Ridley made some pretty dramatic claims when they released the Noah in 2009. Ridley claimed the combined effect of R-flow and R-surface technologies reduce wind drag by 11.5%. I am not able to say if this is true or not but I am able to say the aero advantage of this frame was noticeable. So noticeable that I am a convert. Prior to riding the Noah I was not really getting the whole need for aerodynamics in a road frame. I felt that designing a road race frame for aerodynamics was not worth the drawbacks on weight and comfort. After 2 races and 50 hours on the Noah, I am going to feel at a distinct disadvantage on an other frame. Day one on the Noah I noticed the way I was rolling up on my ride companion. It was very similar to a good pair of aero wheels, perhaps even more dramatic.

Racing on the Noah, things felt fantastic at higher speeds – when attacking a group through a dip at 35mph, the Noah gave me confidence to bridge to the breakaway. The aero engineering in the Noah makes a significant difference to speed. Riding a Noah in a road race could be the difference between winning or finishing 2nd. In a fast group ride the Noah could take you from hanging onto the back, to making a few pulls at the front. Sounds like a bit much? Yes riding the Noah is over the top – it really is.

No free lunch. Yes friends there is no free lunch. The downside to the Noah’s huge upside in speed is that it’s not very comfortable. The Noah does not climb very well and in strong crosswinds it gets blown around just like deep carbon wheels. None of these are deal breakers, but if you are looking at a Noah as your only bike you need to examine your priorities and realize there are lighter and nicer riding bikes out there.

The Noah’s geometry made it feel more like a drag racer than a typical Belgium race bike. The slightly shorter wheelbase makes it a bike for criteriums and sprinting but not ideal for all day riding. Wheel selection made significant difference to the ride quality of the Noah. The demo bike came with Campagnolo Eurus and Michelin Pro 3 race tires. Although this is a good wheel set it was a little harsh with the Noah. Most real deep carbon wheels might give a similar feel but would be a fantastic performance combination. Using American Classic Hurricanes for daily riding took some of the harshness out of the ride and made for a great combo.

The Noah strikes me as the perfect bike for a tall, powerful rider who lives in a relatively flat area and does fast group rides and races. The high modulus carbon used in the Noah makes the bike very stiff yet still relatively light. The Noah is made from a blend of 40 and 50 ton high modulus carbon. The claimed weight of the frame, with the intergraded seat post, is 1200grams (allow 180gram for the post) this is light for a bike with such stiffness and aero styling.

All carbon drop outs on the fork and rear reduce weight once again and attest to the engineering that went into the Noah. The fork also has a tapered steerer tube and a oversized bearing at the bottom with the standard 1 1/8th on the top. The fork contributes to the cornering ability of the bike and the feeling of confidence out of the saddle when sprinting.
The integrated seat mast was easy to adjust and with 3 options for saddle adjustment the Noah should satisfy most riders.

For details about what gives the Ridley Noah it’s aero advantage, I suggest looking at Ridley’s website dedicated to explaining the technology: http://www.thefastestbikeintheworld.com

Looks as fast as it is. Yes, if it came down to choosing a bike on looks and speed the Noah is a 10/10 . When you see it up close or when you park your Noah at a coffee shop next to “normal bikes”, it just looks fast and your friends know it cause your coffee is cold by the time they get there.

By Clive de Sousa of Glory Cycles

As you recall, I discussed six training zones. I will review each of these and describe when you use it and give an example of a workout in that zone.

Zone 1 – Recovery: This should be done on rest days. By riding easily, you loosen your legs and help flush waste products from your muscles following a hard day of riding. It’s important not to push into zone 2 during these rides. You don’t want any additional stress on your leg muscles. An example workout would be to spin in a very low gear at a fairly high cadence such as 90 RPM with little resistance on the pedals. Spin for 30 minutes.

Zone 2 – Endurance: Zone 2 rides are the foundation of a cyclist’s training program. These rides should be long, longer than 1.5 hours, to get an endurance benefit. Zone 2 is quite easy but after 2-3 hours, it will become more of a challenge. This type of workout builds your aerobic base required for more advanced and intense training to follow. A typical workout would be to ride 2 or more hours in zone 2. Nothing fancy about it but do it once or twice a week and you will get more fit.

Zone 3 – Tempo: This zone is somewhat controversial. Some people call it ‘no-mans land’ and recommend you avoid it. I believe it has a specific place in training. The reason some folks avoid it is because its hard enough work that you will get tired, but if you are already fit, it doesn’t add enough stress to make you faster, just more tired. However, early in the season when you are rebuilding your fitness following the winter off-season, you can do some of your base zone 2 rides in zone 3, especially if you don’t have time to ride for 2 or more hours in zone 2. Riding an hour in zone 2 won’t do much for endurance, so if that is all you have, then ride that hour in zone 3 instead. One such workout is to ride for 5 minutes in zone 2 and then increase your pace and ride in zone 3 for 5 minutes. Repeat this sequence for the duration of the ride.

Zone 4 – Threshold: This is the zone where you can make great progress on your fitness. This is the pace at which you are at your aerobic limit. You can maintain this pace for as long as an hour. It is a hard pace but sustainable. It will increase your ability to ride faster and longer without going anaerobic, or getting out of breath. A great workout is to do 3 minute intervals at zone 3 pace followed by recovery periods of 3 minutes. Work up to one hour of these intervals.

Zone 5 – Anaerobic: These are red-line intervals. Your body can no longer supply enough oxygen to your working muscles at this pace and you begin accumulating lactic acid and your legs burn. You can only maintain this pace for up to 5 minutes before you are forced to back off. You can work this zone by doing 2 minute very hard intervals at zone 5 pace followed by 3 minutes of recovery. These will be very hard and should only be done if you are fit and healthy.

Zone 6 – Max Effort: These are all-out sprints, going as hard as you can go, for 30 seconds or so. This trains your ability to accelerate rapidly and to sprint. Training in this zone isn’t required for recreational riders but should be done if you are racing. A workout for zone 6 is to throw in an all-out 30 second sprint every 5 minutes during a ride.

As you can see, each zone has its own purpose. Experiment with these different zones and experience the effect. In addition, you should do some climbing and leg spinning workouts as well. There’s no excuse to ride the same pace all the time.

David Ertl is a USA Cycling Level 1 coach, NSCA personal trainer and author of “101 Cycling Workouts”. He offers personal coaching and customized training plans, and offers book, training plans and free articles at www.CyclesportCoaching.com

For those keeping track, Wikipedia currently lists Spartacus, The Swiss Bear, Fabulous Cancellara, Tony Montana and Berna’s Locomotive as his nicknames.

However, I find myself unable to find the right superlative when it comes to describing the ability to just ride away from some of the world’s top PROs…Spartacus outsmarted as much as overpowered Tom Boonen and Juan Antonio Flecha at the E3 by accelerating before a technical turn. But, he and Boonen clearly showed their premier status again at the Tour of Flanders. Cancellara created a seperation leaving only he and Boonen to settle the matter by attacking on the Molenberg with over 40K to go and then dropping Boonen on The Muur to eventually win by over a minute. Spartacus knows he doesn’t have the top end for a sprint, but being able to simply power away is mind-blowing.

Old Guys’ Hope Equally as impressive was George Hincapie’s 6th place in The Ronde. George missed the decisive selection, but believes he had the strength and sensations to have made a go, eventually only getting pipped by Farrar for 5th from those in the main group. As Big George looks to finally have the sun shine on him at Paris-Roubaix, he has to be considered as a serious contender along with Cancellara and Boonen.

Twitter Credit where Credit is Due The leagues of Ciclirati readers know I’m occasionally fairly harsh to Jonathan Vaughters, the Garmin-Transitions boss. In the past I’ve let him have it for the handling of Tom Zirbel’s DHEA positive where they dismissed Zirbel reportedly without anything more than an email. I do understand the need for clean sport, appreciate Vaughters’ zeal for cycling clean and understand the zero-tolerance climate. However, any Ciclirati reader also knows my belief in the integrity and failure of the system when it comes to Tom Zirbel. Was happy to see Vaughters tweet “Rode the chairlift with Travis Tygart, CEO USADA the other day-Good guy…but…gotta say, I wish Zirbel could be racing with us this year.” I’m trying not to read too much into 140 characters, but given Vaughters’ standard operating procedure, I think this says volumes.

My apologies to The Faithful Last week started a new chapter in my professional life…that thing outside of writing, the twitterverse and pedaling my bike…it has me in the process of a move, temporary housing during the work week, jumping in with both feet and learning the landscape of my new position. From the bottom of my heart, I will not neglect my beloved audience again.

Lactate Threshold (LT) or Anaerobic Threshold (AT) is the heart rate at which you begin to accumulate lactic acid in your muscles – where anaerobic energy production surpasses aerobic. Efforts above this level you are not sustainable for long periods of time, (more than one hour). This generally occurs at 85-92% of maximum heart rate (MHR). Various cycling coaches use different number of zones. Some are based on percentage of MHR, others are based on percentage of AT. I base mine on percentage of AT for two reasons. First, it’s very difficult to get an accurate reading of your true maximum heart rate. You have to push yourself to your absolute maximum and I don’t believe most people can actually hit their max. Second, it could be potentially dangerous trying to push to your max if you have any health problems. I use six zones based on percentage of your anaerobic threshold.

Heart Rate Zones:

Zone 1 = Recovery (<71% of AT) – uses the aerobic system
Zone 2 = Endurance (72-81% of AT) – uses the aerobic system
Zone 3 = Tempo Pace (82-91% of AT) – uses mainly aerobic system
Zone 4 = Threshold Pace ( 92-102% of AT) – uses mainly aerobic system with some anaerobic system
Zone 5 = Anaerobic Pace (103-110% of AT) – covers zone where aerobic converts to the anaerobic system.
Zone 6 = Maximum aerobic capacity (Too short to record HR) – anaerobic and CP systems

Your cardiovascular output can also be measured with power if you use a power meter on your bike. Similar to heart rate, there are also power zones. These are based on your Threshold Power (TP), as estimated from the test given below.

Power Zones:

Zone 1 = Recovery (<55% of TP) – uses the aerobic system
Zone 2 = Endurance (56-75% of TP) – uses the aerobic system
Zone 3 = Tempo Pace (76-90% of TP) – uses mainly aerobic system
Zone 4 = Threshold Pace ( 91-105% of TP) – uses mainly aerobic system with some anaerobic system
Zone 5 = Anaerobic Pace(106-120% of TP) – covers zone where aerobic converts to the anaerobic system.
Zone 6 = Maximum capacity (V02 Max) (>120% of TP) – anaerobic and CP systems

How to estimate your AT or TP:

AT and TP is the maximum sustainable pace you can maintain during a time trial effort that lasts about an hour. However, it’s possible to estimate this heart rate or power from a shorter 20 min time trial effort. Find a road that is relatively level and free of traffic and intersections. You may need to find a road that’s about 5 miles and do an ‘out and back’ course to get your 20 min test done. Alternately, you can do this on an indoor trainer. In some ways this gives you a more repeatable result as you don’t have the weather and traffic variables. Warm up thoroughly, then begin the 20 minute time trial. Ride as hard as you can at a pace you can maintain for the full 20 minutes. There is a fine line between going out too fast and not pushing yourself hard enough. You may need to do a few of these before you figure out your sustainable pace. Record your heart rate and/or power toward the end of the 20 min. Do not accelerate or sprint at the end. What we are after is your sustainable heart rate or power. If you have a computer that allows you, take the average heart rate or power for the last 5 minutes of the effort.

The pace you can maintain for 20 min is slightly faster than the pace you can maintain for an hour. So take your heart rate or power from this 20 minute test and multiply by 0.95 to arrive at your sustainable pace, which is your estimated Anaerobic Threshold (AT) or Threshold Power (PT). Use this value to estimate your own zones as described above or using the table below.

These power threshold zones and method for determining them are based on those advocated by Allen and Coggan in their book, ‘Training and Racing with a Power Meter’.

Refer to these charts to determine your zones based on your own AT or TP values obtained from your test:

Using these zones either with a heart rate monitor or power meter, you will be able to train at different intensities to work your various physiological systems. I want to point out though that these zones are somewhat arbitrary. Your body operates under a continuum, not in discrete zones. As you increase your intensity, your heart rates gradually increases and your lactic acid production increases steadily. At slow speeds, your aerobic and anaerobic systems are both working at low levels although your aerobic system is doing most of the contribution for energy production. But as you increase your riding speed, your anaerobic system increases its contribution. But there is no ‘threshold’ where suddenly your anaerobic system turns on. It gradually increases its contribution. So use these zones as a guide to work different levels of intensity but don’t get too hung up in the specific numbers.

All the best in training!
Coach David Ertl
___________________________________
David Ertl is a USA Cycling Level 1 (Elite) Coach and NSCA Certified Personal Trainer. He coaches individuals interested in improving on their current cycling ability, whatever level that may be. He also provides cycling training plans and ebooks at his website: www.CyclesportCoaching.com. He can be contacted at coach@cyclesportcoaching.com

“Why do you always have the stubble beard, but your legs are always clean-shaved?”

My response was swift, clear and to the point. “The Rules of the Euro Cyclist.”

Cipo - Euro Cycling Perfection

“What Rules?”

A quick click on the web bookmark (yes, I have it bookmarked) pulled up The Rules. I pointed out the appropriate regulations #4 – the clean-shaven leg rule and #21, which advises stubble in all Euro situations.

I stepped back after pointing out my righteousness, folded my arms and waited. My body language wanted a comeback, further challenge to my ways.

My examiner, unsatisfied with my actions, perused the list. It quickly became obvious that while I quoted The Rules, that I was using them only when appropriate and not truly living by them. I was a charlatan, a Euro cycling fraud. My use of modern training methods, plain black bibs and lack of PRO level wheels had me violating 3 of the first 10. My percentage didn’t get much better as The Rules progressed. While I could’ve just initially given a teed up response, let the quick laugh happen and been on my way, the stubborn Taurus in me made an innocent situation worse. I was forced into cycling’s proverbial mirror, forced to self-examine my true commitment to the Way.

After a brief moment in thought, I realized that unless born in the hills of one of the countries of cycling’s True Roots or born into a life of privilege where a complete commitment to The Rules could be studied and followed, that the Rules should be considered a journey, a goal to reaching cycling nirvana.

The smile returned to my face as I knew that I was taking steps down the proper path. So, to all my cycling brethren – if you are finding the same pitfalls, don’t despair – it’s the journey as much as the destination.

Now excuse me while I go flip my stem and order a white saddle.

For those wanting to see The Rules – there is a Facebook group over 11,000 strong, possibly coming close to tax-exempt status

While I always find commentary on all things PRO entertaining and interesting, I found myself drawn to those who revel in the riding experience and culture. Many of those shared similar characteristics to myself – people who have daily lives, work responsibilities, families who have hectic schedules…obligations. Their time in the saddle represented nirvana – pure simple enjoyment and the single greatest way in the world to temporarily focus on something outside of the daily stressors while keeping fit and dreaming of soloing their way to mountaintop victory.

Many of us look back on carefree younger days where life consisted of riding bike, drinking beer and occasionally attending a college class or two. As much as we love our significant others, kids, etc. we occasionally look back wistfully with the wisdom we’ve gained and say “I wish I could go back…I’d be wicked fit and wicked fast.” Or something like that, at least if you’re from Boston. (Could somebody explain why people from Boston say “wicked” as an adjective enhancer for everything?) In our estimation, it would be our closest approximation to PRO…do nothing but sleep, eat and ride. Maybe some video games mixed in.

As I turn my working professional life in a new direction, relocation was part of the package. My new position is a little more than 200 miles away, so until my young’uns finish up their school year, my wife and kids will be here. I’ll be doing the weekly commute-home on the weekends routine. For the next 2.5 months, I’ll have nothing to do but work, write and ride.

Mentally, I'll be chasing Jens for the Maillot Gris...

But now, as spring has almost sprung in the Great White North, I have an opportunity to take this time to elevate myself to another level as I pursue a number of crits, mountain bike races, road races and endurance events this year. It’s exciting to have the time to ride for hours a day, but the nagging question exists of knowing I have this opportunity – an extended training camp – will I actually take advantage of it or just settle along to a slightly higher level of mediocrity? For all the longing for opportunity, will I capitalize?

Time will quickly tell. I start my new career and new chapter in my life on Monday. The weather forecast shows a quick elevation of temps to the low-mid 60’s with bountiful sunshine starting that day as well. I’ll have my bike(s), a bag full of lycra, some DZ-nuts and Mad Alchemy embrocation and a lot of open road.

However, Lance doesn’t have another comeback in him, even if Jens Voight’s “Maillot Gris” jersey idea hangs on, the sport of cycling in America still faces daunting challenges. The Tour of Missouri is again looking for support to survive funding cuts, The Tour of Georgia has departed, The US 24-hour MTB Championship (along with other events) was cancelled and relocated to be a part of Moab and other leading mountain bike series split with US Cycling and UCI points-driven events over cost. The only stories that actual permeate the mainstream media are the latest doping story (or the senseless resurrection and rehashing of old ones such as Floyd’s “interview” on Larry King…I still think Larry was just trying to get a free trip to Paris if Floyd gave him a usable exclusive).

A fresh approach to marketing the sport has to be developed. I think I’ve got the answer…it’s the elephant in the room that everybody sees and nobody is willing to throw out there.

Scandalous War-like Infidelity.

Now hear me out….this will work for a few reasons.

Close your eyes and put yourself in the mindset of the typical American sports fan…mentally add 30-100 pounds, develop an affinity for any beer that can’t spell the word “light” on the label correctly and whatever you’re eating, throw it in the fryer. Deep fried broccoli…deep fried hummus…deep fried salmon…whatever – just fry it. Imagine the mental effort you put toward emulating your sports heroes consisting of buying a matching jersey, then sitting on the couch and yelling at your favorite player loudly, because he will hear you through the TV if you yell loud enough.

In your mind, you believe that if you wouldn’t have drank so much beer in college, you could’ve applied yourself and gone pro. Hell, give you a personal trainer and three months and you could be quarterback for the Cowboys. Then do what all men do – envision the starlet women you could get if you were a pro athlete…where your people could call her people to arrange a date. Somehow, in your mind you would build that sense of entitlement that the 3-letter TV league athletes feel…if you made $10 million a year, damn straight you could have a mistress or two.

Can you see it? OK…now picture the typical professional cyclist. As Cornholio described – tight, shiny shorts; shaved legs; weird tan lines; wearing the mask of pain climbing up the side of mountains with ‘the boys’ pressed against a saddle for five hours. If you’re firmly into the Mind of the Typical American Sports Fan, this isn’t appealing. It looks really painful and there’s no cheerleaders. You’re worried if the equipment still works after all that squishing, much less if Jessica Simpson is interested.

First off, this is where we should put Lance on a pedestal as an example of cycling virility. The man loses an orchid to cancer and comes back over a decade later to knock up the hot blonde. That should be as shocking to America as it was to Lance (“You’re what? No f’n way. You realize I’ve only got one left, and that’s for ornamental purposes. I didn’t give myself the nickname for laughs, sweetheart.”)

But nothing captures the American Sports Fan’s mind as much as adultery. In three weeks, shortly after those of the Christian faith will be celebrating Easter, the Masters will have it’s highest viewership ever as a direct result of the piqued curiosity to observe the man who flaunted one of their religion’s cardinal rules.

Hell, the American Sports Fan even cared about soccer for a week or two at the end of January when the revelation that John Terry, the now ex-captain of England’s soccer squad, had knocked up his teammate’s girlfriend.

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Rothlesberger keeps acting like he’s a drunken freshman at his first frat party. MLB’s $250 million man, A-Rod survives steroid scandals far better than the rumors than the rumors that he was knockin’ boots with Madonna. Rink Rat Sean Avery makes absolutely juvenile comments about his past starlet girlfriends and a few people in markets south of the Mason-Dixon line cared about hockey briefly.

So, if we’re to grow our beloved sport…scandalous infidelity is the ticket. However, it has to be planned and carefully orchestrated. Cyclists seem to be relatively stable outside of the OCD required to survive the sport and somehow usually find women willing to put up with truckloads of toxic lycra and confusion over whose razor is whose. This year, USA Cycling needs to ensure our next champions are single folk. Dave Z and Big George are good family men. JHK and Heather Irmiger are married to each other…I’m not advocating destroying precious American families; as a nation we do a damn good job of that on our own.

Once we have our single poster-child champions, we need to get them to infiltrate the ‘enemy’. They need to sleep with, knock up or otherwise get jiggy with the wives (or in the women’s case, husbands) of our perceived adversaries’ national champions. Our men’s National Champion needs to sleep with the wife of the Russian, German, Chinese or random Middle-Eastern champion. Conversely our women’s national champion needs to entice the wandering eye of our adversaries’ men’s champion or husband of women’s champion. That’s right – we need to grow all aspects of our sport, so the women need to pursue this infidelity with the same calculated zeal.

By showing both the limitless virility of the cyclists and ruffling the patriotic feathers by displaying our American dominance, within 5 years they would be building cyclocross tracks inside of 100,000 seat stadiums. Cyclocross would actually be recognized as a word instead of coming up on spellcheck.

I predict that cycling would see a doubling of participants every 3-years (cycling still hurts) but that fans and corporate sponsorship will triple every year. It may go so far as to single-handedly revive the economy to the blind consumerism of the Reagan years. Just make sure you order enough XXXL Club Fit USA Jerseys to go around.

While I’ve got nothing but love for all my two-wheel brothers and sisters and would never actually wish or inflict bodily harm on any of you, you get my drift. The winter takes a toll on the psyche…and yes, there is blame to go around – I choose to live here (but for anybody looking for a marketing genius, I’m always open to offers).

But, what the winter does provide is a deep, all-encompassing appreciation for when winter finally does break. When you’ve gone 101 days straight without cracking 40 degrees (no, despite the cliché 101 number, that was actually how many days we stayed below 40 – a new record), a quick burst up of the mercury up to the mid 50’s with sunshine-a-plenty and a nice, light breeze had me dashing to switch wheelsets on the Campeon (the orange Conti trainer tire says trainer riding only…it took all my willpower to wait the additional 2 minutes to go grab the other wheels and change them out) and hit the road.

From there, the next 3 hours were pure bliss. While my computer was recording my ride data – hr, cadence, speed…I didn’t care. I could have been going 8 and I don’t think there was anybody happier than me at that given time. The feel of the cool air across my face and embrocated legs was the sensation of being alive. The sound of the road rolling underneath my tires, the vibrations of the road radiating through my pedals and feet creating a harmonic connection to the bike.

At the risk of getting to syrupy and verbose, I’ll break the cycle and say that the Minnesota winter can leave more than a few dead critters frozen in the ditch that start ‘return to the earth’ pretty quickly once the first thaw hits…that crisp air occasionally had some hidden daggers of decay that will make you twitch. My mind was also able to successfully block out the ditches still half-full of snow in some areas, where the winter’s worth of plowing leaves the snow looking like a bad off-white beach that had a truckload of pea gravel dumped into it.

To me, it was my slice of heaven. In my mind, it was the perfect day, green all around and climbing toward a mountain peak. It shows the power of my mind, because my eventual 54-mile route had a whopping total of 860 feet according to Map My Ride. It isn’t pancake flat, but it’s real close.

All it took was one ride to change my outlook, make me look forward to promise the next day holds, knowing that the sun might come out again and let me achieve nirvana again. So, to any of my fairer-weather located cycling friends that I may have inadvertently snapped at in envy, I apologize…once again, I think the sun will come out…tomorrow.

In this year’s edition, I see some a few of the sport’s predominant riders standing on top of the podium this year…so with little fanfare and without further ado…the Ciclirati predictions for Milan-San Remo are :

Tornado Tom Tapped for MSR Victory (c) Hans

1) Tom Boonen – Tornado Tom’s form has been excellent so far this year, showing the form that has made him one of the Classic Big Threats from the last few years. A sure sign that your form is good is when you go out of your way to tip one of the other contenders as a favorite as Boonen has done with Pozzato.

2) Fabian Cancellara – Spartacus has provided a relatively quiet early season, but speaks slyly of knowing he’s got enough in the tank. Last year’s disastrous Classics season for Cancellara has people not paying enough attention to his chances.

3) Philippe Gilbert – you can always throw one of four or five other usual suspects in at the #3 spot, but whenever the weather calls for questionable, taking another Belgian is never a bad bet.

Contenders that aren’t this time around include all three that told the story last year – Mark Cavendish, Heinrich Haussler and Thor Hushovd. Cav is well behind schedule with his early season tooth ailments. No chance Cav hangs over the climbs this time around. Haussler’s got a knee (well, one that isn’t working so well right now) and Thor has lost too much time to illness.

Dark Horse – Alessandro Ballan. With the curse of the Rainbow Jersey over, Ballan is the type of rider who could possibly get away and stay away. BMC is bringing a strong classics squad with Hincapie, Kroon and Burghardt – experienced riders who can help control a race and bring their leader in.

Why not – Juan Antonio Flecha. Sky is bringing a strong team, Boass Hogg is just too young and Flecha is still pure class.

Story that isn’t – Lance pulling out with a little gastritis…MSR represented nothing more than race miles to him, part of the program. And I don’t know about you, but 300K with a rotten gut doesn’t sound fun. Yes, he gets a disproportionate amount of press, yes, he can be controversial…but for the blown-out hating that erupted from the anti-Lance crowd for him pulling out of a race that doesn’t matter to him? Maybe it’s only practice for the pre-Tour hate, but save the venom for when all the players are on the road….

Social media exploded and rightly railed against Kornheiser, demanding his firing, public castration or worse. Calls for a boycott of ESPN and a naval blockade around their Conneticut headquarters were thrown about. (Calls to blockade DC were considered ill-advised) The unfortunate angle is Kornheiser’s home radio station in DC, ESPN Radio 980 saw this as a ratings bonanza and actually help up hopes of being a worldwide trending topic from the controversy.

While the factions and individuals tweeted, retweeted and facebooked away, the one man in cycling who has two significant attributes – a social media army of millions and is recognizable by the general public outside of sport – stepped up, called an idiotic ass an idiotic ass, unleashed social media hellfire and got a phone call from the idiotic ass. If you’re a fan or a hater, you have to acknowledge the power. From there, Lance agreed to go the show to discuss Cornholio’s errant ways.

I need tp....

All of us suffer from an interest-based myopia to some extent. We pay much more attention to things we individually find interesting. While those reading this likely put cycling at the top of their list, in the scope of the Mothership (as ESPN tends to call itself), we represent a drop in viewership/ratings bucket. So, while we might think that Lance appearing on ESPN causes some ratings boost, outside of a blip in the markets that pick up Cornhogger’s show…we as the cycling world aren’t driving the ratings machine.

In speaking with Burke Swindlehurst about Dave Zabriskie’s Yield to Life organization a couple weeks ago, he stressed the importance of acknowledging that neither of the parties – drivers or riders – is inherently evil, but both sides can be guilty of making antagonistic gestures. The important part is that dialogue, education, urban planning and reaching an eventual symbiosis where both can survive and thrive. We need to understand that while cycling can provide a big part of the solution, it won’t ever be the complete solution for everybody and we have to exist with the 4-wheeled rolling coffins.

Given the fact that we, as cyclists, are always going to exist with the cars, we need to use the resources we have to educate them to cyclist’s fears, rights, and ways to improve the hostilities. Lance’s appearance may have helped ‘the enemy’, but if Cornhole is going to go on air and apologize for his ignorance and the regular listeners who don’t care about cyclists can learn a thing or two, I’d argue that is gaining positive ground.

Again, this is just one guy’s opinion amongst all the members of the Cycling Bloggers Union, but I think there’s a regulation requiring posts about any topic Lance and I like my Union discount card. But, on behalf of…well, me…thanks for helping protect the small guy, Lance.