On Bicycles, and.... what else is there?

This ride happened at the end of February so it's taken me quite awhile to post the ride report. I tend to go a bit overboard on ride reports... apologies on that. The first brevet on the schedule was the Pierce Point 200 km . This was a replacement for the Lighthouse 200 km, for which SFR was unable to get a permit this year. I hadn't realized they got permits for brevets, assuming the it was just fair use of the roads and was essentially below the radar for that sort of thing. But they do: parks tend to require them (the right of cyclists to be on the roads for whatever reason carries more strength on local roads), and Pt Reyes National Seashore, being national parkland, would be a hassle. The reason for denial had something to do with a tourist bus not wanting to encounter cyclists on the road. Damn cyclists: getting in the way of "real" nature lovers. But I wasn't disappointed. I'd gone hiking at Pierce Point with Cara, and knew it was spectacula...

The final of the Three Days of De Penne will likely be best remembered as the last time trial Bradley Wiggins ever rides for Team Sky. And indeed he won the time trial with a strong 10-second margin: going out in style. Next on his to-do list is to win Paris-Roubaix. And I think he's going to succeed. Bradley Wiggins is almost annually underestimated and he's shown a remarkable learning trajectory at Paris-Roubaix. He obviously need to drop John Degenkolb to do it but he's an exceptionally smart rider and I like his chances. However, this blog is about the morning road race, a short prelude to the concluding time trial. I don't want to give away the result but I'm forced to do so. Kristoff just held off a late sprint by Greipel, the latter ideally positioned on Kristoff's wheel coming out of the final corner but delayed in starting his sprint by Guardini, who pinned him in. As soon as Greipel had a shred of a gap, Greipel went past. But it was 5 cm ...

I'm a committed fan of 26 mm handlebars. They feel comfortable in my hands, they're plenty stiff, they're light, and they flex just enough to dampen some road vibration. I never understood the shift to 31.8 mm, and will resist it until my present bars fail. But then as if 31.8 mm wasn't enough, Deda came out with the "35". For some reason the perception was that bar flex is to be avoided at all costs, as if we propel the bike primarily with our hands rather than our feet. Indeed, the 35 has had a tepid response even from the pros, who put out considerably higher torque than most riders, me included. 31.8 was already more than enough. But manufacturers in the quest for differentiation never let the facts get in their way. I just found out, from some of my many inside industry contacts, that Deda will announce soon a new "standard" in handlebars: "The MegaFondo 50" Why MegaFondo? Well, the pro peloton already rejected 35 mm. In any...

The most excellent Inner Ring blog recently posted statistics on World Tour and Pro Continental professional cycling wins so far in 2015: the link is here . These numbers have come into focus due to Tinkoff-Saxo's owner, Alexei Tinkoff, sacking long-time team manager Bjarne Riis. Bjarne has been managing the team, and its predecessors, since it was founded as Team CSC in 2000. Cycling is novel relative to most team sports in that there's no definitive overall standing. The UCI repeatedly cooks up various rankings but these are always consigned to the depths of trivia: it's a sport which is very much in the moment, who wins the race today, with certain races mattering more than others. So on what's important and what's not as important is more a matter of consensus than anything else. No two people will fully agree, except perhaps those who think the Tour is the only game in town. And those "fans" are generally derided by the "purists". I...

On March 2nd Charles Vincent, 66 years old, was riding his bike at the intersection of 14th and Folsom in San Francisco when he was killed by a car driver who was observed by multiple witnesses to have run a red light. Despite this, no charges are being filed. According to the story on Streetsblog, SFPD Explains: Driver Won’t Be Charged for Killing Cyclist at 14th & Folsom , a witness also had Vincent riding through a red light in his direction, and so the collision occurred when both people had reds. "The DA is not gonna charge that person with a crime because there’s a contributory factor" according to SFPD. This is an interesting spin on the law with which I'd not formerly been aware. If someone is in violation of code, it's sanctionable to kill them with your own violation? Curious. Rewind to the Chris Bucchere case .... Chris rode his bike at approximately 31 mph through the intersection of Castro and Mission, hitting and killing a Sacha Hui, a pede...

I posted my predictions for Milan San Remo yesterday . I was really looking forward to this race, perhaps more than any other of the Monuments. This morning I watched Milan San Remo in two parts. First I watched a feed from steephill.tv until 34 km to go. At that point the riders had finished with Capo Berta and the Cipressa was looming. I left then do to a ride and when I returned watched first one video of the Cipressa and then another of the final 10 km including Poggio. There were small gaps between what I saw live and the first of these videos, and another gap (the Cipressa descent) between the two videos. But despite the gaps I really enjoyed watching the race. I have to say I was pleased with how my picks did. I was all over Cavendish because I thought his team support (especially Kwiatkowski, and Stybar) was so strong and he's a proven rider who has come into the early season relatively fit. Well, stuff doesn't always go as planned, and first Cavendish threw h...

Milan-San Remo is the longest of the classics, in many way a throw-back to the old days where lack of television coverage meant speed and intensity was hard to convey, and lacking that, race organizers had to impress the fans with sheer magnitude: of rugged riders riding superhuman distances over impossible terrain. The thing is until the 1960's Milan-San Remo wasn't particular long by professional standards. It's held fairly close over its history to its present distance of 293 km (1 km shorter than 2014). Here's the course distance from two sources: http://www.milansanremo.co.uk/ through 2009, and http://cyclingnews.com since 2010: The iconic Poggio was added in 1960 to reduce the finishing pack, an inland deviation which increased the distance from 281 km to 288 km. Then in 1982 the Cipressa increased the distance to 294 km to make the end game even harder. Le Manie was added to further increase the attrition in 2008. This last climb was removed in 2014 and ...