Push your weight through, Don. Push it through.
Archive for the 'Videos' Category
Dani Dance turned my attention to this poster for the Singlespeed Cyclocross World Championships 2009. What can I say? It dances on my eyeballs in the same way that the sounds of a hand cranked music box delight the ears of a feral child.
Time to crawl back into my hole and dig out the bladed boomerang and tubular spinergy wheels. See you in November.
Tomorrow night is Starcrossed. It may look something like this:
It’s a very hard race, and you should go out and enjoy the view.
US Gran Prix of Cyclocross – Portland, Oregon from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.
Honestly, you should go over and watch this on Vimeo in HD because it’s too good to view through the peephole above.
It’s raining hard in Portland right now. I think we can say with confidence that summer time is over, and we’ll be cleaning mud and grime off our bikes after nearly every ride for the next six months. I’m okay with that, but the deep wet is such a change from the warm sun that I’m spending today inside. After all, there’s lots to do before racing starts, like taking care of the tire situation.
I think it’s important to glue your own tires. That way when you roll your tire on some off camber or with a shitty remount, you have nobody to blame but yourself. If you’ve done a great job you can ride all season with confidence knowing that your tires are going to stick and be your advocate with the mud. That’s a good feeling. If you screw it up the first time, you’ll do better next time. I promise.
That being said, I don’t enjoy gluing tubulars. It takes a long time, smells toxic, and in general feels like pure excess. It’s the price we pay to ride on pillows. My thumbs are raw and red from scraping old tubular glue off of rims. I’ve ridden the same set of Flexus tires for the last three seasons, and the rubber is stiff and the sidewalls cracked. Tearing them off the rims reveals this scene:
And after a little elbow grease:
And finally:
Now, many would argue that the glue should not be scraped off at all. I assure you this glue was so dried out and brittle that it was nothing but a liability to leave on the rim. If it’s still chunky and sticky, by all means leave it on.
Now on to three light coats on the rims and tires. But first, some other Saturday distractions:
Signal Cycles is building some last minute ‘cross team bikes and sharing the process through their blog. Always good stuff over there. They also posted this olde timey cross video. The announcer explains that the sport “combines all the worst elements of cycling and cross country running.” Notice the rider who takes the insane line through the crowd at the start. Amazing!
Also, I just found a whole pile of these stickers in an old box. I’d love to send you a couple. Just paypal brianellin at gmail.com with a buck or two, and include your address.
Video weekend continues. Via Mud and Cowbells
Couldn’t not post this. Everything about this video is wonderful.
Anyone who has ever competed in a mountain bike race at any level can relate to this clip. Whether you are a first timer, expert, or pro, MTB racing is just plain grueling. I’ll always hold a special place in my heart for World Cup mountain biking and the athletes who choose to compete at this level.
Julien’s bio from Wikipedia:
Julien Absalon (born August 16, 1980 in Remiremont) is a French mountain biker. In both 2004 and 2008 he won a gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics and at the 2008 Summer Olympics. He rides for the Spanish mountain bike team Orbea. Absalon has 17 World Cup wins.
Absalon won four consecutive Mountain Bike World Championships (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007).
Hero.
I finally found a few precious moments in between snow storms to cobble together this here video of the 2008 Single Speed Cyclocross World Championships. For those of you who were unable to attend, here’s a small and dirty taste of what you missed.
Driving to Antwerp today to compete in my first European cross race was a mixed bag. I would swing from elation at just being here, confused from wild driving over cobbled streets-over curbs-through alleyways-wrong way-onto traintracks, all the way to full nausea from fear. It wasn’t a big race though; Lars Boom and Klaas Vantornout were there but Sven Nys and Bart Wellens decided to stay home. No problem right? The worst part was, I hadn’t pooped yet and the race was drawing near. Anybody that races frequently understands how paramount this one simple act can be to having a decent ride. The coffee in Belgium doesn’t have the same kick that I’m used to from Stumptown but it finally did its trick just in time. Perhaps that’s the secret to the Belgian’s success in cyclocross? Time release coffee that gets your buzz on 15 minutes before the start rather than 3hrs prior. There’s a lot to learn here, for sure.
My trainer tells me that a cyclists arms are just for keeping his face from hitting the stem. I thought about telling this advice to Richard Gronendaal when he was riding the most difficult sand section of the course at twice my pace and managed to reach out and shove me into a post/course marker. Not sure he’d like to hear from me. Lesson two: less riding and more pushups/arm curls.
Lastly, Erwin Verveken is super nice. He had a bad race but took the time to talk to some American kid and put on his best awkward smile for a picture.
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