Merry Christmas Everyone!

Best Training Tool Developed in the Past Decade? Powermeter? HR Monitor? I say, Neither.

I've been having some discussions lately with a few of my more training savvy friends on the pros and cons of training with power versus training with a heart rate monitor (as some are going back to HR such as Quick Step) and I've come to the conclusion that the best device for training that has come around in the past decade is the Ipod. It beats SRM's and HR Monitors hands down. I think I will just create playlists for training plans from here on out.

Today's playlist included songs by:
The Cult
Sisters of Mercy
Siousxsie and the Banshees
Shriekback
Nitzer Ebb
Front 242
The Stone Roses
Echo and the Bunnymen
Joy Division
New Order
The Cure
Big Audio Dynamite
Public Image Limited

I will let you figure out what zones I was riding in today.
With that, I will leave you with this:

For Sale: Campagnolo Nuovo Record Brakes

In an attempt to downsize I am going to be posting some stuff for sale from time to time.
This is the first in the installment.

I have a set of perfect condition, never been used, still in the box Campagnolo Nuovo Record brakes I am selling. They include: calipers, levers, cables and housing and the original box. They still have the blue cardboard on the adjusting barrel.

Pictures are below. I may or may not be putting these on Ebay (I have never been much of an Ebay guy). I will accept any reasonable offer. And by reasonable I mean this: I did not just fall off the turnip truck, I have been in the sport for a long time, I know what these are worth to a collector. That said, they are also doing me no good and I have had them for close to 20 years. So again, I will accept any reasonable offer.

Props From Cipo

I was just reading an article in Cyclingnews in which Cipollini was decrying the lack of machismo in today's cycling and it made me remember my brush with the great Italian sprinter who had a flair for the dramatic that is so missing from the current crop of pros.

I was working for a small frame manufacturer and we had a booth at Interbike back in 2007. It just so happens that we were also the official bike for the Susan G. Komen Foundation and we had 1 of those bikes on display at the bike show in my size. Pink of course.

2007 was the first year that the USA Crit Series held their final race in Vegas and they were also holding an industry crit as one of the events. I signed myself and one of our sponsored racers from the South Bay Wheelmen Women's Team up for the race and had my buddy at Champion Systems make up a special kit for us: all pink of course.

Now an important component of this story is that a friend of mine from Ann Arbor, Marne, was assisting us at our booth that year. Marne is a multi-sport athlete specializing in mtb, cross and Xterra events. Marne is also very....well let's just say that Marne is very easy on the eyes. Get the picture?

So the evening of the race I get changed into my all pink kit and proceed to ride my all pink bike down the Strip in Vegas on my way out to the race. I got stopped at a light and as I was sitting there I noticed a bike wheel roll up on my right side and a bike wheel roll up on my left side. I glance to my left: Massimiliano Lelli, and I glance to my right: Mario Cipollini. I nod to Cipollini and he asks in his heavy Italian accent:

"Are you riding out the bike race?"

"Yeah, I'm riding out the bike race.....are you riding out to the bike race?"

"Yes, we are. We don't know where it is. Mind if we join you?"

Pause..........

"Yeah, no problem." I offer my hand to shake, "My name is Joe."

"I am Mario, that is Max"

"Nice to meet you."

The three of us then proceed to roll a few more blocks down the Strip and we get caught at another light. As we are sitting there suddenly out of nowhere, Marne - tan, long brunette hair, easy-on-the-eyes Marne, wearing nothing but a running bra and short running shorts runs up to us from the sidewalk. She practically pushes Cipollini out of the way, grabs me, gives me a hug and a quick peck on the cheek, tells me good luck and she will be cheering for me at the race and then just as suddenly is gone, running down the sidewalk.

Cipollini looks at me, one eyebrow raised slightly and without a word, gives me the thumbs up.

I look back at him and reply, "I have no idea who that was but that happens all the time."

And then the light turned green and the three of us rolled on down the Strip.

WOODY HAYES, A LEGEND AMONG BUCKEYES

T-minus 2 days and counting to the biggest rivalry in sports and I have to devote some time to one of the greatest college football coaches of all time, a man whose name still invokes the type of reverence reserved for saints in the state of Ohio, Woody Hayes.

Woody Hayes was the Head Coach at OSU from 1951-1978. While at Ohio State, Woody Hayes coached the Buckeyes to a record of 205-68-10. Different people have different opinions of Woody, but all would agree on one thing -- he absolutely despised and refused to lose. People can label Woody Hayes as many things, but the one thing he was without question was a winner. He won four national championships, won 13 Big Ten titles, played in 8 Rose Bowls (including four straight from 72-75), produced 56 All-Americans, and had three Heisman Trophy winners.

The phrase "three yards and a cloud of dust" came from his conservative style of predominantly running the ball down opponent's throats. Woody believed that the pass should be used as an element of surprise; "There are three things that can happen when you pass, and two of them ain't good," he would say.

There are two stories that circulate about Woody Hayes that I love and they both involve his special hatred for that team from up north. Hayes was famous for his hatred for Michigan and anything that had to do with the state (he referred to it, of course, as "that state up north" or "that team up north"):

One night on a recruiting trip in the state of Michigan, an assistant noticed that the car he was driving was going to run out of gas. He told Woody, who was dozing in the passenger seat, that he had to pull over for gas. Woody refused, and the assistant drove on. The assistant, who saw the weather was starting to get bad, began to get worried about getting stuck in the middle of nowhere, and once again stressed his desire to pull over and get gas. Woody erupted: "No, goddammit! We do NOT pull in and fill up. And I'll tell you exactly why we don't. It's because I don't buy one goddam drop of gas in the state of Michigan! We'll coast and PUSH this goddam car to the Ohio line before I give this state a nickel of my money!" The assistant knew he wasn't kidding, and they barely made it across the border and sputtered into the first gas station they found in Ohio.

The second story comes from Ohio State's 50-14 drubbing of Michigan in 1968. The day after the landslide victory, then assistant coach Lou Holtz approached Woody and asked him why he opted to round off the win with a rub-their-noses-in-it, two point conversion after the Buckeye's final touchdown.

"Coach, why did you go for two?", asked Holtz.

"Because." replied Hayes, "they wouldn't let me go for three."

Hayes' competitive drive and legendary temper would prove to be his ultimate undoing. He was fired in 1978 after striking a Clemson linebacker named Charlie Bauman who intercepted a pass to clinch the game for the Tigers. Ohio State was embarrassed, and they had no choice but to immediately fire Woody Hayes.

That final incident left a sour impression on Hayes' brilliant career, and it is the picture that many college football fans envision when they think of Hayes. But that shouldn't take anything away from the fact that he is one of the greatest college coaches ever. Buckeye fans by and large still love The Old Man as he was known and remember very fondly the days when he was coach. For most Buckeye fans, Woody always has and always will be the very essence of Buckeye football.

The Bike Lane Discussion

A discussion got rolling on Facebook today spurred on by this article in the NYT

I have been able to enjoy some pretty nice bike lanes, most notably in the Agoura Hills/ Calabasas area of Southern CA where I lived for five years. It has been my experience though that these were the exception and not the norm.  I have to say that I am not a huge proponent of bike lanes. Typically they are nothing more than an after-thought, an existing shoulder that the municipality paints a bike outline in and proclaims it a bike lane. Then it is ignored and becomes a lane filled with debris that I, for one, have no interest in riding in. Then as you inch into the car lane you get nothing but grief from drivers yelling at you to "ride in the bike lane". I think bike lanes also reinforce the notion that cyclists have no business on the road, that they are second class citizens who belong in these lanes or on the sidewalks. I would prefer that more energy is put towards educating drivers to the rights that cyclists have and how to share the roads with them.

Thoughts?

Zen and the Art of Training:

In a recent exchange with the Hedge Fund, he had this to say which pretty much hits the nail on the head to what my approach has been for both myself and my young padwan (who will remain nameless to protect the "innocent" - most of you know who he is anyway).

"...but one thing I just haven't gotten into is the counting. I guess I'm like that with watts though...maybe it's useful to know sometimes, but on a certian level it makes my mind take over and deadens a bit fo the "feel" component. I believe more and more in getting your head around macro principles but then using a lot of intuition and personality and maybe you could even say personal expression for the rest. We've all got our own way of going about things and if you can plug into that, and treat your "training" and racing more like an art show than like a science experiment, I think that's when it starts to click. You've just gotta live it, and counting shit takes me out of that.”

Amen brother.

Tour of Walla Walla. A Tale of Soooo Close and Yet, So Far

I am back at the ToWW for the fifth year in a row. I did 3 as a rider and am now on my 2nd as a team director.  This is a race that comes really, really close to being a really good (maybe even great) race and yet every year it just falls short. Now I mean this as a constructive commentary in the hopes that the last few pieces can fall into place. Everything I mention is what the really successful NRC events are doing.  Some things that would take this race from a B- to an A include:

• Better Tech Guide. The stage maps look like an outline of a coffee spill. There are no turn by turn instructions or even cross roads named on the map. 
• True Neutral Wheel Support (at least for the Pro 1-2 men and women). Each rider here is paying a pretty hefty entry fee.  Spend a few hundred bucks to have a pro like Joe S come and do neutral tech support.  If not that then use the old "wheels in, wheels out" system.  They are using a "wheel lottery" system here. They randomly choose riders from teams and if chosen that team has to provide a set of wheels to the neutral follow vehicle for the use of any and all riders. All I know is that if I go to the trouble of bringing a spare set of wheels to put in the wheel car then I want to be able to use my wheels.  Why should I have to provide for somebody else if they can't go to the trouble?  And why if a team goes to the trouble of getting the resources to support their riders (car in the caravan) should they also have to provide for everyone else?  So: hire someone or use wheels in wheels out. 
• Have a start sheet with all the teams listed with their riders and numbers. And for god's sakes provide the riders on the same team with sequential numbers.  There was nothing provided at the manager's meeting with this sort of information so when Com 1 came on tour radio telling us riders 34, 78, 108 and 121 had 35 seconds on the field...well, you pretty much had to guess who they were.
• Tweak the schedule.  I said it before, but having a 7PM start time for a crit (second stage on the same day after a TT in the morning) and then a 9:25 start time for the RR the next morning is not Pro.  If this race ever takes the next step it just does not provide enough time for a team meeting, dinner, massage and then getting ready for the next day.
• Email the results in the evening or at least upload them to the website. It is the year 2010.  I heard the  internet is on computers now.  It is not hard to load an excel sheet with the results onto a site or attach it as an email to team directors or the riders. 
• Provide a little training to your volunteers who are driving vehicles in the caravan. Last year was a little touch and go and so was stage 1 this year.  A race caravan is not for the timid.  It makes an airport drop off at LAX during the holidays look tame.  It can also be down right dangerous for the riders.  Even saying simple things like don't leave too large of gaps in between cars and honk your horn when riders are advancing through the caravan would go a long way.

The Tour of Walla Walla is not a bad race.  The courses are good.  In fact, I love the downtown crit and the road courses are quite challenging.  Walla Walla itself is a great town and the host housing is top notch.  And the townsfolk love the race.  So, while being a good race, it could get better and it wouldn't take much.  With that said I also want to say thanks to all the people that make it possible.  A stage race is a huge undertaking and is one I would not want to attempt.  It's why I only promote crits-way easier.  So, my hat is off to the entire race staff.  Remember, this is just one racer's/ team manger's opinion.

Kudos.

A Brief Note to Stage Race Promoters:

Having a 9:25am start time for a road race the day after a double day which includes a morning TT and a criterium with a 7PM start time is probably not the best idea.  In fact, it is a really bad idea.  Especially when you consider that the Cat 3 men have an earlier crit start time (5:20PM) and a later RR start time the next day (10:45). 

Radio Bans

From Velonews:
Riis carefully directed Cancellara during the race from the passenger seat of the Saxo Bank team car. He revealed that he told Cancellara to attack when he did, after noticing that Tom Boonen was too far down the line of riders.Cancellara trusted his boss, didn't look back and opened up the after-burners, even though there was still 50 kilometres left to race. Before Boonen even realised what had happened and moved out of the line to look up the road, Cancellara had already opened a gap that would have been impossible for him to close."I told him to attack on the radio. As soon as I saw that Boonen was not on his wheel, I said: 'Now you go' ," Riis explained

So the UCI bans radios at all levels below class 1 to make racing more intuitive and less predictable, putting the onus on riders rather than their team directors to decide tactics.

I see that is working out well. Have they thought about banning televisions in the director's cars instead?