesome.

Ushi must be a Dutch version of Ali G. The Frank and Andy Schleck get the Ali G treatment by Ushi and they play along. This has to be one of the most intensive interviews they ever had. Ushi asks if they take drugs, how does “it” hang and if they are gay, wow. (Updated video with only the Frank and Andy interview)

The Syracuse Cyclocross Grand Prix has been around for years. Since I’ve been an active member of the Onondaga Cycling Club that hosts the race I always went out to the help setup/tear down and take loads of cool pics during the race. I would always think that I should give cross a try, but leave it at “next year” which never really happened until now.

This year was my first race at the Syracuse Cyclocross Grand Prix in memory of James Konski and sponsored by etc etc. This has to be the longest name for a cyclocross race anywhere. James Konski was the founder of the Onondaga Cycling Club back in the 1970s. His great goal was to have a velodrome built in Syracuse. In fact he raised quite a bit of money for this goal. Not enough money to actually build a velodrome, but enough to buy half of a nice house.Jim Konski passed away years ago and I am not quite sure what he would think of his name being memorialized on a cyclocross which seems to be the opposite of racing on a track.

Going into the Syracuse race I am feeling that I have a general idea of what I am doing now. Which basically means that I know what kind of pain to expect during the race. I also know where to start which is at the very front.

The registration for the Syracuse race gave me only one option which was the Cat 4 race. The Masters field was limited to Cat 1-3 so I could not hop into that race. This would not be an issue, but the Cat 4 race was scheduled for only 30 minutes which felt kinda short. I’ve been able to race in Cat 3/4, Open Men and Masters fields in other races and always raced for 45 minutes at least. I felt as if I needed my full dose of pain and that 30 minutes just was not enough pain for a Sunday morning of cyclocross. I would be wrong.

At the start I was able to to line up at the front and got my game face on. I was going to have a good start for once. As the race started I darted out and kept within the top three guys. On the first turn I was almost the first guy out as the first guy took the hairpin turn too wide and got jammed in the tape. I burst onto the slight climb to the road trying to maintain my position. The air was getting colder as the sun that was out during the previous Masters race hide behind the clouds and rain started to sprinkle ever so slightly. At this point the legs are getting a little stiff front the violent effort and the cold combining to form a perfect storm of pain. I summoned my inner Jens and sent a message to my legs to quickly “SHUT UP”. The lungs however need some more counseling since they are not as forgiving when given direct orders in such a way.

The course for the Syracuse GP was changed from the classic course that was raced on for years. Ben Salibra, Bryan Blake and Dave Faso worked together to come up with some nice changes. We would ride Tuesday night cyclocross practice at the park and the new couse was unveiled earlier in the week. The one disappointment was the lack of mud at the race. The park has decent drainage and there was only one section with a slight amount of mud. After Kirkland and Ommegang I was now expecting all of my races to be glorious mud fests leaving me with legs that are caked with mud. This really was the way to complete the overall cyclocross experience of pain and mud and occasionally beer.

Luckily the soaking rain that we received for most of the week changed the course from relatively dry to another epic mudfest. Two portions really stick out. One is the giant puddle seen above. The other is the section leading up to the start finish that was only navigable by running. By the time my race started 95% of racers were running through this section. The mud was getting worse by each lap. The Cat 4 race win was contested as a running race through the mud. I saw a portion of this as I was slightly behind at that point at a point where I could hear the screams and see a bit of the finish.

As I rounded through the muddy section that I ran through for the previous laps I thought to myself that a 30 minute race was plenty on a course like this. I am not sure where I finished, but I did get compliments on my start which was a good achievement for the day. I never did look at the results. The scorers where having issues with the placings since there were quite a few racers bunched together. I don’t envy their job and thank them for going through the trouble of doing this when they could be doing pretty much anything else.

Great day of racing on some beautiful roads in Northern Italy. Vincenzo Nibali was on the attack for most of the race, but Leopard finally won a big race. Too bad it is the end of the season and the team is merging with Radioshack.