the Great Pumpkin has landed: OG orange Schwinn Varisty

just in time for Haloween, here's the latest curation to the South Routt Velosport fleet of vintage Schwinns: a dead original, garage-stored-for-life Schwinn Varsity. totally OG right down to the cables, orange handlebar tape, Schwinn saddle bag and rear carrier. not a speck of rust, just a bit dirty and needs some fresh orange plastic Hunt-Wilde handlebar tape from the great eBay store...

got it from the guy across the alley, he bought it new back in the day from La Habra Schwinn in SoCal. i will get the serial # and post up the build date and more photos in future installments as this exciting new project develops.


the 24" frame is a bit on the tall side for me, probably only an inch of seatpost will be showing when i get the fit all done up... perfect.

very skinny, indeed

Andy Schleck, that is. that's what Paul Sherwen said about Andy while commentating with Phil Liggett during one of this year's Tour de France stages, that "he might look big in photos or on the television, but i can assure you that he's very skinny, indeed."

definitely one of the best comments from this year's Tour.

during saturday's Classica San Sebastian in Spain, Andy went off the road and crashed- quite a ways down a hillside. now it appears that his participation in the Vuelta a Espana has been ruined. i would be surprised if he is able to race again until the Giro di Lombardia.
crashing sucks. crashing sucks even worse when you get hurt while at the top of the game. at least he's still young and fit and was still able to get back on the bike for a few kilometers before (sensibly) abandoning.
he wasn't the only one to crash out, by the way.

ride report: Kent Eriksen's Tour de Steamboat

at the start with Kent, founder of Moots Cycles, Mountain Bike Hall of Fame resident, proprietor of Eriksen Cycles

he's also pretty darn fit for an older guy who spends all day in the shop building some of the finest bikes anywhere


at the east summit of the passage d'oreilles de lapin (rabbit ears pass for y'all in English). nothing like 1000 meters straight up a 1st category climb right after morning coffee. i was the first chaser of a solo rider at this point.


ditch the warm clothes with the support team (Danny and Jen) and take off in pursuit of the leader.


i rode with my friend Ian Pritchard for the last 90 kilometers, from the top of the Passage de Fuseau (Gore Pass). he's an old bro from back in the more serious racing days and he was a solid top 10 to 20 rider in pretty much all of the races he entered. i was usually a bit further down the pile being as i am sized too small to produce a lot of power in the time trial. we're approaching Toponas (in the distance) on S.H. 134 and about to turn north towards a 25 to 30 kilometer per hour headwind for the last 70 kilometers of the ride. the altitude here is right at about 3000 meters and it's a long, long way to anything that even remotely looks like a tree. Ian was a good person to be riding with at this point.


it feels good to head for the barn after 6 hour ride.


images courtesy of Danny Rietz (with the exception of the image of Ian Pritchard)

the official bouncer of le Tour de France

Bernard Hinault AKA "the Badger", runs a tight show and keeps the podium free of any accumulations of unwanted riff-raff. if ya didn't earn the spot, ya better not step up... suckas.

le Blaireau in action after last year's stage that finished in Nantes (image: Bettiniphoto)


back at it again this year in Besancon (image: cyclingnews.com)


just another reason why i love le Tour.

ride for saturday july18,2009

rolling out early for our local cyclosportif, Ken't Eriksen's Tour de Steamboat (somewhat of a misnomer as most of the parcours passes through south Routt and Grand county). nonetheless, i'm looking forward to doing this ride with a large group of participants, it should be alot of fun. here's the particulars for now, stay tuned for a photo report tomorrow as well as more commentary and prognostications on le Grand Boucle going on over there in France.

Kent Eriksen's Tour de Steamboat

the 96th Tour de France 2009

what an fantastic, exciting start to this year's Tour. there has been no shortage of great racing and drama. the race is now headed to the Pyrenees and etape 8 will pass directly through an area where i visited a few years ago. there will be some great images posted here from some of the awesome rides i did as well as some from le Tour when it passed by.

stay tuned for more.


etape 8 parcours


etape 8 profil

the 96th Tour de France 2009

stage two will be one for the sprinters- i predict Thor Hushovd to take the win as well as the maillot vert when the peloton rolls across the line in Brignoles.
in honor of the sprinter's stage, i am posting am image from our garden, which is looking quite nice lately. a sort of jardine vert, if you will, with all of the rain we have been getting here in south Routt so far this spring.
more about the garden in later installments.



for all of the Tour junkies out there who can't get enough from the usual outlets, here's a link to the reference archive of live internet broadcasts in just about any language you want. this is much needed relief from the usual serving of Lance/commercial/Lance/commercial/Lance... etc., etc., etc. that we get here in the U.S. from the only network that will even bother covering a ProTour cycling event, Verses (formerly known as OLN- Only Lance Network).

apparently there are 179 other riders contesting le Tour this year. sometimes it's just kind of hard to tell otherwise.

copious amounts of Tour coverage can be found here

the 96th Tour de France 2009

there is nothing more refreshing than an ice cold Coca-Cola after a long, hard ride in the high mountains on a hot day in France in the middle of July. that much i know to be true.

i predict:
that Fabian Cancellara will win the 1st etape, that a Frenchman will win on Bastille Day after a long solo breakaway, that Contador and Armstrong will be so busy watching each other that Lepheimer will sneak away and win the overall, that the eternal struggle between good and evil has never been portrayed more dramatically than the struggle between the two teamates- one who wears white shoes and white socks and the other who wears black shoes and black socks, that an Italian or Belgian sprinter with lots of hair gel will win at least one flat stage, that Mark Cavendish will say something really stupid at least six or seven times (as will Bernard Hinault and Greg Lemond), that the super annoying guy with the big horns and texas flag will be back again this year, that the voice of Phil Liggett will give me goosebumps on the back of my neck when he says "ooooh, they're reeeally sooferin' now, Paul...

stay tuned for more, we still have 23 days to go.

more evidence of highly advanced civilizations

here's a photo i took in Amsterdam a few years ago. this is the bike storage facility (3-story parking garage, more like) right outside the Central Station where the trains take passengers to and from the airport and other destinations all around Europe. they sure make it easy to get around, even for Americans who are unaccustomed to efficient, clean transportation. you can even take your bike with you on the trains.

my other favorite city by the bay is without a doubt San Francisco. here's some music to set the mood, so crank up the volume and rock out like it's 1982 all over again:

say what you want about San Francisco- the weather, the traffic, the tourists, the cost of living there, the food, the bike culture... i love it there anyway.
ah, yes, the San Francisco bike culture; something near and dear to my heart.
as far as living in a big city is concerned, San Francisco would be at the top of my list of favorites. it is unquestionably the epicenter of the fixie movement on the west coast. it would be easier to count the riders who are not riding fixies than to count those who are.

fixies. whatever.

for an urban area it is a cyclist's dream come true, even though there are the usual motor -v- bike conflicts and cyclists (mostly in the downtown financial district) getting squished on a fairly regular basis. the city has committed in a big way by investing in alternative transportation solutions, cycling being one of them.
they have trains out there that go all over the place- and are hauling people instead of cattles or coal. the people can bring their bike onto the trains with them when they commute into the city or out to the 'burbs. imagine that.
or if they want, there is plenty of bike parking and safe storage facilities available at the BART stations.
on top of it all, the city has just approved 34 miles of new bike lanes and 45 of 46 proposed cycling-related capital improvement projects. those bikeys out there in SanFran sure get it all, don't they?
anyway, i commend the people who stuck with it and made it happen and raspberries to the naysayers and the guy who sued to try and stop civilization from moving forward.

here's today's good news story from the San Francisco Chronicle.

pop-culture tribute for friday

having learned yesterday of the passing of two pop-culture icons, Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett, it gave me pause and an opportunity to reflect back on the good ol' days for a while. a lot of good things came out of the 70's... customized vans, disco music, polyester shirts, cheesy tee vee shows, micro-wave ovens and Jiffy-Pop and feathered hair doos to name a few. my favorite 70's inventions were bmx bikes and the 2nd wave of skateboarding (urethane wheels, quality decks and hardware, skateparks, etc.). while i never much cared for the music of the Jackson 5, or Michael's stuff that he put out when he finally ditched his abusive father/manager and struck out on his own, i will never forget the first time i cast my gaze upon that famous poster of Farrah in the red swimsuit... to a bug-eyed 13 year old she seemed too beautiful to be real. she probably was. i also knew that the only opportunities i would have for gawking at that poster would be over at my friend's house; there was no way in hell that my mom would be letting me have that thing hanging on the wall in my bedroom. anyway, here's the AYC tribute to those two who so profoundly influenced pop-culture and changed the way the rest of the world viewed the U.S., for better or for worse. thanks to both and rest in peace.


i'm not really sure what's going on this image- she doesn't look like she's actually dressed to go out and suffer on a 5 hour training ride. the shoes are ridiculous at best and the bike doesn't seem to be much more than a prop. what exactly is being sold here?

Farrah rockin' some good form on an old school skateboard- looks like a Logan or a Sims with Tracker half-tracks. love those vintage Nikes, too. this image has a lot more credibility than the one above- she actually looks like she might be able to skate better than she bikes. at least she dressed sensibly this time...

Michael's all time best seller album Thriller served notice that things were definitely tilting heavily towards the realm of the bizarre... yo, wassup supa freak?

summer solstice

wishing a festivus solstice to everyone- especially cousin Andrew in the southern hemisphere. hang in there mate; the days are getting longer for you again and it's only two weeks until the Tour de France.

let the product sell itself

in stock now

Steamboat Springs Town Challenge schedule 2009

here's the link to the official page:

http://steamboatsprings.net/departments/parks_recreation/recreation/special_events/town_challenge

Marabou Ranch is opening their trails to the public the day before the Town Challenge opener. as far as i know, these two days represent (at this point) the only two opportunities for the masses to ride/race on their trail system. the article in the Steamboat Pilot seems to indicate that there may possibly be additional opportunities for cycling there in the future.

http://www.steamboatpilot.com/news/2009/may/22/sports_briefs_marabou_opens_biking_trails/

rider down- Ironman winner Dave Scott

these are always the worst stories to see in the news... fortunately Dave is relatively unhurt (taking all things into consideration) and will recover after being taken out by an elderly driver pulling an illegal U-turn. read the full story in the Boulder Daily Camera:

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2009/may/19/driver-ticketed-boulder-ironman-champion-accident/

be sure to peruse the reader comments at the bottom of the article (strictly for entertainment purposes).

i'm taking bets right now that the driver will trot out the ol' "i didn't even see him" defense. just wait, i know it's coming.

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