R O T H A R . C O M

So what is new in the wonderful world of bikes? Well the honest truth is not enough from my perspective so I’m doing some home work at the moment with a mind to organising something for next summer. High mountain supported epics are in order and once I get some answers back from people invitations will be going out… Will it mean a new bike and is this the answer? Or maybe one of the new carbon Specialized?

Hidden in the depths of the visually inundated and swamped Bike magazine website, there are actually some good columns with people talking about bikes, check them out here.

Another great American magazine, Dirt Rag has recently had a website makeover by the looks of things either that or it just looks different. Check out some more talking about bikes in the Brain Farts section.

There is also a stunning gallery of photos, although not very big pictures, from endurance rider Mike Curiak who won last years great divide race. As Mike says:

Singletrack Archive finally updated with a listing for Issue 22. IMBA membership renewal in the post. Shopping and beer drinking to follow. 2006 Specialized here and here – it’s looking carbontastic. Trying to be retro is getting an expensive habit.

Biking tomorrow in the mountains.

It’s been a long time since I had time to sit down and write an update for the site and the fact that the desk around me still looks like a bombsite is testament to the fact that I’m still not really back on top of things and the honest answer is that things will probably get worse before they get better. So maybe around October I’ll get back around to doing normal updates. Maybe. Normal updates and riding bikes by October. Sounds good. Not sure if I can wait until then though.

So what’s new in the world in the last two and a bit weeks? Probably the most important bit of news is that to celebrate the arrival of Archie who will be keeping an eye on Simon and Christina from now on. It’s a cracking bit of news and by far eclipses the fact that some guy called Lance has won a bike race in France. Not that the latter really comes as a shock to anyone I suppose, well possibly other than to Mr Armstrong. The rest of the pack will probably be glad he’s going and will have their fingers crossed that he doesn’t do a Cipolini. I’m going. No I’m not [cue return and world championship victory]. Right this time I’m REALLY going. No I’m not. Yes I am, no I’m not [cue fade into obscurity with loss of form]…

So what else has been happening? Well after years of being blown up because political policy was of deep dissatisfaction to certain paramilitary political elements in Northern Ireland, London and other major UK population centres are now once again the targets of bombers disgruntled by current foreign policy and treatment of people they relate too. Isn’t it strange that when you do things like this in the name of war then try and sweep it under the carpet and gloss over it as “an unavoidable part of the hideous nature of war”, that at some point you’ve killed the relative of someone who is actually going to seek revenge in a way that you might not actually like. Blair is far from reality if he truly believes there is no scope for comparison.

Whatever Blair says about this not being related to the war in Iraq, it doesn’t take a degree in politics to work out that there is an apparent relationship here. Maybe they’ll set up an inquiry – because they’ve been proven to be a successful wy of getting to the bottom of things in the past haven’t they? Remember WMD? The fact is this. The UK wasn’t not being bombed by apparent Muslim extremists before invading Iraq, but we are now. the Spanish seemed to get the message fairly quickly, so how many more innocent people have to die before the message gets through? You have to wonder, are we really becoming so American in our attitudes that we shoot first and ask questions later?

Enough politick. Check this from Jed: Are you still riding that dull looking Titanium frame? Maybe you need to brighten it up a bit…

Now there used to be a regular section on the site a couple of years ago where I used to say what was on the stereo. Well after watching Live 8 and seeing The Who perform, i have to say I thought that they stole the show. After that I, like many thousands of others, suddenly realised what they’d been missing and kitted themselves out with some classic rock and it was only after watching the Live 8 performance that I realised that it’s actually ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again” that forms the iconic theme to CSI. Doh! It’s been great to see many of the bands sharing the benefits of participating in the event – it won’t satisfy everyone but it’s a gesture in the right direction.

Also flowing out the speakers is some classic St Germain, a bit of the Man in Black, Johnny Cash and some revival from the collection of Kieran Hebden’s alias Fourtet. Word is that he is coming to the capital of the North soon. Sweet.

I think this is a fair way to finish, because whatever you do I’m sure you can relate to this:

A cowboy was herding his herd in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of a dust cloud towards him. The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and YSL tie, leans out the window and asks the cowboy, “If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?”

The cowboy looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, “Sure. Why not?”

The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his AT&T cell phone and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite navigation system to
get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo. The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop
and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany.

Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses a MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with hundreds of complex formulas. He uploads all of this data via an email on his Blackberry, and after a few minutes, receives a response.

Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turns to the cowboy and says, “You have exactly 1586 cows and calves.”

“That’s right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves,” says the cowboy. He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.

Then the cowboy says to the young man, “Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?” The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, “Okay, why not?”

“You’re a consultant.” says the cowboy.

“Wow! That’s correct,” says the yuppie, “but how did you guess that?”

“No guessing required,” answered the cowboy. “You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew; to a question I never asked; and you don’t know anything about my business. Now give me back my DOG.”

For some inexplicable reason I forgot to mention just how hot it is here at the moment yesterday. I can only assume the head addled my brain. It’s hot, damn hot and it’s proper mediterranean heat too, but with that horrible stuffy humidity that only Manchester seems capable of.

Lance let them share around his Jersey for a while then he pounced today in the mountains. Armstrong is back in Yellow after a cracking ride up to Courchevel. To be honest he seems to have made his mark now and barring disaster I can’t see anyone else taking this final Tour from him. I know it’s early days, but you do get that feeling that he has it all planned out.

It was interesting to note that the final stage of Saturday’s stage finished in Gérardmer, a mountain town that Biker and I cruised through in out trans France epic. I imagine that it wasn’t quite the same slogging up the climb on a 45lb laden mountain bike as it must have been for the Tour riders on their 18lb race bikes.

Here’s a load of timekillers from the team over at teagames. Oh and this is an absolute classic – I imagine the error message generator has been used to great effect in businesses across the globe. Just thing of the potential for a screen shot, a bit of photoshopping and a new desktop wallpaper…

And finally check out this bizarre Powerpoint presentation about big earth movers.

Yesterday things all went to plan and an escape from the heat, pollution and repetition of the city was achieved. After a lot of time on call recently, it was great to be able to hand over the phone and not have to be within shouting distance of home. So with a rather shiny bike it was time to find some dusty trails in a part of England with which I have a growing affinity – the beautiful rolling hills and limestone valleys of the Derbyshire Dales. There’s a gallery of photos up here.

It’s been a fairly busy time in these parts recently and this evening I’ve had to spend time patching up the security on the ifrider.com guestbook and doing some other admin. it hasn’t lefy time for much else. In other news by now Wee Ben has probably upped and left and headed North of the border. Check out his riding and other stuff here. Hopefully I’ll get my act together and get up to the wilds of western Scotland one day and, if I can put the memories of Dog Soldiers behind me, I might actually enjoy it.

More soon(ish).

Today is a day that will never be forgotten. May those responsible be brought to justice and may those that have lost their lives today be remembered for generations as the unwilling martyrs in a global situation driven by capitalist greed and it’s associated developed world politics, democratic systems motivated by a protectionist theory and put into practice and exercised through poorly thought out and heavy handed power plays. History was made today for all the wrong reasons. The world’s greatest news service has the details.

Living the Life: Making it as a Pro Downhill Mountain Biker By Kyle Boelte

Places to Ride: the McKenzie River Trail By Noah Koerper

The Inside Line: Cane Creek’s Shotgun Shock By Michael Browne

Bike Review: Fuel EX 9 By Sue George

Armstrong in yellow already? The opening days of the Tour dominated by two Americans in the yellow jersey? It’s a different Tour fer shure. I just hope that we see more from the European riders before too much longer – it was good to see Boonen winning the sprints, the big man is on fire and if he can last the mountains I think the Green Jersey is his this year, but there is a lot of other talent in the Tour and it’d be good to see some successful break aways. Read the latest at Cyclingnews.

The Olympics. London 2012. Good news for British Sport and no doubt, because the Infrastructure that will be put in place will be truly world class and will only lead to more opportunity for people and which is no bad thing. Beckham’s manor? “I’ve got friends that have got children that are growing up in the East End of London and they’re already saying to me to have the Olympics in our manor would be a special thing for kids to have inspiration from different athletes from all round the world”. Even his fashion statements are causing controversy again. What a media whore.

The Singlespeed Euros must have really been a drug fest, because those crazy dutch haven’t updated their website in weeks! Not that I can talk of course…

Another year has blown by at warp speed and the biggest bike race on Earth is about to start all over again. Once more a lot of the coverage is going to be about whether one man can set history yet again, but in terms of a broader picture, as well as Armstrong there are a lot of other riders who will be keep to make sure that they get to Paris in three weeks time. Check out Le Tour.

It’s likely that the start of the race will be over shadowed by one major event: Live 8. I’ve been watching a bit of it and some of the guests who have joined the BBC as part of the coverage have adequately summed up the situation. No one know is what Geldof if fighting for is the solution, but if we don’t do anything then one thing for sure there will be no change and people will go on living in a situation that is totally unacceptable. It’s easy to turn it off if you want to because it’s happening on another continent and doesn’t affect your daily life, but it shouldn’t be like it is so the fact that someone is prepared to take a stand and do something about it is a fantastic thing. Check out the site and add your name to the list.

Ibis are returning. Yep, like Swobo it shows that you can’t keep a good brand down, so I’m sure there are a few people out there who will be quite excited about the fact that Scot Nicol is going back into production. The Red Bull Divide and Conquer Event is a gruelling all mountain sports competition that is set in te area surrounding Durango. With the snowcapped peaks of the San Juan Mountain Range in the background, the grueling race kicked off at sunrise with 7.5 miles of rigorous trail running ascending 6,000 feet up the rocky Kendall Mountain. Trekking through snow-packed fields and craggy mining roads, the runners tagged their paraglide teammates.

From the 12,200 foot Kendall Mountain start, the paragliders hiked 900 feet to the 13,100 foot launch point where they then quite literally flew against turbulent winds to Silverton at 9200 feet, passing the torch on to the kayakers who entered the frigid water through a narrow chute, before tackling 24-miles of class IV and V rapids down the legendary Animas River to transfer the baton to the Mountain bikers. They faced a daunting uphill battle, climbing over 7000 feet of vertical trails before the 28 mile course bought them safely across the finish line of the Durango Mountain Resort.

“The bike leg is about three hours long but starts with a 3000 foot climb in 4 miles–a super steep climb–so it kind of sets the tone for the whole ride because your legs are blown after that,” said returning athlete Ned Overend, who won the fastest mountain biking split time two years running. Ned’s team, Specialized-Riversports, won in a total elapsed time of 7:37:34. There’s more information here.

Tom Ritchey who is another old school rider who refuses to stop riding, hasn’t had much choice recently since some one stole his ride. Tom isn’t a happy bunny and who can blame him. Maybe titanium supremo Matt Chester could build something up for him?

My main man Mr. Thorne isn’t spending this summer in the mountains, preferring to pursue a slightly more entertaining sideline in the warm waters of Lake Como:

Firstly, my apologies to anyone who hasn’t heard from me for ages – I am officially a slacker when it comes to staying in touch! I’d love to be able to make some plausible excuse for it but I genuinely can’t think of a single one. For anyone I really haven’t spoken to, I’ve been knocking about in Zermatt for the last few seasons concentrating on my skiing and managing a big group of tour operators throughout Switzerland. It has been a cool couple of years with loads of awesome skiing; traveling to various resorts in Europe in winter and training in the park in summer. Life could have been a lot worse…

Anyway, I decided it was time to move onto pastures new after this winter and start something of my own. A great opportunity came up earlier this year to start a kitesurf school in Italy on Lake Como. Myself and a friend Jorg have set ourselves up with a cool little kiting center down here in a place called Sorico, at the north end of the lake. It is an amazing spot with a real Mediterranean climate, but there are mountains that rise straight from the lake to nearly 3000m. The wind is a super-consistent thermal wind that blows most days making it a great place to learn to kite. On top of that, it isn’t so far from Switzerland so I can still coach on some of the summer freestyle camps in Zermatt and get some skiing in. Result.

We’ve been down here a month now and I reckon you are all more than overdue an invite to come have a go at this kiting thing (we’re doing mates’ rates!), or just come have a chilled-out time at the lake and enjoy the sunshine… I realise it might not be particularly easy to get here for some (Si & Marlboro – Japan aint that convenient, but its even further for Mark in NZ!), but it’d be great to see you. For anyone base in the UK, Ryanair are doing cheap deals from from Stansted and Luton to Bergamo airport which is just an hour away.

We are also moving the kiting operation out to Brazil for October if anyone fancies a real adventure!

SAAB Salomon Mountain Mayhem Pictures are now up here. Finally this is a tragic and horrible sight. You have been warned.

The last week or so since the last update have been the usual heady mixture of work and exciting day to day stuff with the added mixture of a round the country in a day road trip, a first time at a 24hr Mountain Bike race as a spectator by choice (rather than fate) and a period of feeling too rough to eat. Fortunately things have definitely improved, with the morale booster that Mr. Flooks has worked his magic and I now have a proper cross country bike again. New photos up here.

Truth is that the IF has been on a diet. Not a lose half your body weight in a week diet, more of a controlling slimming exercise over a number of months that has taken something with obvious potential and harnessed it to its full potential. It’s now a full on light weight machine that has no aspirations to be an all mountain bike and is built with that thought in mind. 3lbs in weight is a lot to loose and in honesty I don’t know if there is anything that makes practical sense left to change – irrespective the end result is the business.

One word of warning. If you buy a second hand pair of forks make 110% sure that they fit, because if they don’t you’ll end up paying for it. Ferr Shure.

So whilst I was at Mayhem at the weekend there was a good opportunity to catch up with folks, including the Midget. Too young he was told to go and mechanic in Spain, which is absolute rubbish and as has already been said, it’s their loss. Anyway after a weekend as Pit Bitch for teh racers, Jon may be reconsidering his options with regard to his current life in deepest darkest Welshshire. Photos from the event soon.

Now while I was there I pickerd up all sorts of stuff including a leaf;et about cycling out of poverty. It’s a promotional leaflet about the Bicycling Empowerment Network in Namibia, which aims to establish small bike shops throughout the country to establish a network of cheap bikes and parts and a whole heap of other good things. Check out the website and dig deep.

Defacing something that is illegally stuck to a wall is not against the law.

At some point some where, although I’m not sure where or when I also picked up a leaflet about The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination. Dissidents take note, a great site and it’s good to see that politics and ways of expressing freedom of speech are not aspirations that have been crushed.

Fianlly there is an advert about the New Belgium Postcoaster contest in the latest edition of DirtRag, including some more photos of this beast:

The irony of doing a job you really enjoy is that when you’ve finished working silly hours, it takes a mammoth amount of motivation to do more of the same sort of stuff back at the ranch. This I suppose is a half hearted attempt an an explanation for a lot of inactivity on my behalf and recognition of a fact that everyone else who has tried maintaining a website has known about for a long time.

Things have been very hectic recently as there are some fairly major events taking place. After five years in my current place as a result of a recent promotion, I’ll be relocating to a leafier and more spacious pied a terre outside the City. This looks likely to have the added advantage of making a bit of bike based commuting a distinct possibility, although it’s likely that this may mean I’ll need one of these. Which may in turn mean that somewhere down the line I’ll develop some really odd behaviour, like setting fire to my own head. Okay, he might not be a Brompton owner, but he could be. You never know.

It doesn’t seem like five minutes since the last issue of Singletrack came out. It coincided with the last big ride I went on and there fore I haven’t been for a decent all day epic for almost two months. I’m missing the offroad fix and I’m beginning to look and feel a bit shabby for it. Another up date soon, but in the interim check out MTB Wales.