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Cycling Blogs I Like

One of the interesting things about Lijit is that it gives me a bunch of cool stats about the people that come to my blog, what they read, search for, and ultimately click on.

I've noticed that people search me (a lot) for: "cycling blogs" and no results are returned from my blog, because I've never written about cycling blogs.  I have most of them book-marked in Del.icio.us so the results do show up in my Lijit search, albeit on the "my content" tab.

Here are the ones I like and read from time to time.  Not all are "blogs" per-se, others are cycling-specific sites that have great cycling content and/or good RSS feeds (like VeloNews).

Belgium Knee Warmers

Fat Cyclist

Mud and Cowbells

VeloNews

VeloBIOS

Bike Radar

Time-trialing

A few days back I raced my first time-trial.  The Haystack Mountain TT just outside Boulder.

The course was about 3 miles longer than last year's and had a long, slightly uphill, into-the-wind finish.

I may have been one of the only guys on a regular road bike..  What was I thinking?  This is Boulder dammit! Doesn't everyone have a TT-specific bike, skin-suit, and a tear-drop helmet for weekend-warrior activities?

The coolest thing about doing a TT is getting to compare my time vs. the Pros on exactly the same course with exactly the same advantages/disadvantages.

Koppenberg Colorado 2008

Ouch.  This past Sunday marked the start of race season for me.  I raced the Koppenberg Circuit race in Superior, CO.  How hard can 4 laps be?

Friends that had done it before gave me good advice: "make sure you ride the course several times before the race".  They were right, that hill is a killer.  It must be a 17% grade.  Short, but very steep.  The race flyer even says: "... don't be fooled, this race is hard, you will suffer."  Great marketing.

I staged at the front, rode in the main part of the pack on the first stretch of dirt, then moved up towards the front just before the hill.  That's basically when all hell broke loose.  50 guys riding together on a narrow, steep, rutted stretch of dirt road, at speed.

It just takes one... One rider bumps another on a climb like that and people start stopping, spinning out, falling over.  I made the top of the hill still on my bike, but I missed staying with the front group of maybe 15 riders. 

Here's where my true road racing inexperience kicks in.

I've done plenty of mountain bike races and Cyclocross races, I've even done a few road race hill climbs.  I'm (supposedly) smart enough to know how NOT to get caught out in no mans land, but that's exactly what I did.  Lost the main pack, tried to bridge up to them by myself, and in the process, completely blew myself up. 

The bright side: good training ride..

Can you pass the test?

Its that time of the year, again.

Every year (at least for the past 4 or 5) on or about Memorial day weekend, the razor comes out and another summer begins..  In Boulder, I have a hunch that more guys shave their legs than do girls.  Must be something in the water.

I made the transition, about the same time my road riding started outpacing my mountain biking.

Inevitably, I get the question: why? 

I've concluded that leg shaving and cycling is, more than anything, a cultural thing.  I found this really funny article recently from the Fat Cyclist.  It's sort of an advice column for the aspiring leg-shaver.

My favorite quote from the story:

Whatever answer you give, however, do not, under any circumstances, tell the truth: you shave your legs so that other cyclists will take you seriously as a cyclist. If you admit that, you may as well follow up with, "and I tend to exhibit sheep-like behavior in other aspects of my life, too."