Biking Bros

We are Dwayner(Svein) and The Young Man(Christian) and this is our word

Thinking I might share some info and experiences of some of the winter gear we are using to try to make riding in the BC winter weather somewhat more comfortable and manageable. Yes these are going to be mostly about products from our team sponsors but I will try to give a good unbiased opinion about some of the products, our sponsors always want feedback good or negative to better their products. First product I have just started using is the Pearl Izumi Octane jacket. All I can say is get one, the price may seem a bit steep (around 200 bucks) for what seems like a thin shell jacket but believe me if there is one thing you will feel good about spending a bit of money on is being warm and dry on those miserable days. Its got all the works, waterproof, windproof, taped seams and zipper and best off all its fully breathable, so no more sauna like effect under your outer shell like those stiff plastic clear rain capes we all know.  I’ll let you know more as the weather get more attrosious.

Thanks to Phil at Bike Fit Systems for getting us some shims sent out to set up our new shoes. Check them out at www.bikefit.com and get everything you need to start pedaling more efficiently.

Going to do the double whammy recap of yesterday and whats happening today. Yesterday we got out for a great hike in during the brisk morning and actually climb through the cold fog to a sunny warm summit of a local climb. Then after a quick lunch it was media interviews, Svein was much more busy the me in this department, followed by head shots and a photo shoot for 2XU where Dan Martin and myself got to hang out in tights pretending to be getting a relax on, chatting and sipping coffee on the couch, hahaha, good fun. From there it was a quick gym session, a visit with the team chiro to sort out some issues and dinner at another fine Boulder establishment. This dinner was somewhat different from the rest as the riders provided some of the entertainment of the night by signing a song for the staff, with our mechanic Damo on the electric guitar, Wiggins on lead vocals, which was fitting as he really looks the part of  a British rocker, and the rest of the team filling in the chorus. We definitely won’t be up for any awards in the music world but we were at least very entertaining I would have to say. On to today, after breakfast a few of us went to the gym with team trainer Adrie Van Diemen for a quick demo on weight training before quickly hustling back to get out for a short rider and a meeting about our new anti doping program, which will have it’s full details released some time next week. We were then treated to a nice lunch by the boys from Cliff who are releasing some cool new products and making other’s packaging more convenient to use. From there it was off the Boulder theater for a quick walk through of tonight team launch events and just now finished cramming my bike bag with great products from our sponsor, gotta love that schwag. Now it’s time to get ready for the last big hurrah of the camp which is the team presentation where is should be a full house and a good time, as it always is when Dave Toll is on the microphone.

Not to much to report for today. The weather turned very brisk and some flurries were expected so we decided to switch up the schedule and get in all the sponsor and media talks, which made for a long day in the conference room. We have some really cool stuff for next year with new technologies from Zipp, Camelback, Fizik, Felt and 2XU, among some notables are the 850 gram felt F1, the new Antares saddle from Fizik and even faster Zipp wheels. Forgot to mention 3T which will be providing our bars, stems, seat posts and super slick aerobars. After this it was time for the riders to cook up a taco dinner for the sponsors, mostly just chopping topping, mixing drinks and making guach, nothing to fancy but tasty nonetheless.

Ouuff. So lets start with the same old, breakfast followed by a 3h beautiful ride in the mountains. Then came the afternoon meetings to discuss racing schedules for next year as well as a meeting with our finance people as well as a meeting with Prentice, our team doctor. Schedule looks good for next year, starting with Tour Down Under followed by some solid races, including the Ardennes Classics among some other big time races, which should make for a fun year. Fast forward the more interesting part of the evening, the team got invite ted for a tour/tasting at the Avery Brewing Company here in Boulder which quickly turned into an initiation ceremony for all the new people to the team, both staff and riders. The story was this, five glasses of beer and the last to down them all of each heat, staff first then riders, was to do a lap of the parking lot sans clothes, haha. First heat was lost by Matt our resident chiro extraordinaire and then came the riders heat, hotly contested by myself, Svein, Hans Decker, Ricardo Vander Velde, and Bradley Wiggins. I was quite nervous coming into the comp but think Svein and I would have made the old Symtrex boys proud as I won followed closely by Svein, both Ricardo and Bradley struggled Brad eventually being the naked man out. All in good fun, but not really having anything to eat since lunch made for some lightheadedness pretty quickly, but hey the once a year we are all able to get together why not a bit of fun and as our director Whitey said “boys this week have fun, enjoy yourselves cause some next week it’s all business and back to winning bike races”.  

Once again we started with some morning breki which was promptly followed up by a medical meeting where we got to know all our medical staff as well as our new anti-doping program, which actually kicked into prompt effect with random testing that start tonight. After some meetings and blood samples to be tested for inflammatory markers, which will be used for setting up anti-inflammatory diets and supplements, we got suited up for a team ride. It started out not so good for me after when after adding shims to my cleats I couldn’t seem to get clipped in and I promptly got dropped as the mechanic was trying to get me clipped in to the cleats with all his force, haha. Made it back on after a combo of motor pacing and holding onto the car and this happened a couple more time when I would just subconsciously clip out at stop lights. Anyhow that should all be sorted out for tomorrow. From there we rushed to a fitting at the Pearl Izumi factory to get measured and sized up for the new gear, it was really cool seeing the factory and the quite small amount of staff that run this huge coperation. Got back in time to make it to the gym quickly before a great dinner at the Chop House just across the street from the hotel which brought another jam packed but fun day to an end.

We arrived last night to beautiful weather here in Boulder and were even more pleasantly surprised by the sunshine and balmy weather we had today. The morning started with some breakfast followed by a short talk from Jonathan Vaughters and how this year the team had well passed all expectations and that it is now time to follow up and even improve on this past season’s performances. From there we all piled into team vans and headed out for a few friendly games of paintball, having never paint-balled before I was pretty excited and we definitely had a good time. Award for “crazy of the day” definitely went to Cozza who decided to play with no shirt on, mix that with paintballs travelling at 400 feet per second at close range and you get Steve welted and bleeding, hahaha. The soingeurs had some lunch for us there before traveling back, a quick change for Svein and I before heading down to meet the boys at Retul for a full on bike fit. This was by far the coolest bike fit I have ever gotten done and their system is really impressive as they place little transmitters on all your major joints and actually have your stick figure pedaling on a big screen. From there with the help of a physio we quickly found that I had a functionally shorter left left, which was twisting my pelvis and forcing me to sit well off the center of my saddle. Between the physio giving me some stretches and strengthening exercises for my hamstring and pelvis  and a some shims under my left cleat, they soon had me sitting straight as an arrow, cool stuff. Made it back in time for a quick shower and a phone call to Amber before heading out for a big team dinner at a local Mexican joint. Busy day, 6 to go.

A reader of the site and aspiring cyclist Aidan Mouellic wrote up this essay on his view of doping in cycling for a school project, just thought we would share for everyone to read, feel free to comment…

Competitive Cycling is a beautiful sport. In Europe at the top level, the riders are privileged to race in some of the most scenic and awe inspiring regions the continent and endure challenges like no other sport knows of. Three week races that cover snow capped mountain passes and one day races which can be as long as 250km and pass over brutal mud masked roman cobbled roads. It is a tough sport with few rewards. The combination of very hard work and little reward for all but the elite spawned a doping culture which has drastically changed the sport and how society views the professional sport of cycling. Read the rest of this entry »

I used to be so much better at doing nothing, remember a few years ago I could just sit and watch tv all day, just sitting with my brain shut off and the time would just zoom by. Have been finding it harder to do, seems like a lot of time my head is racing, mostly unimportant mumbo jumbo but racing none the less and just recently have I really began to not like the feeling. So I have been trying to consciously trying to catch myself when its happening, take a deep breath and slow down or clear my thought. Its been working a bit, but still seems like there is a lot to think about with the website, new team and camp next week, do I want to go to Costa Rica in December to do a training race, I would miss Christmas but then again it could be good to get to the warm weather before our first race in January or maybe it’s best to stay home and focus on my strength training because the season will be long enough as it is, deep breath, think field of daisies…

Watched a very interesting movie the other day called “Bigger, Faster, Stronger”. It’s a documentary about America’s obsession with performance enhancing drugs, mostly steroids. The movie was pretty interesting and featured some real characters and their crazy frame of minds. It’s mostly about big gym rats and their steroid use but features a short interview with Floyd and his crazy home made altitude chamber/pipe, contraption. Recommend a viewing.