R O T H A R . C O M

Well talk about dropping a bombshell the UCI seem to be at the root of a rather heartfelt decision over how cycling will be represented at the Olympics over coming years. From a personal point of view I can’t help thinking that although a compromise has been reached, was it entirely necessary? Given that there are concurrently running events elsewhere within the Olympic calendar of events, the addition of BMX racing should not have any significant effect on the operation and logistics of the overall Olympics.

The UCI should have sought to place the IOC under mnore pressure to revise their stipulated rules and allow BMX without the need for concessions. Irrespective of this the decision to drop two of the most spectacular track events will remain a topic that is keenly debated for week and months to come and may not be forgotten by those it will impact on the most. Read a whole lot more over on Cyclingnews and sign the petition on-line here. I think this comment sums things up fairly concisely:

“I’m stumped, shelled for the women’s 500 and the kilo which are, in my opinion, far more interesting than the Madison and definitely more spectator friendly. I had heard last year that the Madison was going and I wasn’t going to lose sleep over it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great event but…it’s true that spectators have a really difficult time following it, whereas the kilo and 500 are straightforward. How can they be taken out like that? Does the UCI have the right to take out these events without consulting federations and athletes, and do they have the right to bring the already very few women’s speed events down to one? I should think not. I say we do something about it!” (Marion Clignet, Cyclingnews).

Also in the news is this bit of bad news about Mountain Biking that doesn’t seem to have been getting enough public airing for my liking. If situations like this aren’t taken seriously enough they will have real and massive impacts on the future of mountain biking – not just racing, but for the future of the sport both in North America and most likely in time over here in Europe too. That might be an overly pessimistic negative view of it, but in comparison to other extreme mountain sports like Skiing and Snowboarding, Mountain Biking might be seen to be on the receiving end of some unfavourable rulings:

From: Cyclingnews
Subject: Ontario Downhill MTB cancelled

The Ontario Cup Downhill Mountain Bike event has been cancelled. Due to circumstances relating to a claim and insurance concerns, Blue Mountain Resorts has notified the Ontario Cycling Association and Sirbikealot Racing and Promotions (the Downhill Race event organizer) that the event scheduled for July 2-3 will not happen.

“This is tremendously upsetting,” stated Steve Merker, Executive Director of the OCA. “Downhill racing in Ontario has recently seen a participation surge. Our first event of the year had record numbers and we were looking forward to building on that momentum. It’s truly sad that insurance concerns are frightening venues away from hosting sporting events and activities.”

Similar issues are happening in sports that use public facilities. Cycling is in danger of losing venues and therefore participation due to closures such as Blue Mountain. Dagmar Ski resort and Pleasure Valley, two very popular mountain bike destinations, have shut their gates to recreational and competitive cyclists within the last two years.

Closures and cancellations are threatening the Ministry of Tourism and Recreation’s goal “to increase Ontario’s sport participation and physical activity rate so that by the year 2010, at least 55 per cent of Ontarians are physically active.” The youth of Ontario will be affected the most by these closures.

The cancellation may have repercussions beyond Ontario. As Intrawest owns and operates many facilities across North America, this could jeopardize future events at venues such as Tremblant in Quebec and Whistler in British Columbia.

Finally I there hasn’t been anything stupid on here in a long time so here’s a whole load of Stupid Videos. Check out Too Much Gas and Cart Jump for carnage, but don’t look at Container jump unless you want to see bike related injury and scroll down to Bike over rocks for handy tips on where not to stand if you’re the cameraman at a downhill event.

As Andy Armstrong has so eloquently put it “If you haven’t got anything interesting to say, say it anyway!”. This apparently is one of the fundamental rules of blogging along with “do not blog”. American think-tank Pew Internet reckons that a new blog is created about every 6 seconds, so obviously blogging isn’t that hard, but it’d be interested to see some sustainability rates. According to a recent article in The Times, however, people who don’t blog should not be tempted to do so. Perhaps it should also be pointed out that most people who are good at blogging (like the Sexmidget – check this rant out) most of the time can’t be arsed to do so, because there is usually something much more exciting to be doing, which in Jon’s case will probably involve an activity that will lead to him forgetting why it was he had put off updating his blog in the first place.

There were 70 billion blogs in the world yesterday, there will probably be 70 billion billion by next week, and as the article says “what crazy hubris makes you think you have anything new or interesting to say?” Yet people in sheep like fashion assume that their blog will be one of the tiny fraction that is brilliant. So the only good advice that current bloggers can offer are a few invaluable tips to stop the novice embarrassing themselves, ruining their love lives, alienating friends and getting the sack. Fortunately because this is a website about mountain bikes you won’t be getting any of that rubbish here.

And talking of bikes the Singlespeed UK and Euro champs are both is weekend. Check it out:

Machynlleth, home of the Dyfi Enduro, is going to be the venue for the 11th annual UK singlespeed championships. The fun will start in town around 1pm on the Saturday, when there’ll be a guided couple of hours spin from outside the Holey Trail bike shop in the middle of town.

Later on, from 6pm-9pm there is a monster pizza frenzy at the Event HQ, the Wynnstay Arms, again in the middle of town. £10 gets you all the wood-fired oven deluxe pizza, garlic bread and salad you can scoff until 9pm, when the back bar will open up to allcomers.

There is camping available at the rugby club/sports centre with basic facilities (ie a loo) but showers and civilised things available for a small fee at the leisure centre on the Sunday. There will be opportunities for a bit of scratch racing, derbying, silly bike sprints and whatever during Saturday evening as well as a chance to chat, catch up, ogle bikes and er, probably sink a few beers.

10am on the Sunday, the riders will leave en-masse, again from the Holey Trail, to the race course, an easy five mile spin out of town. The pace will be mellow and if you don’t feel that into racing, you’ll have the chance to slack a little while still enjoying the great trails there. The winners will do a long, hard course and the just-for-funners will have the option of a little less pain and more heckling…

Entry fee will be £20, with any profits being redistributed in the form of a post-ride beer. There’ll be a cool Howies T-shirt available in limited numbers for £12 featuring the ace logo above and there will be an enormous heap of prizes from Solitude Cycles (a custom frame), Surly (a frame), Hayes, SRAM (giving gears away to the slowest rider), Easton, Topeak, Continental, and lots of other people that I wrote down on a list somewhere… It’s looking like being a top event and if you don’t have fun there, you can’t be that fun a person… See http://www.summitcycles.co.uk for a little more information.

Now onto the Euros and here’s what our Dutch friends have to say about their great sounding event.

After a succesfull Dutch Open Championships in 2004 Park Klarenbeek in Arnhem will be the location for the Singlespeed Euro Champs 2005.

Last year riders from four nations entered to race for the title, this year we hope to have at least representives from 8 European countries

The event will start on Saturday June 11th on a local campsite. From here there will be several complementary rides. There will be some off road biking around Arnhem and some city biking in Arnhem. At night there will be a party in one of the local pubs.

Sunday June 12th will be racing day. At 10am (This is no typo!!) the riders start for their 30km ride (4 laps) and at the end we will know who is the new European champ! After the ride there will be the Awards Ceremony (and remember: not only the first three are the winners in a singlespeed race…)
There will also be some more contests and a big raffle.

The race will be part of one of the biggest Dutch one day mountainbike events, the Bergrace Off the Road, also featuring the Dutch Students Championships and lots of other races. The course is very challenging and has all the ingredients for a perfect race: steep climbs, fast downhills, singletrack and enough space to take over (or being taken over, as you wish).

More info on the European Championship Singlespeed 2005 you can find here.

Finally recent racing in the Mountain Bike World Cup seems to have turned a little bit farcical with the UCI doing a fairly good job of cocking things up and upsetting the riders. Why they could not just postpone the event and make alternative arrangements is beyond intelligent thought. Scroll down to the bottom to read more.

And finally spare a moment for the Canadian mountain bike and outdoors community who have lost one a friend and colleague:

Canadian mountain biker Isabelle Dube has died after being mauled by a grizzly bear. Dube, who was third overall in last year’s TransRockies Challenge, was running on a trail near Canmore, Alberta on Sunday with her racing team-mate Maria Hawkins and friend Jean McAllister when the three encountered Bear 99, a male grizzly that had been trapped and removed from the area only a week before.

According to the Edmonton Sun, Dube climbed a tree while Hawkins and McAllister went for help at the nearby golf course. They found fish and wildlife officers who were led to the scene by McAllister.

Alberta Sustainable Resource Development spokesman Dave Ealey said the officers found the bear over Dube’s body. “The bear moved off the body and our staff recognized that it had killed the person, and they took one shot and killed the bear,” he said.

Dube was married with a young daughter and was well known in Canada’s endurance mountain bike racing community.

The Singletrack Archive is now up to date once again. I don’t like doing the entries for new issues until I’ve read the mag and let it get to those readers at the far flung corners of the world where it takes a little bit of time to travel. And just as I finish doing that I get emailed details of whats in the next issue:

In a concerted effort to make it look like we planned it all along, we’ve decided to make no.22 our ‘Scottish Issue’. As well as having  lots of lovely pics of the place there are several features regarding riding in Scotchland. We have one article that attempts to interpret and explain the new access laws and our regular ‘Routes’ pages contain a bunch of corking rides based around the Aviemore area.

And the Singlespeed World Championships are drawing nearer too:

Hey everyone! This is just a quick reminder to let you know that registration for SSWC05 in State College, PA (USA) opens tomorrow, June 1st…Wednesday…at 5:00 pm (East Coast Time).

As you might recall, registration is limited to 400 people. And there’s nearly 2000 people wanting to register….So don’t delay.

Here’s the page you need to visit in order to register on Wednesday (June 1st; 5:00 pm). And, as always, keep an eye on the news page for all the latest info.

Thanks!

Single Speed World Championship 2005
State College, Pennsylvania USA
8/20-21/2005

Dave Barter has had a rejig of things over at phased and this is naked singlespeeding and fixed riding. Thank god Jed and Paul don’t have digital cameras. Oh no! They do! The mind boggles, will we see them gracing the interweb with only a top tube or carefully positioned waterbottle to hide their dignity?

Now I missed this when it came out a while back but I think this is pretty cool. Quattro is definitely cool.

Sue Savege from over at Bike-Fax sent me some info about a new book that’s just come out about trails in Snowdonia. I’m a big fan of North Wales and I think it has a lot to offer to riders in terms of trails, great facilities and friendly people and stunning scenery. In all it’s just about perfecto, especially when the weather is Scorchio! Scorchio! Scorchio!

“GETTING THE BIKE-FAX” the NEW mountain biking guide for Snowdonia. Sweet single track, gut busting loops and unbelievable downhill routes are all on offer in ‘The best mountain bike trails in Snowdonia’ which provides 25 of the area’s gems in a bright, neat and easy to use format. An interactive CD of the book also means readers can download routes and access bonus trail guides and with Bike-Fax waterproof paper print them off and use again and again……

Local mountain bikers Sue Savege, Paul Barbier and Dafydd Davis have taken note of the IMBA (the International Mountain Biking Association) who recently declared.. the mountain biking centers in Wales “offer some of the best new trails in the world.” They have ridden the mountains of Snowdonia forwards and backwards to put together this inspiring selection.

Chapters cover classics like Betws y Coed and the Gwydyr forest plus the Marin trail as well as Coed y Brenin and southern Snowdonia. There are routes for Llanberis and Beddgelert plus even Conwy Mountain and the coast. The guide gives a choice from hundreds of kilometers of thrilling handbuilt singletrack to mouth watering traditional rides across mountain and moor. Put all of them together with a good selection of local amenities, it gives the perfect purchase for a weekend’s riding in Snowdonia. Produced by Bikefax and available at www.bike-fax.com

Another Sue, Sue Heywood, is a big name on the Mountain Bike scene for her racing palmeres offroad. She’s currently with Trek/VW and there’s an interview with her up at Cyclingnews.com.
Saturday’s bike shop discussion involved a bit of talk about SRAMs Blackbox stuff. I think if you’re into offroad it has the same sort of kudos associated with it that Campagnolo Record has on road bikes.

You don’t see much of it, it’s alluring in a carbon kind of way, difficult to get hold off, expensive and works, but differently to Shimano. So there’s a definite appeal with Blackbox kit, but many people will be pursuaded to buy blackbox stuff because of the extensive list of riders that are prototyping and developing it in the field. An impressive list and some impressive brakes too.

Sue Savege from over at Bike-Fax sent me some info about a new book that’s just come out about trails in Snowdonia. I’m a big fan of North Wales and I think it has a lot to offer to riders in terms of trails, great facilities and friendly people and stunning scenery. In all it’s just about perfecto, especially when the weather is Scorchio! Scorchio! Scorchio!

“GETTING THE BIKE-FAX” the NEW mountain biking guide for Snowdonia. Sweet single track, gut busting loops and unbelievable downhill routes are all on offer in ‘The best mountain bike trails in Snowdonia’ which provides 25 of the area’s gems in a bright, neat and easy to use format. An interactive CD of the book also means readers can download routes and access bonus trail guides and with Bike-Fax waterproof paper print them off and use again and again……

Local mountain bikers Sue Savege, Paul Barbier and Dafydd Davis have taken note of the IMBA (the International Mountain Biking Association) who recently declared.. the mountain biking centers in Wales “offer some of the best new trails in the world.” They have ridden the mountains of Snowdonia forwards and backwards to put together this inspiring selection.

Chapters cover classics like Betws y Coed and the Gwydyr forest plus the Marin trail as well as Coed y Brenin and southern Snowdonia. There are routes for Llanberis and Beddgelert plus even Conwy Mountain and the coast. The guide gives a choice from hundreds of kilometers of thrilling handbuilt singletrack to mouth watering traditional rides across mountain and moor. Put all of them together with a good selection of local amenities, it gives the perfect purchase for a weekend’s riding in Snowdonia. Produced by Bikefax and available at www.bike-fax.com

Another Sue, Sue Heywood, is a big name on the Mountain Bike scene for her racing palmeres offroad. She’s currently with Trek/VW and there’s an interview with her up at Cyclingnews.com.
Saturday’s bike shop discussion involved a bit of talk about SRAMs Blackbox stuff. I think if you’re into offroad it has the same sort of kudos associated with it that Campagnolo Record has on road bikes.

You don’t see much of it, it’s alluring in a carbon kind of way, difficult to get hold off, expensive and works, but differently to Shimano. So there’s a definite appeal with Blackbox kit, but many people will be pursuaded to buy blackbox stuff because of the extensive list of riders that are prototyping and developing it in the field. An impressive list and some impressive brakes too.

This year seems to be going so quick that I don’t seem to be able to keep track of things very well. Sometimes just sitting down and typing this thing helps keep stuff in perspective. There’s definitely a lack of riding and too much time in front of computers going on, but it’s been heading that way for the last few years and these days it’s what pays the bills and finances expensive hobbies.

So one of the outcomes of the Afan weekend was the realisation of the fact that the Crossmax XLs I bought several years ago, thinking back it was at least three years ago, have finally started to show their age. The freehub is one the way out and it sounds like a demonic cross between a Chris King and an old Hope Ti Glide, with the volume turned up to max and the added twist of you don’t know when it’s going to engage or be really noisy.

I don’t supposed being run as a singlespeed set of wheels for several months helped much, but they’ve been so good I’m getting all the parts and I’m going to keep ’em running longer. Thing with disc specific wheels is that apart from stone chips and dings there isn’t that much that can wear them out. Once serviced they’ll be running on the new full susser, photos of which are now up on the site.

Now I put my hand up and say that since I stopped riding on the road, my interest in road bikes has diminished, which may explain why the new road bike project is probably nearing two and a bit years and is not really much nearer completion. When it IS finished I do hope it will look better than this, which has to be one of the most cluttered bikes I’ve seen in a while. The cranks and big E A S T O N lettering on the wheels doesn’t help.

I suspect that one of the reasons I haven’t written much about road bikes is that until the spring classics are pretty much in full swing and the action starts the world of road bikes for the occasionally interested observer is in fact fairly dull. Only once the big races start, then the previews of the new kit coming out begins and so the news actually becomes worth reading. Now the fact that Chris King have aided the current fashion for pink by introducing a new anodising colour isn’t exactly news (and to be honest I think Independent Fabrication and Eric Roman started the trend with his famous singlespeed), but now everyone seems to be getting in on the game or at least slowly catching on. Possibly more interesting is reading on cyclingnews about flaky carbon fibre and that Mavic are to re-release the Helium wheelset.

The Giro has been fairly interesting this year and it will be good to see what happens in the closing stages. There certainly seems to be less predictability in the big Italian race than there does in Le Tour. On the final road-related note, there’s a great interview with Eddy Merckx on the web and I’m sure if mountain biking had been around in his day, he’d have probably had a go at that too.

Forge used to make nice mountain bike bits and bobs, like thumbshifter mounts that converted bar end road shiters into proper thumbies. They stopped doing bike bits a few years ago now and have decided to concentrate on where the money is: motorsport parts and accessories.

Updating seems to have gone out of the window recently which really is pretty slack on my behalf, but the good news is that a large part of the reasoning for this is bike related. A new full susser has been procured and tested on arguably some of the finest trails in the UK. A weekend of riding, drinking and chilling in Afan Forest Park, south Wales was the ideal venue for taking a new Enduro. Ironically most of the people I was riding with were actually on singlespeeds so I spent most of the time wondering if I’d brought the right bike, especially on the long uphills.

It’s the first stable platform bike I’ve owned and it does climb and ride like a hardtail and a much lighter bike than 30lb, 6″ travel freeride bike it is. On the down’s it comes into it’s own and really flies. There’s probably a good degree of scope for adjusting the shock mount by swapping it out to alter the angles, because as stock it’s a fairly slack headtube and consequently a bit slow to turn in on some singletrack, but you do get plenty of stability on the downhills.

As well as playing with bikes, there has been playing with the house (currently roofless) and the new car, as well as work. All in all it’s been busy. Photos and more stuff next week.

Worked in the bike shop yesterday. I am very tempted by a new bike as I’ve been looking to replace the FSR for some time now. I did want an Intense 5.5 EVP but Tim can’t get me one and now I’m not sure what to get instead. Do I go burly or lightweight Cross Country? If I had the patience then there’s the Independent Fabrication Tungsten Electrode, which is going to be a 4″ travel bike for life with it’s mega money frameset, but then suspension designs are improved over time so do you really want a full suspension bike for life?

I looked at Scott Genius MCs while I was in Switzerland and they look the business for riding out there, but I’m not sure how they’d hold up to northern rockiness. Then there’s the new Blur LT that’ll be out soon but no one knows when and finally there’s the new Specialized Enduros, which I’ve reconsidered after fettling with one yesterday. Still undecided really, but I really fancy something new for summer.

Rapha make fairly bling bike gear – with a touch of pink. Wool is the big thing this year. Even Nike have brought out some retro styled gear including their hideously expensive but very nice looking Tete de Course jersey. I’m sitting here in one of last years Howies Yurt Merino Wool mid layers – It’s the busniess. There’s also some nice bike kit on offer from the cyclejersey.com. Check ’em out. My order is already in.

If you’ve been without a bike for a while getting one again gives you a great feeling and a lot of independence. Big thanks to Jed for his help in hooking my sister up with a new ride. She’s stoked to be riding such a great bike – a rather unique Columbus tubed Sunn Exact Un.

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And to finish – pictures from Switzerland are finally up here.

For some reason all of my last three posts have been on Wednesdays. This may mean that Wednesday is the day of the blog, or it may mean that it’s just about the only day in the week that I get a hance to sit down and do some updating…

So since I’ve been away Big Dunc has decided that he has had enough of being a bike shop mechanic has handed in his notice and as they say in Manchester, has ‘done one’. It seems that he’s tarted his motorbike up too. Can you picture it?

On a motorbike theme, some bright sparks decided that the current habit of doing some fairly crazy stuff on big bikes could be taken to the next level by getting the bad boys airborne. Thing with any kind of jumping is that taking off and flying is easy. Landing is the difficult bit. I guess this probably stung a bit… This probably hurt more.

See the thing with motorbikes is that they’re inherently dangerous for the rider. Stack it and like mountai bikes you and the bike tend to part company fairly quickly ina self preservation instinctive reaction. Thing with cars and trucks is that you’ve got a great big metal box to surround you. Which is okay as long as you know how big the vehicle is and can keep control of it. Loose it and it all gets a bit nastly for anyone not protected by the cars interior. Anyway enough drivel…

Keepin’ it real in te world of bikes, Cipollini may not have such an easy road to retirement after all. Seems like he may be tied by an old contractual agreement that he will need to buy his way out of, not that it looks like this will stop him from his plans. More sprinter news here. Meanwhile Botero looks like he is going to have a cracking season.

The Euro and UK singlespeed championships are now being finalised. Looks like there is a fair bit of variety and choice open to people this year, especially with the Worlds in Pennsylvania coming up. Maybe there’ll be some Blackbox kit seen at some of the races this year…

In the US if you’ve ever tried to enjoy a National Park by mountain bike, chances are you’ve been disappointed. With some notable exceptions, America’s premier park system is closed to off-road riding, but that’s going to change with a new five-year agreement just signed by the IMBA and the National Park Service.

For the first time, National Park Service leaders in Washington, D.C., have formally recognized mountain biking as a positive activity, compatible with the values of our National Park system. The agreement offers potential opportunity for new access to hundreds of dirt roads in National Park units that have been closed to bicycling. While National Park Service rules require a lengthy process to open singletrack to bicycle use, appropriate dirt roads may be opened with a more straightforward administrative process.

“This agreement represents a true breakthrough for mountain biking,” said IMBA Executive Director Mike Van Abel. “It opens the door for individual park units to partner with mountain bikers and investigate new riding opportunities on a case-by-case basis” – More here.

I’m back from the Alps. There was plenty of snow (including several feet of powder and tracking fresh lines off piste on the Stockhorn glacier was the highlight of the ‘boarding) and there was also lots of road tripping: Saas Fee, Chamonix, Verbier, Vevey… as well as Zermatt. An interesting mix of destinations fer shure. There’s some photo’s coming soon.

So what’s new? Well keepin’ it real in BC, Ticket2Ride (T2R) is a Canadian mountain bike tour firm keen to show you the best of what is on offer. Following on from Mark Alker’s exploits in the canadian territories in the most recent issue of Singletrack, Canada is an increasingly popular destination with mountain bikers, looking to explore outside of Europe. T2R is the brainchild of Scott Lanzi and since 2003 has been promoting the riding, lifestyle and culture of the mountain biking community in Whistler. From 5 day tours to bespoke guided custom trips they’re looking to put a constant smile on peoples faces and inspire new levels of riding ability. Check it out.

Is it for real? Is Cipo really going to call it a day? I can’t see it being the same without the big man, but he has faded a bit from his glory days over the last few years. I think Lance may be doing the right think with his plans to step down from racing after this year’s Tour de France.

This is a reminder that viruses are really very bad and not good for your computer.