Cut out the endurance?

There was an interesting study highlighted in the NY Times this past weekend (thanks to Colin for telling me about it).
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/can-you-get-fit-in-six-minutes-a-week/?em

In short, the lab of Dr Gibala performed a series of experiments where one group of individuals were asked to ride a stationary bike at a steady pace for approx 5hrs/ week whilst another group performed a series of 30second intervals for a total of 6minutes maximum effort/ week. After two weeks the fitness gains in an endurance test were equivalent between the two groups. Therefore this indicates that long steady rides may be unnecessary to improve endurance fitness. This might be particularly relevant for a cycling race such as Little 500 which doesn't require a rider to adapt to long periods in the saddle. Food for thought for sure.

Wednesday Worlds

Forest-North Shore- South Shore- finish on Robinson road. Lets take it easy up the cow-farm hill on old 37 (the first hill past the Anderson Road turn). There are be plenty of hills for attacking later in the ride. 5.30p at the Gates.
http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/in/bloomington/671677475395

Weekend Update

Summer is here and the racing is plentiful!

Eric Hamilton (NUVO) continues to inch up the podium steps with a big 2nd place in the IL State Crit Champs in Peoria. A two-man break with on-form Jeff Schroetlin (ABD) was a tough way to get 2nd but as Eric's form continues to improve a big win is surely around the corner. The IN State Champs in Bloomington perhaps?

The wildly successful America's Dairyland race series is over and Mike Sherer was a consistent top 20 finisher and pulled off 16th overall in the 10-race overall series. Given the quality of the opposition this represents a great result and a step up in Sherer's development as a bike racer.

The big races in OH were at Hyde Park Blast and the Tour of Grandview. The big Bloomington results came in the womens races with Bri Kovac and Louise Turner (Alderfer Bergen) who took home some big money in the top 4 in both races!! In short these races are AWESOME! The Hyde Park race is set in the swanky self-named neighborhood in Cincinnati and there were without doubt a few thousand people in attendance, watching the racing, having a beer, listening to the band and generally enjoying the summer evening. If you get a chance to race/ spectate next year then you should take advantage (June 26th 2010).

David Caughlin taking tickets at the back of the brutal Pro/1/2 race at the Hyde Park Blast
Photo- Jeff Jakucyk

Hyde Park Blast

This weekend there is a big weekend of racing in eastern Ohio. On Saturday is the awesome Hyde Park Blast in Cincinnati. The evening bike races are the cumulative of a day-long block party that includes kids events and running races. The races start at 5pm and then Pro/1/2 race ends the days events at 8.15pm. Pre-registration ends this evening at 8pm so sign-up now for a great event. The course is simple and yet as challenging as they come, positioning is key, especially in the bigger fields.

Many readers may know about the Two Johns Podcast, basically it's two regular guys who talk about cycling in a amusing and irreverent manner. One of the 'Johns' is announcing the HPBlast and the latest podacst has an interview with the promotor. For the race preview listen at about the 22minutes mark but I encourage you to listen to the whole thing
http://www.twojohnspodcast.missingsaddle.com/2009/06/21/podcast-62109/

Forest TT 6/23/09

Hot and muggy conditions at the TT this evening and a lot of people were disappointed by their times. Adam Rodkey, Jordan Bailey and Nathan Dailey improved their PRs and noted road-man Greg Strock's inaugural ride was a rapid 21-21. Ryan Shanahan was again our winner with a 21-06. 22 riders were out racing on their bikes today so it seems time trialling in Bloomington is alive and kicking!
Please could whoever picked up the pair of sunglasses at the start-line email me and I will ensure they get back to their rightful owner.

Name, Time

1. Ryan Shanahan, 21.06
2. Greg Strock, 21.21
3. Jordan Bailey, 21.55
4. Fred Rose, 22.11
5. Adam Rodkey, 22.24
6. Rider X, 22.50
7. Nathan Dailey, 23.28
8. Tomasz Golas, 24.35
9. Kaleb Naegeli, 24.37
10. Adam Fryska, 24.38
11. Baxter Burnworth, 24.53
12. Louise Turner, 25.23
13. Lindsay Koren, 25.58
14. Sarah Sanders, 26.01
15. Marty McCrory, 26.08
16. Dean Voyles, 27.06
17. Pam Loebig, 27.26
18. Jeff Yoder, 27.33
19. Brian Drummy, 27.40
20. Evelyn Ewing, 28.48
21. Erica Strock, 30.00
22. PJ Wilkinson, 30.05
    

Decycles 2009

The Decycles cycling trip is going on at the moment. This annual event involved a big group of teenagers and college kids riding their bikes at around 15mph for about 100miles a day. It seems to be a fantastic experience for most who ride it and has been the bike foundation for a few quality racing cyclists notably former PRO Mike Kehrberg and L5 legend Hans Arnesen (arguably the finest Little500 rider of all time). This year the trip starts and finishes in Bloomington and takes the riders in a big loop out East. Technology has reached Decycles as some guy called MightyJake is updating his twitter pretty regularly.

WW- Solstice 90

Wednesday Worlds this week is the 446 circuit. Meet at 5.30p at the Sample Gates to ride out to the course by 6pm. Some folks were thinking of riding a twilight Nashville 90 as it's not getting dark until around 10pm these days. Therefore if you're up for that challenge I'm sure others will join you.
http://www.mapmyride.com/route/us/in/bloomington/754321442832

Weekend Results

Ecofest Crit

MTV Friday night racing. Eric Young has taken to the track and has started killing that as well. Also some good results from Val Todorow.

Video from MTV Cat1/2/3 Elimination race (thanks to Plamen Todorow)


Some good local results from Americas Dairyland races. Mike Sherer and Ryan Knapp both taking top 10 places with Sherer in 11th overall after halve of the race series. Louise Turner was 5th in sunday race.

Tour of Winghaven. Lauren Half (DG-Dogfish) was top ten in the big money womens open race and Eric Hamilton (NUVO) continued to reap top 5 results in the 2/3 race. Big John Grant (Tx Roadhouse) rode strong the crazy hot and hard NRC Pro/1 race.

Forest TT on Tuesday

Race starts at 7pm at junction of Forest road and old37. It should be a hot one both in times and temps so come on out and set a PR!

Weekend Racing

The Ecofest Criterium in South Bend has a new course and a whole range of community events surrounding the racing. It should be a fun day so sign up here today for the reduced price.

Sunday has a Monrovia 40km Time trial. They suck but they are good for you!

Summertime in the Midwest

We may be under recession but the big-time, big-money road racing in the Midwest doesn't appear to have been greatly affected! The next month has a group of big races all within a few hours of Bloomington and I'm sure there'll be some local success in these events.

June 18th- June 28th. Tour of America's Dairyland. A new series of 10 races throughout WI organized by Tom Schuler

June 21st- Tour of Winghaven National Racing Calender (NRC) event just to the west of St Louis. BVN will be in attendance and any local -interest stories will be added to the BVN twitter feed.

July 10th- July 26th. Superweek. Long running series of races throughout Chicago and Southern WI. Big money, international riders and fierce competition

July 18th- Bloomington Downtown Crit. Indiana State Crit Champs!

July 26th- Chicago Criterium. Big money crit in Chicagos Grant Park. An important showcase for the 2016 Olympic bid.

Purple Bar Tape

Check out the new website with commentary on the state of worldwide and local cycling- www.purplebartape.com . It's being run by IU, IDS and Sammie alum Zach Osterman. It's linked on the side-bar so check it out at your leisure.

Bennet VDG- Half way through Year One

Earlier in the year BVN interviewed Bennet VDG, Bloomingtons neo-Pro rider on the Kenda Pro cycling p/b Spinergy team. Bennet has just finished up racing Philly and Nature Valley and is taking a mid-season break. No wins just yet but he has had a solid year to date. His blog is now included in the side-bar so check it out as he updates regularly and has great insight into how it all plays out on the lowest rung of the PRO ladder. There's plenty of racing to come in this season so keep an eye on how Bennet's year progresses.
However what is in no doubt is that Bennett is looking good on the bike and was featured in a full page advert that many of you may have seen in ROAD magazine.

WW.

This weeks route is Low-Gap- Mahalasville. 5.30pm at the Gates, lets hope the weekly Wednesday afternoon showers hold off. On last weeks ride there was an extended 'steady' period that I think was well received by the group as a whole. We'll see what develops this week. The route is Anderson Low Gap, turn R on Malahalasville Rd, over the hill, down over the bridge then turn RIGHT and RIGHT again onto Downey Road. Complete small lap by turning LEFT onto Low Gap and back to Anderson.

Weekend results

DINO Series, Iroquois Park Hill Climb and Circuit Race, Tour of Mount Pleasant.

Eric Hamilton and Ryan Knapp (RGF) continue to fly the flag well for Bloomington racers this weekend.

Another podium place for Eric Hamilton (NUVO). Photo- http://n4xi.smugmug.com/

If anyone has MTV results then please post the link in the Comments or send them to me.

Local racing

The Major Taylor Velodrome Summer Season kicks off tomorrow night at 7.30pm so go and check it out if you haven't seen track racing before! For those of you that haven't ridden the track before, riders must go through a track clinic. The next clinics take place June 13th and June 20th. All the velodrome information can be found here

On the road the closest action is taking place in Iroquois Park in Louisville with a day long festival of cycling that includes a hill-climb and a circuit race. Register before this evening at 10pm to get the discount.

Off-road there is a DINO race in Fort Wayne. It's a bit of a trek but if you like the dirt then it's the place to be!!

Ride/Riders needed

A message from Mike Sharp- sharpe420@gmail.com

Re: Tour of Mont Pleasant
I would appreciate if you would mention that I am looking for either a ride or riders to go up to Michigan for this the Tour of Mont Pleasant this weekend. Needing to leave Friday afternoon, returning late Sunday. Feel free to pass this on to anyone that might be interested. Thanks, Mike Sharp

WW

It's the Low Gap- Martinsville loop this week. 5.30pm at the Samples Gates. As this is the longest loop of the year and I'm in no mood to race it the whole way I intend to wait at the top of the long hill on Low Gap for maybe 5-10minutes. Therefore if people wish to wait from the front group or catch-up from behind then please do so. I'd anticipate rolling a steady pace-line for the rest of the ride which goes out to Martinsville and then back to Old37 via the steep Hacker Creek hill.

And another crash

On the evening BBC ride, Stan Ellis unfortunately hit the deck. Apparently no broken bones but a trip to BH was necessary. Get well soon Stan and keep it safe out there everyone!

Forest TT. 6/9/09

Another big turnout at the Forest this evening and people are throwing down some great times out there. Adam Fryska rode the TT as it's meant to be ridden and almost fainted after the effort! Scott Catanzaro, Valentin Todorow (on fixed), Marty McCrory, Sarah Sanders, Evelyn Ewing and Tatiana Kolovou made big improvements on their yearly bests. Jason Romain was rocking the double disc on fixed- Nice! Ryan Shanahan won the day with a years second best of 21.03. Issac Neff remains the only guy to break 21 minutes....but there's always next time!

Name, time

1. Ryan Shanahan 21.03
2. Brett Stewart 21.46
3. Fred Rose 21.50
4. Mike Sherer 22.09
5. Adam Rodkey 22.40
6. Jason Romain 23.12
7. Valentin Todorow 23.14
8. Adam Fryska 23.24
9. Scott Catanzaro 24.00
10. Kaleb Naegeli 24.06
11. Nathan Daley 24.08
12. Marty McCrory 25.30
13. Sarah Sanders 25.43
14. Jeff Yoder 26.57
15. Tatiana Kolovou 27.12
16. Pam Loebig 27.47
17. Dean Voyles 27.56
18. Evelyn Ewing 28.25
    

Forest TT

Forest Time trial, junction of forest road and old37. Tuesday 7pm. If you want to ride out to the course with a group meet behind BGI at 6pm.

What the hells going on out there?

Sadly crashing is an inevitable part of riding a bike. Also true is that when a person hits the deck then it's unpredictable what the outcome will. If the same crash was repeated 10 times I firmly believe that you'd have 10 different injury lists!
So it's somewhat of a shocker that in Bloomington in the past weeks there have been a few serious injuries during seemingly innocuous training rides. All the more weird is that most have featured the young and most talented riders in our community. A few weeks back a skipped chain whilst sprinting deposited Issac Neff to the ground where he had the misfortune to take a chain wheel the face resulting in a broken nose and other injuries. Then in the past 10 days both John Meyers and Ren-jay Shei have broken collarbones whilst riding on the road and Randi Cox did herself the same damage whilst MTBing. It's arguable and now somewhat moot whether each or all of these wrecks were avoidable but the resulting injuries do seem rather severe! Be careful out there, the asphalt is unforgiving!


Shei, Armstrong, Meyers. Which is which- you decide?

A word to the wise- when turning left from Gettys Creek onto Kerr Creek beware some sand in an unpredictable location in the riding line. Earlier today your author and a teammate hit the sand and then hit the deck. Fortunately the face-plant that followed resulted in only some soreness and a broken wheel. On recent evidence that was a favorable return!

Ryan Knapp- Champion of Indiana!

After getting in a mid-race breakaway that was brought back into the fold with one lap to go Bloomingtons own Ryan Knapp (RGF) had the strength to take 2nd in the final sprint and be first Indiana rider. Therefore he's the champ! Kirk Albers was first across the line but as he resides out of state it's almost as if it didn't happen.

The brief results are in with more Bloomington successes-

Tom Cox (Alderfer Bergen) takes the win in the Masters 35+ after riding half of the Pro/1/2 race as well. By my count thats approx 100miles of racing for the day!

Rob Templeman (MOB squad) 2nd in the big bunch sprint in the Cat3 race.

Erin Axley and Kristen Metherd (Morris Trucking and Theta Cycling) go 1/2 in the Womens B race.

Taylor Gaines (Turner) wins the Junior 17-18 after another 90+miles of racing (he did the Cat3 race as well).

Scott McClary (Morris Trucking) takes 2nd in the Junior 15-16.

Congrats to one and all!!

THE Bloomington Biking Weekend!

The weekend of July 18th promises to be a great biking weekend in Bloomington. The State Crit on Saturday 18th and the 30th anniversary of Breaking Away celebration on the 19th.

From Tom Stryker:

I am producing the 30th anniversary screening of the movie, Breaking Away, at 7PM on Sunday, July 19th at the historic Buskirk-Chumley Theater in downtown Bloomington. All proceeds will be donated to Jill’s House (www.jills-house.org), a local non-profit organization that gives housing to out-of-town patients receiving cancer treatment at the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute. Prior to the movie, there will a bike ride tour of the Indiana University campus starting at 5PM in front of the Sample Gates at Kirkwood Ave & Indiana Street. The 1-hour ride will revisit some of the classic spots from the movie and is for all levels of bike riders. Please be sure to wear your helmet and bring a bottle of water. Wearing 1970's attire, or Cutters t-shirts, is encouraged.

I’ve received several pieces of memorabilia, on loan from the IU Student Foundation, including framed posters, still shots, clothing used in the movie and hundreds of articles. These will be displayed in the lobby of the Buskirk-Chumley prior to the show.

Tickets are $8 in advance/$10 day of the show. They are on sale now at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater box office or on their website: www.buskirkchumley.org. If you are unable to make the event, please consider making a donation to Jill's House.

Tom Stryker
Maple Street Productions, LLC


Breaking Away featured an array of budding stars and was nominated for Best Picture in 1979. They include Dennis Christopher, Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern, Jackie Earle Haley, Paul Dooley and Barbara Barrie. The film was nominated for 5 awards at the 1980 Academy Awards and won for “Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen”. The film is ranked #8 on the American Film Institute's “100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time”, ranked #8 on their list of The 10 Greatest Films in the "Sports" genre, and also #8 on Sports Illustrated's list of the Top 50 Sports Movies of all time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1jzs6dk4bs - hit the "HQ" button under the trailer for better quality.

What: 30th Anniversary Celebration of Breaking Away
When: Sunday, July 19th - 5PM Bike Tour; 7PM Movie
Where: 5PM - Sample Gates at IU Campus; 7PM - Buskirk-Chumley Theater

Indiana State RR Champs

This Saturday in Fishers. Pan flat course with a very rapid finishing straight.

Sign up before Thursday midnight for the discount-
http://www.racelistings.com/register/events/flyer.asp?ID=1017

There are already over 50 Cat4/5s signed up so I think there'll be some big fields!

BCSP DINO

This last sunday was the DINO MTB race in BCSP and there was a great overall turnout which featured Bloomington riders past and present. The full results are here. In the somewhat confusing 'two races into one' Pro/1E and 1A races, Jean-Luc Serriere once again returned from PA to take his customary victory. Revolution B+B owner Andy Messer (DRT) was 3th whilst Tomas Golas was first of the 1A riders and 6th overall. Remarkably Mike Sherer rocked the pink-peril-single-speed-full-hard-ride MTB to an impressive 7th. Your MTB neophtye
author has no idea how these guys go so fast on the trails! Both Mike Feske and Adam Rodkey also finished strongly within the top 25.
In the Cat2 race a couple of Tortugans, Wil Adams and Cody Woods were in the top 15 whilst Pam Loebig (and her awesome sunglasses) crossed over onto the trails with a third in the Cat2 womens race!
All in all it was a fantastic day of racing that showed that at least in Southern Indiana MTB racing is alive and kicking!
The leaders in the Pro/1E race about the enter the single track
Photo- Jason Breeden

Wednesday Worlds

5.30pm at the Samples Gates. WW returns the the 446 circuit. As many will know there was an unfortunate wreck on last weeks ride so please everyone be mindful to alert fellow riders to potholes or sand in the road, try not to half-wheel and generally ride in a defensive manner. Remember it's not a race so there's no need to take risks to 'win' the day!

http://www.mapmyride.com/route/us/in/bloomington/754321442832