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Biking Man Corsica: The Mountain in the Sea
Photos and words by Ryan Le Garrec
Bikingman Corsica is a mere 700 kilometres race, sounds short for an ultra distance race, well, add 14.000 meters to climb, crazy temperature drops, freezing wind gusts, potholes hiding inside the dark, standing cows on the roads and pigs and boars coming along, wandering dogs and all kinds of wildlife. A beautiful tortuous island with no flat road at any point.
It almost feels like a waste to race it.
You Could Be Bowling
Words and photos by Spencer Dillon
The trip from Salt Lake to Moab isn’t particularly onerous. Just a few hours rolling through coal country, a glimpse of Green River, and the amiable descent into canyon country. But sandstone seems a stronger attractant than US 191 can handle.
On a Thursday afternoon, two lanes of brake-tapping traffic crawl south on 191 for miles towards Arches, well beyond even the boundary of Moab proper. 191 connects Moab with I-70, and, despite its designation as a state route, boasts better pavement than much of Salt Lake. It is the sort of perfect road that only tourists can create, widening out into two lanes just as the going gets scenic so that gawkers may slow down to adequately gawp. It is new and immaculate because the tourist dollars it transports pay those maintenance costs and more. On most days, it is 31 miles of bottleneck – the carotid artery for family minivans, overlanders and $7000-mountain-bike-on-the-roof people coming from all points north, east and west. Everyone wants to go see Delicate Arch and ride the Whole Enchilada.
SWOT and the North Cape 4000
Words by Erik Nohlin, photos by Beth Welliver
Editor’s note: this is a long piece, but I wanted to leave it mostly unedited to maintain Erik’s voice, and all are encouraged to ask Erik questions here, just 24 hours before he departs for the North Cape 4000. So feel free to ask away and hopefully he’ll have time to address any questions you might have!
Fuck.
Wednesday / July 11 2018 / 04.22 am / Orlando International Airport / T-16 days to NC4000
Dehydrated and wrecked after canceled flights and a week on the road hunting Tour de France in cars, being off the bike completely for eleven days while eating shitty gas station food. The longest ride I’ve ever done is two weeks away and I’m lacking the fitness I wish I had enough of to relax about it at this point. Gear is not dialed and there’s a lot of questions without known answers right now. I’ll use this piece as a checklist, trying to get some answers for myself and to give you a picture of what’s in my head right now as I write this on a plane from Orlando to San Francisco, but first some context and a SWOT, a thing I tend to do when shit’s about to hit the fan. When this is published in two weeks from now, we’ll be on our way to the start in the north Italian city of Arco on July 28th.
Biting Off More Than You Can Chew
Photos by Locke Hassett and words by Sam Schultz
Often times, the best adventures begin with high-noon departures, loose planning, and biting off a bit more than you can chew.
It was my first bikepacking trip, and though I have backpacked and traveled by motorbike quite a lot, I was clueless about how to pack a bicycle–and I must say, quite skeptical of this trending form of travel. Who would want to ride a fully loaded bike on singletrack?, I had always thought. Visions of struggling up climbs, only to be rewarded by awkward flow-less descending had always come to mind.
Dustin Klein is no stranger to frame embellishment and for this year’s track crit season, he put it to work. Cadence teamed up with Jan Kole’s framebuilding company Colossi. A former Dutch professional cyclist himself, Jan raced in Europe in the 70s and 80s before moving to China to establish Colossi with his son, Sander.
Together, Colossi and Cadence will have a presence at the US and European track crit circuit in the form of these Cadence Colossi 2017 team frames. Read the full press-release and see more photos below.
Oh my… Stoemper strikes again! This time, NYC photographer and track crit racer Chris Pino did a stellar job at documenting this rare bird. Seriously, Godzilla SMASH! See more at Pedal Room.
Hollis Duncan‘s work has been featured on the site before and I really enjoy his photos. Here’s the latest from the photographer, a video from the Spanish ‘cross championships:
“A few weeks ago, I went on self-assignment to Spain’s ‘cross championships in Segorbe (Valencia) and the first person I stopped to ask directions on the street happened to be Belgian. I carried little more than a camera and some beer money; paid peanuts for an individual room in an NH hotel with a bed no wider than my brake pads.
One thing that makes the Spanish championships unique is that there is a race-within-the-race between the 17 autonomous communities that comprise Spain. While you see a lot of team jerseys the majority wear kits from their home region: Basque Country, Galicia, Madrid, Catalunya, Valencia, etc. It was nice to see kids racing their ass off for regional bragging rights. Of course the Spanish have an inferiority complex re: Belgium, but the Basques are doing their darnedest to close the gap. Their support would be indistinguishable from Belgium’s if they showed up in equal numbers, and one advantage Spain enjoys over Belgium is Iberian ham.
Cariño, ¿has puesto mis Lightweights en la furgoneta .. y el jamón?”
Check out some photos at Hollis’ Flickr too!
As part of Trimble Racing, Dave has been throwing Neversink , a road race north of NYC in the backroads of upstate New York. The 73-mile coarse packed in over 5,000′ of elevation and with the finish nestled at the top of a grade that peaked over 12%. Three racers did not finish, but the remaining 32 men and women soon found themselves scarfing down hot BBQ.
Dave sent over a selection of photos from the event, which I’ve posted in the Gallery. Also check out finishing times and stats below.
And the award for the best race poster goes to…
Trimble Racing is proud to announce the Hatcher Pass Road Race to be held on August 4th, 2012. This unsanctioned 70 mile dirt road race will be contested through the beautiful wilderness of Alaska. The race will begin at the Trimble family cabin near the Independence Mine in the Talkeetna Mountains. After a neutral descent the race will start with a grueling two mile dirt climb up and over the famous Hatcher Pass. At the top of the pass riders will cross from the Palmer side to the Willow side plummeting down the Willow Fishhook Road, a long and technical gravel descent with endless switchback corners. After the nearly thirty mile descent the road levels for a few recovery miles. A checkpoint at the intersection of the Parks Highway marks the halfway point where the riders will turn around and start the long journey back to the Trimble cabin.
The video quality here might not be the best but I really love the concept behind this race. The 1896 Classic Marathon Race Revival revives the classic race that took place on the first Modern Olympic Games March 31st, 1896. It was for track bikes and fixed gears only and was thrown by 48:17 and Trimble Racing.
Photos by Dave Trimble
What a rad time this turned out to be. Last weekend, some of my favorite people in NYC headed out to Catskill Park to attend a gentleman’s race. Trimble Racing put it on and dubbed it the Neversink Gentleman’s Race. Looking through these photos made my day!
Dave sent me a link to his photo gallery, which I’ve embedded in a slideshow below, along with winners, times and the GPS from the race.
While my more recent experience with Giro helmets was centered around the Ionos, I am more than impressed with the revisions made to the 2011 Giro Atmos. Years ago when I finally made the leap from +/- $50 helmets to the Atmos pricepoint (which varies), I actually enjoyed wearing my helmet. It was lighter, less bulky and incredibly stylish. Three years ago, I bought the Ionos and all of the above were improved upon even more. Now in 2011, Giro has redesigned their Atmos into a stylish and even better fitting helmet.
Check out more of my Product Review of the 2011 Giro Atmos road helmet below.
Photo by Dave Trimble
It’s getting to the point where I almost prefer 35mm photos of bicycles more than digital. At least when it comes to slightly more design-driven bicycles like the Legor Cicli NAHBS bike. I can’t wait to rape this bike with my AE-1 at NAHBS! Thanks to Dave Trimble for the photo and Legor Cicli for the Beautiful Bicycle!
Edit: Check out one more recent photo by Dave below.
Photo by Doug Takeshi Wolfe
David Trimble shot me an email with these exclusive looks at the new Legor Cicli track bike for the 2011 NAHBS. Holy hell, is this thing ever nice! Even though I’m usually not into bright colors on track bikes, I’d thrash the hell out of this thing on the boards.
Check out more photos below!
Let’s just say this isn’t at all what I expected from Lair of the Minotaur. Evil Power threw me a curve ball when I first listened to it. At the second track “Let’s Kill These Motherfuckers”, I promptly turned it off. It wasn’t until the other day that I finally gave the entire album a listen. At first, I thought the grindcore / blackened thrash group had gone a little too late 90’s hardcore for my taste. “Let’s Kill These Motherfuckers” just sat with me wrong; I couldn’t help but picture a bunch of guys in a mosh pit somewhere, wearing mesh shorts round-housing each other in the face while singing along to the hook. Luckily for the album and this review, “Riders of Skullhammer, We Ride the Night” really knocked Evil Power back on the trash track.
Read the rest of the review and watch the video for “Evil Power” below.
Well if the NYC wealthy haven’t heard of Rapha before, they sure have now. The NY Times has been covering cycling a lot recently and now there’s an article on cycling wear that stabs at Central Park roadies and their parade-esque kits; pointing out other, classier outfits for City bikers.
They even got a quote from Snob!
In an e-mail message, Bike Snob NYC said he was impressed with a “Fixed Jacket” that Rapha sent him to try. “It’s excellent,” he wrote. “It’s durable, the fit is good, and the pockets are in the right places.” The blogger added, “They’ve done a great job of not only evoking cycling history but also capturing a ‘soulful’ aesthetic that appeals to certain riders.” Still, he admitted: “As a cyclist, I understand it, but personally I sometimes find it off-putting. It’s a little rarefied for me … I don’t want to feel like I need to be worthy of my clothes.”
The Fixed Jacket is indeed a nice garment. But I’ll stick with this…
