Live From Ohio

Up the Gunners!

Tread Mill Life

For the past week I've been working near Cincinnati in Ohio, USA. I flew over from the UK last Sunday and since then my life has been a routine of sleeping, treadmill (5 to 8 km per day), work, bar / food and sleep. I can't run any more than 30 to 40 minutes on the treadmill. it's so mind numbingly boring.

With one more week to go I'm looking forward to a free weekend which will start tomorrow morning with Arsenal v Tottenham at 8.45 EST. It will certainly be strange to wake up, switch on the box and see the local London derby live before I've even got out of bed.

After that's over I plan to drive into the beautiful Autumn coloured Kentucky countryside and along the way get a guided tour of the Woodford Reserve distillery.

If I haven't drunk too much of Kentucky's finest I'll head out Sunday AM to the Ohio Valley cyclocross event in Miamiville, being hosted by John G of the twoJohnspostcast, to give my support. Unfortunately I won't be taking part in the racing since I don't have a bike with me. I am hoping to take lots of photos though and will post an update of the days fun later in the day.

Until then...

Quote From The Peloton

When I win races, I have to put everybody including myself, of course, through a meat grinder. Everybody has to suffer, suffer, suffer until they’ve all had enough. - Jens Voigt

Mad Skills Part 2

Every now and then I come across exceptional bike movies focusing on areas of cycling that I'm neither good at nor usually profile on my blog. The movie below falls into these categories as did the movie featured on my first Mad Skills posting. Control, technique, talent, these boys have it all.

Chrissie Wellington Interviews

I'm not usualy one to cover triathlon on this blog but have to make an exception for Britain's Chrissie Wellington who was recently crowned female Ironman World Champion for the third successive year in Kona and just happened to break the course record along the way! And to think she's only been a pro since 2007. What an amazing athlete!

Below is a 3 part interview with Chrissie filmed shortly after her victory.

London Cycle Show - Singlespeed & Fixed Wheel

Here is the third a final installment of photos from the London Cycle Show. The photos below are all of either singlespeed or fixed wheel bikes. Please click on any of the images to see the full size versions.

London Cycle Show - TT Bikes

Apart from seeing the London Tour de France Prologue time trial in 2007 I've never seen so many TT bikes as I did at the Cycle Show. I've never ridden a TT bike either and looking at some of the far out designs on display at the Show I'd imagine it would take alot a practice to be able to control one at high speed.

Thinking back to watching Fabian Cancellara winning the World TT Championships a couple of weeks ago it really brings it home to me what an amazing bike handler he must be to be able to take corners at speed with such finesse.

Some of the TT designs really were incredible to see in the flesh. Hailing from Macclesfield in Cheshire the all titanium Sabbath looking like a Stealth bomber with wheels really caught mine and Betty's eye. Please double click any of the images in order to see them full screen.

London Cycle Show - Road Bikes

Last Sunday Betty and I visited the Cycle Show at London's Earls Court Exhibition Centre. Having never visited a cycle exhibition before I was pretty excited to say the least and managed to take hundreds of photos. Over the next few days I'll be posting some of my favorite photos from the show including road, TT and singlespeed/fixed wheel bikes.

Today's images feature road bikes. Unfortunately there are images missing that I would have included but the photos were blurred or didn't come out as well as I'd have liked . I've therefore included only bikes where the images are fairly sharp. Please double click on any of the images to see the larger full screen versions. Enjoy!

Le Parcours 3D

Tour de France 2010 - Le Parcours

RIP VDB

Photo: John Pierce

Frank Vandenbroucke 1974 - 2009

Fulcrum Racing Zero's

A couple of months back I sucummed to an urge I had had for quite some time to upgrade the wheels on my Wilier Izoard. I didn't really need to upgrade them since the wheels I had been running on the bike were perfectly fine. It's just that I wanted to change something on the bike, freshen it up a bit if you like.

Many years ago I learned that the most important piece of a bike, the piece that should always be the first priority is the frame. Always get the best frame you can I was told. Everything else can be replaced fairly easily but the frame is usually the most expensive part so is more difficult to replace. I also learned the second most important part of the bike are the wheels. Wheels will provide the biggest increase in performance other than the frame so if anything should be upgraded first it should be the wheels. It was this thinking that helped me persuade myself to buy a pair of Fulcrum Racing Zero clinchers, Fulcrum's top of the range aluminium wheel set.


In a way I got 2 upgrades for the price of 1 because I was able to replace the Fulcrum Racing 5's on my De Rosa Neo Primato with Fulcrum Racing 3's from my Wilier. I sold the 5's on Ebay a while back, you may have seen the posting I placed on here advertising them.


I've been out on a few long rides using the Zero's over the past few weeks and haven't been disappointed. I haven't yet had the opportunity to use carbon wheels but can say the Zero's are certainly the stiffest and most responsive non-carbon wheels I've ever had the pleasure of riding. Weighing in at 610 grams (front) and 825 grams (rear), they are pretty light too.


But let me be honest, the other major reason for purchasing these wheels is because, as Fulcrum put it, high impact aesthetics make them stand out from the crowd. In other words they look the bollocks. Enough said!

To find out more about Racing Zero wheels visit Fulcrum.

Tour de France 2010 Grand Départ

I guess my posts of late are a bit like London buses. There are none for ages then 3 arrive at the same time.

So the 2010 Tour de France grand départ will be from Rotterdam in the Netherlands. As soon as I get the entire stage by stage map I'll post it here.

Lance To Race Ironman Worlds 2011 In Kona Hawaii

Don't they mean 2010?

Olympic Velodrome Construction

These images show the progress being made in constructing the Olympic velodrome in East London very close to where I live. It's exiting to think that this building site will play host to the likes of Sir Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton in 2012. I'm going to make absolutely sure I'll be there in person to see as much of the action as I can.

To find out more about the Olympic velodrome project, click here.

London Cycle Show

A BMX stunt rider performs at the 2009 Cycle Show in London today. Photo: Shaun Curry/AFP/Getty Images

Betty and I will be visiting the Cycle Show this coming Sunday at Earls Court in central London. I have to say I'm very excited about attending a cycle show/exhibition for the first time. Expect lots of bike porn to be posted here next week.

Inside The Garmin-Slipstream Team Bus

It's pimped!

Cycling The Wrong Way Up Roads Legal

I'm really not sure about this. London Lite reported in its newspaper on 17th September that a pilot is being launched in the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to allow cyclists to ride the wrong way up certain roads. I admit I do cycle occasionally, but very carefully, the wrong way up roads. Usually they are very quiet and the length of the road is short so the risk involved is small. However, the legitimise cycling the wrong way up some of London's roads may be the wrong decision. Less experienced cyclists may find themselves getting into difficulties. To be honest I doubt the pilot scheme will take off.