Archives
Paris-Nice. Nice!
Really looking forward to Paris-Nice this weekend. It's the first televised event of the season so it's a chance to check out the new teams and some big name riders in action. I predict another CSC walkover.
Club newbie
Everytime I think of an article in the cycling press I want to refer to I can never find the magazine. A few weeks back I read an article in either Cycling Weekly or Cycling Plus about the potentially off-putting aspect of club cycling for a newbie on his first fews rides with a new club. You know, having to deal with the club know-it-all and being thoroughly worked over by the chain gang. I don't think it was particulary serious, but it did provoke a response in the letters column a week later.
So why did this article interest me? Well, this week I am going along to join my local club. I have ridden with a few clubs as a casual rider wherever I have been living at the time, but I have never been an active member. I have always been into cycling and until a few years back always had the fortune to meet and know people who shared the interest so organising rides was never much of a problem. I think I got a bit distracted about getting the miles in (or not) rather than enjoying the whole experience. Now I want to participate a bit more and get the opportunity to try organised events and racing, something I have never done before.
I have ridden with the local club before and they're a decent bunch who only had helpful advice for me. However, I would be lying if I said I wasn't a bit nervous about joining up even though I am really looking forward to it.
Has anyone got any advice for a club newbie, do's and don'ts?
Mechanicals
Two mechanicals this weekend. One with the bike, one with my back!
I owe the Flash-Point blog a post or two so I set out yesterday into some devilish gusty winds with a pair of deep rim wheels and a prayer to the cycling gods. Before long the winds had me weaving across the road like a Chianti sodden tifoso at the end of a Giro stage, so the rest of my route was largely decided by the amount of tree cover available. Actually it wasn't all that bad and I did manage to get some more miles into the wheels, which incidentally are doing a very fine job at the moment. What was far more alarming was the mechanical I suffered 10 miles from home. All of a sudden the steering started to seize up and it wasn't long before I only had about 5-10 degrees of movement of the front end. I loosened the headset but that had no effect, this was more than an amateur over-tightening error. So it was a very edgy and careful cruise home praying that whatever was causing the problem wasn't doing permanent damage to my frame and forks.
After a few very hairy moments and some tactical shortcuts I managed to get home without major incident. The bike went straight up on the stand and out came the fork with a shallow circular scar around the steerer tube about 15mm up from the fork crown. Now I was worried (thankfully the damage was later confirmed as only cosmetic). It didn't look to be a fault in the fork so I checked the headset. Inside the lower headset cup where the collar pushes up into the frame there was a 2mm deep 'wrinkle' of metal pushing out from the inner surface. I should just explain that headset and forks were only fitted last weekend. I took the whole lot down to the local experts and after admitting they had never seen anything like it before agreed it seemed to be a headset fault. They were also very helpful in offering to knock it out there and then and fit a new one. I will send the original back to the manufacturer who at present will remain nameless, suffice to say they are a well-known brand who also make cranks, stems and bars. I wasn't about to try another of the same brand so I spent a little more to get a really solid unit that I can 'fit and forget' as the saying goes.
So far so good, today's ride went without problems.
Unfortunately I can't get the local bike shop to replace my back, which I put out tidying up the living room last night (more evidence to persuade my wife that too frequent tidying isn't advisable ;-)). Luckily it's not too bad but I am finding it difficuly to find a comfortable position to sit in. I still took the bike out for spin today, strangely it's the only position that doesn't give me any aching. So I'll be setting up the trainer and spending the rest of the day watching the rugby and eating from the comfort of my Selle Italia Prolink!
Pantani on Pampeago
This photo was taken on Alpe di Pampeago during Stage 14 of the 2003 Giro. Pantani had tried to attack Simoni (the maglia rosa), Garzelli and handful of other riders at the foot of the climb. The lead riders pulled Pantani back and soon after Simoni launched a solo attack that split the group and took him out on his own at the front. Garzelli, Cuapio and Rumsas mananged to limits their losses but Pantani couldn't hold the pace and had lost two minutes by the top of the climb. It was Pantani's last ever attack in the Giro and it had come to nothing.
By the time he reached us at the top Pantani looked like he had aged ten years and was a pale imitation of his 'Pirate' ego. It's a sad shot to see his state in comparison to the joyful enthusiasm of the fans. This was one of two times I saw Pantani racing. Both times he was far from his best but the tifosi always reserved their loudest cheers for him. Since his death, it is probably easy to read too much into the events of his last few years racing but he really seemed to have lost the heart to compete by this point.
It must have been incredible to have watched Pantani at his best.
Archives
09/14/03, 09/21/03, 09/28/03, 10/05/03, 10/12/03, 12/07/03, 12/14/03, 12/21/03, 12/28/03, 01/04/04, 01/11/04, 01/18/04, 02/15/04, 04/25/04, 05/09/04, 07/25/04, 08/01/04, 09/12/04, 10/03/04, 10/31/04, 11/21/04, 12/12/04, 01/09/05, 01/16/05, 01/23/05, 01/30/05, 02/13/05, 03/13/05, 03/27/05, 04/03/05, 04/10/05, 04/17/05, 04/24/05, 05/01/05, 05/15/05, 05/22/05, 05/29/05, 06/05/05, 06/12/05, 08/07/05, 09/04/05, 09/18/05, 10/30/05, 11/20/05, 11/27/05, 12/04/05, 12/11/05, 12/18/05, 12/25/05, 01/01/06, 01/08/06, 01/15/06, 01/29/06, 02/05/06, 02/12/06, 02/19/06, 02/26/06, 03/05/06, 03/12/06, 03/19/06, 03/26/06, 04/09/06, 04/16/06, 04/30/06, 05/21/06, 05/28/06, 07/09/06, 07/23/06, 08/06/06, 08/13/06, 09/03/06, 09/10/06, 10/15/06, 10/29/06, 11/05/06, 11/12/06, 11/19/06, 11/26/06, 12/10/06, 12/17/06, 12/24/06, 12/31/06, 01/07/07, 01/14/07, 01/21/07, 01/28/07, 02/04/07, 02/11/07, 02/18/07, 02/25/07, 03/04/07, 03/25/07, 04/01/07, 04/15/07, 04/22/07, 04/29/07, 07/15/07, 07/22/07, 07/29/07, 09/16/07, 12/23/07, 12/30/07, 01/06/08, 01/13/08, 01/20/08, 03/23/08, 03/30/08, 04/27/08,
