What was your favourite ride ever? Was it through the mountains of South America or was it out in the woods behind your house? Did you go alone or with friends or family? Did you learn something new? Why do you remember that ride and what did it mean to you?

Sacred Rides, a Canadian mountain bike tour companies, wants to hear about that ride. They have launched the “Best Ride Ever” contest and are asking riders to tell them, in 250 words or less, about their best ride ever.

The winner of the “Best Ride Ever” contest will win a $500 credit good towards any of Sacred Rides’ mountain bike holidays in BC and Peru, and a bag of Rocky Mountain gear, including jersey, socks, hat and other mountain bike miscellany.

The top 3 entries will be posted at www.sacredrides.com. Send entries to ride@sacredrides.com. The deadline is April 30, and the winner will be announced May 5.

In many parts of North America, spring has sprung. I live in Wisconsin so we’ll go from 40 degrees to 85 in a matter of days, however, they are calling for 8 -10 inches of snow by tomorrow. Any way you look at it, a major part of springtime riding is wet roads. These are the antagonists of riding if you ask me. They are tricky, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to be tricked going 40 mph down a hill with nothing between me and the road except a carbon bike frame and some spandex shorts. I’ve decided to put together some tips to help you keep those gorgeous stems of yours out of road rash hell.

Brakes
First of all your brakes are bound to deceive you when they are wet. These are the biggest tricksters of the bunch when it comes to riding in wet conditions. The basic thing to remember is this. Once the pads are wet, they are much less effective than when they are dry. No, I do not think you are an idiot, I’m just starting from the beginning here. Some schools of thought will tell you to lightly keep pressure on the brakes as you’re riding so that the pads rub against the wheels and wicks away the water so that when it is time to brake your pads are more effective

Tires
Tires are what they are. If you start to encounter some wet conditions you just have to slow down, seriously. I know that doesn’t sound like rocket science though to keep the road rash at bay, this is what I recommend. Just watch any of the pros in the Spring Classics. Roughly ninety percent of those races are in the rain and those guys go all out and WHAM! Someone is down with a broken wrist or smashed up something or other and I’ll tell you what my little chickadees, your face and your hot bod is worth slowing down for.

Puddles
Oh, these little farts can be tricky. I recommend avoiding them at all costs because you don’t know what is hiding in there. There could be a huge pothole or a nail collection that someone decided to put right there for safe keeping. There may even be a smashed bottle or windshield lurking to latch on to that road tire of yours. These things can happen. If a quick swerve is going to save you from stopping to change a tire or ruining your slicks, I think its well worth it.

A Little List of Slick Stuff
This list is by no means complete, though some dicey things that you may encounter on the roads:
Road paint - The white and yellow kind. It’s common and brutal all at the same time.
Metal - I’m talking manhole covers, railroad tracks, etc.
Wood - Watch out for that “innocent” bridge when it’s wet out!
Leaves - I realize tis the season to keep these suckers on the trees, but a rain will bring ‘em down every time.

Feel free to comment with more Slick Stuff to watch out for!
Happy spring to all of you! Enjoy your ride!

Peace Out
bk

Arguably the most important single aspect of basic bike maintenance is keeping your bike chain clean.

A clean chain will help you ride smoothly and evenly. A dirty chain will cause you to work harder to pedal and can potentially cause damage to your bike and even lead to potential safety problems.

In an ideal world you would clean and lube your chain once a week although few cyclists are that diligent. What is important is to at least make sure that you clean your chain immediately after any ride that takes you through sand, water, snow or any other muck that might gum up the workings of your bike chain.

The fastest way to clean a chain is with the chain still on the bike. You can simply spray the chain with a cleaning solution and rub a toothbrush around on the chain, making sure to hit the entire chain. Then you rinse the chain and lube it by spinning the pedals.

At least three or four times a year you should take the chain off the bike for a good through cleaning. The easiest way to do this is to take a plastic soda bottle and rinse it out. Fill the bottle with a couple of ounces of undiluted degreaser. Drop your chain in the bottle. Tighten the cap really well. Shake the entire combination around for a couple of minutes before taking it out and rinsing with water. Put the chain back on the bike and lube the chain on the bike.

Nice and clean!

At this time of year we’re eager to jump back on the bike after a long winter and spend as many hour as we can out on the road or trail. But, there are some things you need to remember to think about again now that we’re back in warm weather mode. One of the most imporant is protecting yourself from the sun.

Depending on where you’re riding and at what time of day you could be leaving yourself vulnerable to severe skin damage and after years of riding that can lead to some pretty serious and scary consequences.

And it’s easy to avoid. Here are some tips:

Head - The helmet will help you when you make contact with a tree, but it’s not going to give you much in the way of sun protection for your head. Some people like to wear a bandana under the helmet and that’s not a bad idea, just make sure it’s thin enough that it’s not comprimising the proper fit of your helmet.

Hands - Cycling gloves are a good idea for a whole host of reasons but just one of the their benefits is keeping the sun off your hands. Some companies even sell gloves made from UVA and UVB blocking fabric.

Eyes - Again, an absolute necessity for many reasons but very important also when it comes to protecting your eyes from the damaging effects of the sun. Make sure you’re glasses block both UVA and UVB rays. One is not enough.

Exposed Skin - When you’re outside for a long period of time and sweating to boot, you need to go for a heavy duty sunscreen. None of this namby pamby Banana Boat Bronzer crap. You need something with an SPF of at least 30 and something that’s waterproof will help with the sweat. Make sure you lather in on. I’ve heard dermatologists say that you should think of filling up a shot glass for each person in your household who’s going out in the sun. Get it on all those little spots that you often forget - the tops of your ears, the backs of your knees, around your ankles. Some of the places we often forget have the most sensitive skin and hurt he most when burned. And remember to reapply, reapply, reapply every few hours if you’re out for a long time.

If you’re looking for cycling goodies to buy this spring for the new season take a good long look into getting yourself a heart rate monitor (HRM). Even the simplest HRM can help you maximize whatever training time you spend on the bike.

No matter what training program you’re following - and even if you’re just out there having fun - a HRM can help you discover what the ideal training level is for you and it can help you increase your performance in a way that works best for your body. Harder isn’t necessarily better. Overtraining can be just as unhelpful as undertraining. The HRM will help you find out if you’re on the right track with what you’re doing and help you chart your progression as your fitness level improves.

It’s relatively easy to determine your maximum heart rate (MHR)- the simple formula is 220 minues your age gives you your MHR. You can find a more sophisticated system here. Depending on what you’re training goals are (increase endurance, lose weight, increase speed, etc.) you generally want to spend most of your time on the bike at between 60 - 80 per cent of your MHR. The HRM will tell you moment-to-moment what your heart rate is and allow you to work more or less to keep yourself within the proper threshold.

Polar is perhaps the most common brand out there on the market today and they have an excellent selection of cycling-specific products out now.

Polar offers women specific HRMs which offer smaller components and shorter chest straps for better fit. They even have sport bra that has a HRM chest strap built right in!

What could be better than women’s cycling coupled with chocolate? Nothing I tell you. And that’s what you get with the Tour de Pink.

The Tour de Pink is a charity ride developed to raise money for the Young Survival Coalition and sponsored by Hershey’s. The YSC is the only international network of breast cancer survivors, medical professionals and supporters dedicated to young women affected by breast cancer.

In 1998, the YSC began with a group of 11 women. Today, the YSC has more than 10,000 members in 30-plus countries. Through action, advocacy and awareness, the YSC seeks to educate and influence the medical, research, breast cancer and legislative communities to address breast cancer in women 40 and under, and to serve as a point of contact for young women living with breast cancer.

On October 6, 2006, a team of 47 cyclists, seven volunteers and a professional support crew left the Hershey store in Times Square, New York, and arrived safely in Hershey, Penn., on October 9th and raised $200,000 for YSC.

The 2007 York Tour de Pink is scheduled for September 27-30. Registration will be limited to 100 riders, so don’t wait!

Fly Gurlz is a women’s mountain biking club in Ontario, Canada that was founded in 1997 by Michelle Ward. She started the club simply in an attempt to find other women to ride with but what has grown over the last 10 years is more of a family that encompasses hundreds of women of all ages who share a passion for cycling.

Last month I had the chance to chat with Michelle about how Fly Gurlz got started and where she sees it going.

You’re 10 years in. How did it all get started?

It all started because I had an old boyfriend who introduced me to mountain biking but every time I’d go out with him he’d take off on me and leave me alone in the bush and I kept thinking, jeez, there’s gotta be more to this. So I started looking around for a women’s mountain biking club. I found a lot of road clubs but nothing for women’s mountain biking so I just decided, in 1997, to start it up.

So did you have friends that were mountain biking?

Well no, it was really more selfish than anything because I was looking for women to ride with so I thought, well why don’t I just start this up and see where it goes. My husband and I were living in Jasper, Alberta at the time and then we moved back to Ontario to start it up and we moved up to Collingwood because we were both born and raised in Toronto.

So, why did you think it was so important to have a mountain biking group just for women? Was it because of your person experience of being sort of shut out of the men’s world of mountain biking?

I think it was just realizing that I learn differently than my husband. Dave taught me how to snowboard too and every time we tried to go out together we started fighting and I couldn’t understand why that was. And I finally figured out that I don’t have the same risk-taking foundation that he does. He did skateboarding when he was young and I found that because I didn’t do that when I was younger I didn’t have that sort of risk-taking part of my brain engaged yet. And I found that a lot of other women – not all women because everyone’s different - had the same experience. We have over a hundred women that come to our camp each year and I hear the same story over and over and over again that they just didn’t have that foundation but once you teach them the basics they’re free and they can totally do it.

That’s fascinating because I do think that most men who are into mountain biking started much younger than the women in the sport. A lot of guys tell me that they started riding a mountain bike at age 4 or 5 whereas most women seem to have come to the sport much later in life.

Ya, like a boyfriend introduced them to it or something.

Right, like at age 18 or 19.

And by age 18 or 19 all of those mental blocks are already firmly in place. It’s like a little brick house and you need to chip away to break those mental blocks down.

If women have a block it’s almost never physical. It’s all mental.

So, how many members do you have in Fly Gurlz?

We’ve got 22 team members and then we have about 120 women who are club members and then last year we had about 230 women go through the different camps we run.

And what has it been like for you? What has Fly Gurlz meant to you?

It’s very emotional for me. A lot of the women have become my best friends. Some of the women have been with me since day one so we’ve gotten married together, had babies together.

It’s like a family.

It really is. And it’s really a non-exclusive situation. There is such a warmth and a welcoming atmosphere to it. A new Fly Gurl is having just as much fun as someone who has been around since day one. I think for me it’s just been so emotional and so wonderful. It’s been tough financially and there have been some hardships along the way, but you do appreciate what you’ve created from when you’ve struggled and come up against a lot of stuff and you’ve kept going.

Where is the future of Fly Gurlz?

We really want to go stateside - badly. Taking the camps down to Vermont and New York, maybe even further east in Canada like out to Nova Scotia, PEI, New Brunswick, places like that.

So the teaching camps that you run, you cover a really broad range of skill levels?

Yes, we have a Beginner First-Timer camp – which is the most fun! That one is the best because everyone is so excited and the women just have no expectations, no preconceptions, and by the end of the day they just can’t believe what they’re doing. It’s just brilliant and makes for such a great day.

And then as have a two-day weekend where we do a Learn to Race camp – because that can be a bit intimidating if you’ve never done it before. And we have guest speakers and yoga for mountain biking and we do a Downhill camp as well.

So you get people of all age ranges and all abilities?

Yes, last year we had agest 12 to 63.

Wow! That’s great!

Oh ya, the 63-year-old kicked some butt too. She was in great shape and very inspiring.

That’s great, thanks so much Michelle and congratulations on 10 amazing years with Fly Gurlz!

The first few times I rode on my own, I was NOT prepared. Where I live the cyclist are the NICEST people, though you shouldn’t always depend on the kindness of others when you’re out on a ride. I know us ladies tend to carry everything in a bag. Think of cycling as a time to leave it all behind. Well, all except a few things.

The first thing you should learn before you get on the road is how to change a flat. I’m still in amateur status on this point. It’s easy, honestly, it is. Go to your favorite bike shop and ask one of the mechanics to explain it to you like you’re a four year old. You can actually do this on the way out to ride. Just be courteous and go talk to your favorite techie when he has a little time to spend with you. You can get mini pumps that will fit in a pouch under your seat. Take one of those. A spare does you no good without some air! There are schools of thought would tell you to take a puncture kit, but I disagree. I think if f you change the tube in order to finish your ride and do any major surgery on the tire when you get back to camp. On the other hand, you can take a support car with you like the big guys do. Most likely your driver won’t want to plaster their car with sponsor stickers.

A multi tool is also great to have on hand. It comes in handy if you need to change your handlebar angle or lower your seat. It never hurts to have it with you. I’ve seen some cyclists get multi tool keychains. That may be a little much and I would question the functionality of such a small tool. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on a tool. Your bike tech or shop employee could recommend a good one.

Take water. I cannot stress this enough. Strap it to your back, fill the cages, take enough water so that if you do get a snatch thirsty, you can drink without thinking you may run out before you’re ride is over. Some people use those nifty backpacks filled with water. The sloshing sound tends to make me have to pee, though they are the most convenient way to bring the agua. There are a lot of low profile packs now that you can even fit your bare essentials in so that you only have one pack. Camelback has done a good job with this option. The brand isn’t important. What you need to focus on, like with any other pack, is that it fits well when it is full. Regardless of the size, a pack needs to have stuff in it to know what it’s going to feel like on the road.

As for what to wear, I feel the most underrated piece of clothing are cycling gloves. These are great for two reasons. First, they help the pads of your hands and protect you from blisters. To prevent the blisters, they have to fit correctly. These suckers need to fit like a . . . well .. . like a glove. If they’re too big, they’ll only help you on the second, though in my mind more important, use of cycling gloves. Cycling gloves are the best snot catchers ever. Every time I ride, the snot just starts flowing and there is nothing like the soft terry on the back of my glove to wipe me clean. I’m sorry. Is that gross? Either way, it’s the darn truth.

Hope this is a good start for you. Keep watching for our Women’s Gear Guide coming out a little later in April! If you work for a cool company and have women’s gear you want included in the guide, please drop me an email (jessi@crookedcog.com). A big thanks to the companies who have already sent me super fun stuff.

Peace Out,
bk

I took a trip to the Toronto International Bike Show this weekend and had a great time with the whole family. This year the show was sponsored by Shimano and Kona Bicycles and included plenty of booths, bikes and gear to suit all tastes.

A special feature of the show this year was a freestyle dirt jumping demonstration that went on all weekend and was just spectacular to watch.

Mountain Bike rider Brian Lopes from Orange County California made an appearance at this years’ show, as did former U.S. superclass bmx champion Big Billy Au from Mansfield, Ohio.

I took some pics:

Levi Leipheimer first donned the yellow jersey on day one after the Prologue and he proceeded to wear it all the way into Long Beach seven days later. He and the other Discovery boys rode a tough race against some fierce competitors. Team CSC, even after losing star time-trialist, Dave Zabriskie, put up a good fight for the title with Jens Voigt finishing only 21 seconds behind Leipheimer. In fact, between the two of them, Discovery and CSC held all top six slots on the GC by the final day.

But in the end, Levi had the support of an amazing crew including Ivan Basso and George Hincapie. They sacrificed themselves utterly for Levi, pulling him through and helping him bring home the win.

After the final stage Levi was asked how this win stacked up against others in his career, “Maybe my most satisfying victory. I don’t know if I could call it my biggest victory. I have a wall at home with some jerseys on it and I can tell you this jersey is going on that wall.”

The final GC board played out like this:

1. Levi Leipheimer (Discovery)
2. Jens Voigt (Team CSC)
3. Jason McCartney (Discovery)
4. Bobby Julich (Team CSC)
5. Stuart O’Grady (Team CSC)
6. Christian Vandevelde (Team CSC)
7. Michael Rogers (T-Mobile)
8. Ben Day (Navigator Insurance)
9. Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas)
10. Ryder Hesjedel (Health Net)

Worst moment - hearing that George Hincapie was going to be out of the Classics for this season after breaking his wrist during stage six and having to undergo surgery the next morning (I can tell you that our own Editor BK is going to be heartbroken about this). It’s a big loss for the team and really unfortunate for Hincapie who had been looking ahead to a very promising season in the Classics this year. Let’s just hope he’s healed up in time for the Grand Tours this summer.

Best moment - the face of young Jason Donald from Slipstream in the Prologue as he held the lead for the whole day. Even when he was beaten by Levi, the shock and thrill on his face after coming in second against the best in the world was a great sight to see.

After the stage Donald commented on the experience,“I look back on the ride, and it’s sort of a blur. I knew that Levi’s time wouldn’t hold up from last year. I knew it was going to be much faster. You all know anything’s possible. I can’t believe I’m second to the leader’s jersey in the biggest race I’ve ever done. There’s those times when it just all comes together. It’s hard to believe that Levi Leipheimer has to worry about me!”

All in all it was a great race and a great kick-off to the 2007 season!