It’s that time of year. Somedays it is the darkness that saps you, and sometimes it is just the cold of it all. Regardless, most of us end up “riding inside” to get our cycling fix as winter approaches. Travel can also put you on those bicycles that go nowhere, usually in “fitness rooms”" in strange cities. I guess you just have to swallow it like an oversized vitamin pill. It’s one of those things that you know is good for you, even though it feels like punishment at times.

My intro this year was particularly interesting. It happened to be the Renaissance Hotel wrapped around the Roger’s Centre Stadium in Toronto. This place can provide you with hotel rooms that are part of the stadium. You walk into your room and realize that your window could be hit by a home run if they ever put steroids on the menu again! The hotel has an onsite “fitness centre” that is a major part of the complex.  The set up is impressive, especially if you are a Blue Jays fan. For a cyclist looking for a bike to ride, it was a bit more complicated.  After going down and down (4 flights) into the belly of the huge gym, I finally found the room with the “spinning cycles”.  The guy on the front desk warned me that there wouldn’t be many folks riding the bikes but he did not say why.  ”No worries”, (an i-pod and a couple of days of travel would be enough motivation to get me through).

The room was hugely empty of other people, had about 20 bikes, and lots of mirrors. I don’t know whether this is to give the impression that you are not alone, or just to let you get multiple perspectives of your sorry self as you ride off to nowhere. Time passed, the sweating started, and I was beginning to feel like poor “Dave”, the astronaut in the movie 2001, a Space Odyssey. I think he spent years alone in some alien lab made up to look like an apartment where humans lived on earth. He actually grew old and died in that room!

I was just beginning to reminise about the movie when she showed up! Solitude was gone! “Dave” was startled, caught unawares, and mumbled something.  She seemed used to this, and said she would go ahead and “set up“.  She was compact and full of business, remarking that the class had indeed grown smaller these days. Next, the lights are turned way down, and a small lamp on the music console is switched on.  Then Her i-pod goes into the mega sound system and giant speakers come alive! Suddenly the base blast is hitting me like a head wind!

OK… you can still do this…

Her bike moves in next to mine, and soon she is bouncing up and down to the beat. I begin to feel like a wuss. This girl is clearly sprinting up a hill, and I am falling behind! My earphones fall out, and after fiddling with the resistance knob, I am pumping away too. Standing up out of the saddle, I begin to wonder just how long this hill will be! It feels like we are racing! How could that be? Give me a break~ we are in a darkened room in the basement of a building in downtown Toronto! Where in the hell are we racing to? After several minutes of this effort, we get to back off and just spin, but only until the next soul thumping song comes on, and we are out of the saddle again!

An hour later, I have given up on her pace. I imagine that her bike is different, that the resistance knob is just for show, and other excuses. The reality is that I have just taken part in my first real “spinning class” ruled by an “exercise nazi“! I am humbled. Then I see another guy who snuck into the back of the room and just rode at his own pace for most of this. I guess I have some things to learn about this indoor cycling.  I certainly have more respect for the workout one can get in one of these classes!

There was one nagging bit of knowledge. I also had a pretty good hunch why Her classes had gotten so much smaller!

The travel tip is that if you are going to Toronto, The Renaissance is a great place to stay (just be careful of the spinning classes). There’s a new training goal for me~ travel time will mean a little extra preparation “just in case” I end up riding with the exercise nazi! Yep, I’ll be ready for her the next time!

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The “Cycling Classics” are those famous one-day races that stand on their own as monuments to the sport. Most of them have been running for about 100 years on nearly the same courses!  Any rider who wins a “classic” will immediately become a historical hero  in cycling.  The last “classic” of the season starts in Paris and runs for 252kms (154 miles) SSW, past Chartres to Tours, France. Since the course  is mostly flat through the fields of France, it is a race that favors the sprinters. The climber-types will have trouble powering through the miles, keeping the pace and chasing down the breakaways, so this is a race for the “big boys”.   Paris-Tours almost always comes down to a contest between a small late breakaway group and the teams trying to bring it back together so that the sprinters can unleash their stuff in the final few kms. This year was no exception, and it brings us to the “sprinter’s dilemma”.

As a sprinter, you have to power your way into position in the final few kilometers of a race, but hold  your final kick until you know it will pay off with a good chance of victory. Go too soon, and you risk blowing it, being caught by the charging peloton, and having to explain your gutsy move to your race director. Wait too long, or get boxed in, and you lose your chance. The dilemma comes when some racers decide to make a “suicide move” in the last 10 kms (6 miles) or so. These late breakaways are usually doomed to failure (hence the name “suicide”), but will occasionally pay off with a win. When the sprinters see this move, they must decide whether to chase it down, (wasting precious energy), or wait for their team to chase it, hence the dilemma. This is truly a high speed game of poker with the finish line fast approaching. Go to www.cyclingnews.com for the official report.

In Paris-Tours this year, four riders broke free with 12kms to go. They were almost caught by the peloton on the small climb 4km from the finish, but there was just a moment’s hesitation in the pack (that proved critical). A French guy named Phillip Gilbert saw his chance, and knew he had a teammate up ahead, so he attacked, bridging up to the four, and laying down his cards. His teammate, Mikael Delage, immediately decides to bury himself for Gilbert, and uses his time trialing skills to keep the group of five just ahead of the peloton. Delage “blows”  at 1km to go, but has beautifully positioned Gilbert ahead of the charging pack by a few seconds. The top sprinters in the world were in this race, and they now realize that they have waited too long! This year, the “suicide move” succeeds, and four riders cross the line 4 seconds ahead of the pack! Gilbert is the winner, and the sprinters are now racing for 5th place. Getting, a “top five” is still a great result in Paris-Tours, but it means they came up on the short end of this year’s “dilemma” for the win.  (see also www.slipstreamsports.com)

The “bunch” charges down the famous Avenue de Grammont in Tours.  The sprinters have been released by their leadout trains, and are going for it all out. The group includes Robbie McEwan, Erik Zabel, Daniele Bennati, and Tom Boonen. However, there is a Garmin jersey pulling ahead of all of these guys… and…Yep, the young American wins the bunch sprint to take 5th place! (as you might have guessed, his name is Tyler Farrar) This year, the late breakaway succeeded, but the Garmin boys managed a top five. They also had two guys in the early break, making for a very successful day of racing. Paris-Tours marks the end of a season that began in February, so the team will be celebrating the end of the season as well as their result. For a new team that just stepped up to the world’s top ranks of cycling, Garmin Chipotle has made quite a mark. In fact, they have been declared a Pro-Tour team for next year!

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Times are tough. We are all going to ask that awful question many times in the next year. “Is this something that I need, or is it something that I want?” 

Food falls into the “needs” category, but new clothes can find themselves under the”wants” list. This is particulary difficult for the cyclist as the temperature drops. Whether you are a die hard commuter, or a fair weather rider, the colder temps will have you looking longingly at those thicker clothes. So… do you buy the cool new stuff, or simply make do and suffer the cold body parts? How do you deal with the fall weather? At this time of year,  your ride may start off a lot  colder than it finishes. Sure, we have all learned to “layer up”, but when you “layer down” on a bicycle, you end up carrying all that stuff back with you! By the time you are headed home, you are looking like the poor schmuck who just got kicked out of the house and didn’t even get the keys to the car!

Well, there is hope for those who need some lightweight warmth to start the early ride, but don’t want to look like a homeless person riding back into town. The greatest thing about this “underground cycling wear” is that most of it can be picked up for free, or lifted from an underwear drawer in your house!

That’s right! I’m talking about plastic bags and pantyhose!

Instructions for plastic bags:

1)You walk into the store, and ask for a couple of plastic bags. 

(Since these are pretty much worthless, if the clerk refuses, you just have to accept that he/she has some real “issues” and move on)

You then cut or tear the corners out of one bag and place them over your toes so that your forefoot is covered as you slide it back into your shoe. The other bag is torn in half, and one part is placed in front of your “privates” while the other is placed between your layers to break the wind blowing through your jersey and chilling your chest.  The effect is one of the worlds’ lightest windblock liners! The price is unbeatable, and if you don’t want to crunch these down into a pocket, you just find a trash can to throw them away when the temperature rises.

Pantyhose:

1) Girls have this easy. But if you guys are not married, this may require a girlfriend who is willing to give your a pair of her pant(ies)! (This may not be a great line for the first date.) Once you score the pantyhose, you cut one leg at the knee and at the top of the thigh section, then tie a little knot at the knee end. You are now the proud owner of the world’s lightest, ”super-compact” sock hat! These things are incredibly warm under a helmet, and will add tremendous warmth to a standard liner as well. They weigh nothing, and are so compressible that they can get lost in a pocket! One little added feature: if you do something stupid like falling over in front of a bunch of cars at an intersection, you can immediately pull this cap over your face and ride away anonymous. Just like the bank robbers- you can see them, but they can’t see you! 

Gloves: Sorry~ there is no scrimping here. There is simply no substitute for a good  pair of gloves, so you will just have to spend the money for warmer paws. It’s worth it. If your fingers are still cold, there is a technique for a little extra warmth when descending.  You cup your hand behind a bent knee, and alternate them. This means steering with just one hand, so be careful on corners! Still, it is amazing how warm the back of your knee can be when cycling! Even a gloved hand will appreciate being sandwiched like this on a cold day.

There you have it~ the comfort tips for lightweight, lowcost clothing. Now get out and enjoy this incredible fall weather we are having!

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Must apologize for the delay this week.  You can thank Windows Vista for the late report on this year’s “Worlds”. Yep, Vistas is starting to smell like fish in my computer! I’ve decided that HP (”home premium”) is an inside joke at Microsoft- it really stands for Horrible Product! Anyway, on to the report:

It took a few days for the “inside interviews” from the winning Italian team to come out, but when they did, it was the story of a brilliant game plan for this year’s race on September 28th. The record books will show that Alessandro Ballan and his swanky compatriot Damiano Cunego delivered a 1-2 punch to put two Italians on the podium this year, with Davide Rebellin chomping at their heels in 4th place! How is it that one team puts three guys in the top five in a race that takes 6 hours to finish, and has over half of the field dropping out?

This is the deal: Whoever wins the World Championships in cycling gets to wear rainbow stripes on their jerseys for the next year whenever they race! Now most reasonable people would not pour their guts out for 6 hours to get a fancy piece of clothing. But Italians are not known as reasonable people. Everyone is a slave to something, and Italians grow weak when you wave the flag of fashion in their face! In the cycling world, those rainbow stripes are the pinnacle of fashion. The result is a National Team committed to keeping the colors in Italy. It is common for riders of other countries to beg out of the Worlds because they are simply worn out at this time of the year. Not so for the Italianos- many of their top racers will save themselves and train up for this race! This is impressive for a sporting season that starts in February and runs through October! That is a very long time for anyone to spend so many hours sitting on those stupid bicycle seats! This year, the Italians were able to orchestrate their victory with nine riders who were overflowing with talent. It also helped to have a “Director Sportif” named Ballerini. (you can’t make this stuff up!)

On to the race: Everyone was content to cruise along for the first 80 miles or so. Then, on lap seven, the Italian captain, Bettini, started tagging his riders on the butt. (I know, because I watched the race on www.universalsports.com ) Whoever got “tagged” acted like hot coals had been dropped inside his shorts! He would go to the front and “drill it” for a couple of laps of the 10.5 mile circuit. Once burned up, he would drop back(maybe out) and Bettini would “tag” another guy, letting him know it was his turn to go. The goal was to force the pace over the climbs in order to “soften the legs” of the sprinters in the race. They knew what they were doing! A rider named Bosisio was the first to be sacrificed. (He won a stage of the Giro this year). Next, Bruseghin (toasted appetizer?) took off. (another stage winner in the Giro de Italia, and winner of the Bronze medal in the Olympics) Neither one of these guys were planning to finish the race. A couple more of the Italians would sacrifice themselves before the final lap. Then, while everyone was watching Bettini (the favorite), Ballan and Cunego powered away with Rebellin on their heels. Bettini was in the following group, but he was seen cheering wildly when he heard that his teammates had won ahead of him. All in all, this year’s World Championship Race was a great example of teamwork. The “leader” did not win, but played a supporting role. The whole team will be national heros, and even the riders who dropped out will be remembered for the role they played to keep those rainbow stripes around Italian arms for another year. Interesting isn’t it? You could change the actors in this story, and the fact that it was played out on bicycles is rather coincidental, but the success of such teamwork is solid ground that all of us can stand on!

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This time of year brings an incredible group of athletes to North Central Washington, but it is not likely that you have ever heard of them by name. To get an idea of what they do, you would have to spend a day or two in a wheelchair. Seriously, you should try it some time, maybe for just a few hours.  Try to go without using your legs for an entire day if you really want to know what it takes to get from point A to point B by using your arms alone.  Then imagine powering yourself from Lincoln Rock Park to Rocky Reach Dam, across the river, up over Navarre Coulee, through Chelan, up to Wells Dam, and back to Lincoln Rock on a bicycle built for arms.  That is just what some of the wheelchair athletes riding the Dam2Dam www.Dam2Dam.org did this weekend!

Dam2Dam is a fundraising ride created by Mike Utley and his foundation for spinal cord research. www.mikeutley.org/foundation The event offers rides of 25, 50 and 100 miles for riders of all abilities, but it has special attraction for cyclists who have lost the use of their legs and use “handcycles” to power themselves along. Some traveled all the way from Colorado to do this ride! Instead of cranking it over with legs, these cyclists use arms and shoulders. It is amazing to watch them rip out the revolutions!

Consider this the next time you use those powerful buttock and leg muscles to power your bike. Imagine that shoulders and arms were all you had.  Then load the lower half of your body onto your bike like a suitcase, and strike out for 25 to 100 miles! Riding a regular bike along with these athletes this weekend was a humbling experience!

Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) is a devastating event that strikes 11,000 people per year. Most (47%) are caused by motor vehicle accidents, but 9% are now caused by sporting accidents. Each injury hits the victim like a tornado. Most victims are young, healthy and in the prime of life. For that family nothing will ever be the same. However, tornados pass and life goes on.  Families rebuild. This weekend we witnessed  how the sport of cycling can rebuild lives for people with SCI. Riding along beside these athletes, I was struck by the consistent presence of a friend or family member riding “support”, and I realized that together, they made a special kind of “cycling team”.

Most of us have friends who have sustained spinal injury. Just a month ago, another aquaintance of mine became paraplegic after a climbing accident.  She is now at the Craig Hospital in Denver, Colorado www.craighospital.org and glad to be there. Craig Hospital has been ranked in the top ten of Rehab Hospitals every year for the past 19 years.  One of the goals for patients at Craig is to get well enough to travel to Wenatchee and take part in Mike Utley’s ride!  When you can learn to ride a bike again after becoming paralyzed, you get to reclaim a large part of life. It may be a handcycle, but it gives you a sport, a way to “get out”. You can compete against others, or more importantly against yourself. It is a challenge you can meet, with achievable goals. There were staff and riders from the Craig Hospital www.craighospital.org who showed up here in Wenatchee as a team; complete with cycling jerseys and support! The connection? Mike Utley did his rehab at Craig Hospital.  He even  set up the “Mike Utley Terrain Park” to challenge patients in their recovery at the hospital.

Another rider doing Dam2Dam was our own Michael Hansen, just recently free of his Halo Brace. Michael was miraculously spared spinal cord damage, but had a serious spinal injury nonetheless. He borrowed a recumbent bike from Go Bent Bikes and rode for 25 miles for the first time in months! It was a different kind of bike for Michael, but he was out there just the same.  In fact, all of the riders out on Saturday were different. Many had challenges that most of us can only imagine. The remarkable thing they all had in common was riding a bike back into some kind of normalcy in life.  That is a good thing! 

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I’m stupid. Seriously stupid, and it is too late to do anything about it!

For the first time in several years, I am not going to “World’s” (shorthand for the UCI World Cycling Championships). I was OK with this until I checked out the website www.varese2008.org and now I feel like an idiot! Sure the dollar is down, and the economy is making flushing sounds, but I should have checked this out. It would have been worth a year of saving to go to this one! The 2008 event is happening in Varese, Italy and I am stupid not to be there! Varese is in Lombardi, a region in the foothills of the Italian Alps. This part of Italy is where film crews go for “dramatic Italian countryside”! It’s where Luciano Pavarotti, and Enzo Ferrari have their roots.  You can probably even rent a Ferrari there, and drive around listening to those Itialian guys booming out songs as they hang the laundry from those balconeys! (I don’t think Italian guys work: they just drive Ferrari’s and do the chores for mom!) Sometimes they get passionate about bicycle racing, and then show-off that they can ride a bike really fast! Italian fans are always nuts about cycling!

The town of Varese (pop 80,000) will shut down for 5 days to celebrate the return of Worlds after 57 yrs. Thousands of cycling fans will line the streets for the races. These competitions will determine the World Champion for the Pro Men (elites), the Pro Women, and the U-23 (under 23 yrs) men. In order to stage the event, Varese will fence off a circuit of 10.5 miles for the road race and a separate one for the time trial. Cycling fans can book one hotel room, and get to watch six World Championship Races without moving! Many will bring their own bikes to explore the area between events. They will be treated to roads that weave in and out of the foothills, then along the large glacial lake or Lago. The comraderie that cyclists share will be mixed with National spirit to celebrate the sport. Just like the Olympics, each country selects their “National Team”, and the riders don their National jerseys instead of their “trade team” jerseys to compete for their country.  The fans from different countries set up cheering squads for their teams along the course. Whole sections will be comandeered by the Dutch, the Belgians, the Germans, the French, and of course the Italians. These national enclaves will even compete with each other, smashing out music with small bands, waving huge flags, and  toasting loudly the national pride in their beer gardens. It’s quite the scene! The journalists must know about Varese already! Over 1000 reporters have applied for credentials to cover the race and it is still a week away~ either those guys know how to find a good party, or they are hoping to put that Ferrari rental on the expense account!

The racing begins with the Time Trial competitions on Wednesday, and builds up to the “main event” on Sunday September, 28. This will be the “Elite” or pro men’s race. They will do 15 laps of the circuit, covering 158 miles. Each lap will have almost 800 feet of climbing, giving the boys a day of racing with over 11,000 feet of ”up” all together. Ugghh…

This year, there are 827 cyclists competing for 58 countries, with 332 in the start list for the Elite Men.  The Italians have gone overboard as they are wont to do with cycling: they even have crowned a beauty queen, ”Miss Mondiali”, and commemorated a special stamp!  The Italian designers also come up with notably cool, “one of a kind” clothing for the Worlds, (at good prices). This is one of the times that cycling nerds turn into fashion mavens, hoping to show up at that next group ride with “threads that turn heads” from exotic places!

For a run down of the race and the favorites, you can check out www.cyclingnews.com They will probably do a live report of the race on Sunday. The American team will be lead by Levi Leipheimer (Astana). Craig Lewis from team Columbia will also ride, and the rest of the team looks like a Garmin roster: Tyler Farrar, Steven Cozza, Lucas Euser, and David Zabriske.  Leipheimer won the Tour of California, and just took second in the Tour of Spain (lost by 46 seconds) so his form should be good.  My take is that there is too much climbing for the race to finish in a bunch sprint, (sorry sprinters). I look for a smaller group of riders who can climb to come to the finish together. These last 3 kilometers are flat, so whoever has the legs to sprint from this select group will win. If a team can keep their leader from having to pull during the race, the legs will be rested before that crucial final lap.  That can make all the difference when the brain says “Go!” after racing for 156 miles! Watch for Tejay VanGarderen and Peter Stetina to light up the U-23 race for American fans; they both had impressive showings in the Tour le Avenir last week.

Trivia: If Paolo Bettini (Italy) wins, he will be the first person ever to win three consecutive World Titles. He said that if he wins, he will stop singing from the balcony and finally get his own apartment.

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“Ugghh… There they go again! Everyone is attacking today, and we haven’t even ridden 20 miles!’

“It’s your turn, I chased the last one. Christian is on our wheel and will follow.”

“Oh, man… I just got back from the car with 6 water bottles, I don’t need to bury myself again… maybe another team will take up the chase.”

Over the radio: “Sorry guys, no rest today, and no gaps! We are now leading this race and will get no help from the other teams. We can’t save anyone except Christian now that he is in the lead. If someone still has gas in the tank when we get to the finish, they can go for the sprint, but we are not letting anything go off the front, and everyone else has to work. Our lead is only 18 seconds, so nothing gets away.” Such is “strategy” in a nutshell after a cycling team takes the lead in a stage race.

 This week, we will look into the world of bicycle racing with some behind the scenes stuff from the Tour of Missouri www.tourofmissouri.com. It helps to understand that a bicycle race is a rather unlikely combination of track and football, with some rugby thrown in…then mixed… well… with bicycles. The leader’s jersey is like the football, and the team’s goal is to get it across the finish line before any riders with a lower total time can cross. The time is added for each stage, and riders are ranked by total time. Each stage may be different, but instead of 100 yards, the goal line is usually more than 100 miles away!  During the race, various “runners” will try to break away from the main group, at times carrying their team leader with them, keeping him out of the wind so that he stays fresh.  Such “attacks” can be one or two riders who have permssion to go for glory, or a planned break of team members to move their rider up in the standings.  If a leading team does not chase down such attacks, they will lose control of the race. In an aggressive race, the attacks will be fast and furious. The other teams know that they can wait for the leaders’ team to suck it up, dig deep, and go after every attack. Of course they quickly jump on the wheels of these poor guys to take advantage of the draft (and get a close up view of the suffering). This is what it means to “defend the jersey”, and it makes for a hard day at the office!

Some teams will come to the race gunning primarily for stage wins. They will try to lay low during a stage,  working into position in the last few miles.  This means they will also be chasing down some of the attacks to keep the race together. Helping with the chase makes them immediate friends with the team in the lead! As the race comes down to the last few miles, they will line up  a ”lead out train”, towing their sprinter at high speed to release him in the last 200 meters. This is where a lot of elbows and knees seem to be doing more than just making the bike go fast!

A team that is going for the overall win will have a different strategy. These teams will try to win a time trial or mountain stage with their leader, which lets him carry the ball  (jersey). They will then work to keep him (with the leaders’ jersey) from losing any time in the other stages. Usually these players are just blocking the wind, but sometimes it can look like rugby! Cycling teams will use a combination of riders to carry out their strategy. There will be  long distance runners (climber types), middle distance guys (power houses who can roll for miles), and the 100 yard dash guys (sprinters). They will all have to take their turns pulling in the thick of the race, which usually means cruising along at 30mph, and “covering” attacks. They must also be ready to go to work with their specific talents as the race unfolds. Their goal at the finish is to make sure the leader gets across the line without crashing or losing time. This can even mean giving him a wheel or bike in quick exchange near the end. Then, just like the linemen in football cheer their runner for scoring downfield, they cheer from the back of the pack as their man crosses the line.  

The Tour of Missouri www.UniversalSports.com  was the last big race of the season for many teams. The race attracted the two top American teams, Garmin-Chipotle www.slipstreamsports.com , and Columbia www.highroadsports.com , as well as a top Italian team, Liquigas www.cannondale.com/liquigas . There were also a few “Continental Teams” trying to make a splash, (to get invited to bigger parties).   Columbia put such a priority on this race that they pulled Mark Cavendish from his home Tour of Britain to race in Missouri! Cavendish is a pure sprinter, and not a contender for the overall win, as he falls behind on the hills and time trials. However, when the finish comes down to a large group going for the line, he is the fastest guy in the world right now, and they were after stage wins big time. 

September  in the cycling world also separates cyclists into two major groups: those who have contracts for next year; and those who do not. Guys without contracts will be attacking all over the place in order to make an impression on teams who might be hiring.  At the Tour of Missouri www.tourofmissouri.com Garmin came to win the overall. Columbia wanted to defend their win from last year (George Hincapie). They were also super motivated to contest every stage that came down to a sprint.  As always, the Italians were ready to sneak into every opprotunity, and they brought a top sprinter (named “Chicchi”- I kid you not!). All of this exploded in this year’s Tour of Missouri, and the result was a race full of fireworks for fans.

Garmin won the race overall with Christian Vandevelde, who was 5th in this years’ Tour de France. Columbia won the sprinter’s jersey with Mark Cavendish, (he won four stages in the Tour de France this year). Our local boy, Tyler Farrar was called upon to “defend the jersey” for most of the race, but was able to contest the sprint “after work” every day. He was in the top ten five times, and opened and closed the race with podium finishes (2nd and 3rd), against the likes of Cavendish and Chicchi. It is likely that there will be some celebrating in St. Louis tonight!

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Anyone who is dealing with arthritis of the hip or knee knows just how hard it can be to look cool when you walk down the street or into a restaurant. It is a good thing that those of us with these “bad wheels” get to navigate from the bed to the coffee pot in the morning without an audience! There is a little negotiation with that stubborn part of us… “OK, what are you going to let me do today?” Then we pound down the drugs with our coffee, and get some leverage on the little beast that lives in our knee, returning to the negotiation with renewed confidence, and hoping it will last through the day!

The good news for many of us is that our local body shop (aka: orthopaedist’s office) can fit us with a new part. The sad news is that things have to get pretty bad before we actually get the new unit. That means that there are years of putting up with the pain for most of us, before we get to do that really fun thing of having our knee replaced (that’s right… poke me with a sharp stick, one that is also HOT!… I can’t wait!)

Well, just when life seems unfair, I should tell a couple of stories: The first was a spin-off of a cross-country bicycle ride that was organized in 1976 as part of the celebration of us being the “Good ole USA” for 200 years (with an uncommon amount of success I might add!). I have no clue whose idea this was, but it probably laid the foundation for the “Race Across America” www.raceacrossamerica.org. This was an event that many of us in Wenatchee followed this year because our own Michael Fadich and Christian Clerc were doing a good job of racing it. Turns out that the ride in ‘76 was for all shapes and sizes~far from the honed athletes who take part today.  With the success of the food pyramid and other healthy inventions fueling the demographic docs, they decided that a 3000 mile  bike ride would be a great little experiment. Somehow they got funding with a legitimate proposal,  but I know they were really thinking; “Let’s see what happens to old fatty when he tries to ride a bike 3000 miles”!

Well, measurements were taken, data collected, and a colleague just reminded me of one of the surprising results. You probably have guessed it- the folks who started out with arthritic knees actually got better as the ride went along! However, the scientists studying this were not as smart as you- they were genuinely surprised!

Fast forward  25yrs, and I am riding through the neighborhood in Florida that I grew up in with my son on our bikes. I take a chance, and sure enough, one of the guys that I played football with still lived in the same old house! We get to talking and he is eyeing our bicycles while complaining about his knees. Now this is a guy who was an “All American” at Alabama in his day, and he is having trouble just walking across his lawn!  We talk a bit, and something must have caught his attention. He bought a bike, and started riding. Slowly at first, but with determination. Six months later I get a call from him. He has lost 35 lbs, and had such improvement in his knees that he wants to come out and ride the “Apple Century”, a ride of 100 miles! www.applebikeride.com This is a true story~ he came out and completed the ride in 2002, going on to function at a much higher level for five more years. Course, time eventually wins, and he is now the proud owner of new parts, but the benefit to his health from 2001-2007 was substantial and lasting.

We now know some of  the science behind this, but I won’t bore you. The important message here is that there is hope for those with a bad hip or knee who are still not ready for replacement surgery. If you find a bicycle and start a program of riding it, you may actually get to win against mother nature for a few years (and that’s a pretty rare victory!) Unfortunately, you will still probably have to take drugs and keep up good relations with your orthopaedic surgeon…sorry.

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Ever heard of “Pre-conceived cognitive commitment”? It is a potential detour on our way to clear thinking that I was reminded of today when a car careened around me at “God-knows-how-many-miles-per-hour”! I started to get upset, but then realized that the motorist simply had a powerful “pre-conceived cognitive commitment”. In his mind, since he was driving a car, his belief was that he should be quickly passing all cyclists on the road, regardless of the “fact” that the cyclist was already going over the speed limit!

Now this is not uncommon around here, as we have several roads that have downhill stretches where it is pretty easy for a cyclist to travel at 30mph in a 25mph zone. However, the response of some motorists provides a potential lesson about how we can cloud our vision of reality with pre-conceived commitments. Not long ago, a small group of us were coming down a hill at 28-30mph (in a 25mph zone), and a mom in a surburban with kids on board nearly struck a traffic island with the pedal to the metal to pass us. Since there was a stop sign at the bottom of the hill, we all ended up looking at each other at the intersection. I am sure that she felt it was necessary to pass us simply because we were on bicycles, and of course cars should always pass bicycles. A glance at her speedometer could have been a reminder of the reality that she ignored as she gave into her commitment, but instead she delivered a glare and a finger to us. The lesson here is that she endangered a car full of kids by giving into her “pre-conceived cognitive commitment”, and totally missed the reality of the situation!

It is easy to let such pre-conceived notions set limits on our thinking. This often occurs in cycling as people are getting started, yet it can even occur at the highest levels of the sport. The common thing is to set limits of time and distance on our efforts as we begin. “I can only ride for an hour”, or “That ride is just too far for me”. Well, if you commit to such limits, you are destined to fulfill them! The reality is that the real health benefits of cycling come when you push yourself a bit into longer rides and distances. At the higher levels of cycling, coaches and directors are actually experimenting with hypnosis to overcome the limits that riders put on themselves: “I can’t win a sprint; I can’t beat so-and-so”, etc. Good coaches just seem to have a talent for helping athletes overcome their “pre-conceived cognitive committments” as they can often limit performance. Beyond these little vignettes, is the not so subtle truth that recognizing your own “PCC’s” can be good for life at large.

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A final note on local wind and cycling around here has to do with hills. Beating the wind will get you into climbing on your bike. It turns out that the best way to beat the wind in the Wenatchee Valley is to go ride a hill! Many are turned off by the prospect of purposefully grunting up a hill on a bike, but it can take you out of that deceitful wind.  A hill has integrity. It is totally up front and honest about what is in store. Not like the wind that strikes unseen and with unpredictable force. Like a lover that leaves with your wallet, the wind demoralizes you. A good honest climb only makes you stronger on your bike, and is consistent enough that you can even judge your fitness by it!

 In this valley, we are blessed by a predominant NW wind that can actually help you up several of the climbs! The obvious is the road up to the “Tree of Pain” at the top of Badger Mountain Road. If you do this ride from the Ice Rink at the bottom of 5th St in Wenatchee, you can expect to have the wind at your back for 9 miles and about 2500ft of climbing. The real sweet deal in this ride is the boost you might get for the last half mile as you head SE up the final (steepest) slope. You now have to turn right at a side spur road to actually get to the tree at the top. The view back down on Wenatchee and up the Wenatchee River Valley from that lonely tree at the top is wonderful, and you get to laugh at the wind as you descend into it on the way back down! (If you do this ride, you also get to gloat a bit every time you look up at that tree on the skyline from down here.)

The unexpected way to beat the wind around here has to do with the quirky way that it often swirls up the roads SW of town when blowing from the NW. Most of the time, this wind will be blowing up or neutral if you ride up to Wenatchee Heights on Squilchuck or up to the Stemilt loop on Stemilt Creek Road. You can then do the whole Stemilt Loop with little regard for the wind, and enjoy some great views. A side option that has even more uphill is to add the road up to Mission Ridge, giving you a climb of over 3000 ft from your starting point in town. If you really want to “ride the valley”,  you can  link these rides; going up to the “Tree of Pain” on Badger Mtn, then back down into Wenatchee, and then up to Mission Ridge.  (Tyler Farrar used to  call this the “Wenatchee Half-Pipe”.)

Of course, the best way to really beat the wind around here is to buy a Mountain bike or a Cyclocross bike, and hit the trails and Forest Service Roads. The wind just doesn’t have the impact on your ride when you are back in the hills and among the trees. These rides are limitless around here! Tom Riggan and I figured out one of the most predictable a few weeks ago. The wind was howling out of the NW, so we got on our cyclocross bikes and rode up Number Two Canyon. You go beyond the pavement, up to the gate and turn left instead of riding up to the top of Twin Peaks. This takes you to the intersection with Peavine Canyon Road in a beautiful saddle at about 3200 ft. You can then drop down into the east fork of Mission Creek, and out onto Mission Creek Road (say “Hi” to Bob Stewart along the way). By the time the road really levels out again, you are in Cashmere and ready to turn back toward Wenatchee. As you make that turn, guess what hits you from behind? Yep, you have totally beat the NW wind, and it is now at your back, ready to give you those superman legs all the way back into town!

Enough on the wind… maybe next some of the strategy behind a stage race in the sport of cycling.

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