Wheat Ridge Cyclery

I spent some time with my team last Wednesday taking a tour of Wheat Ridge Cyclery.  Needless to say I was completely BLOWN AWAY by the experience.  If you are looking for a shop to really take care of you from a sales and service perspective, this is the place.  If you want to visit a bike shop that actually has high-end bikes on the floor to test ride, this is the place. Check out some of the photos below.

Nuff said.

The Lunch Ride

Like many of you I am a pretty busy guy with family, and work and stuff.  Sometimes it is a jigsaw puzzle to get the most amount of "living" worked into each day.  A big part of my living is spent on the bike.  Over the past 6 months I've started to harness new small windows of opportunity for training.  The morning and evening hours are a given but daylight and temperature make those times a little less appealing during the winter.  The sweet spot I've started to really enjoy lately is the mid-day nooner on the road bike.  This time of year most of my riding is in HR zone 2 or 3 (base) but on these days, I like to throw a few short (1-2 min max) 85%-95% efforts in during my 60-min ride.  After reading this article a while back about a cyclist using a GPS to prove he was not at fault for getting hit in traffic, I thought I would take it one step further and start bringing a camera along with me, mostly just to have something to tinker with.

I decided to ride the TRON bike today.

2011 Stallion

Gary Fisher Superfly 100

I'm taking the plunge into the "circus wheel" world this year (as Bryan calls them).  My two weapons will be a Niner One9 single speed and a 2011 Gary Fisher Superfly 100 (thank you Wheat Ridge Cyclery!)  Both of these bikes roll on big 29" wheels.  Both are worthy stallions to ride into battle.  Both will make my 6 foot 3 inch frame look a little more proportional to the bike (not that it will help my racing all that much but still).  For comfort  I will again be riding with Ergon grips.  This year in addition to the Ergon GS2 grips, I will also be sporting the Ergon HX2 gloves.  These bad boys are designed to work seamlessly with Ergon grips to make up a complete system.  I'll be posting a review once these hit the market and I have some riding time in on them.

As anyone that has participated in this sport knows, it takes quite a bit of $$ just to have the necessities to train and compete.  For this reason I am happy to have such a great support system in my racing team and our fine sponsors.  Without them my 2011 racing season wouldn't be possible.

Chilly Cheeks Duathlon #2

Me and "Bug Man" Leslie Handy

I took a shot at the Chilly Cheeks Duathlon today with other members of my team. This is the first time I've done any kind of multi-sport event and my transition times tell it all.  The event was a "run, bike, run, bike" setup and I was on my Niner One9 single-speed rig competing in the Fat Tire division.  It was fun to get out and mix it up for an hour but I am sure glad that is over. Next time I'll put those fancy fast-tie plastic things on my shoe laces.

Video:

Stats:

Team Twin Six for 2011

Excited to be sporting and representing this fine cycling apparel for 2011.  A little more about the company from the manifesto:  http://twinsix.com/manifesto

THE WEAR-TO-GO MANIFESTO

First and foremost we are two designers who love to ride and believe that the time is overdue for better cycling jersey graphics. We are Twin Six, the graphic revolution in cycling apparel. It is our goal to be the alternative to everything else.

The gear we pull on is a statement of our style, identity and self. The industry’s slow uphill grind to better graphics has turned riders into unwilling billboards, moving color explosions and unfortunate cartoon characterizations. Twin Six has seen enough.

Twin Six jerseys carry graphics with a fashion DNA. Styles that spring from real graphic trends, not the predictable regurgitation of last year’s predictable regurgitation. Twin Six is two determined graphic designers doing what we do best, so we can finally ride with pride.

2011 Race Ambitions

Epic Endurance Cycling Team: 2011 Jersey

As mentioned previously, I am riding on a new team this year and the jersey above is what we will be sporting so keep your eye out for us.  Here are some of the events I hope to toe the line for  this year.

See you there!

Type	Date	Name	Location	Placement
Duathlon	01/15/2011	Chilly Cheeks Duathlon #2	Cherry Creek State Park, CO	2nd, Fat Tire
Rocky Mountain Endurance Series	04/23/2011	Inaugural Voodoo Fire	Pueblo, CO
Rocky Mountain Endurance Series	05/07/2011	Front Range 60	Lakewood, CO
Endurance 100-mile	06/18/2011	The Bailey Hundo	Bailey, CO
Rocky Mountain Endurance Series	07/15/2011	B-68	Breckenridge, CO
Endurance 100-mile	08/13/2011	Leadville Trail 100 MTB Race	Leadville, CO
NUE series	09/03/2011	Park City Point 2 Point	Park City, UT
24-hour Endurance	10/01/2011	24-Hour Mountain Bike National Championships	Colorado Springs, CO

Core Strength

I've added a new routine to my training in 2011 in an effort to improve on last year's results: The Core Performance (recommended to me by Jeff).  A core workout is a staple in the training regimen of any serious athlete and admittedly I neglected this important part of training for most of 2010.  As a result I suffered directly from distracting back and neck pain which forced brief stopps multiple times during some of my longer races and indirectly in the form of power loss due to all around inefficiencies.  So as I said, I am trying to correct that.  So far the workouts are going really well and take less time than I thought they would.  Most of the workouts complete within 30min using minimal equipment.  Here are some links on the subject from people that know what they are talking about.

Core Performance
Core Strength for Mountain Bikers (Lynda Wallenfels)
Core Strength (Joe Friel)