Apparently, it is not just young lads on butcher's bikes delivering bread that ride the cobbles in the north of England. We had an email from the organiser of this event last week, throwing down the gauntlet onto the pavé of Lancashire.
With multiple cobbled sections, narrow lanes and a real Flandrian feel, this will be an homage to the Tour of Flanders. If you can’t make it to our Hell of the North ride on 11th April, this will be the next best thing.
Spent a little time interviewing Jon Cariveau from Moots Cycles yesterday morning. Keep an eye on the Builders section of the Continental site as we head into the spring months. There are going to be some great additions to the family.
Jon and I tried to meet up in person during the NAHBS show in Richmond, but even the mere thought of getting something like that done in the midst of a tradeshow was a bold move. Of course their booth was filled with some of the best looking Titanium creations to grace the floor of the show. One of my favorites can be seen on the Superb Bicycle Blog where I know that Jason was ogling over the Snow Bike. Winter camouflage never looked so good.
Rouleur consistently draws our attention to the most dramatic and brutal road riding in the world. If the term classicism could be applied to cycling journalism then Rouleur has pioneered the artform. Not that the magazine has anything to do with Ancient Greece or Rome (well, apart from the work of Graeme Fife, an expert in Classics of the Greek variety as well as the Belgian kind).
Image © Ben Ingham
BIKE GUIDELINES
1. Drop bars*
2. Tyre width no wider than 32mm
3. Mudguards acceptable
4. Singlespeed/fixed gear acceptable but not advised
5. Tandems are a bad idea
KIT CHECKLIST
1. Overshoes/Oversocks
2. Embrocation
3. Winter Hat
4. Sunglasses/goggles
5. Sideburns and/or moustache**
The first Yonretto ride is now live on the site. It is great to see what happens in another part of the world. How cyclists go about their routines in another part of the world. Seeing the Rapha Continental evolve to encapsulate another country, another continent is exciting to say the least. With the likes of photographer Brian Vernor behind the lens we can assume that there is much more in store for the Yonretto program.
photos by Ira Ryan
An early morning ride on a Sunday is a great way to start the day, or end the weekend depending on how you look at it. This past weekend, with the help of Joel and Donna from Carytown Bicycle Company we got to do just that. The twenty-ish mile looping route took us through the back streets of Richmond, Virginia, down next to the James River and then popped us out to the top of the cobbled climb that was near the finish of the U.S. Open Cycling Championships couple years ago. Remember the one that Svein Tuft won? Reports of the number of people on this ride ranged from 50-80 depending on who you ask.
The third installment of recipes from Matt Card comes in the form of pastas. As Cyclists we are all familiar with this carb replacement staple. Most likely after but also often times before the start of a big ride or race. Matt outlines a few ways to enhance your pasta selections in the sauce arena. This could be a big advantage, especially if you find yourself dining with Rapha Continental rider Ben Leiberson. You may recognize Mr. Leiberson from the most recent line shoot in Siracusa, Italy. You see, I have ridden with Ben many times, but I have never seen him sample his pasta with any sort of sauce. What I am wondering is if this could permeate through that rough exterior? Or, possibly, if his trip to Italy had changed his ways?
The tough thing about coming back from the NAHBS show is picking the things to start talking about. One could wander through the alley ways of that show for hours and not see everything. In fact there was a whole isle that I think was completely missed. Tony Pereira was on hand to help out in the Mini Mart but he developed the best technique I heard, it went like this "At some point I realized that I just had to put my head down and jump from space to space focusing only on the bikes." You do whatever you have to at these events.
Timm Kölln’s The Peloton, a collection of portraits of the pros shot seconds after the finish line, captures the extreme physicality of the professional race experience. There’s Mark Cavendish looking suitably grimy in his former T-Mobile jersey moments after a Tour stage, and there’s Fabian Cancellara possessed of a bitterly acrid look in the embers of The Ronde (which, as the expression suggests, Spartacus didn't win). So too we see Backstedt, McEwen, Ballan and many others, transfixed in states ranging from total exhaustion to beatified stoicism.
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