FHL RACE#1: The 'B' Files - by Mr. Zennon Kapron

Hi All, A big thanks to another guest writer in Mr. Zennon Kapron. (Ya, we call him Mr. . . . have you seen the guy? Don't mess with him. . . . )

After a cracking A-race the B-race started shortly after. The total length of the race was meant to be around 38km, so a bit shorter than the A-race, but ended showing up as about 40.5km on my speedo, so a bit longer than advertised. The race started quicker than normal, which might be expected in the first race of the season, at about 38km/h, but then settled into a more typical 36km/h. The square format of the race definitely helped as the group tends to be a bit less organized than the A-race and corners sometimes could be difficult – yet we still we had one rider down about half-way through at the far corner from the start line.

Unlike the A-race where many of the riders have switched teams in the off-season, the B riders were pretty much all the usual suspects from the usual teams. Our Maxsh team was limited to just three riders during this race which proved slightly difficult when dealing with the Panaracer threat as a few of the Max riders have either moved away or moved up to A. Overall the race was a bit slower than normal with the average speed hovering around 35km/h and a finish of 45km/h or so.

Throughout the race there were a few attacks with a few people going off the front, but none seemed to hold much promise or were too organised, so were largely ignored by the pack who were content to just slowly reel them back in. Part-way through the race the group overtook a group of MTBs from the race that started a few minutes behind us. One of the mountain bikers had found an innovative aero-position by reaching under the bars and grabbing the top of his suspension fork – likely a bit dangerous considering the going back and forth in the pack itself. The mountain bikers’ presence received mixed reactions from the group, but was mainly a big ‘why the hell don’t you ride your own race and stop drafting off us?’ from the group. The course was very short and there was little other choice but then to start them right after the B-group, so understandable.

The group was still together as we were about 1km from the finish, but then the pack started to break open with about 500m to go with the sprinters taking their cue. The finish was fast and contested by a few, but panaracer came out on top.

Thanks Zennon - a nice, tidy summary - ed!

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ROBS' RACE - FHL #1

Ok, so after the race today I had an idea - why not post all of my race data from todays' race for ALL to see! I feel it's somewhat like what Lance is doing with the whole "A Doctor will post my values" thing.

Our race report from today will be out soon - but here's how I measured up:

For the sake of detail I use:

The Polar S725X with a Cadence Sensor and Speed Sensor. . .

FHL TREK SHIMANO RACE#1

Lets start with the warmup - I rode to the race. I took the 7:30 Fuxing Ferry from Puxi across to Pudong and rode out to the import/export zone with the Master of Style.

WARMUP TIME: 57:40
DISTANCE: 25.77KM
AVERAGE HEART RATE: 142BPM
AVERAGE SPEED: 27.6KM/H
AVERAGE CADENCE: 88RPM

NOTES: I do not have my heart rate monitor on Autostop, so if we stopped at a light (which we rarily do - KIDS DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME) my monitors time keeps rolling.

The A race started a little past 9am:

RACE TIME: 1:36:43
DISTANCE: 59.328KM
AVERAGE HEART RATE: 165BPM
MAXIMUM HEART RATE: 183BPM
AVERAGE SPEED: 36.8KM/H
MAXIMUM SPEED: 58.3KM/H
AVERAGE CADENCE: 92RPM
MAXIMUM CADENCE 124RPM
KCALORIES: 3128
PLACING: ??? (Will update. . .)

I then rode home for a total day of 111.5km and an overall average speed of 31.9km/h.

NOTES: OK, so today my job was to cover breaks and shut down possible threats. Overall I had a crack, but certainly was not a protagonist. I would like to thank TREK for making my day more comfortable in my new TCR kit, and new OAKLEY glasses. All support is appreciated! Pictures to come!!

RACE REPORT: Shanghai, FHL Race #1

The first race of the season was postponed yesterday due to weather, and when I woke up this morning I was SURE it was going to rain. I'm happy it didn't . . . . The first FHL race of the season supported by TREK and Shimano (2009崔克上海自行车联赛2009赛季：金桥SHIMANO杯) started this morning, with the 'A'grade riders leaving the start around 9:15am for 60km. B Grade would do 38km, with the MTB riders doing 29km. It was nice to see everyone in their new team kits, as well as some new and familiar faces. It was obvious that Specialized and TREK were well represented with 6(7?) and 5 riders respectively. MaxRacing was also well represented, even though they have had a couple of departures over the offseason, and Panaracer/Bikehome was lucky enough to grab Paul Toohey recently to help round out its team. There was also 1 additional rider on the line. . . . . . although no one had seen him before, and his name is still unknown. He was dressed completely in black, and wearing a cape and mask. He is known to us only as FOREVER MAN, and he officially was awarded BEST BIKE IN THE BUNCH.

There he is. . . . to some a mystery, to some a hero, to some a great lover, to others a guy in a cape. . .

Notable absentees were Andrew Hay, and Alexander Baumstark from MAXSHRacing. The A Race started (as usual) with a hard attach from Cui Yinhao of TREK. For those of you who are unaware, Cui was in a bad crash in Huangshan last week and has not been able to ride (walk) this week. The TREK team was not sure he would be able to start, let alone attack off the gun! The first few laps were filled with attacks with the bunch consistently pulling them back. One rider of note was certainly Kaiyuan Wang of "MOST IMPROVED RIDER" status who was involved in 3 long breakaways. He rode extremely hard and came close to pulling this one off! Special note to aggressive riders Allen Leuth and Robbie at team MaxSHRacing who also rode aggressively on his BEAUTIFUL new Wilier (please send me a pic - ed!)

Trent and Eric were common figures near the front. . .

At around 10 laps to go Kaiyuan and Simon Cui of Team Specialized China broke away from the bunch and worked hard to slowly get off the front of the bunch.

There they go. . .

As the laps went by, the consistently increased their lead over the charging group with some VERY strong riding. At 3 laps to go they were still away and the group was almost asleep with a few riders going off the front. At last the group came aroung a corner at 2 laps to go to realise that Simon had ridden away from Kaiyuan and all hell broke loose.

Rob, Eric and Chia. . . .

TCR (TREK China Racing) worked very hard at the front to try to bring Simon Cui back but it was too late. . .

Simon was the strongest, and in his typical style - won in a break!

The (sprinters?) podium

Specialized took 1-2 with Chia Kung winning the group sprint over Cui Yinhao (TCR).

Full results and a write-up on 'B' to follow soon! Stay Classy!

RIDER PROFILE: Trent Iliffe (aka MASTER OF STYLE)

Shanghaivelo: How long you have been riding?

Trent: 20 yrs

Shanghaivelo: But you don't look at a day over 19! How did you get into/start cycling?

Trent: My Uncle is a World Champion, so I was influenced by him

Shanghaivelo: Some information about your team?

Trent: Trek China (TCR) - 8 in the team ( . . . . there is one more now - ed.)

Shanghaivelo: Your Bike(s)?

Trent: C50 and Extreme power Colnago's, Campag Record

Shanghaivelo: What you do for training?

Trent: Moganshan hills every 2 weeks in summer, 3 weeks in France in July, FHL weekends

(Left - Right) Pierre Geagea, Trent Iliffe, and Your Author - looking very stylish all round. . .

Shanghaivelo: Any season goals you have?

Trent: Team Wins in all races

Well he does have some experience with wins. . .

Shanghaivelo: Your favourite cyclist?

Trent: Mario Cipollini

Why Mario Cipollini? THAT'S WHY.

Shanghaivelo: Your role model?

Trent: Mario Cipollini

Shanghaivelo: What one pro tour race would you like to do and why?

Trent: Paris Roubaix, History, a hard man race with a hard sprint at the end around the velodrome

Shanghaivelo: What motivates you to ride hard?

Trent: To see how hard I can push myself

Shanghaivelo: What stuff do you do other than ride?

Trent: Snow Ski and surf

Shanghaivelo: Where you work and what you do?

Trent: Real Estate Development Aust /China

Shanghaivelo: What you like to eat before training?

Trent: Rolled Oats and Banana's

Shanghaivelo: Your favourite training routine?

Trent: 2 x during the week 50km before work, Sat hard long ride in Moganshan and Sunday 80 km rolling hills

Shanghaivelo: Your favourite place (anywhere on earth) to ride?

Trent: Cote D'Azur

Shanghaivelo: Cote D'Azur certainly suits your Cipollini fetish. . . your shoe size?

Trent:. .. 42

MATT FILE: Yoga, Back Country Snowboarding and a New Bike . . .

So the common consensus on flexibility from what I’ve read is that being flexible is good, but being extremely flexible results in a loss of power for on the bike. Now I’m not sure exactly what qualifies as “extremely” flexible but I doubt being able to touch ones toes does, and I’m… well… well short of that. So in light of this I’ve done something I’ve been meaning to do for far too long without actually doing and actually started to take Beginner Yoga. Hopefully it works, seems like it should.

Winter has been hanging on pretty good around here so to break up the monotony of the trainer rides I let a co worker drag me out for a couple after work back country snowboard sessions. Working up in pass it’s right there and the snowshoe up is great fitness. Plus we hit probably the sickest pillow line I’ve ever done this past week, untracked, fresh powder with nice drops for pretty much the full run, so that was cool to say the least.

So onto the more cycling relevant part of the last little bit for me. Team bikes showed up a couple weeks ago in Vancouver so I ran down that weekend and picked it up. It looked pretty sweet, unfortunately the weather here was anything but cycling friendly, see the above snowboarding comment, so it’s been not too much more than an attractive room decoration. . . .

(White bikes are best. . . . agree with the 'attractive room decoration comment. . . what's with the steerer sticking out? - ed)

 

Spring seems to have finally started to show here so I finished building it up other then chopping the steer tube and took it out for a short spin last Friday to get it fully dialed in, weather was less than stellar so it really wasn’t very long. Sun came out to play on Saturday so I took the bike out on a 'stock' out and back training ride for around here down to a ferry landing, round trip about 115k from where I’m staying.

One would think since I did pretty much the same kind of duration ride my first ride in Victoria in January and have not done anything over an hour and half on the trainer since I got back that I’d have know what to expect. Very much not the case, I bonked, and there was no convenience store with a chocolate bar this time either. So yeah, last 20min or so was pretty much done at a painful crawl.

On occasion I do actually learn from my mistakes so the next day I had significantly more food on hand for the same ride and even felt good enough to tack on a little extra distance. VERY NICE to be outside on the bike again I must say.

In response to Thomas’s questions:

Thanks. Training since I got back from Victoria has been pretty consistently 4 trainer rides a week generally in blocks of 3-4 days consecutively. Rides generally consisting of about 5-7min warm up, about an hour at a high but sub TT pace then a cool down of about 5min. And yes, Giro or Tour DVD’s and Mp3 player make this possible. Now that it’s actually ride able outside, but still not a lot of available daylight after work I will see what I can fit in and take it from there as I’m pretty well burnt out of trainer riding. My nutritional plan is a little laughable, I try not to pig out or under eat too often, it’s pretty high carb and fairly minimal in actual junk food (I will admit to mild chocolate addictions from time to time though, but dark chocolate is supposed to be healthy right?).

RACE REPORT: Huangshan MTB RACE

MENS 20km名次号码姓名时间国家城市俱乐部
1 463 胡浩0:49:17 China 南京无限单车俱乐部
2 444 江旭华0:49:27 China 江苏单车网
3 346 吕佳西 0:49:37 China 兰州飓风国际高山探险队
4 276 查显奇0:49:52 China 宁波TREK宁波力量俱乐部
5 510 田海兵0:50:23 China
6 461 缪礼龙0:50:24 China 南京无限单车俱乐部
7 459 戚云0:51:03 China 南京无限单车俱乐部
8 301 张俊0:51:25 China 芜湖VOODOO安徽一年又一年俱乐部
9 273 冯志明0:51:35 China 广州广东联队
10 458 郑屹0:52:10 China 南京无限单车俱乐部
11 304 康思佳0:52:13 China 芜湖VOODOO安徽一年又一年俱乐部
12 282 杨汉杰0:53:04 China 宁波TREK宁波力量俱乐部
13 274 朱荣华0:53:10 China 广州广东联队
14 279 蔡君0:53:15 China 宁波TREK宁波力量俱乐部
15 465 卢子怡0:53:32 China 南京无限单车俱乐部
16 434 钟北平0:54:55 China
17 285 Robert Lamb 0:55:01 Canada Shanghai Max Racing
18 302 张飞0:55:03 China 芜湖VOODOO安徽一年又一年俱乐部
19 435 沈周杰0:55:09 China 常州代表队
20 311 赵胜彬0:55:15 China 芜湖VOODOO安徽一年又一年俱乐部
21 312 袁伟禾0:55:20 China 芜湖VOODOO安徽一年又一年俱乐部
22 303 张坤0:55:25 China 芜湖VOODOO安徽一年又一年俱乐部
23 411 王建宇0:55:30 China 黄衫人无限单车俱乐部
24 505 汪鸿升0:55:30 China 南昌
25 310 顾佳昂0:55:40 China 芜湖VOODOO安徽一年又一年俱乐部
26 348 张曉宇0:55:45 China 上海specialized中国队
27 371 万锐0:55:48 China 上海上海起点俱乐部
28 488 张居正0:55:58 China 北京西行路单车俱乐部
29 277 温丰远0:56:03 China 宁波TREK宁波力量俱乐部
30 305 刘文超0:56:14 China 芜湖VOODOO安徽一年又一年俱乐部
31 309 孟鲁超0:57:15 China 芜湖VOODOO安徽一年又一年俱乐部
32 506 胡紫云0:57:35 China 南昌
33 399 余立聪0:58:25 China 九江江西自行车运动联盟
男子20Km成绩表/Male 20Km Result List

RACE REPORT: Huangshan MTB Race - Anhui Province

Huangshan by Nordicways ( www.nordicways.com ) is starting to become a staple of our early season racing routine. The race is well organised, relatively easy to get to, comfortable (not the racing part) and all in all filled with some solid competition. Last year saw Li Fuyu take out the win and take with him a great deal of local and national exposure. the 2008 top 5:

2008:
Placing Rider Nationality Time
1 李富玉 中国 2:06:21
2 Piers Touzel Australian 2:07:12
3 唐志强 中国 2:07:53
4 朱志华 中国 2:08:31
5 高刚照 中国 2:10:26

As you can see a lot of very strong Zhong Guo Ren! As usual the perennial Piers Touzel coming in just after the Discovery channel rider (can you blame him?)! Your author brought in a 33rd last year taking a solid drubbing of more than 20 minutes to Piers!

The 2009 edition was also set to be a classic, however this year saw the event shortened to 40km on a very similar track to last year. The 40km race would see the top man take home CNY 8,000 and the top woman CNY 4,000 (I agree it should be equal but there were only 10 women signed up. . . . c'mon ladies GET OUT AND RACE!!).

For those of you who haven't raced Huangshan, the course starts with approximately 1.5 km on road. The start is dead straight leading into a right hand corner, on to another straight then a right into the old town of Huangshan which snakes its way out towards the base of the mountain.

2008 saw the champion boys and Li Fuyu ride away never to be seen again. . .

Once through the old town you ride up slowly into the mountains via a series of tiny capo or little rolling hills (these are killer on the legs!). There is even a bit for the cyclo-cross crowd with a 50 metre run up some mountain stairs. Once this is finished its time for the 3km road climb to the top!
This climb was killer last year and I was put deep in the 'pain locker', but this year I overdosed on Marco Pantani videos the night before, so I was able to keep changing my tempo and got out of the saddle to maintain some pace.

Once riders got to the top it was time for the "TUNNEL". . . .

Now I have to be honest here. This photograph shows the most light I have ever seen on that road. The photographer must have had a flash the size of a bus. IT IS DARK! but the perfect place to really get the pressure on the pedals and get COOKING! After this it is almost all down hill back to the finish.

Saturday morning it looked, and felt certain to rain. You could feel there were many nervous riders, and with a quick walk out front of the hotel, many stood in the parking lot looking up! Luckily it waited until after the race this year, which left the track in brilliant condition.

The mens 40km race started hard, seeing Piers Touzel riding on the front with a large number of other racers sitting back and watching. It seemed like the "Piers Show" as the rest of the field seemed to wait to see what he would do next. In a smart move, Piers seemed to wait for another rider to make a move and this saw some strong riding from Feng Kuanjie. It was a hard fought race, however the talented Feng Kuanjie was able to take first place before former winner of Huangshan MTB Festival - Piers Touzel in the Mens 40 km. Tang Zhiqiang from Guangzhou took the third place.

Similarly in the mens 20km race, one rider rode off the front (YOUR AUTHOR!!!) with many riders sitting on his wheel. Unfortunately your author is not the cyclist of Piers Touzel, so he decided to ride the first 5km on the front while other (smarter) cyclists sat on his wheel in anticipation of the single track. The great part was that Your Author got all the camera time from CCTV 5! CCTV 5 sponsored the event and were out en masse, with numerous cars and even a lead van for the start. Your Author faded and isn't sure where he finished after a bit of a tussle with a local rider in the final 3km. Suffice to say after numerous efforts by this rider to CHOP Your Author (chop meaning, the rider would abruptly move towards the side I was trying to pass on to edge me out, or take out my front wheel), I had had enough and grabbed his jersey and pushed him backwards. . . . . .c'mon lets get real; you're gonna try to chop me in a sprint for 15th place?

RANT: KEEP YOUR LINE!!! IF YOU ARE GOING TO LINE UP AND SPRINT IT IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS AND DOWNRIGHT STUPID TO TRY TO TAKE SOMEONE INTO THE BARRIERS OR THE CONCRETE PILLARS IN THE ROAD. IF YOU ARE GOING TO DO IT AT LEAST MAKE IT SUBTLE!

To cut a long story short, In the mens 20 km-Hu Hao from Nanjing Unlimited Cycling was the strongest. The rest rounded out to be 2) Jiang Xuhua at 0:49:27, and 3) Lv Jiaxi at 0:49:37.

Again this year there were some incredible efforts by the womens field!

Women 40km: 1) Sun Chen, 1:55:1, 2) Zhang Rui, 1:55:2, 3) Zheng Rufang, 2:06:5
Women 20 km: 1)Li Lei, 1:05:4, 2) Zhao Lijun, 1:05:5, 3) Tang Linna, 1:06:0

This race is highly recommended due to its professional organisation, great course, friendly locals (except for the late night hotel staff) and BEAUTIFUL countryside. For more information or questions please email me at rob_w_lamb@hotmail.com or see www.nordicways.com the Nordic Ways staff are professional, reliable and very knowledgeable!

Full results to be posted soon.

SHANGHAI CYCLOCROSS #2 - RESULTS

PHOTOS!!!!
http://www.fotop.net/TANG/090315
http://bbs.bikehome.net/diz/thread-73598-1-1.html
http://bbs.bikehome.net/diz/thread-73573-1-1.html
http://bbs.bikehome.net/diz/thread-73589-1-1.html
http://bbs.bikehome.net/diz/viewthread.php?tid=73620&extra
http://mogu8.net/bbs/redirect.php?tid=690&goto=lastpost#lastpost

Points Race 2 Points Race 1 Total

William Neijssen 15 12 27
Eric Koh 12 15 27
ED Coew 10 0 10
Thomas Lecoq 8 0 8
Chia Kung 7 10 17
崔尹浩 6 7 13
Christian goesker 5 4 9
Kai Yan 4 7 11
Rob Lamb 3 8 11

Well done to all racers - this was some great prep PRIOR to the start of next weekends Huangshan race as well as the upcoming Crit and road racing season!

Well done and stay classy!

RACE REPORT: Shanghai Cyclocross #2

"The forest of pain"

Yesterdays race was held under sunny skies with a light wind. A beautiful day for a race, and a course that was tacky, but not overly muddy (mostly. . . .).

A new record 42 racers started with celebrity rider, and Cyclocross promoter, Paul Toohey lining up for the 10am start. Special thanks again to our volunteers again who did a brilliant job keeping everyone organised.

As the starting gun (well, actually we didn't have a gun so we just yelled GO! really loud. . . ) went off it was a blistering start with Specialised leading the charge to the turnaround. As the race charged towards the holeshot, there was a crash at the start of the trail by a number of riders at 'bunny-hop-curb'. This crash also took down Chia Kung who was favoured to place highly.

As the race entered the dirt it was very strung out with many riders pushing to get to the front. At the end of the first straight there was another crash as the pack cornered left towards the 'River'. Unfortunately your "author' went down here and a good 15 people went past! Up we got, and back on the run towards the 'River'. Upon arrival I could see that someone had politely changed my course, moved the tape, and placed some neatly positioned large rocks across the water. THANK YOU ASSISTANT COURSE DESIGNER WHOMEVER YOU ARE. . . . .

Just after the rocks on the remount there was another crash (you are seeing a theme) which your 'Author' went down in with one other rider. I can tell you I am a little tender this morning. . . . once again another 7-8 riders went past as I tried to work out how my chain got wrapped around my crankarm. . . . .?

From here the mayhem seems to have let up some, and Specialized was back on the front going hard with Eric Koh and William going hard on the front. Not too far behind them was Cui Yinhao of TREK, and Chia Kung (Specialized). There were a few more minor crashes, also some road rash and sun burn, but the race went smoothly from here. Your 'author' went into 'don't panic' mode as he tried to make his way back up to the front from the back.

A beautiful sunny day saw another dominant day for Team Specialized in Shanghai Cross. There was a little bit of movement on placings towards the end with a last minute charge by Kaiyuan Wang (TCR), resulting in a bad flat, but overall a consistent finish by the favourites.

Full results to come soon!

NEW LINK: MAGNUS BACKSTEADT COFFEE

http://www.magnusbackstedt.com/MB/index.cfm

One of the riders I have always liked now sells something that we have always liked. . . . .
.COFFEE!

Just some fun facts:

Magnus Backstedt
Born: 30:01:1975
Linkoping Sweden
Professional Since: 1996
Current Team 2008: Slipstream

Favourite Stuff
Race: Roubaix...are there other races on the calendar?
Food: Pizza
Drink: Coffee (Of course)
Film: Happy Gilmore, Pulp Fiction.
Music: Anything thats pumpin!!
Holiday: HOME! I travel so much during the season!
Car: HUMMER H2 Super charge, Imagine a house being shot out of a cannon!
Gadget: Laptop, NOKIA Communicator, MP3 player (SONY of course!)

Sum yourself up in a maximum of ten words:
Pain heals, chicks dig scars, glory last forever!

2007
Sweden National Champion

2005
4th Paris Roubaix
2nd Stage 7 Tour de France

2004
1st Paris Roubaix
2nd Gent Wevelgem
2nd CSC Classic

The site has a heap of interesting stuff including NEWS, a photo Gallery (JP - there may be some beautiful pics in there, although none of topless girlfriends. . . ), Bikes, and most importantly of all COFFEE PURCHASING!

To make you feel good, all proceeds from his coffee go towards supporting young and upcoming cyclists. The coffee foundation now directly funds their continental professional Team Cyclesport.se We aim to bring the highest level of support and management to the entry level of
the professional ranks. They are now aiming to provide a motivating, secure platform to allow riders from Sweden, the UK and USA to turn professional and reach the highest level in the sport.

ENJOY!!!

GETTING STRONG: Winter Training Part 3c

Reprinted with permission Richard Pestes http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/ also with thanks to Sim Green resident semi-pro who rides for Bouygues Telecom’s feeder team C.A.Castelsarrasin in southern France.

After some strong riding on the A-30 Yesterday, I thought it appropriate to get us back on track with some group riding skills which will also assist once the racing starts!

. . . . Rule 4 (see previous blog entrieson GETTING STRONG for the first 3 lessons):

Pulling Through When the two riders ahead of you peel off, it is your job to come through to the front and pull the group along. If you do not want to ride at the front because you are tired or less fit than the rest of the group, it’s too late to avoid it now. Once you are in second wheel, you MUST come through to the front. Do not speed up, and do not get out of the bar-to-bar formation. Maintaining a steady speed, squeeze through the gap and go to the front (Fig 3). When the two riders ahead of you peel off, don’t slow down and look around as if you don’t know why on earth they would be pulling off to the sides of the group. Maintain your speed and go straight through without hesitation.

Rule 5: Too Tired To Go To The Front If you do not want to go to the front

Sit at the back and let the riders coming back from the front of the group slot in ahead of you. It is not acceptable to work your way up to the front of the group and then look around acting lost and confused, slowing down because you don’t feel strong enough to be at the front. If for whatever reason you do find yourself at the front, go through and take what is known as a “token pull”. You go to the front for a couple seconds, agree with the rider beside you that you are both peeling off, and go to the back.

Rule 6: Gaps

There should be NO gaps in a group ride. As soon as you see a gap, fill it by riding into the space in a steady and controlled manner. There is no need to sprint into the space and then slam on the brakes, just gradually fill in any gaps as soon as you see them.

Rule 7: Moving About In A Group

If you need to go to the back of the group, or need to move out away from the side of road because the road is damaged (for example), just steadily move in whatever direction you want to go in. The key to all group riding is to do things gradually and steadily. Even if there is a rider right next to you as you pull out to the side of the road, if you do it gradually, the other rider will naturally have time to move over with you. If you do anything sudden you will likely cause a crash. This is also very important when “peeling off” and “filling a gap”.

Any questions?

The pros at training camp demonstrate this fundamental well - obstacles and other such problems of the road are easily indicated with a simple point. . . Stay classy . . .

CYCLOCROSS SHANGHAI

(start humming the theme for JAWS in your head. . . . got it? O.K. now hold that tune). IT'S COMING. . . . .JUST WHEN YOU WEREN'T EXPECTING IT. . . . . (and you haven't been training). . . . .IT'S BIGGER THAN YOU REMEMBER. . . . . . .AND IT'S RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER . . . .

SHANGHAI CYCLOCROSS #2 MARCH 15TH AT 10AM!!!!!!!!

BE THERE SO YOU CAN TELL YOUR FRIENDS YOU RACE CROSS.

Racing will start at 10am please disregard the error on the poster. .

Kaiyuan sent us this link a while back - sign up and watch the pros race for some good tips:

http://ccx.nathanspear.com/

YOU MUST RACE. . . . .

MATT FILE

Hey.

My name is Matthew O’Hagan and I’m an amateur cyclist trying to make it to the professional level on the road and a friend thought some of you might be interested in following the trip, so I’m going to give this blogging thing a shot.

I’m currently based out of Revelstoke BC, Canada, admittedly not your typical cycling destination, but some of the training around here is top notch once, and a key once at that, the snow has retreated up the mountains a bit. Winter training came down to a mix of skate skiing, pushing weights in the gym, and a couple times a week on the trainer/rollers. The last week of January and the first week of February I spent in Victoria getting in some solid base rides up to 6 hours in length in and now am back in Revelstoke working and putting in some quality trainer time.

ITT in the Velocity Stage Race, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Racing sits just around the corner (and hopefully summer weather too as it snowed outside again today), I have a couple training races coming up later this month and then I’m moving into stage races of stage races in April, Walla Walla being the the first, pretty excited for it, 3 days, 4 stages and full rolling enclosures for the road stages. Also in April is one of my favorite BC courses in Race the Ridge which has a pretty significant climb every lap. Later in the year I should be getting to a number of other stage races including Banff, Tour de White Rock, and the Cascade Classic in Oregon, as well as an assortment of crits and one day races.

Matt (the blur in silver far left) going fast at the Banff Criterium 08'. You have to go pretty fast to become a blur. . . .

A bit of background on my athletics. I grew up playing the traditional Canadian sport of hockey, was decent but was forced to retire due to a shoulder injury late in high school. Decided to try my hand at cross country mountain bike racing, really wanted to try down hill racing, but couldn’t afford the bike so cross country was what I did, raced for a year and was able to move up from Junior Sport to Junior Expert where I got soundly beat for the rest of the season (didn’t quite get caught by all the elite women at nationals with a 3 minute head start). From there I moved onto some rowing with the University of Victoria, found that didn’t work so well outside of school so bought a used road bike and started learning. Was super excited about that bike and loved it. It was the GT team Lotto-Mobistar replica frame in the super obnoxious florescent lime green.

In between all of that I’ve found a bit of time for snowboarding and more recently I’ve been enjoying rock climbing, which brought a tiny bit of balance to my athletics last season.

I will keep you posted as the season progresses and hopefully you enjoy,

Matthew

ADVENTURE TRAVEL - Mongolia!

Hi everyone,

It has become a tradition that each year that we arrange a MTB expedition, in the true sense of the word, to outer Mongolia.

Last year, we were 10 riders on a mission to promote democracy.

Please see for pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/Cyclosportschina/Mongolia2008#

The trip is organized by the Mongolian Cycling Federation and Cyclo Sports China. A few Mongolian riderslive in Beijing and their colleagues at the Federation have asked me to launch their new routes in the North of Mongolia.

Last year, we rode in the far West near Kazachstan. This year we’ll go north towards the direction of Russia.

We will be an expedition with MTB mounted on jeeps, local drivers and equipment. We’ll stay in hotels andYurts along the outback.

Expect to go in a few hours from desert, to shrub land, to mountains to end near glaciers. Mongolia is simplyastonishingly wild and remote.

The expedition is a way for the Federation to supplement their meager income and budget. In return, we are able to use their resources, guidance and expertise to organize a unique trip.
We have a limited window period to organize this trip (or multiple trips depending on the dates and turn out):

Basically, we have 3 “good months”: June, July and August to ride in Mongolia. Other months are too cold!

Therefore, I have proposed to them the following three periods for travel.

• 9 days in June: From Friday June 12 until Sunday June 21
• 9 days in July: From Friday July 17 until Sunday July 26
• 9 days in August: From Friday August 21 until Sunday 30 August

The cost of the ride will be determined on the amount of riders. We need a minimum of 5 riders and can accommodate many more.

We will organize for you: accommodation, transport and sustenance during the trip. A ball park figure for this trip, assuming a 5 person group, will be 12,000RMB excluding airplane tickets from Shangers.

To reduce the price we need the group(s) to be as big as possible. If you are interested in this trip, please contact me directly with your preferred date to travel.

Tom@cyclosportschina.com / cell: 139 102 80053

Also, if you think you can get a group of 5+ persons together outside these periods, we can work on that too.

Finally, please let me know what other questions or concerns you may have about this trip!
Cheers,
Tom

Tom Lanhove runs cyclosportschina.com and has been in China living and riding (and working) for quite some time.

MATT FILE

Hi All,

recently while training a few local riders at the gym, one of them asked me "how do I become a pro?" and "If I was a pro, would I be doing the training we are doing now?"

Both good questions! (Of course I wouldn't waste their time with NON-PRO training! What do they take me for. . . . ) This got me to thinking - WHY NOT ASK A PRO!

PLEASE LET ME INTRODUCE YOUNG AND UPCOMING CYCLIST MATTHEW O'HAGAN.

Now, Matt isn't Chinese, doesn't speak a word or Mandarin or Cantonese. . . he's not even Asian. So this doesn't fit too well with Shanghaivelo (but what the hell!). He is VERY close though - he is Canadian (I understand a few of you are scratching your heads. . ).

Matt is a very good friend and aspiring pro (he is right on the cusp!) and I have invited him to write about the trials and tribulations of TRYING to get to the top right here on our blog! Each post will give you some insight into the effort and hard work Matt is putting in to live the dream.


This is Matt. Expect to see his installments soon . . . . we will also have an "ASK MATT" so please emails your questions to rob_w_lamb@hotmail.com