Bear Mountain descent and other thoughts

After talking about the Bear Mountain climb last week, I had the urge to go out there and take a video of it... well, the descent from the climb (since watching me huffing up the climb wouldn't be quite as interesting). The climb itself isn't really that difficult. It's a 4.5 mile climb at a little more than 4% with a fairly constant gradient so it's not hard to settle into a nice rhythm and just get up it without too much difficulty. The views are really great which is probably the reason why there are so many people who come up to the top of the mountain (mostly on cars, obviously). The only downside of the climb is that it's literally 45 miles from my apartment.... so to just go and practice climbing on that hill means that I have to ride a 100 miles round trip.

On another note, it looks like Contador won the Giro. I'm still not sure what to think about the whole clenbuterol thing. Without making a guess on whether he was doping or not, I personally think he should be handed a 1 year suspension because he is, under WADA guidelines, responsible for any level of clenbuterol in his blood. But that's just my opinion. Also filed under "my opinions" are the thoughts that he is still the most exciting and explosive climber out there and that his little pistolero hand gesture is still stupid.

The US National Road Race Championship is being held today at Greenville, SC (where George Hincapie lives). Some good names on the startlist so here are my thoughts:

• George Hincapie will make a good showing of it but will be a marked man and won't be allowed to get free. Same holds true for Ben King after his long breakaway last year.
• I really would want Ted King to do well, simply because he writes well and takes pictures of food.
• Taylor Phinney will (unfortunately) not do well. The kid has had a tough week....
• I think Tejay van Garderen will take the championship from a short breakaway. He looked really strong in the ToC last week.

The Countdown continues

I received this in the mail the other day. It's a very nice packet of information sent to me from Custom Getaways (the group that I am using for my Etape trip). There's quite a lot of stuff in there, including pickup logistics, hotel planning, information about each of the major climbs that day, etc. As someone who generally enjoys planning trips, seeing a packet of information like this gets me very excited about the trip. Things are starting to become more concrete.

Of course, this also serves to scare me a little bit. As of today, there are 46 days left until the Etape and I'm still not 100% sure if I can finish the route. I've put in some decent mileage and climbing since the beginning of my training program back in February but I still have some lingering doubts. I think the main problem is that there are no climbs near NYC that come close to approximating some of the Alpine climbs. The longest local climb I know of is at Bear Mountain, which is only 4+% for 4.5 miles. Even doing repeats up Bear Mountain doesn't give me a sense of what Alpe d'Huez will be like. It's essentially a fear of the unknown.

Regardless of what happens though, I think it's going to be an awesome experience to go and ride the route along with thousands of other avid cyclists. I fully plan on drafting off of as many people as possible... I've even entertained the thought of using a bungee cord and tying myself to some of the stronger riders on the climbs. I'm sure they wouldn't mind. And I am excited about refueling with beer after the conclusion of the ride as the sun sets over the Alps.

Bloomin' Metric - Ride Report (with video)

A damp beginning out of Norwalk

A few weeks ago, one of my friends (let's call him Teacher) suggested that we try riding the Bloomin' Metric. It was a ride that he had heard about for years and had always been interested in trying. Apparently many people had recommended the ride for its organization and beautiful route. Three of us (Teacher, Driver, and myself) did the ride this past Sunday and it was a really great experience.

(Just as an explanation for the names, Teacher is for the guy who taught me and my friends many of the rules and etiquette of cycling and Driver is for a friend who literally drives hours and hours to get to rides. He's driven as much as 10 hours in a single day to ride his bike.)

R.I.P. - Xavier Tondo

Xavier Tondo of the Movistar team was killed this morning in a freak accident at home in Granada while preparing for a training ride with his teammate Beñat Inxtausti. According to reports from the Spanish press, the garage door fell on him as he was leaving his home. A completely bizarre and tragic accident.

Tondo was a "late bloomer" who just recently began to make his name known at the highest levels of the sport. He turned professional in 2003 with the Paternina team but came into form and into the public eye during a breakout season in 2010 with the Cervelo TestTeam. He began to develop into a general classifications-type rider, coming in 6th at last year's Vuelta a España. He was then recruited by the Movistar team this year to be their team leader and won the Vuelta and Castilla y Leon this year.

One of this legacies is his anti-doping stance. He was widely praised for playing an important role in uncovering a doping ring in Girona. He did not want any publicity for his role and simply felt that he was doing what any good person should do.

Another loss for the cycling world.

Review - Strava.com

"Athlete" home page

Over the past couple of years, I've used several types of "ride management" programs for the data that's recorded off my Garmin Edge 500. Several of the program are very training oriented, such as the excellent open-source program Golden Cheetah as well as (to a slightly lesser extent) Ascent for the Mac. I don't have much experience with any Windows programs because I'm a minion of Steve Jobs.

Aside from the standalone programs, there are several web-based training programs that are quite useful. Training Peaks is the first one that comes to mind and is one that I know several people use because it allows them to share their ride data quickly with their coaches.

Strava is a different kind of website though. Rather than focusing exclusively on training data, it takes the data from your ride and makes it "social". What does that mean?