NEWS & REVIEWS
The pros are fortunate. All they have to do is ride and recover, whether in training or during the racing season, and they have soigneurs to help them out with stretching, massage, yoga, etc. Not to mention team chefs and nutritionists at their disposal.
We everyday roadies don’t have soigneurs to help us; however, we can, and should, work on our own recovery. Effective training results from overloading our bodies -- and then letting them recover and get stronger.
Recovery is the most frequently overlooked element of successful training. Yet, it is every bit as important as the workout itself. Recovery is every bit as important as the workout itself. It’s simple: Without recovery, workouts are less effective because you’re not allowing your body to process the wear and tear you are putting it through (the overload). Thus, it’s not allowed to rebuild and become stronger. Instead, without adequate recovery, your body remains in a perpetual broken down state without realizing the full benefit of your workouts.
By improving our recovery, we can improve the quality of our training and our overall enjoyment of riding! In a new eArticle on sale today, Optimal Recovery for Improved Performance, Coach John Hughes describes nine techniques we can use to help us recover better and faster. Coach Hughes provides details on how to:
• Replenish nutrients used up during a ride.
• Relieve muscle tightness.
• Improve blood flow from your legs.
• Move lymphatic fluid from your legs to the lymph glands, thereby getting rid of metabolic waste products.
• Reduce or prevent Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), which strikes a day or two after a hard ride.
• Reduce localized pain or acute inflammation.
The eArticle is illustrated with 14 photos (like the one at right), including a step-by-step guide to self-massage of your legs.
As we move into the sweet spot of the riding season, when we tend to put in more miles and do more, longer single- and multi-day events, Optimal Recovery can help you improve your recovery, enabling you to ride better and have more fun on the bike!
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Thieves Target High-End Bikes in Southern California
RBR reader Erik Stokien sent us a Los Angeles Times article on a theft ring operating across Southern California that targeted high-end bikes. It’s a cautionary tale about how you handle selling a bike online, and on bragging about your bike on social media.
The thieves, it turns out, monitored sites like Craigslist for sales notices, and kept tabs on Facebook for posts by cyclists bragging about their fancy bikes or posting photos of them.
Then the thieves would drive to the owner’s house and, often, simply employ a smash-and-grab to drive away with their prize – typically in the $2,000 to $15,000 range. They netted almost 200 bikes worth an estimated $250,000 during the ring’s heyday.
The ring has been busted, but there’s a kicker: The thieves had been “fencing” their loot through a bike shop owner (neither the owner, nor the shop, was identified in the article). The shop owner paid the thieves a couple hundred bucks for a bike, then stripped it and sold off the parts.
So, if you’re ever offered a deal “too good to be true” in a bike shop you’re not familiar with, think about it. You may be about to buy somebody else’s frameset, electric derailleur or carbon wheels.
Click to read the complete LA Times story.
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Cyclist Steals His Own Bike Back from a Thief
The same week I received the email about the L.A.-based theft ring, a neighbor of mine sent me a story about how a cyclist turned the tables on a thief who had stolen his bike – by stealing it back from him!
In this case, the thief had done the old-fashioned cut-the-cable-lock and ride off routine. Then, he used Craigslist to try to sell the stolen bike. After getting no help from police, the owner decided to take matters into his own hands. He set up a time to look at the bike, and during the “test drive,” he simply kept on riding all the way home!
Social media taketh away, and social media giveth!
Here’s a link to the NBCWashington.com story.
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Our Favorite Rides: Boulder, Colorado, Climbing Challenge
RBR reader Drew Clark, the self-appointed President-for-Life of the Stupid Climbing Club, sent us the following using the Favorite Rides form on the Newsletters page on our site.
Please share your own favorite ride(s) with your fellow RBR readers. Your write-up can be straightforward, tongue-in-cheek like Drew’s, or anywhere in between. Here’s what Drew had to say:
Stupid Climbing Club Announces The Last Annual Drew Clark Climbing Challenge Of Eight Epic Climbs (because, even if you can do it once, you won’t want to do it again). For bikers with more gears than brains. The price of admission is STEEP! (I did this ride on October 4, 2007, at the age of 60.) You can try it whenever you want.
Here is the route:
Park your car at 6th and Canyon in Boulder (you will pass this spot two more times during the day). Ride north on Broadway to Lee Hill Road, turn left.
1. Climb Lee Hill, going over the top. Coast down to Left Hand Canyon, then
down to James Canyon, turn left.
2. Climb Super James, passing through Jamestown and going all the way to the
top, making the turnaround at Sparn Way. Coast down to Left Hand Canyon, down to Buckingham Park, turn right.
3. Climb Olde Stage Road, going over the top. Coast down to Lee Hill Road,
down to Broadway, turn right, ride to Mapleton, turn right.
4. Climb Sunshine Canyon, going to the end of the pavement. Coast back down
to Broadway, turn right, ride to Canyon, turn right, ride up Boulder Canyon to Sugarloaf Road.
5. Climb Sugarloaf, going to the turnoff for Switzerland Trail. Coast back
down to Boulder Canyon, down to Magnolia Road. (This ride is a quitter’s dream. Any time you want to quit, just point your wheel downhill and coast back to Boulder. If you are having second thoughts, now is the time to do just that. All eight climbs are steep, but Magnolia varies from steep-steep to stupid-steep.)
6. Climb Magnolia Road, going to the end of the pavement. Coast back down to
Boulder Canyon, down to 6th Street, turn right, ride to Baseline Road.
7. Climb Flagstaff, passing by the Amphitheater spur and going all the way to
the top. Turnaround at Bison Drive just before Kassler Lake. Coast back down, picking up the Amphitheater spur on the way down. Coast down to Broadway, turn right, ride to Table Mesa Drive, turn right.
8. Climb NCAR Hill. Coast down to Broadway, ride back to your car. Go home.
Mileage 99.8 miles (yeah, I circled the parking lot until I hit 100.0). Total climbing: over 14,000 feet (equivalent to riding from sea level to the top of Pike’s Peak). This was the hardest one-day ride I’ve ever done, even tougher than one day of RAAM. Good luck.
If you can meet the challenge, you will be awarded the following: Lifetime membership in the Stupid Climbing Club -- certificate printed on a cheap ink-jet printer, suitable for folding into a paper airplane.
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Upcoming Rides with RBR
If you live near RBR HQ in Atlanta, consider coming out to ride a couple of upcoming events in the area. Look for John in his RBR jersey, if you do, and be sure to say Hi.
Saturday, June 16
This ride, which meanders through some equally lovely countryside near Braselton, Georgia, benefits Aplastic Anemia & MDS International Foundation (AA&MDS). Aplastic Anemia is a very rare and very deadly bone marrow disease that receives almost no funding for research, and the treatment has not changed in 25 years. RBR is supporting the ride for the first time, and we’ll have a booth at the Jackson County Brevet as well. Again, John will be joining in the ride, so look for him if you’re there.
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Overheard: Giro and Tour of California
Our own Jim Langley was interviewed on a local NPR affiliate station to provide expert commentary on the Stage 2 route of the Amgen Tour of California, which traversed some of the roads Jim and his fellow Santa Cruz roadies ride all the time. Click to listen to the KUSP interview.
Jim helped to promote the stage, just as Coach Fred Matheny is helping promote Stage 2 of the USA Pro Cycling challenge in his hometown of Montrose, Colorado. That race will be held in August. While Georgia doesn’t have a pro stage race any longer, I do my part to promote some of the local charity rides taking place around Georgia.
At RBR, we’re proud to do what we can to support cycling, in general, and events like these.
-- J.M.
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--- “It was an important stage win especially for the bonus. Some journalists told me about the finish here and I now realize that it is suited to me. When you get to a finish like this one you have to use it to your advantage.”
-- Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) who took the stage 10 victory in the still wide-open Giro d’Italia in Assisi on Tuesday. With the time bonus gained from winning the stage, he wrested the Pink Jersey from Canadian Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Barracuda), who had worn it as the race leader for a number of days.
After winning the opening-day time trial and then crashing hard in Stage 3, young Taylor Phinney (BMC Racing) lost the Maglia Rosa on a swollen ankle in Stage 4’s team time trial. He’s crashed again since then, but he’s soldiering on to attempt to accomplish what he said was his main goal for the Giro – completing his first 3-week tour. He sits in 186th place (out of 190).
Rodriguez held onto the Pink Jersey after yet another crash-marred finish in Wednesday’s Stage 11.
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--- “It was a surprise for me. I'm glad to win, and I have to say thank you for my team because they did very good work for me. This race is very hard for me because there are long climbs at the finish (on stage 6 and 7) and I don't do very good at the time trial, maybe I will try to hold the yellow jersey one more day, but after the time trial we will see. But I don't think so."
-- Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) three for three at the Amgen Tour of California after winning Stage 3 in Livermore. The Slovak champion has found himself in the right place at the right time at every turn thus far.
But he is a realist and does not expect to contend for the overall title with serious climbing and an individual TT ahead – neither of which are his strong suits.
Like the Giro, the Tour of California remains wide open, with almost 50 riders within 30 seconds of the GC lead. Thursday’s TT and Saturday’s torturous climb and mountaintop finish on Mt. Baldy will go a long way toward settling this year’s race.