Blogs by Professional Cyclists - Professional Cycling Unplugged™

KONICHIWA!

Loyal fans, my apologies for disappearing for awhile from TWT. I’m sure you’re all dying to know where I’ve been since I last updated. From Tucson I went to California for three weeks and did some racing, went back to Fort Collins where it snowed a bunch, raced the Tour of the Battenkill in upstate New York (a great, super tough one-day classic style race, let’s hope it grows!), raced Tour of the Gila, then rested up at home and watched collegiate nationals in my hometown.

It was SO COOL to have a big race in Fort Collins. I can also say with a bit of pride that for the first time I volunteered as a course marshall. I’m pretty much a lazy, self-absorbed road cyclist all the time so it felt good to go out and help with something. Imagine that! I got up early, got my orange vest, and stood at a corner during the road race and told drivers that cycling is the coolest sport in the world and they are idiots for not thinking so. I’ve done hundreds of races and seen countless course volunteers standing out on the road, sometimes in extreme weather, and I’ve thought to myself before, “Man, I’d never want to do that” but at the same time acknowledge that the race needs those volunteers and I’m always thankful for them. Next time there’s a race in your area, think about helping out. It’s easy!

I really wish I could have raced since the the road course went on all my favorite training roads and climbs. The crit the next day was only a few blocks from where I live in Old Town Fort Collins. My heart rate was through the roof as I watched the final laps of the race, imagining myself out there in front of the home crowd.

CRITERIUM!!!!!!!!!!

Right now I’m out in Grand Rapids, Michigan, staying at the house of our team sponsor Bob Hughes of the Advantage Benefits Group.

Downtown Grand Rapids

Bob is of course a huge cycling fan and has a big personality. All of us on Bissell are grateful for his support! He generously offers riders on the team a place to stay at his very comfortable house. I’ve been pretty spoiled here for the last two weeks! Not a bad way to visit Michigan for the first time in my life.

Sponsor Bob

Staying with me at Bob’s is Tim Farnham. We have been doing some Michigan races and offering extra firepower for the Bissell/ABG elite cycling team. There is also a cool Wednesday night series at a local race track on a rolling, curvy, 1.8 mile loop. This past weekend a few of us drove out to race the last two days of the Quad Cities criteriums. So, I’ve checked off my first ever races in three states- Michigan, Iowa, and Illinois. That leaves Alaska, Hawaii, North Dakota, and a few more on the list….

Racing in Alaska…why not?

Tomorrow I’m off to Tulsa, Oklahoma (will be the first time racing in that state, too!) to race the Tulsa Tough criteriums and then I head back home. Summertime in Colorado is the best and I’m anticipating some good long rides in the mountains followed up by evening back porch barbeque’s and chill out time with friends. I’ll let you know how it goes….

In the meantime, as Grand Rapids native Brent Bookwalter would say, ”chunk up tha deuce!” 

-Sheldon

(6 votes, average: 3.33 out of 5)

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Posted under ROAD BIKE

Everyone has their own reasons for liking one race or another, but Nature Valley Grand Prix always holds a special place for me because it is the best stage race in the Midwest. I grew up on the mean streets of Chicago about 9hrs south of Minneapolis, so as a Midwest native, NVGP has always had an unmatchable allure. Since 2004 I have raced at NVGP four times now and watched the race evolve to greatness. The courses seem to get a little harder with near perfection in terms of difficulty at Mankato and Stillwater, a cool dirt section leading into Cannon Falls, downtown crits, and straightforward time trial that brings out the best. The evolution of the race this year is to have the TT as the first stage which is awesome as now we will go into stage 2’s Downtown St. Paul crit (after the TT in the morning!) with the GC already in the works.

I am excited for NVGP as well because it will be the third stop on the Women’s Prestige Series where I am currently leading the Best Young Rider competition. I’m determined to win the Best Young Rider in MN this round as well! My team will be arriving to Minneapolis in good spirits after the completing a run up of races in Montreal and Philadelphia the weeks before hand. None of our riders are from MN, in fact only four of us are American with 2 Canadians and 2 Australians rounding out the roster, however our beloved sonigeur Jeremy lives in Minneapolis so we can consider it a hometown race for him.

Life gets interesting on the road all the time but in reality it is the reason why the sport holds such a great allure. I sit on planes going here or there and it can become mind boggling at times, but you really learn a lot about yourself quite quickly as well. I am 23yrs old now and have been on the road racing like this pretty much since I was 18. I am from Chicago and that is where my mom, pa, grandpa, sister, dog, cat, coach, home friends, ect live so I try to go back when I can, especially in the fall when I have some downtime and build time into the following season but that time is short…this fall I set a record for my self being home for an entire 3 months straight! Once I need to ride more I make my home in Tucson, AZ. Throughout the season I go home when I can but then find myself here and there wasting days between races in New Mexico or Arkansas, or in places like Boulder, CO where I’m spending a couple quality weeks between race blocks (that is where I am as I type this sentence). Ah the life. Sometimes it gets hard to keep the story straight however as I forget where I have been or where I am going. The most comforting way to deal with the constant change is to just be happy where I am at the moment…and I listen to a lot of music because my favorite songs are always the same no matter where I am.

On that note it is time to become productive with my day as I can only sit around writing sweet nothings and drinking coffee for so long…

CYA at the races soon!

Thanks,

Rebecca Much

(4 votes, average: 4.25 out of 5)

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Posted under ROAD BIKE

I’m really sick again for the 3rd time in 2 months, not so psyched about it.  Last night was my 3rd night in a row with a fever, I had on PJ pants, a T-shirt, an Oakley Hoodie, a beanie hat, a fleece blanket and an LL Bean 0-degree rated sleeping  bag, and I was shivering out of control.  So yeah that was brutal, and today my head is pounding, but hopefully it will be over soon.  My immune system has practically been MIA since I was in Asia in early March.   I don’t know what the heck I ran into over there, but apparently it is pretty potent.  

On the bicycling side of things, I got a new mountain bike from Jamis, a sweet Dakar XCR Pro.  It’s the first mtb I’ve owned it at least 5 years, and my first dual suspension at all, so I’m psyched!  I’ll be using it for a lot of training leading up to the ‘cross season.  I’ll try to get a photo up here soon.  

Other than that I’m kinda sidelined from road racing until I get healthy again, I’m looking forward to returning with some normal levels of energy.  

(3 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)

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Posted under ROAD BIKE

This is a post I found on Transparent Racing’s website and thought that I’d share it here. I’ve found it really, really helpful and it worked when I tried it!
Check it out: http://transparentracing.blogspot.com/2009/05/how-to-install-tube-tires-on-tubeless.html

(3 votes, average: 3.33 out of 5)

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Posted under MTB: ENDURANCE, MTB: GRAVITY, NON-BIKE

Not much has been going in my bubble lately. The weather has been good and with not much racing going on it meant it was time for training!!! I wasnt really happy with the way I felt at the Gila. The problem was probably too much racing and not enough training after I sat around for a month being broken. So, lots of hours have been my goal since recovering properly from racing with Lance in New Mexico….

Yesterday there was a local race in Boulder. Lucky for me, it started 3 blocks from my house. Not so lucky for me, it was basically a who’s who of pro’s and ex-pro’s that live in and around Boulder. I decided that it would be a great idea to do 3.5 hours in the mountains before the race. I have been training a lot lately right?? Man, that was dumb. I pretty much got kicked around a 1km circuit for 70 minutes. I guess 2/3rds of the field DNF’d but thats probably because some of them were actually racing. For me, it was probably good training to sit 20th wheel and suffer and suffer and suffer. I won’t do more than a hour before the next “local” Boulder race….

Something else I thought we should discuss is this “anti-inflammatory” diet. Is it a new fad or the new hope for us all to be faster?? I wonder if beer is part of the diet? Or do I have to switch to Tequila because of all those hops? These are other questions such as if cake is bad, should we switch to ice cream cake? Or how about the age old question, rice vs pasta, the battle of dinner…..

(4 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Posted under ROAD BIKE