White Christmas In Columbus

The white-death is upon us. Christmas Eve saw a plethora of the white stuff fall here in Columbus. The only nice thing about that is, I was off the next day, and have a sick hardtail with 2.35 Kenda Nevegals on it for snow-play. Packing way too much man in to a spandex shell, I hopped on the Titus and hit the neighborhood bike trails and wooded areas, making tracks through un-trodden powder. At 17 degrees, it was much less powder, much more ice.

The Nevegals are great in this weather. Low pressure (20 psi) set up tubeless on those things is like having a fat bike, only with just a fat rider. Cruising through the snow, I rolled out through the woods behind Camp H to Everal Barn. The sky was the kind of winter blue we rarely see here, since it is typically grey for 9 months out of the year. Once home, I was able to enjoy some freshly-baked "pan de jamon," who's fabrication was overseen by Jenn.

It was great to hear from everyone across the country via text yesterday! I hope you all thoroughly enjoyed the day. Santa brought me tools and a wheel truing stand, which of course is radness.


Merry Christmas, everyone, and have a great 2018 (with new team shirts!)

Fuzzy Takes Bronze For The Season

Ara fought back repeatedly in the Killer-B category this year, as did the rest of the class, and eventually would have a great season finale race that landed him in 3rd overall. That is an amazing result after a long season of racing! Brewyard Beer Co  brew was flowing at the awards ceremony,
and Fuzzy even celebrated his birthday at Brewyard with Bob and Joy Chow (among others). Randy Rush also came out to race this season!

"Thank you Day 2 :
Sharing a nice cold Brewyard Beer Company LLC after turning ourselves inside-out on the course then cheering/heckling the other categories was the highlight of each weekend! Some drank to forget the pain while others in celebration of pain... CHEERS to all that raised a cup (or growler) this season!
Thank you Kirk Nishikawa, Big Mike, Sherwin, and Dre at the brewery for supporting us this season."






Congrats to all who raced the So Cal Cross season! Cheers!

BKOOL TRAINING WITH JOSH QUALLS.

I'll admit, the thought of being on a bike trainer made me cringe at times! I sold my old cheap bike trainer and purchased set of rollers; they were great because it kept my attention but I was basically just spinning my legs, there wasn't resistance. With my work schedule and having custody of my son, sometimes it's hard to squeeze in a ride during the week so the rollers, although fun, I did feel like I was gaining progress during training.

Brian from BKOOL and I talked for a couple of days; he asked if I was interested in becoming an ambassador for the BKOOL company. After looking into their products/reviews, I was happy to accept the ambassadorship! A few days later I received the new BKOOL Smart Pro 2 trainer. The design is simple and very simple to set up! The BKOOL simulator program was also very simple to set up. Download, make a username and password, input my information (height/weight etc), pair my devices (trainer, cadence and heart rate monitor) and I'm ready to ride.

I was more interested in their BKOOL simulator; I needed something to keep my attention while being on the trainer during winter training. With over 500,000 routes you can ride literally anywhere in the world. One day I was riding at Central Park in New York City, another day riding Giro d'Italia, riding a velodrome and riding Alpe D'huez. There's so many options!

The simulator has real time weather, so if it's rain/snowing in real time where I'm riding, it will do so on the simulator! I'm very impressed with how accurate climbing a 5% + grade on the trainer mimics riding on the road. 

Yesterday I started their Winter Cup series, Stage 1 was an Individual Time Trial (ITT) in Jerusalem. I'm currently ranked 2nd in the USA. The Winter Cup series runs from December to April, riding in a different country on each stage. 

Oh! I cannot forget that even my son can ride his 16" bike on the BKOOL trainer! He wanted to get in a ride before I did, I figured it was worth a shot to mount his bike! Behold, it worked! He did a lap on a velodrome and had a grin from ear to ear that he was doing something I enjoy to do! 

Thank you Brian and BKOOL for this opportunity! I see a lot of suffering this winter!

 

**See the BKOOL AMERICA link in the "sponsors" column.