The Tour of Utah, the crapstorm we are heading for, and Q-rings.

Well...the Tour of Utah is underway! Of course, with NO VS to watch whatever they are planning on showing, I'm having a REALLY hard time getting stoked for it. Which is sad, because I hear it's a GREAT race! REading about todays stage, it sounds like Radio Shack came to WIN! Levi AND Jani in the top 5 GC...with a cushy lead over the rest of the wanna-be contenders. Sounds like after the disastrous Tour for the Shack they are out to regain some mojo. I wish them luck...they surely have earned some breaks I'd think!

Of course, just READING about the race plain SUCKS. But that's my lot in life this year...(and maybe next the way things are going just now in the world!) Not to bring politics in here, but JIMMINY CHRISTMAS! Our Fed Gov is crushing us...and I won't point fingers, cuz it's ALL of them! Their stupid little debt-ceiling rasiey-thing didn't fix a damn thing...they simply ONCE AGAIN deferred all the really hard decisions (ie: ones that would actually start to FIX THINGS) to the future.  And we NEED some damn things FIXED! I saw a neat quote from Warren Buffet, and it went something like this: "You want to get ride of deficits for good? Easy...we just need a law that says if the deficit goes over 3% of the GNP, the ENTIRE sitting congress is ineligible for re-election. Problem solved, you'd NEVER have a deficit again!" Boy, that's for sure...if there's ONE thing they all are REALLY good at, it's job preservation.

I'm so disgusted with the entire lot of them right now, I can't help but daydream about one of Tom Clancy's novels a while back....the one where a jetliner (empty, not hijacked mind you) purposely crashes into a joint session of congress. That's quite extreme obviously, but the reality is that things seem irrevocably broken. And our elected government seems totally incapable of fixing it. And WE all are going to pay for that. In the last few days I've watched my 401k shrink drastically, and there's just no good place to move it (the very few funds we do have are all crap...who PICKS these for us anyway? Is it a joke? Sure seems like it!)

OK...just had to get that out...I need a BIKE RIDE!! I didn't' ride Tues after work like normal cuz we got BUSY and I was running late. I HOPE To ride tomorrow (Thurs)...that will make me feel better. I noticed along ago that my bikes seem to be some kind of a lightening rod for negative energy...where it is somehow channeled into the earth and away from me, and afterwards I feel refreshed.

On a positive note, I got my birthday present from Jeannie in the mail tonight (it's a bit early, but timing was EVERYTHING!)...I got a set of Q-Rings for my mountain bike. What are Q-rings you ask? Well...let me explain. Ever hear of "Biopace" chainrings back in the 80's? These are like those, only different (better). The Biopace was an attempt to fix the 'dead spot' in pedaling. The pedals go around in circles, but human physiology means we can't actually pedal a circle (go ahead, sitting in your chair right now, try to rapidly pedal circles in the air with either foot....we just can't do it...turns out more like a square, or a strange triangle). That is the problem in a nutshell. So...you are pedaling. The power stroke part of your 'circle' starts somewhere around when your top pedal gets to the 2-o'clock position....(slightly over the top heading down). The power part lasts as long as you are pushing mostly down...but very soon the pedal nears the bottom and starts to come backwards....the power part is now over...this is the 'dead spot'. Now your knees have to bear the brunt as your leg muscles try to power your top pedal forward (not up or down) and the bottom pedal almost directly backwards, and  those muscles and such are quite weak compared with the one that pushes down. Don't believe it? While sitting in your chair, push down with either foot....you can probably lift your entire body weight with either leg. Now move close to a wall or something (still sitting in your chair)...and with your knee bent at a 45 deg angle (thigh relativly parallel with the floor) put your toe against the wall and push forward with your foot...there is a GINORMOUS imbalance of power between these 2 positions. THIS is where cycling knee pain typically comes from...as you can actually damage the soft tissues of your knee doing this over and over.

So...the fine folks at Rotor (a Spanish company) studied and studied, and realized that an elliptical shaped chainring (as was Biopace) with adjustment holes in the correct places (NOT Biopace) and having the group of holes in the RIGHT place (also not Biopace) allows for the chainring to actually be BIGGER just when your pedal is in the 'power' position' for both legs, and then to be smaller when the dead spot shows up for both legs. So you push a bigger gear momentarily just when you are best equipped to do so, and a smaller gear when you are at the weakest point. Biopace was the right idea but they didn't study the mechanics enough and had the bigger/smaller portions of the gears in the wrong place...and was not adjustable...thus they were total failures (they caused a lot of knee problems, which was one of the things they were trying to fix).

So....one of the guys I ride with got a set for his mt bike a few weeks back, and he magically started climbing with guys who routinely spank him on the climbs (he's a BIG guy...weighs around 240 I'd say)...and his knees don't hurt anymore. He thinks they are some sort of miracle, and wonders why every bike isn't equipped with them (I have to admit my skepticism here......as I wonder the same exact thing...they've been out there for years apparently, yet I'd never heard of them before!) However, I looked around online, and then finally ebay (cuz a NEW set of these rings costs $265..which is outlandish!) I found a new in box set for my older XTR M960 crankset (they are now making XTR 970)....and I got a GREAT deal on them (well, Jeannie got a great deal on them I mean!) And the bonus is that Rotor doesn't make these older XTR Q-rings anymore...they only make the ones that fit the newer 970 stuff....so I was VERY lucky to find these as you can't buy them from any store.

AND......they came in the mail TONIGHT!! Almost makes what's happening in Washington better...(almost). THANK YOU JEANNIE!! Happy birthday to MATT!! (a bit early)

I will mount them up tomorrow, and hopefully get out for my first acclimatization ride either tomorrow night or maybe Saturday.  They actually want you to do some easy rides so you get used to the different pedal feel...as your pedal stroke goes harder/easier with each circle you turn...however as that coincides with the actual strength of what you can do, they say it becomes totally natural very quickly. They recommend you ride a few hundred miles with the Q-rings in the #2 timing position (the middle one of 3) and after that you can move to the #1 or #3 to try out the slightly different feel and see what works best for you...as everybody pedals differently. I'm quite jazzed to try these out....I was SO very lucky...if my birthday wasn't coming up very soon, I wouldn't' have gotten them (cuz I'm BROKE!)

Moving on.....how about the madness over in the UK??? It JUST SO HAPPENS that 5 of the guys I work with just flew into the UK...they left here on Monday morning and arrived in Manchester (via London) yesterday morning...right smack in the middle of all this unrest. I really was sad I didn't get to go on this trip (It's a 3 month stint)..I"m hoping for the 2nd or 3rd group..(we have work there for the next year or so). IF the schedule holds, this group will be there Aug/Sept/Oct, so the 2nd wave will be Nov/Dec/Jan (which I can't make, as we have Thanksgiving travel plans already paid for)....so HOPEFULLY I can make the Feb/Mar/Apr group. I have my travel road bike all ready to go...tho I'm betting it will be a tad chilly over there in Feb/Mar...but oh well...I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

OK..that's quite enough of an Inane smorgasbord for one post. In fact, it might almost be a new record for Inaneness....I'll have to work on some kind of rating-scale. Gotta run!

GAME ON!

It's the last road for Highroad

I saw on the local news this morning that Bob Stapleton announced to his team on Sunday they are free to look for work because he has failed to find a new sponsor. Then I saw at least 2 articles on Velo News today about it, I guess the story just broke today. How utterly sad that the winning-est team in cycling can't get a sponsor. It's big news here as they are based just 30 miles up the road in San Luis Obisbo (I do most of my Mt biking up in the SLO area). I've been into Arts Cycling (they are the closest Cannondale dealer around) a few times, and they are the official 'Highroad' shop if you order team gear online. There's always lots of excitement in the shop due to their involvement with such an awesome team.

Obviously Cav and 3 or 4 of the leadout guys will no doubt find an awesome new home... hopefully they can stay together as they've been the premier 'sprinters' team for a few years now. Of course it will have to be a good fit...so Cav can't really go to a team that has a GC stake in the Tour..cuz the entire team will be dedicated to that (such as BMC and Leopard Trek). Garmin has a split personality with no 'top' GC contender, so they can afford to split the team and have a few guys take care of Tyler. I don't see him going to a team that already has a good sprinter...and Griepel is looking for a team too...one thing you can say here is the trading/moving season will be VERY interesting! I have no idea how large the entire Highroad team is, but don't they sponsor a womens team too? I haven't heard but I'd assume that will be lost also. When you take into account ALL the people who work for a team, letalone all the unknown riders who are either new to the pro's or just the domestiques who do the work day in and day out for little to no glory, that's a lot of people looking for work in a field that is pretty small.

It's just so very depressing that we (the US) are losing one of our teams. It's been just incredible having all these teams the last few years...and I have to believe that the demise of one that is SUCH a powerhouse spells bad news down the road for all the others. I'd be VERY afraid when their current contracts are up.

And so....what's next for Stapleton? What does he do now?? He's a native of SLO...but I have no idea if he actually lives there when he's not managing a top pro cycling team. But he's obviously got the smarts and the contacts....maybe he can pull something together and start Highroad up again sometime in the future. But with the state of our economy I wouldn't hold my breath. We have lots of problems in the world and pro cycling might very well be a luxury if things continue to decline. Seems everybody is cutting back still, I wouldn't be surprised if we slip right into ANOTHER recession the way things are going. I'll keep riding MY bikes, tho I have to admit that I'm feeling the crunch too...just buying parts is getting hard....things are so expensive (the good parts I mean, not the chinsey stuff)....and my dollars just aren't going very far anymore. I'm maxed out on my retirement savings, but that doesn't leave much left after paying my share of the bills. Life is tough right now...our belts are tightened...and I can only hope we (I mean the entire WORLD) will pull out of this slump in the near future.

But for now...all we can do is hang in there. Cycling will go on, and next years season will be exciting if for no other reason than the huge shakeup that has occured....new teams will be stepping up with serious players and it will be SO very exciting! In the meantime, I can only wish good luck to all of Team Highroad...they've been an inspiration for many years now.

Thanks for the memories. It's been a great ride!

Oh...and speaking of the last road, .I found the link to the video of the launch pad deconstruction I talked about yesterday...the one where they cut-away the hammerhead and it crashes to the ground....it's a VERY short video...and it has audio..I can only imagine how it must have sounded anywhere nearby. It makes me sad to watch cuz I've spent a LOT of time up in that tower in the last 3 years of it's useful life (we shut it down after the LAST Titan IV launch in 2005)...it really served the country well for a lot of years and was home to many many BILLIONS of dollars of our finest spacecraft before they were sent into orbit. I drove by today and the pad-deck is just a pile of steel rubble...they've got some work to do just to clear that pile before they can continue. Anyway, here is the link if you are interested:

Vandenberg AFB SLC-4 hammerhead comes down