This mornings Shootout was a fast one thanks to Curtis Gunn pictured to the left. Curtis is a professional cyclist and just got back from the Bend Memorial Clinic Cascade Cycling Classic stage race and was racing amongst top name cyclists Levi Leipheimer, Phil Zajicek, Tom Danielson, and Chris Horner just to name a few.
Curtis showed up this morning on his TT bike ready to put the hammer down. He is getting ready for a time trail and wanted to put some miles in on his TT bike.
From the start Curtis went to the front in his arrow position and drilled it. The 125+ riders were quickly strung out. Gord Fraser and a few others rotated through - That is if you could pull through at 25 mph to 30 mph+.
After the bridge the packed was down to about 25 riders still hanging on to the pace set by Curtis. As we started up the climb to the top of the sprint Team Rhino took over and set up the lead out for their teammate Kyle Akin. Kyle Akin took yellow followed by his teammate Richard Moore.
Coming back into town setting up for the sprint Curtis Gunn was drilling it from the front and Gord Fraser had his wheel with the pace around 33mph+. Unfortunately we got stopped by the light and I was slow to respond when the light turned green and don’t know who won the sprint. If you know who win please comment below.
No offense to the female cyclists but the CHICK-O-METER was HIGH today. In the old days, we us to gage the intensity of the Shootout by what we called the CHICK-O-METER. If there were female cyclists that made it all the way around the CHICK-O-METER was low which meant the Shootout was too easy. Lately I have heard some of the old timers like Peter Brown, Jimmy Ricatello and a few others refere to the CHICK-O-METER so I had to throw this in here. Again no offense to the ladies.
For a book of the best bike rides in Tucson, Arizona visit:
www.trisports.com/road-bike-rides.html
For the Shootout route visit:
www.roadbikerides.com/ride/view/shootout_/77
Popularity: 2% [?]
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If Yogi Berra were a cyclist, here’s what he’d say: cycling is 90% mental, and the other half is physical. Yet with enough self-confidence, our minds tend to stay out of the way, and we have the freedom to perform to our potential. The mentally fit cyclist knows how to assess, maintain, and build self-confidence to improve fun and performance on the bike.
By Marvin Zauderer
The building blocks of the mentally fit cyclist’s five core skills, by describing how managing your will to succeed can play an important role in your mental fitness and cycling performance. This month, I explore Self-Confidence, perhaps the most important element of every athlete’s mental fitness.
For the article The Mind of a Mentally Fit Pro, I asked pro cyclist Steven Cozza of Slipstream-Chipotle H3O about mental skills that have been challenging for him. He didn’t miss a beat:
“Confidence. It’s a huge thing in cycling. I was even told by some people,‘consider a career change.’ You can improve so much by believing in yourself. You can say, ‘I should be at the front of the race, I should be top 5.’ You don’t have to be cocky, but if you’re not confident, you don’t stand a chance. You’ve got to believe in yourself.”
Confidence. Some of us seem born with it. Some of us are lucky enough to grow up among family, friends, and mentors who help develop it in us. But for many of us, at least in certain aspects of our lives, it’s an ongoing challenge.
As I noted in the article on Goal-Setting, much of what we’ve learned about self-confidence in sport builds on the work of psychologist Albert Bandura of Stanford University (home of the current national champion road cycling team — defending their title this week!). Bandura defined self-efficacy as your belief in your “capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to manage prospective situations.” Roughly translated: Your belief that you can achieve your goals.
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Posted on: July 18th, 2008 By: Tyler Ford In:
Training
WHAT IS BIKENODE?
Bike node is a directory of cycling links for the benefit all types of cyclists.
THE BIKE NODE VISION:
The idea is simple: “to help connect cyclists”.
If you have a cycling site submit your site to BikeNode: http://www.bikenode.com/
Popularity: 2% [?]
Hot off the press A Guide To The Best Bike Rides In Tucson, Arizona.
RoadBikeRides.com and Ride-Strong.com are proud to announce the completion of the first book of many.
Inside this book you will find:
- The 20 Best Road Bike Rides In Tucson, AZ!
- Road Bike Rides Voted Most Popular by local Tucson cyclists!
- Easy To Use maps!
- Fast Facts about each ride!
- Ride profile of each ride!
- Must-Do-Stamp - The best of the best Tucson rides!
The book will be sold in local bike shops along with Amazon.
To order the book online visit the link below:
www.trisports.com/road-bike-rides.html
Popularity: 10% [?]
Posted on: July 17th, 2008 By: Tyler Ford In:
Books
Congratulations to Caleb Fuchs of Santa Rosa, NM and Cliff de Witt of DeSoto, TX. They were the winners of this post www.ride-strong.com/free-cagepack-write-up and will be each receiving a CagePack. Cliff de Witt Ride-Strong.com needs your address so we can mail out your CagePack. Please go to the contact page and email us you mailing info.
THANK YOU CAGEPACK FOR MAKING THIS POSSIBLE! http://www.cagepack.com/
If you would like your product, company or anything cycling related featured on Ride-Strong.com click on the banner below.
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This morning Shootout started with a little photo shoot with Jason Karew of Eclipse Racing. Jason Karew lost a bet to Paul Thomas and the loser had to wear a Tri suit during the Shootout. If you ask me I would have liked to have seen Jason in a Speedo and a singlet top. Paul let Jason off easy. Pictured above Jason Karew and Paul Thomas and pictured below Jason Karew.
There was a good group of 100+ to start off this mornings ride. Ralph Phillips started the ride with his famous shout of “Its Bike Time!”
The pace was steady and fast. There was a rotation of about 10 riders up front driving the train. There were a few attacks 
but for the most part the group stayed together today. Pro racer Gord Fraser took Yellow and the sprint finish at the top of the climb.
Coming back into town Waste Management had the lead out train going leading up to the sprint keeping the pace high. Kyle Akin of Team Rhino was able to capitalize on Waste Managements efforts and took the sprint finish.
I have to brag a little about my wife Mimi Ford of Eclipse Racing. She made it all the way around the Shootout. On occasion a female rider will make it all the way around. It happens during the winter training months when the pro females are in town. It is rare that an amateur age grouper female makes it around. Scott Blanchard of Pyramid Coaching has been training Mimi for the last 6 months and it has been paying off. GREAT JOB MIMI!
For details on the Shootout click on the link below.
www.roadbikerides.com/ride/view/shootout_/77
Popularity: 3% [?]
Clincher VS Tubular Tires and what is the difference?
CLINCHER
The tire that most of us are familiar with is the clincher tire. The clincher tire consists an inner tube and a tire. The tire has a “bead” on each outer edge of the tire. On most tires, the beads consist of hoops of steel wire. The beads are what hold the tire in place on the rim.
TUBULAR
The tubular , or sew up, tire is a one piece system where a tire is sewn together around the inner tube. Tubulars are used on special rims and are held to the rim by glue or two sided tape.
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The chance to win a brand new
Colnago Carbon CLX bike which
retails for $5,500 for FREE!
Ride-Strong Raffle Bike Give Away
Ride-Strong.com has just reached 800 RSS feed subscribers and is approaching 1,000 members. Once we reach 1,500 members the bike will be raffled off.
Please take a look at the upper right hand side of the blog and you can see the number of RSS subcribers Ride-Strong has on any given day.
We were just notified that Colnago is doing a close out on their 2008 bikes and have an opportunity to get a better deal on the bike that Ride-Strong.com will be giving away. So what that means is that Ride-Strong.com needs 1,500 RSS subscribers this month. You could be the lucky winner of the bike so pass this post on to all your fellow cyclist and tell them to follow the directions on the link below to be eligible to win.
Click on the link below for the Colnago bike giveaway.
www.ride-strong.com/cowabunga-win-a-brand-new-colnago-carbon-bike/
Popularity: 5% [?]
Glenn Rice of www.CagePack.com sent Ride-Strong.com two CagePacks™ to giveaway to two of our lucky readers.
The CAGEPACK™ bag is the first one designed to fit on your cage, not in it. The 8″x2″x3″ 1000 denier nylon bag attaches to traditional bicycle alloy cages. It will also work with similarly styled plastic cages.
If you need more storage then your seat bag, a CAGEPACK™ bag is an alternative to bulky handlebar and frame bags, or your jersey pockets. It is also much more accessible than a seat bag when used on behind the seat bottle carriers.
Comment on this post for your chance at winning a CAGEPACK™. Ride-Strong.com will be selecting 2 lucky cyclist on Saturday July 12, 2008. Make sure you leave your name, city and state.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Getting dropped from a group happens to all of us. Even the best riders in the world get dropped. Pick yourself up and fight to get back on.
You can fall off the group for all sorts of reasons from reaching down to grab your water bottle for a drink, taking off a layer, getting gapped by another rider, being in the wrong position in the group, etc. For whatever reason below are some key tips to bridging back to the group.
- First NEVER give up! You never know what will happen up the road. The strong rider(s) in the group could flat making the lead group disorganized causing them to slow down. Or riders in the lead group could begin to suffer leaving the pulling to only a few riders causing the lead group to slow down. You just never know what is going on up the road so don’t give up.
- Regroup and get help. Looking around either up the road our behind you to regroup forming a paceline and work together. Many times one of the strong riders in a group will be in the wrong position getting gapped and dropped. Working together with other riders you can have enough engine power to bridge back up to the group. It is a sign of inexperienced rides who have been drooped who don’t work together but ride solo trying to bridge the gap. Don’t make this mistake. If there are other wheels around you there is a way back to the lead pack!
- Respond quickly and close the gap fast! If you do get gapped or dropped close it fast and get back on. Others are suffering just like you. Many times if you can just hold on for a split second longer or get back on the group, the group slows down allowing you to recover. Pushing air by yourself is much harder than suffering for a few seconds to get back on. It is much easier to recover riding in the pack than on your own. Put your Nike’s on and JUST DO IT; close the gap while it is small.
- Put your blinders on and go into time trial mode. If the gap is large don’t panic. Relax, breath, and don’t try to bridge the gap in one sprint up to the group. You will blow up. Ease into a steady time trial pace collecting your energy to bridge the gap over time. A group bike ride is like a book of matches. You start will a full book of matches and each time you sprint, take a pull, bridge a gap you burn a match. Eventually you run out of matches and your done. Get into a steady mode where your conserving your matches and keep the pace over a period of time with the chance of getting back on.
- Don’t sit on the back move to the front. Lastly, when you bridge the gap use your speed and the draft of the other cyclist to move to the front. Getting to the front will give you more protection to recover so you don’t get dropped again. It is tempting to sit on the back of the pack but your are risking getting dropped again. It actually takes more energy and is harder sometimes on the back of the pack. Move towards the front and sit in; ideal right behind the rotating paceline.
AS ALWAYS RIDESTRONG™!
Popularity: 12% [?]
