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

SHANGHAI CROSS #1 (EVER!)

incredible photos here: http://www.fotop.net/TANG/090222

After a lot of organising between deepbluephatboy and Your Author the FIRST EVER SHANGHAI CYCLO CROSS RACE took place this morning at 10:30am sharp.

We arrived at the course at 7am with the plan of having the course ready for everyone to preride at 9am. We were welcomed by the TREK Sponsored Tents already set up! This was a brilliant surprise, and certainly set the scene for a smooth start.

We would like to personally thank TREK for their support.

Let me immediately express our thanks to all the volunteers!!! I must say, we never take volunteers for granted, but with the amount of organization that goes into a cross race our helpers were a blessing. We had volunteers assist with setting tape, Robbie on the tools setting up barriers and the cheerful girls helping take registrations. Once again – this race would not have been half as brilliant without your help – THANKS! The weather was excellent and the organizers set up the course, and laid about 5 kilometers of tape by approximately 9:30am. Another personal thank you to MaxSHracing (http://www.maxshracing.com/company.php) Bikehome (www.bikehome.net) and TREK (www.trekbicycles.com)

The race started at 10:30am with 30 keen racers on the line. The weather decided to transform the race immediately as the clouds opened up to greet the start with rain! We had an excellent range of cyclists and we were very happy to see so many smiles – even if many of them had mud in their teeth!

The course had a fantastic mix of challenges (says he who designed it. . .) but the plan from the start was to string out the group. We started with 700m on the road to line everyone out. Eric Koh from team Specialized entered the single track first with a smooth bunny hop from tarmac to trail (MUD). Eric was followed closely by Your Author, Chia, Cui Yinhao and 2 other Specialized riders. There was a long line from there including Sven Nijs who had a tough start. . . .

Once riders hit the mud it was time to pick your lines as the rain turned the course into a series of deep ruts, puddles and slippery rocks. At the end of the first lap it was a Specialized 1, 2, 3 with Your Author in 4^th followed closely by MaxSHRacing teammate, and perennial strong man, Cui Yinhao.

As the laps went by the course got slower and sucked the energy from all riders. After riders exited the first section of trail they entered onto the second short section of road before jumping back into the trees. By mid race this area had degraded to the point where it was one long run. Throw in some barriers and we kept all riders on their toes! In similar fashion the second set of trail was great on the first lap but turned into pure running after the barriers as the rain continued.

A huge well done to all participants on completing such a demanding and energy sucking Sunday!

Full results will be posted in the next few days, however the final top 5 were:

1. Eric Koh (Specialized China)

2.Tom Simpson (Specialized China)

3. Chia Kung (Specialized China)

4. Robert Lamb (MaxSHRacing)


5. Cui YinHao (MaxSHRacing)

More pics and news to come. . . .

CLUB AWARDS #4 BEST ALL AROUND CYCLIST SHANGHAI

We are getting down to the cold, hard, nitty, gritty of the awards in a hard fought category. Today, we will release the winner for best all around cyclist SHANGHAI as voted by your peers: Riders who received multiple votes were:

• SIMON CUI (SPECIALIZED)
• ERIC KOH (SPECIALIZED)
• MARTIN BREUVART (TCR)
• JEAN PIERRE DAWANCE (TCR)
• CUI YINHAO (MAXSHRACING)

TWO LOCAL TEAMS REALLY DOMINATING THE TOP 5! The Winner of best all around cyclist, including climbing, time trails, crits and point to point racing is: a TIE!!!!

MARTIN BREUVART AND JP DAWANCE - WELL DONE BOTH AND WELL DONE TCR!!!
Sorry I (strangely) couldn't find a pic of martin. . send one if you have one. .

The official award for this category (I Know you didn't think you would win anything. . . will be to be featured as our"banner boy" for the next year!!!

Tune in tomorrow race fans - and until then, Stay classy San Diego.

CLUB AWARDS #6 - BEST DRESSED SHANGHAI CYCLIST

This category was NOT a huge competition. Only one OTHER rider got a (single) vote. . . . .

THE WINNER: MR TRENT ILIFFE. . . . .

Congratulations TCR. . .!

Always the wearer of white socks, the rider of Italian steed, the wearer of Adidas shoes. . . . .and when off the bike Bulgari sunglasses. . . we here at shanghaivelo feel that the Australian may have a fake passport and may actually be Italian. . . . . .watch this space as Mr. Iliffe may have some words as a guest columnist to keep you looking TIGHT on the bike. . . and don't let him catch you without white bar tape. . .

GOING NATIONAL! CYCLOCROSS IN BEIJING

One of the main goals of shanghaivelo is to bring the cycling community in China closer together. I have been speaking with Tom Lanhove at www.cyclosportchina.com and he is doing some amazing things in Beijing - definitely have a look at his website!

Tom has added me to his mailing list to keep me posted on Beijing riding and racing news and to cut to the chase - they have fantastic riding and racing community running. Recently the Beijing winter racing has been written up in INTERNATIONALLY!!!! Please take 5 minutes and have a look at

http://cyclosportschina.com/?p=421

SOOOO COOL! I would once again like to take a line and thank TREK BICYCLES for all the hard work they are doing in China to build racing culture - a big thank you to Todd McKean and all his dealers!!!

GETTING STRONG: Winter Training Part3b

Story courtesy of Simeon Green/ PezCyclingNews http://www.pezcyclingnews.com

. . .As with everything, there is an exception to the rule. If there is an uneven number of riders in the group and you don’t have anyone to ride along side, you should place yourself in between the two riders ahead of you, with your front wheel between their two rear wheels. This allows the riders behind you to remain bar to bar and to keep the group tightly together. The riders behind you should ride with their front wheels either side of your rear wheel. It’s not acceptable to sit directly behind the rider ahead of you and leave a gap to your side.

Now, before you spark up and say that riding between the wheels of the riders preceding you is unsafe, let me point out, that if everyone is riding bar to bar as they should be, you are guaranteed the space of a handlebar’s width within which to move, which should be ample. So even if the two riders ahead of you knock into each other, you should have plenty of space. This is a pretty safe place to be.

Rule 3: Peeling Off
When you are tired of riding at the front, and you feel it is time for you to go to the back, make sure the rider beside you knows you are tired and want to go back. Once you have both established that you are going back, check briefly that there isn’t someone overlapping your back wheel, then both riders slowly and gradually move to the outside and let the group come through the middle. Do not suddenly veer off to the side, peel off in a steady and controlled manner.

Rule 4: Pulling Through
When the two riders ahead of you peel off . . . . . I will explain what to do in a few days on my next post - I am off to the trainer and my new cyclocross videos!