MissingSaddle

Hamilton Fundraising

Jelly Belly Pro Cycling — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 06:34:11 +0000

Go to the Source – jellybellycycling.com

Interview: Enve Composites Founder, Jason Schiers

Two Johns Podcast — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:02:22 +0000

Listen in as Jason Scheirs talks about carbon technologies, processes and some of the future. You can check out his company, Enve Composites on the web.

Above: section of a carbon rim, Below: the people of Enve

Go to the Source – twojohnspodcast.missingsaddle.com

First Win of 2012 for us at Liquigas-Cannondale!

ianmacGregor — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:41:55 +0000

Stage 6 of the Tour de San Luis was the biggest, longest, hottest stage of the race so far. The undulating and twisting nature of the route provided us no respite from the relentless blow dryer-like wind for over 5 hours. I told my teammate in the middle of the stage, “this is definitely one for Viviani’” He always seems to pop a big W on the long nagging difficult days that arent just a staightforward cruise to a big field sprint. When everyone is tired, we can always count on vivianis sprint! As we entered the final 50km, I went to the front along with Nibali to reel in the break once and for all. With the primarly cross tailwind all day, the break wasn’t just coming back dead like they normally would on a long hot day like this. Nibali was showing his form with some truly impressive pulls on the hills. Ouch. After we rounded the last corner into the final kilometers, I was pretty much toast as the field was splintering in the crosswinds. Once again Vivian paid us back for our hard work on a hot day for his first win of the season, hopefully just one of many!

It was a bittersweet day though, as we lost our teammate Jose Sarmiento to a nasty crash breaking his collarbone. Hopefully our win took some of his pain away. Send your thoughts Jose’s way for a speedy recovery.

One more hot windy sprint stage today here in San Luis. We’ll try to make it two in a row. See you at the finish.

Go to the Source – http://justgoharder.com

Tour San Luis Stage 3

ianmacGregor — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:38:55 +0000

The queen stage of the race was a solid day for us at Liquigas-Cannondale. Nibali and Samiento showed their climbing form finishing just a few seconds behind a flying Contador and Leipheimer on the summit finish. For me, my first big race in the hills of 2012 was allright. Its was certailnly painful at times but that was to be expected. other than that, just the typical getting water bottles and keeping Nibali out of the wind. We made a big effort into the bottom of the final climb keep our climbers in perfect position as the crosswind shredded the peloton down to only 30 or so of us before we even got to the climb. My work and my legs, pretty much done I swung off and rode up the climb at a mellow pace. Glad to see my teammates bopping around near the front of the GC. Vincenzo is a former winner of tomorrows time trial so we will see if he can make up some time.

The decent off of the 2000+ meter Alto de Nogoli was a ripper. It was defenitely the funnest part of the day. It was more or less immaculate as well, in stark contrast to the debris strewn road with sand and water crossings we had done a few days earlier.

Time trial tomorrow, “rest day” for me.

thanks for checking in

Go to the Source – http://justgoharder.com

Starting 2012 With Maximum Misery

ianmacGregor — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:26:25 +0000

Well, that was a fun day. The peloton kicked off the 2012 season here at the Tour de San Luis with a memorable first stage, although its one Id like to quickly forget! Lets just say I found out why one of our team cars has the snorkel on it. San Luis threw the most atrocious weather it could at us to welcome us to the region. In fact, I would rate it as one of the top 3 coldest times Ive ever had on a bike. I was really on the edge for a little while, If I hadnt been able to get a new rain jacket and rain gloves I would have been toast. Needless to say, we had every factor except for snow. Pouring rain most of the time, with a section of hail in there for a bit. It was so miserable that the peloton could hardly race, we just rode slowly curb to curb in survival mode until the feedzone when we thankfully started to pick up the pace a bit. But until then, riding easy while soaking wet doesn’t keep you very warm. sometimes I would just ride in the wind to the side just to get warm again! Of course there were a lot of crashes today as well, despite the nearly the entire route being out and back on a straight highway. At one point, I was taken out in a big pile up, then was chasing back on guttered out in a crosswind just getting completely drenched by the team cars just to our side. That was incredible fun. Amaazingly it dried up for the last 50km, at which point the crosswinds really heated up and it was a full gas in the gutter for the next hour, to which my hypothermic waterlogged legs had not much of a response. Our GC contenders were safe in the winning bunch, but the rest of us were behind, missing out on an opportunity for our sprinter Viviani. The only thing that could have made the day more miserable is if it was actually raining as we started. It was pouring rain 20 min before, dry at the start, and then commenced again about 4km into the race. so, you know, that was nice at least. Its always the worst to START in the rain. you can put up with 5 hours of rain easier if you at least start out dry. I do want to find out how the moto camera guy was feeling…he was sitting on the back of a moto all day wearing…a tank top. He was either totally screwed or just a true badass.

To continue the less than pleasant day, we drove an hour back to the hotel crammed 5 people in a car. I was glad to see even Nibali was tired after the stage, cuz I was hammered. He was fast asleep even as the stereo was blasting the Village People song Y-M-C-A!

Go to the Source – http://justgoharder.com