Monday, June 21, 2010

cyclocross is just around the next several corners

it's finally the first day of summer so it's time to start talking about cyclocross.


sure, there has been racing. linus earned a top 5 in this weekend's criterium in raleigh. corey's been riding stronger, smarter, and yes, fresher, with each subsequent race. and i continue to race erratically, posting fair results, but not enough to get me to an upgrade unless i can find about 100 more races this summer.

but who wants to read about our exploits riding counter-clockwise around an oval or clockwise around a rectangle?

the big news is that the fickle fellows at the uci have thrown down some new cyclocross equipment rules. now you can race with disc brakes, but not with tires wider than 33mm. of course, these rule changes only apply to uci races (e.g. hendersonville elite-level), but they should have interesting implications for the array of bikes and wheels and tires bicycle companies will try to sell us (and i will be tempted to buy).

i am kinda bummed that my new 35mm tires are now non-uci approved, but if i've learned anything from the stuff that the uci bans, it's either very effective (motorized bikes, weird time trial positions, certain drugs), super dangerous (spinergy rev-x wheels, mini-aerobars for road races, leather helmets), or both (studded snow tires, other drugs).

also important to note, some non-traditional wheels may require impact testing, so in case anyone is thinking about getting some sketchy, no-name-brand carbon rims from some weird chinese importer, beware.

Thumbs Up Weekend

Bull City in Boone!

Friday, June 18, 2010

Guess who...


this belongs to?

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Bailey Hundo (100 Miler) Fundraising...

Just a few days away and I thought I would give it one last ditch effort to see if anyone else out there wanted to add to my donation/entry fee for the Bailey Hundo. All of the procedes are tax deductable and go to Trips for Kids and the Colorado High School Mountain Bike Association.

See instructions below. If you choose to contribute, please feel free to enter my name (Brian Bergeler) in the text box on Paypal.

Thanks for your support!

www.bailey100.com

The Donation button on our site, powered by PayPal, makes collecting contributions from your network of friends, family and co-workers easy for everyone – no worries about losing and logging contributions by cash or check. The final donation confirmation form includes a text box where your supporters can add a note and give you proper credit for your fundraising efforts. Unfortunately, this text field is not immediately apparent and needs to be opened with a click. Here are step-by-step instructions for people making contributions in honor of your Hundo ride:

1.After clicking the “Donation” button, enter the contribution amount and press the “Up-date Total” button.
2.Either log in to PayPal or click “Continue” under the heading “Don’t have a PayPal account?” to pay by credit card.
3.If using a credit card, enter this information and press “Review Donation and Continue“
4.For people making contrbutions on behalf of racers, click “+I’m supporting a Hundo racer. (Name)” to open the text field.
5.Enter the name of the racer(s) the contribution is supporting.
6.Review the contribution details and click “Donate $XXX US Now” button to complete the transaction.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Ride for Clive Pictures







Things my bike says to me:

As most of my rides are now solo, I spend a lot of time talking to my bike.  Sometimes it's as simple as 'go faster' or 'why are you doing this to me?' but other times we reflect on the state of the economy, spitball ideas for capping the Deepwater Horizon well, generally whine about work, or sketch out plans for a concept album set in seventeenth-century New England.  You know, the usual.

Sometimes she'll (or 'he'll,' depending on what bike I'm on) talk back, but it's rarely more than a subtle 'speed up,' 'sit and spin b*tches,' or 'easy on the powergel there big guy.'  This Sunday, however, my mountain bike had something a little louder, and a little more critical to say:


What's that?  Don't hear it yet?


Oh yeah, that's my titanium-railed saddle telling me to 'lose some effin' weight ya fatass!'  

This would in fact be the third or fourth saddle whose rails I've bent, though luckily those have been stretched over a few years.  Never before have I twisted them quite as nicely as I did these, nor have I ever felt both rails go out at once, which is best described as a nice little dropping sensation, followed by some audible groans of protest.

Consider message received.  Now I'm going to get a cookie.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Reasons Why SmAli Needs to come to Colorado Afterall

1) He already has his plane ticket
2) Life is stressful and mountain biking reduces stress significantly
2a) Look what the last trip did for me! It changed my life!
3) BCC can team up and pack your house for you
4) Moving is a pain and won't be any better by not mountain biking
5) Nothing is better than July in Colorado....nothing.
6) It has been over a year and a half since he has had to hang out with Hollywood.
7) There is too much fun for Pirate, Wicked and myself to be had....we need to spread the fun around
8) And last, but not least......look how happy SmAli was on the last Colorado Trip:

take care

i tried to put together a short talk on bicycle safety for saturday's Ride For Clive, but got all jumbled up in attempting to settle on a clear message. what can you tell a group of cyclists they don't already know? there are lots of ways to get injured on a bicycle and for each of those ways, there are a multitude of strategies to avoid (or at least reduce) the risk. any generality has various exceptions. obey all traffic laws...except when breaking one makes everyone safer.


say for example, you're at a traffic light and cars are backed up behind you. if you wait for the light to change, you need to clip into your pedals and get up to speed in the intersection while cars behind you are trying to pass you, or even worse, make a right turn into you. this is one situation where sneaking through the light a little early (provided there's no cross-traffic) actually makes it safer for cars to pass you. but, of course, this situation depends on many variables and specific conditions that would require a ridiculous flowchart to explain.

the best safety advice i've been able to figure out is just to take care. but beyond a generic platitude like "be careful" or "break a leg", i'm actually thinking something more specific when i say "take care".

take care of yourself. make sure your bike is in proper working order. pump up your tires. tuck away shoelaces and pant cuffs. get a helmet that was made this century and wear it properly. ride with confidence in your skill and your rights on the roadway, but humble in your physical limitations and the consequences of a mishap.

take care of those around you. ride predictably to avoid causing harm to other cyclists. don't make sudden changes in your trajectory or velocity. point out hazards. don't be afraid to give a fellow cyclist a friendly suggestion and don't be threatened if you receive one. wave to other cyclists as a sign of solidarity.

take care of your community. as a cyclist, you are an ambassador for all other cyclists, so like it or not, you gotta play nicely with drivers. drivers are also just people and typically share that aspect of human psychology that doesn't notice when things are going pretty well, but will fixate on things that make them upset. you can hear this in the rationale that anti-cyclist drivers will use to justify their actions: cyclists never obey the laws, they take up the whole road, they're rude and make obscene gestures, etc. these claims are ridiculous in the sense that, while they may be based on several observations of cyclists doing stupid shit, they aren't true of the majority of cyclists. but i think the important aspect of this sentiment is that this is what drivers perceive and it ultimately determines how they act. it's difficult to change people's perception, but i think the key to doing so starts with the individual. and just as there will always be idiot drivers out there who will pass a cyclist above the speed limit on a blind turn (i've been passed while driving a car at the speed limit in this manner by this type of person, too), there are a lot of otherwise sensible people who might be convinced to reconsider their actions. similarly, there are a lot of idiot cyclists out there who will do illegal, illogical, and borderline psychotic stuff. these people will always exist (and are possibly crazy-ass drivers as well), but the rest of us can help to differentiate ourselves from the idiots. we've all done some sketch stuff out there, a motorist has seen it, and cataloged that incident in their brain. if we're all careful to be a little less sketchy, drivers are less likely to have their worst thoughts about cyclists confirmed. also, just be nice to people. wave to people walking or dudes mowing their lawn or families sitting on their porch as a sign that despite our often outlandish appearance, we are normal people. we are friendly neighbors.

take care

Monday, June 7, 2010

ridden

thanks to everyone who made it out to the Ride For Clive. it was very nice to see Clive's friends and family--as well as people who never got the chance to know him--get together and do something special. and, once again, it was a showcase for a fine cross-section of the Durham cycling community.


we'll post pictures and more stuff later, but for now, on behalf of Bull City Cycling, thanks and ride well.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Growl Growlin Growler in Gunnison



Ok....well I survived. It wasn't pretty at times, but how well can an endurance mountain bike race go for someone who has not raced in two seasons, never in Colorado, never against a Colorado filled field of some of the best mountain bikers around, not for some lazy bike shop employee (me) who hasn't logged a mountain bike ride this year that is even half the race distance......excuses. I'm good at them. But, it always takes something like this to get my ass in gear and get going. A front tire wash out and a faceplant to face to usher in my late start to the season. Luckily the only "real" crashing I did Sunday was in the form of caloric crashing......I did take two minor spills, but both were slow and only left me with a small raspberry to the left hip. Check out the beginning of the race below. Video of the rollout of town to the trails from www.singletrack.com. It gets more action packed as the video rolls.



Also I finally made it to the Interwebs in press!! Check this. Half of me made it into the photo. The far right hand side of the photo. Look for the BCC colors!

Inspired by Korps' Garmin post from the other day.....I give you the Growler Data. Second half.....not so pretty. See excuses below. Off to train more.



Finally some things I learned this weekend:
1) Train
2) Don't Bonk
3) Bacon is great around mile 50
4) Don't get food poisoning the day before an endurance race
5) Colorado mtn bikers are crazy strong
6) I hate single speed 29er mountain bikers.....or secretly I wish I was one.
7) 75% of the racers were on 29ers
8) I think I won the 140mm Travel full Squish 26" category
9) racing in the desert is odd. 38 degrees at the start and 80+ at the finish
10) Bacon really tastes good aroud mile 50....ummmmm

and last but not least....the Baily Hundo is 2.5 weeks away!!! AHHHHHHH!!!

The Baily Hundo is a 100 Mile Mountain Bike race organized by 4 Colorado State Senators and benefits Trips for Kids and the Colorado High School Mountain Bike Association. My entry is a donation that goes to these two awesome programs for kids and mountain bikes. If anyone would like to donate and add to my entry donation, please let me know or donate directly through the linked Baily Hundo Site. Thanks!!