Remiss

I apologize for my remissness of writing. I had the bad news that Berthoud's only bike shop, Roadhouse Bikes, is closing. Which, not only being tragic for Dan, a set back for the team, but, is bad for the community. According to National Bicycle Dealers Association, America has lost 3000 bicycle shops over the last 20 years. Which is nearly a third, considering only 5000 shops are around today. I won't go on about the benefits of bicycles, like long term health benefits and the cost savings. But, I will say, a town without a bike shop is sad. As a child, we all begged for one. However, bicycles seem to stay with our youth. Apart from the very small subset of lyrca wearing cyclists, adults just don't ride bikes. But, there may be hope for the future. I ran across this article, in which U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood is threatening to withhold federal tax dollars if new projects don't include bicycle and pedestrian lanes. You can read his blog here. Again, we wish Dan and family the best of luck. And, hopefully, he will bring a bike shop back to Berthoud one day.



Speaking of youth and craziness, I was climbing Pinewood Reservoir the other day when I met Nate and Shay on their homebuilt gravity bike, a very cool machine. Those are 20 pound weights instead of cranks, road bars on a bmx frame and some fat tires. They also had to have the seatpost modified so the could get into a true tucked position. I tried to keep pace with them on the descent, our speeds reaching 60mph! I could hold pace on my road bike during the straights, but, when the corners came, they left me behind with their knee dragging, motorcycle-style cornering ability. We are going to film the descent and post the results soonest. You may be sick watching.

And speaking of Pinewood Hillclimb (aka Rattlesnake Hill), please send us your times for the climb (email@rideberthoud.com). We are going to publish a list of results. Since we will break it down into categories, include your vitals (name, age, sex, bike weight, whatever). While we were going to do a most improved competition, that has been scraped. But, if you do ride up regularly, keep sending your times and we will do an unofficial competition. The course starts at the 25 mph sign just past the T-intersection of N County Road 31 and Polehill Road (this is where you turn from the back side of Carter Lake) and the 20mph sign at the top of Polehill Rd (you will know it when you get there). Who knows, maybe we will try a time trial effort some day, so keep tuned. For the technical junkies, Pinewood Hillclimb is 3.6 miles (5.8kms), averages 9.5% grade and has several 13% and 14% sections. We estimated a winning ProTour rider (Tour de France caliber) would ride up in about 14:30 (if Lance or any other ProTour rider wants to try, we would be more than glad to time you). Times of under 20 minutes and you might consider a cycling career, under 30 minutes is a good amateur time and under 45 minutes is a good fitness time. And just riding the hill, no matter what your time, is a test in mental and physical strength. Even ProTour riders walk their bikes uphill, sometimes. Bring your granny gears.

On team news, seeing the RideBerthoud boys back at the track was nice. And Brady needs to keep eating his Wheaties, because he was flying! Good job Brady.