September 2011 Changing Gears

Riding the rails east, we all remembered the thrilling anticipation of a mid-summer cycling trip in Colorado…and how far off it seemed, during winter sign-ups! But the world keeps spinning like DBC wheels in March, and now this bold trip, planned and led by Bruce and Marilyn Dewey, is mostly photos, aching muscles, and memories. In addition to tour leaders Bruce and Marilyn, we were lucky to have impeccable sagsters Pat and Bob Gonzalez to nurture our every need. Sweet memories! For the lucky ten riders, this trip was all we anticipated, and more.

After many long drives down to San Jose to ride at Hellyer Velodrome and upgrading to a Category 3 on the track, my dad and I decided to fly out to Texas for the Junior National Track Championships. Despite the horror stories of flying with bikes, my track bike arrived with us in Dallas unscathed. Though, my dad and I had to adjust to the stereotypical sweltering Texas heat and humidity. (Speaking of Texas stereotypes, the first restaurant that we dined at had a sign reminding patrons that bringing firearms into the restaurant was against the law.) We drove our rented minivan from the airport to our hotel in Frisco, the host city of the velodrome that would be the home to Junior Track Nationals for the next week.

I had a pretty good race weekend all things considering with my less than full season of training, this feels like February to me as this was my first road race of the season. I had a long winter with not much cycling due to my job. That being said, I had a lot of help in this stage race

Katherine and I haven’t always been “recreational” cyclists with lycra and centuries to ride. We rode bikes to get to work and to get around town. Perhaps because of this background, we have used Internal Geared Hubs (see side bar) in many of our bicycles. Like many people, we started with Sturmey Archer 3 speeds in old English bikes. Then the cute Japanese commute bike with the three-speed hub, purchased on impulse in Canada. After that came the Shimano Nexus 7 speed hub, designed with a more modern cyclist in mind.

The last junior criterium this year, the Foothill Circuit Race, rewarded the Jrs with 2 podiums good racing from the rest of the team. Foothill circuit race had 60 feet of climbing per lap Cantelow repeats came in handy for these guys!

Please welcome Andrew Ritchie back to the US Bicycling Hall of Fame at 7PM on Friday, Sept 23. Andrew will be in town to present and sign his new book, "Quest for Speed".

We need still bicycle advocacy organizations and clubs to send letters of support for SB 910 to their Assemblymembers.

Hey I'm over crits, I thought to myself, maybe I'll do a RR. Gee! How ‘bout the hilliest course out there! So I didn't know what I was getting myself into when I signed up for Patterson Pass (PP), but I found out quickly half way through the first lap of the E4 66 mile 3 lap road race, with 6200 ft. of climbing.

The first lap was easy enough. Jeff Weaver, Ryan Malm, and me were staying out of the wind and conserving energy while Jason Brasel, Chris Hopkins, and Ryan Alvey were patrolling the front. There were a few breakaway attempts and it was nice to see DBC represent every one of them. We had 4-5 less guys than some of the bigger teams but still had a guy in every break. Great job guys!

We were racing on the old Fort Ord military base and the race consisted of 8 laps on a 4.3 mile course. My group (60-64) was combined with the 65-69 and 70+ riders. There were 5 guys from Hammer Racing and four of those were in the 65-69 field. They started attacking almost from the start and were attacking on almost every hill. We lost half of the field on the first lap. I tried to race smart and position myself to be near the front at the start of all of the uphill sections where those guys were really trying to make the rest of us hurt. Then, as the effort picked up, I was sliding to the back of the pack and then moving up again on the flats. I always managed to find the wheel of someone who was moving up. By the time we got to the next hill, I had been carried up to about 2nd to 4th place. This was really working well approaching the uphill grade about a mile or so after the start line. It was like I had a bunch of domestiques working for me. By the end of the second lap we were down to 11 riders and my strategy was working great.

An article about the upcoming California Bicycle Summit and the latest update from Sacramento.