The weather in Austin hasn’t been much better than the rest of the midwest, but bad weather here is nice weather in most other places. Today was nearly 60 degrees. I got on my bike to go watch a bike race. I knew it wasn’t going to be much better than watching cyclo-x Nationals. And, it wasn’t. I made the mistake of getting there right before the start. Like 5 minutes. In retrospect, I’m glad I didn’t have a helmet. I would have more than likely raced. The course was wide open. The field of 1-2’s was nearly 80 guys. Seemed like a good race to sit in and do nothing. Maybe tomorrow. Instead I rode over 5 hours. I ended up riding until dark. I got kind of got lost a bit and did a few more hills than I’d planned.
Riding around Austin is super interesting. The architecture is a weird mix of stone and metal, old and new. I love it. And, especially when you add in the terrain. Riding west into the Hill Country is great. Too much traffic, but that is the norm everywhere “cool”. I don’t mind riding in traffic if I’m on my own, in a group it is a different story, of course.
Tomorrow there is another race. I’m not sure if I’m going to ride all day or go to the race. Guess I’ll decide when I wake up. I don’t have enough miles to race, but that hasn’t stopped me before. All I know is that it is super nice riding with nothing over my knees.
People are exercising everywhere here in Austin.
There has been a ton of rain here this winter. Very good for the drought conditions.
The road racing scene is healthy in Texas.
Nearly had to get my feet wet at this low water crossing.
Got in the van this afternoon with Bromont and headed South. It snowed 4 more inches of wet snotty snow and I was sick of it. Plus, there are some dehumidifiers down this way that want to be moved to Kansas. And, the “horrible” Texas weather looks to be clearing up. It should be in the 60’s this weekend in Austin. There are 2 races in Austin this weekend, but I’ll have to think about it (or better yet, not think about it) to figure out if I have any desire to suffer that much this early. It’s nearly 700 miles door to door, but the drive isn’t bad. It all depends what time you hit Oklahoma City and Dallas/Fort Worth. I didn’t leave until after 2pm, so it wasn’t an issue. I brought my MTB with me just in case I feel the urge and am physically able. I took the photo below somewhere south of OKC. They was cruising down I-35 at about 80mph. He (the dog) had a pretty good view and was out of the weather.
A friend of mine, Nick Frey, who is currently riding for Jamis/Sutter Home professional team, has started a business making bamboo frames. He’s in production now. You should check out his website- Boobicycles.com. It’s not fully up and running, but I’m sure it will be soon. The frames are beautiful.
I’ve been fascinated with hummingbirds for a long time. I had a bike riding experience that left a imprint that never left.
One of the first years I rode the Coor’s Race in Colorado, I had driven to Boulder to train and acclimate. Foolishly, I decided to ride the complete Boulder Mountain Road Race course plus an extra loop the first day there. It was super hot and the ride was nearly 125 miles with tons and tons of climbing. Anyway, I’d ridden about 90 miles or so and had only gotten to Ward and was done. I felt cramps coming on. Ward was a super small mining town with virtually nothing there. But, there was a small cafe/grocery store.
I bought a Gatorade and a candy bar. My legs were twitching like they were firing on their own. I drank the full Gatorade and instantly virtually every muscle in my body started twitching. I was cramping in my hands, my forearms, my feet, everywhere. It was so weird. And painful. Must have been some mineral imbalance. Anyway, I didn’t even think of getting on my bike for a while. I was sitting out on a deck in front of the store and the whole time there were dozens of hummingbirds doing aerial combat. It was nuts. The speed, the numbers, the sounds, the colors. Nothing I’d ever witnessed before. Or since. I could have stayed there all afternoon and watched. It was fascinating. It made the cramps seem inconsequential.
Anyway, I was watching a show on PBS on Hummingbirds last week. It was pretty unbelievable. Hummingbird hearts beat between 600 and 1200 beats per minute when they are awake. That is 10 to 20 beats per second. But, when they sleep, their heart rates decrease to the mid 30’s. That would be like a normal human’s heart rate lowering to 4 bpm sleeping. Or, a cyclist’s heart rate going down to 2 or so. Lot of other fascinating stuff too. The show was great. Super slow motion of hummingbirds in flight. Made me reminisce of that ride in the mountains.
Naomi was just as interested in the hummingbirds as I was. She watched nearly the whole show with me.
Trudi with Alessandro Ballan. He told her it was the first time he'd ever received a massage by a woman. Notice the World's stripes on his shorts. Pretty cool.
Tonight’s full moon will be the biggest and brightest full moon of the year. It offers anyone with clear skies an opportunity to identify easy-to-see features on the moon.
This being the first full moon of 2010, it is also known as the wolf moon, a moniker dating back to Native American culture and the notion that hungry wolves howled at the full moon on cold winter nights. Each month brings another full moon name.
But why will this moon be bigger than others? Here’s how the moon works:
The moon is, on average, 238,855 miles (384,400 km) from Earth. The moon’s orbit around Earth – which causes it to go through all its phases once every 29.5 days – is not a perfect circle, but rather an ellipse. One side of the orbit is 31,070 miles (50,000 km) closer than the other.
So in each orbit, the moon reaches this closest point to us, called perigee. Once or twice a year, perigee coincides with a full moon, as it will tonight, making the moon bigger and brighter than any other full moons during the year.
Tonight it will be about 14 percent wider and 30 percent brighter than lesser full Moons of the year, according to Spaceweather.com.
As a bonus, Mars will be just to the left of the moon tonight. Look for the reddish, star-like object.
Louisville secures first US cyclo-cross world championships
The 2013 world cyclo-cross championships will be held in Louisville, Kentucky, the UCI announced on Friday.
As part of the agreement, Louisville will also host the 2012 and 2013 world master cyclo-cross championships.
It is the first time a cyclo-cross world championships will be held in the USA and is thanks to the hard work of Joan Hanscom and Bruce Fina, who organise the US Gran Prix of Cyclo-cross in Louisville.
“This is thrilling news. We’ve been working for six years with the US Cycling National Team and six years on the USGP to further develop the sport in the US to the point where our riders can be competitive on a global scale. Hosting the worlds in the US is the next logical step,” Fina said in a statement issued by USA Cycling.
Despite most riders facing a transatlantic flight to take part, the big names in the sport are enthusiastic about racing in Louisville. Belgian cross star Sven Nys even said he would delay his planned retirement in 2012 so that he could ride in the 2013 world championships.
The course for the world championships will be in the Eva Bandman park, just a mile from the centre of Louisville. The venue is set to become a permanent cyclo-cross park thanks to support from the city of Louisville.
“I was impressed with the vision and detail of the plans to develop the area into a cyclo-cross race venue. The area, terrain and surroundings lend themselves perfectly to a major race venue,” UCI cyclo-cross technical delegate Simon Burney, who inspected the course, said.
The world cyclo-cross championships will be held in Sankt Wendel, Germany in 2011 and in Koksijde, Belgium in 2012.
Trudi has been in California the past couple weeks doing the BMC training camp. The program has obviously ramped it up this year and that is evident in the amount of work that needs to be done. The first week was up in Northern California and now that the guys that did the Tour Down Under are in the US, it has moved down to Southern California. It is easy to get star struck with a former World Champion, a current National Champion and a current World Champion showing up all at once. But, it is cycling, and it always nice to realize that they all are just normal guys that happen to be really fast. They’ve got a pretty ambitious schedule going, with The Tour of Qatar and The Tour of Oman coming up at the first of next month. They are already in the Giro and the Tour is a given I’d guess. It’s going to be fun following them this year, being an underdog team with big potential.
Casey's photo from the training camp.
Trudi and Cadel at the truck.
Lots of bodies to organize-
The 2010 BMC Racing Team
Riders
Alessandro Ballan (Italy)
Chris Barton (U.S.)
Chad Beyer (U.S.)
Brent Bookwalter (U.S.)
Marcus Burghardt (Germany)
Cadel Evans (Australia)
Mathias Frank (Switzerland)
Thomas Frei (Switzerland)
George Hincapie (U.S.)
Martin Kohler (Switzerland)
Alexander Kristoff (Norway)
Karsten Kroon (Netherlands)
Jeff Louder (U.S.)
Alex Moos (Switzerland)
Steve Morabito (Switzerland)
John Murphy (U.S.)
Scott Nydam (U.S.)
Mauro Santambrogio (Italy)
Michael Schär (Switzerland)
Florian Stalder (Switzerland)
Jackson Stewart (U.S.)
Danilo Wyss (Switzerland)
Simon Zahner (Switerland)
Under 23 Team
Chris Butler (U.S.)
Cole House (U.S.)
Larry Warbasse (U.S.)
Management
Jim Ochowicz (U.S.), President / Co-Owner
Andy Rihs (Switzerland), Sponsor / Co-Owner
Gavin Chilcott (U.S.), General Team Manager
Herbi Baechler (Switzerland), Technical Director
Cindy Buckman (U.S.), Administration
Georges Luechinger (Principality of Liechtenstein) PR/Media Officer
Sean Weide (U.S.), US PR Agent
Sports Directors
John Lelangue (Belgium) Chief Sports Director
Fabio Baldato (Italy), Assistant Sports Director
Noel Dejonckheere (Belgium), Assistant Sports Director / Europe Operations Manager
Jacques Michaud (France), Assistant Sports Director
René Savary (Switzerland), Assistant Sports Director
Mike Sayers (U.S.), Assistant Sports Director
Medical Team
Max Testa (Italy), Chief Medical Officer
Eric Heiden (U.S.), Physician
Scott Major (U.S.), Physician
Giovanni Ruffini (Italy), Physician
Dario Spinelli (Italy), Physician
Mechanical Team
Ian Sherburne (U.S.), Chief Mechanic
Kevin Grove (U.S.), Mechanic
Ronald Ruymen (Belgium), Mechanic
Andy Stone (U.S.), Mechanic
Nick Vandecauter (Belgium), Mechanic
Care Team
Freddy Viaene (Belgium), Chief Soigneur
Eddy De Groote (Belgium), Soigneur
Kaycee Evans (U.S.), Soigneur
Graeme McCallum (Republic of South Africa), Soigneur
Jeremiah Ranegar (U.S.), Soigneur
Trudi Rebsamen (U.S.), Soigneur
David Bombeke (Belgium), Physical Therapist
Francis Bur (France), Bus Driver
Support Personnel
Luis Carneiro (Portugal), Mechanic
Stefano Cattai (Italy), BMC Company
Mike Hürlimann (Switzerland), CEO BMC Company
Carrie Needham (U.S.), Assistant Chief Medical Officer
Rolf Singenberger (Switzerland), BMC Company
Michèle Tanner (Switzerland), BMC Company
Here is the video that Michael Aisner made when he was in town. Tom Schuler’s grandmother lives here and is now the 22nd oldest documented person on the planet. She has moved up 1 in the last two weeks. That intrigued Michael, so he came to Topeka and made this short video.
