cog magazine.

cog magazine's third issue is out on the newsstands (er, bike/coffeshops) now!

go pick it up. it's free so you have no excuse.
except that you don't want to read my article on stuporbowl. i understand.

fixed gear culture is so hot right now.

next issue i'm gonna review which color rims get me the most phone numbers while hanging out a the coffeeshop.
it's hard work, but someone's gotta do it.

oh, they interview my friend katie. she's all stressed out about it. i don't think she wanted to be famous. but it's unavoidable for her. people like her.
and she keeps saying she's gonna try road racing one day... let me just say, "oh shit".
girls, watch out if that ever happens. she will be a serious force to be reckoned with.

in other news, track racing apparently started up at the nsc velodrome. i haven't made it up to race yet, and i will be out of town this thursday... so the other cat 1/2's will have another easy week before i show.

i need to glue some tires anyway. it's just too much pressure, you know? (that was not a lame tire joke, btw).

oh, anyone got a hot lead on a vanagon? those things are badass.


that's all you get for today. (unless someone pisses me off - i'm looking at you super rookie).

burnin' matches.

[photo by fyre].

"burning matches and ballin' outta control", was the quote from one local news media outlet regarding the grumpy's/lgr weekend exploits in duluth minnesota.


i suppose i can't agrue with that. luckily, the lgr team brought a whole box of matches to burn and we used them wisely.

to say we had a plan is an understatement. we had strategy to spare, and we excecuted our plans like we were russian spies in the 80's.

ok, let me recap, without the hype.

we had a hunch we might be defending the jersey after the tt, and i think we did the appropiate thing; we raced like we meant it.

we tried our best to accept the responsibility of the jersey and run the south range race.
we did a ton of work. the race was not too likely to break apart on that course, but i think we did the right thing and set tempo and covered moves all day.
it paid off as we held the jersey into stage 3.

stage 3 was a brutal one. i was pissed that the cassette only went to 23. i would've loved a 25.
on climb #3 i had a mechanical.
trouble.

on support was right there and literally saved my race and my weekend. (thankyouthankyouthankyou!)
then i chased for almost a whole lap, and got back on with a mile or 2 to rest until the climb came around again.
we had to team up with brone's with 3 guys each to bring back schuller on lap 4. bwood also lent a guy.
schuller is that much of a beast.
once he was in sight we pulled back- we were happy with him taking the win. brone's (in 2nd on gc) was still not pleased though and closed the gap.
oh well. i was happy to be done.

most importantly, we kept matt in the pack and thwarted the break, and therefore retained the lead again- but the gaps were diminishing.

going into cloquet's crit we had 29secs on "the canadian", 37secs on brone's, and just over a minute on 2 bwoods. lurkers.

with time bonus primes and time on the finish line, it was a stressful race for lgr.

the plan was as simple as we could make it (you know, so we could actually remember it during the crit):
- stuff the canadian and brone's in the 2 time bonus primes. (a non-dangerous break would be ideal).
- ride for a bunch finish.

part one worked great and no one gained any time one us.
part two was not as smooth...

one of the bwood gc lurkers snuck off up the road. we fully expected brone's to do more to chase but they never really did. bwood held off for the win, and the field blew apart on the final lap, but the rest of the gc contenders finshed in a front bunch with matt tucked safely in. sweet.

bwoods gap was very threating for awhile (i heard 50 sec?), but was brought down to a much more reasonable 25sec or so at the finish.

stellar.

jake had a rough weekend in the 4's defending all by his lonesome. he was more than up to the task and was able to hang with most of the important moves. his race got as tight a 7secs going into the crit.
talk about pressure.
he pulled it out though to round off and overall fantastic weekend of dynamic racing. (some of the best i have been a part of).

i am so proud of lgr. we really nailed this one.

track team my ass.

:)

lgr has typically been refered to as a "track team". i know that this stems from the fact that (i think) every single one on our first year roster raced at the velodrome.
what's funny is we all also raced on the road as well.

sure, we were able to find more success on the track and moved up the ladder quicker than we did on the road.
but, we also were able to learn alot from the huge volume of racing that we were doing at the velodrome and apply it to the road scene. (where else do you get to run different race situations 3 times a night every week? you learn quick).

so this, in turn, has seen the team making alot of progress on the road these days.

dare i say that we are a well-rounded team? huh, who'd have thunk it?

anyways, i am skipping the opening night of track racing. (omg, i know!). but i'm not turning anti-drome. don't worry. (well, skibby's guns may have skerd me a little).

it's just that duluth stage racing is a team priority. it's a big race, and right in our sponsors backyard. and you know how it is with sponsors! ...always on your case!

"don't pee in public",
"win! win! win!',
"strike first, show no mercy",
"you want aero booties? mop the bar, and we'll talk",
"when i was your age"..."

yeah, i'm on domestique duties all weekend.

for who?
that's a good question!

on an unrelated note, sexy adam put in for his long overdue cat 2 upgrade.
but he didn't get it. old results or something. guess he's still a 3...

[evil laughter].

oh boy.
when we pitched this idea, you could see the emotions battling it out on dave's face.
"that's crazy", versus "that's amazing".

epic.

in the end we are going to have an amazingly crazy stage, and a tt people will actually be excited to watch.

event x was to be a pre-run of the course for the local racers, but lgr does have quite the pull of the nvgp i guess... oh well.

i'll be on the hill for this one!
thanks dave!



turn on the evelation for even more hilarity.

dewey picks rory.

i want to pick oscar or santiago. (fingers crossed that they show up).

what do you think?


also;


tt bike or road bike?

road bike with clip-ons?

tt bike sans disc?

road bike avec disc?

dual discs just because you can? (timmer?)

what kind of set up will win?


sound off.

my birthday is around the corner... sort of.

...but i know what i want!





the "black cat project" espresso machine.

it was on show at the us national barista championships that were right here in mpls this year. (just a few blocks from my apartment actually).

the judges for the competition stayed at the hotel around the corner from moose and sadie's, and came in every morning for their espresso.

there is a dunn bros. across the street.
i guess they do know their coffee.

ha.

>>>

in other news, i have made good so far on bike to work week!

that means 75 miles commuting so far this week. then there was the 40 leg-ripping miles i did on the "LGR Top Secret Hill Ride" with big matt monday night after work... yowza.

of course, riding to work meant i couldn't get home in time to go to opus (cuz i'm slow)...
well, that and my legs were still pretty pissed at matt.

oh well. you wouldn't get a race report outta me anyway.

those went the way of the do-do. you jerks couldn't handle them. :)

I did.

did you?

the time has finally come!

the dq is going to be soooo worth it.

[thanks linda for the incriminating evidence]

train right.

intervals.

no one likes 'em.
but they are a necessary evil.

with a tt i was not prepared for, and ton of stuff to do, and rain on the docket for today, i decided to stay in and hit the rollers for an hour or so.

to make it count, i did what i'm going refer to from now on as the "double duggan".

as you can see world renowned "hacksaw" jim duggan above had a trademark 2x4 with him all the time.

so, a quick 4 sets of 4 minute intervals, (or 4x4), would be a double duggan.
(bear with me, i'm making this up as i go...)

anyway, 4 minutes in the 53x11 at 110-115 rmp's (or 40-42mph), followed by a 30 sec break and a 30 second effort at 125 rpm's...
seems like it mimics racing, go hard- then be ready to go harder still, before you want to.

5 minutes to spin it out before repeating.

feeling good.
i am hoping for some decent results in the next few weeks, but it is not super important- for 2 reasons;

1) i am really excited to be on a reasonably well-oiled team that is really taking the time to figure out how to work with, and for, each other. it has been a really rewarding season so far, and it's just gotten started!
in every race so far i've been working for someone else, and at some point, so has everyone else in the team.
we have put some one on the podium on almost every race day this season!
that is the spirit of the team. awesome.

2) my main goals for the cycling season this year are in late august and early september.
spring has been and hopefully will continue to be a nice build up, but i have always been a late season form guy.
i like the results i'm getting, but i'm still racing myself into shape.
i'm hoping to time some top form (for me anyway) for masters track nationals in san jose.

do you have a plan?

imagine that.

nice work for your debut in a grand tour, eh?

slipsteam killed it, and took home the win the the opening stage for the giro today.

damn.

though i guess it shouldn't be a surprise, there really wasn't much argyle in their ttt... with no less than 3 national champion jerseys rolling with them. (the brits, the canucks, and the usaholes).

here's hoping they hold on to the pink for a few days!

congratulations smithers!

from the entire staff at the thedispencer.blogspot.com, ihateyourfixedgear.com, and theyellowlinerule.com -

congratulations on your recent upgrade to the masters 40+ category!

you've earned it!

justice.

pretty intense for xtian disco.

get well soon

it has been widely reported on many other blogs, but i can't let it go without mention;
tim jackson, aka masiguy, is currently recovering from a very nasty crash earlier this week.

tim has been a huge supporter of the little guy racing team, and of all types of cycling in general. his love of track racing is why masi has such a kick ass track frame built for racing- not just to get on the fixed gear bandwagon. we love him for that, and we will be putting his bikes on top of the podium all year for him.

while tim's accident reminds us that any of us could go down at any time, it also reminds us to enjoy the bike, enjoy racing, and keep things in perspective. tim's positivity before and after the crash should be an inspiration to all of us to remember that in the end we do this because it is fun.

the outpouring of love that tim is getting shows the depth of our little scene and bike culture. it's a beautiful thing.

lgr will be preparing a care package to send to tim, so if you want to include something get in touch with us.

and masiguy- we'll see you on the road soon!