A Cincinnati Tradition

Every year the last Wednesday night of May begins a 20+ year old tradition in Cincinnati's beautiful Ault Park- the points race with the same name as the park itself. For the next 5 or more weeks riders will vie for the ultimate prize of points every 5 laps for 40 laps in the 'a' race (double at the middle and final sprints) with a final overall total for the whole series. Tonight the team did pretty well taking spots one and two for for Pete and Eric respectively. We could have used the other John to help cover some of the moves, but will have to soldier on until his return.Me off the front for the 25 laps to go sprint.

A happy and tired crew after a hard night's work.

Tune into the next podcast for the audio report of the race.

Breakfast of Champions

While the other John is in France, the other John spent some time in the mountains of North Carolina. Here we see the preparations for a day in the saddle. Blueberry jam, bread, eggs, coffee, peanut butter, Thin Lizzy t-shirt....

bikes, bikes, bikes...

One of the Johns is spending the month of June working as a cycling guide for VéloSport Vacations in France at its Provence Cycling Camp. You can find regular updates here about his experiences.

New bikes to build, old ones to repair, parts to replace.

After a windy and cold 80k ride, George Noyes and I tackled the pile of VSV rental bikes. Some Fuji's are on their way out while the new Felt's are on their way in. Swap some parts, replace others, and move on to the next. I also branded the team car with VSV and SRAM logos and plus frogs. SRAM is working with us this year (i.e. graciously supplying some parts). By the way, George and I used to work together for the Motorola cycling team. I could only hack one year as a Euro based wrench. George is still here. He lives up in Belgium. After Motorola he went on to work for Disco, then Mapei, then Quick Step. The dude knows how to work on bikes -- and he speaks Flemmish, French, Spanish, German, and English.

John in Provence

One of the Johns is spending the month of June working as a cycling guide for VéloSport Vacations in France at its Provence Cycling Camp. You can find regular updates here about his experiences.

Travelling with the bike is a hassle. The packing, the extra baggage charge (even for international flights), and lugging the thing through Charles de Gaulle customs, onto a bus to the Orly airport south of Paris, then onto yet another flight to Avignon. They tried to charge the extra fee again. But, once here, it is worth it to be able to get on your own bike. We rent nice new carbon Felt F-4's, but it's always nice to be on your own ride.

A hard-shelled bike box is a good investment for the air traveller. Just make sure you pack correctly.

Before


After


A nice send off at the airport


Destination acheived


I got too tired after this. More to follow...

New Podcast

New podcast for 5/20/07 is up on iTunes. Sorry for the delay. I was having trouble with the .xml feed file. The player on the right, however, is still busted... It plays the episode, but at a too slow bit rate!%#* I am working on it.

John

Godzulla

How did this happen? GODZULLA that's how.




And here is the man responsible (and his gloves), Scott Denny



It's a a cylotour/brevette/race with all sorts of cyclists on all types of bikes.






There were triathletes. I think one of them had a bong behind his seat.



The other John was ready and dreaming of things to come.




And after about 80 miles the dream came true.




And we were back on the road and rolling.

Johnny says relax

Feeling stressed? Can't concentrate? Need some energy? Well...

THIS,


PLUS THIS (a nice stiff tailwind),


PLUS THIS (some good tunes dj steveboy),


EQUALS nirvana. I may even get the new podcast out this week.

Cheers,

John

Dr. Scott's winning formula

1) Borrow your teammates Bontrager XXX Lite Carbon Tubular race wheels.

2) Eat 3 scoops of stawberry chip ice cream (say you will share it, but really eat all of it yourself).

3) Avoid all crashes at the Willesville Road Race.

4) Listen to the new 2 Johns Podcasted posted 5/8/07.

Time Travel

Can some smart person out there please create a piece of software that shows who the actual winners of races were? Go back about 3 years and eliminate from the standings the likes of Basso, Landis, Armstrong (ooops, did I say that?), Hamilton, Herras, etc...

You will receive a prize for your efforts.

Thank you in advance,

one of the Johns

back to the '80s

Wow... did I really look like that? And check out those Oakley Factory Pilots -- SWEET!


The Posers at the IU Little 500, circa 1987