Words – Page 39 – R O T H A R . C O M

ProTour No More

It appears that the conflict between the UCI, the organisers of the Cycling Global ProTour, and the organsers of the three grand tours* (Giro d’Italia, Vuelta a EspaÃ±a and Tour de France) and racing teams have come to a head. The UCI have had the foundations of the series swept from under them by the recent decision of all the major teams to leave the ProTour – a decision apparently supported by the grand tour organisers. Pat McQuaid’s cries that:

“These teams need to think of the responsibilities they have to those organisers, rather than just thinking of themselves,” he added. “They have a responsibility to the rest of the sport, and they are not doing that. The ramifications in a year or two is that ASO will be selecting the teams for the Tour de France out of a possible 30 or 40 Pro Continental teams. So where are half of these teams gone then?” (From cyclingnews.com)

He seems to be missing the point that majority of the teams and event organisers seem to have been deeply unhappy about the direction that UCI was taking professional cycling. Road Racing isn’t Formula One (although I’m sure many cyclists wish they were on F1 salaries) and efforts to globalise the sport further by taking it into ‘new markets’ isn’t something that’s in their interests. By failing to listen to the feedback and not working with the Grand Tour organisers to agree compromises on simple things like wildcard entries, the ProTour has been fatally undermined.

Most teams won’t care even if McQuaid’s warnings about the decision effectively being a jump out of the frying pan and into the fire is true. They should never have been pressurised to the point where such a radical decision was needed. The big question now is what significance the UCI will play in the future of professional road racing. Clearly the World Championships will continue to fall under their remit (complete with ghastly and shonkily rubbish website presences), but they tend to focus more on the individual and national interests rather than significance of the team.

I say keep a very close eye on Greg Lemond. Recently free of his connection with Trek through Lemond Bikes, the former Tour winner has been a vocal critic of the UCI under McQuaid. His statement that Cycling doesn’t need the UCI has generated a lot of support from the public. His anti-doping message which features an open criticism and (justifiable) lack of sympathy for those caught is in harmony with the current atmosphere in the 2008 Tour – the race is filled with and dominated by a new generation of riders who don’t share the same attitude to drugs**.

Lemond could very well be the man of the moment. Watch this space.

* operated by companies linked by an interesting web of shares in each others businesses.
** something that many cynics believe to be just as rampant as ever, just masked by increasingly sophisticated methods.

In Pursuit of Robin Hood

Trail Photo

It had been looking like a complete washout for today with another cold, wet July weekend. Amazingly (and thankfully) the weather forecast was wholly inaccurate for sunday.

It was great to wake up to see out of the window.

I’ve had it in mind for some time to revisit some of the old trails I explored some ten years ago when I first arrived in Manchester. Today’s key trail was the bridleway over the moors that passes Robin Hood’s Picking Sticks.

Despite all the rain the trails were in good condition and it was great to be out riding. It was quiet too, I saw four riders all day and loved some of the great downhills on the Remedy. I think I’ve sussed out the RP23 settings and now have the pro pedal working even better – I managed to complete the ascent up from Mottram Old Road to the summit of the ridge and Werneth Low Road for the first time with no dabs.

Wet Wet Wet

Nothing directly to do with a song by Marti Pellow and the boys from the 80s pop band, justÂ general reflection in the fact that it’s currently a hypothermia inducing wet summer and has been for some time. It can be summed up as:

Some of this heavy rain mostly this Heavy Rain Showers and Drizzle and occasionally this Light Rain Showers

Met Office Forecast

Rather cool, largely cloudy with rain or showers.

Today:

A band of rain will slowly edge southeastwards across the region this morning, with perhaps some locally heavy bursts of rain. Brighter conditions will follow, along with scattered showers, some of which will turn heavy, especially across Cumbria and Lancashire. Maximum temperature 16 Â°C.

Tonight:

Staying largely cloudy, with scattered showers. Initially the showers will be heavy at times, but overnight the showers will gradually become lighter, and perhaps replaced by longer spells of rain. Minimum temperature 10 Â°C.

Saturday:

Sunny intervals and scattered showers, these mainly light. Through the afternoon the showers will become more isolated, allowing longer spells of sunshine to develop. Maximum temperature 16 Â°C.

Outlook for Sunday to Tuesday:

Sunday isolated showers, sunny intervals. Monday starting dry but becoming cloudy, with outbreaks of rain arriving. This rain will fizzle away overnight, only to be replaced by further rain Tuesday.

Probably shouldn’t complain too much. It could probably be worse and it is a chance to test just how good certain waterproof items are in their ability to keep you dry and warm.

Shaggy in Iditarod

John Ross is doing the Iditarod Invitational next year after it being an ambition for a long time.1,100 miles across frozen Alaska in winter. Next years race starts on Sunday, February 22th, 2009 at 2pm from Knik Lake.

You can keep track of his training and preparation on Daze of Tundra. Great website name 🙂

Weather Rules

It rained a lot today, this was good news for Lewis Hamilton because it appears Ferrari’s don’t like the rain. The British Grand Prix was an amazing event to watch. In the end at about 4pm the weather changed and with all the gear ready I headed out to Marple. Years ago I led a few rides as part of demo days for Harry Halls which were based at Marple’s Roman Lakes on a cracking little route. I’ve used it a few times since to try other bikes and I still think that it’s a good benchmark.

Escape the Rain

The route has a tricky climb, but the Remedy just swallowed it all up. The grip from the rear end is amazing and very impressive. It doesn’t feel mountain goat like in the same way that the Ti Deluxe does, but pop it in the granny select a sensible gear and concentrate on a line and the bike just does the rest. Very impressive. On the downhill it is great to be back on a long travel bike and the Remedy just flies. It feels balanced and stable in the air and rails through corners. What a cracking bike!

Remedy 9

Picked up my new ride from Simon at Harry Halls in Manchester earlier today. I’ve been waiting for this since February and despite all the rumours about why they’re been delayed so long since the rave reviews last year, I’m glad to say that on first look it appears that it was worth the wait. It looks mint!

There are of course a few things that needed tweaking. First up I managed to give my left hand a stigmata wound on one of the cable tie ends under the top tube (so turned them all 180 degrees to prevent being stabbed any further. I then spent the next few hours fettling. The plan was to fit a Saint bashguard and a 34t TA middle ring, but it turns out that Saint bashguards need specific chaiinring bolts so that addition is on hold for a bit.

Fitted an SDG Bel Air RL Titanium, some candy pedals and then covered much of the key areas of the frame in ‘Copter tape. Top tube top and sides, underneath of the downtube, sides of the seat and chainstays and all the cable contact points. I also managed to track the irritating noise from the front wheel under rotation to a couple of bits of swarf trapped in the rim behind the rim tape. Experimented with the shock and fork pressures and riding positions.

It then continued to rain all day. Riding postponed to Sunday. Update: A few photos up on flickr from Sunday’s ride with details of the bike setup as comments.

Riding Tunes

When I was riding 30 from 30 earlier this year I used my iPod on a few rides to alleviate the boredom. I’ve thought much of the stock iPod earphones and for whatever reason most in-ear headphones spend most of their time falling out, making them as much use as a chocolate teapot. So a while back I bought some Sony MDR-O33 headphones which have spung loops that fit behind the ears and hold em in place.

Unfortunately they’re too good at holding on to your ears and can actually be a bit uncomfortable to wear for a prolonged period and they’re a bit bulky, so they don’t really work well under beanies. So the headphones weren’t quite right and carrying the iPod classic around was like having a small block of stone in your jersey pocket so I was keen to try something different.

iPod Shuffle

Ben Haworth‘s been a big fan of iPod shuffles for a long time and after picking one up I have to say I can see what he means. Stick it in shuffle mode, cue up a load of riding tunes and marvel at the tiny size and excellent sound quality. After quite a lot of research – most saying thet Sennheiser’s weren’t great in this format – I went for some Philips SHS800s. They’re pretty good in terms of sound quality and with the ear hook being flexible rubber they’re nice and comfy too.

iPod Shuffle

Good for riding with too…

Get Set

Phone call today from Simon at Harry Hall Cycles to say the new bike has arrived and I’ve arranged to go and pick it up tomorrow. A few bits have been ordered in advance including these which should come in handy…

Chainset bits...

Eleven

Nick Wallis has ridden all of the Mountain Mayhem 24hr races. Hat’s off to him it’s a top effort and he deserved to be on the podium this year for his award. Just wish I could have been there to get all wet and muddy with every one else. Maybe next year I’ll make it.

That said if I don’t recover from what ever it is that is clogging up my head soon the rest of the summer is going to be over before I get any proper riding in!

Battling On

Perhaps typically just as I indicate that I’d been keen in getting some (not just riding but) racing into my plans, my body decideds it’s had enough and I end up with a horrible sinus and throat infection. Lots of horrid stuff being produced, bunged up headaches and aching joints. A fairly regular dosage of the winning combination of honey, lemon and laphroaig hot toddie and Neurofen Plus and decongestants, have over the course of five days with lots of sleep and sofa lounging helped shift it and I’m on the road to recovery. ‘Cross racing will have to wait for a bit longer.

In the time spent getting better one of the ways to pass the time has been to hook up to xBox Live for a bit of Halo 3 action. I was never a massive person for computer games, but I had a first generation Playstation, before moving to an xBox and then a 360 a couple of years ago. Predominantly I play Halo 3 (H3) at the moment with occasionally a bit of Forza Motorsport 2. H3 for me is a social thing, There’s people I know who I play with either on the same console, or friends in Manchester who are a great laugh to have online or a random number of players from all over the world.

Red player eats shotgun

Yours truly wielding the rather useful shotgun

The thing with H3 is not just the xBox live gameplay which pits you either individually or in teams against others, but the amazing graphics which continue to amaze me even now and the simplicity of the xBox Live matchmaking setup. I think even Apple would have a difficult job of simplifying what Microsoft and Bungie have achieved. Outside the game there’s a whole web community element that has driven development, broadened awareness and appeal through machinema like Red vs Blue and led to the implementation of games like Griffball, which quite frankly is hilarious.

Still it’s not the same as being outthere riding bikes…