@ Adam and others, about being "pro"... I like this:

http://cdn1.media.cyclingnews.futurecdn.net//2011/08/24/2/tt1_colnago_flight_brake_220.jpg


Team Type 1 Colnago Flight time trial bike

from:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/race-tech-road-and-time-trial-bikes-of-the-usa-pro-cycling-challenge

@ Adam: You would.

@ Stéphane: Backstory. At one of my Floyd races this summer, I somehow forgot one of my cycling shoes (I drive to the race from Huntington, LI). So I was in a rush getting to the race one day and forgot a shoe, raced anyway, enduring ALOT of pain bending my sneaker around a PD-7800 for 8 laps. You can kind of of see the pain on my face in the picture that Adam so kindly linked. Placed mid-way in the field, but I was just happy to have not DNF'd.

@ Konrad: With a pair of black Oakley Racing Jackets and our current kit, one wouldn't be far off.

@ John S & All: After having my ass roasted in a pan by the devil himself in this year's ToC, I realized I wanted to improve my w/kg appreciably using diet to cut weight, running and cycling on a trainer to keep the cardio up, but also use weight training and plyos to increase power. The diet I started days after the ToC is starting to show an effect as I now weigh in the 226-228 range vs the 235-237 range I weighed right before the ToC. I'm essentially looking to lose 7 lbs per month until I get under 200. I am worried about losing leg power as I lose weight. However, I'm sure it would be possible for me to actually increase leg power as weight decreases, first because I never did much leg strength training in my life (they were always large and sufficiently strong) and second because most of the weight I would lose would be fatty tissue. I'm wondering though, what are the best exercises one can do in the gym to increase leg power? Is it as obvious as squats, leg press, leg curl, leg extension, lunges, etc? Is there an optimal number of reps to do? Back when I was wrestling and looking to build my upper body, I always did three sets of an exercise at 12-10-8 reps. Sometimes 10-8-6. Would that be good for building sprint power? I know sets like that tend to add bulk and that may not be good for cycling, especially since in cycling we use so little of our power per stroke. What's the best strategy for improving in the winter?

Any and all input would be appreciated.

@ Kaiser: I can't believe that shoe story! I was just joking last night with Adam about the chaos of pre-race bike gear/organization that I try so hard to avoid. My entire family has a name for this Chaos, and it's called "Where's my shoe ?!?" Too damn funny. You met the beast head (or foot?) on and beat him. Nicely done. Re: best exercises - the one constant I've heard is that if you want to get slow & strong; lift weights slowly. If you want to get fast - the old school of 3 sets of 10-12 is *not* the way to go. Jeff posted a very interesting article on this very topic above - here it is again http://www.lfgss.com/thread15704.html but with all that said; it's hard to look at you and think, "yeah, that guy needs to get stronger" I'd be more worried about snapping your cranks off if I was in your shoes.

One-legged "launch the sled" reps seem popular among the trackies on the internet, as do one-legged weighted box jumps and similar. And as the Aussie coach says in the link above, explosive squats and deads. (He doesn't screw around with technique-heavy cleans or snatches.) Note that he takes great care to emphasize that speed is developed on the bike, while strength is developed in the gym.

TOTALLY UNRELATED TO CYCLING BUT IN A PINCH

My wife and I planned to move on Sunday, which we now can't do for obvious reasons. We're scrambling to get as much done tonight as we can and I am realizing I could use some extra meekly upper-bodied but impressively legged men with odd suntans to help lift some things.

Either on the loading end in Bed-Stuy or the unloading end in Carroll Gardens. I have one paid helper donkey for the day (Wojciech). For anyone who can even just give an hour or two there will be generous pizza and beer.

Or, if you need real $$, we could discuss some deeper involvement. Holla if you're interested

(I probably wouldn't be if I were you but you're all better men than I)

R

<blockquote><cite>Posted By: John Sanderson</cite>I always wondered if a tailor could replace the chamois?</blockquote>

Wanted to revisit this. Sorry I haven't done so sooner.

Chamois' can be found. I think Cytech makes the Rapha chamois, and you can probably buy pads from them directly. They make pads for many, many ohters, including, I believe Assos. For me, while the Rapha pad is impressive, as are pads from Assos and Capo, and Castelli, I find the latest orange endurance pad from Champ-Sys pretty good. I also wonder if the Castelli pad works because the fit of their Body Paint shorts is pretty incredible.

Problem is several. For the average tailor it is having the right thread, knowing how to stitch it in place, and placement. The seamstress I employ to fix up my cycling clothing is pretty amazing at altering and fixing cycling clothes. I've never asked her about chamois, but it is probably hard to get right and I'd hate to sacrifice shorts to find out.

There used to be a company in Michigan or Wisconsin who did chamois replacement work. I think they went out of business though.

Chamois replacement:

Cruising around on the internet forums and found a couple things:

seems like they do it:
http://www.kucharikclothing.com/repairs.php

seems like they used to do it, maybe you need to contact them via email to see?

http://www.hiddenbaysports.com/cyclingapparel.html

Frankly, I think the new chamois is pretty nice and taint maintenance does a nice job in keeping things up to snuff down there.

Mike,
Hidden Bay definitely did it in the past. I had them do some work for me years ago, including putting in a chamois. THeir stitching at the time wasn't as good as the work the woman I contract now. Didn't realize Kucharik is still in business.

done and done

added my 2cents. -h

We're two shy of 100 results listed,with 18 victories. We've got more season left. I'm sure we've got those two already out there. Can we get to 150 by December? 200?

Myles has two 2nd places at Riverhead. Last week and earlier. I don't think my 2nd place on August 19 is in either.

Jan's results from Riverhead are also missing

Just added my 4 finishes that qualify as finishes. Sorry for the late response! -Norm

@ Stéphane, Jules and Jeff W - many thanks for the input!

Can someone add the results I posted above. Look at krebcycle.com

not sure if any folks here follow track and field - but wonder if anyone thinks this is worthy of a DQ and loss of a world championships gold metal? There was also some intrigue in the 100m.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKmgVAbwwHw&amp;feature=player_embedded

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/sports/world-championships-montsho-edges-felix-in-400.html?ref=sports

@Michael. I'm following one event in particular. 1500 women's race includes an athlete formerly coached by my brother in law. Morgan Uceny advanced to the finals and has a real shot at gold.

Yeah, he cheated on purpose. If the best in the world can't be expected to know how to stay in their lanes, we've got ourselves some pretty low standards.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/weird-wide-web/marathon-running-nonalcoholic-beer-study

Ugh.

“Furthermore, it is not possible to drink one to one and a half liters of alcoholic beer per day, especially not during strenuous training."

Challenge accepted.

40cm barriers?! PFFFFT. Let's bring hurdles to 'cross.

Hurdles to cross? You clearly haven't raced one of our very own Myle's Romanow's cross races. I race with a step stool strapped to my back to get over his barriers.

working on some promotional materials, I just realized that with the 50th anniversary of the Kissena Cycling Club coming in 2013, that might be a good excuse to do a jersey redesign with some special designs marking our history.

USA cycling apparently changed their ranking system. I'm not sure how it works, but from what got while skimming the faq's for it rankings are now adjusted for age and other values.

Here are cat3 rankings, I've managed 51th somehow


https://www.usacycling.org/rankings/points.php?sex=m&amp;disc=Road:RR&amp;cat=03

Congrats to Carl Nelson and John Malcomson who are ranked 4th & 9th (road race category) respectively in the Nation as cat 4's

Also congrats to Rene Herrera as he's ranked the #1 U23 national cat 3.

Damn, I like this new ranking system.

In the past, I've found the USA cycling ranking system to be suspect at best. Recently, while talking with one of my midwest cross friends, he told me that for Master's national's call-ups, they were using a ranking system worked out with the folks who ran/run the cross-results website. And for anyone that has trolled that particular website scoping out their "vicitms" and "nemesis," you know that their predictive powers and rankings are eerily accurate.

Regardless Woj, we all know that you are a super stud!

Just popped over to the USA cycling site to see how awesome I am (1505th! woo-hoo, hollar, can't touch this, hammer time.), and it looks like, based on the decima-ed, 5 digit points, maybe they did adopt the "cross-results" system.

Marc, I think you're talking about their old system; Not sure when this change came about (had to be recent) but this is how they explain it:


"USA Cycling's Results & Rankings system allows you to search results from races across the country as well as compare the nation's top riders across various disciplines, age and ability categories. Our revamped rankings program aims to provide increasingly accurate rankings using an innovative new algorithm emphasizing quality over quantity. The new system looks at who a rider competes against, and not which events, or how many. A rider's overall ranking is determined by averaging point totals from their top three races. The lower a rider's point average, the higher they are ranked."

Yeah, I do think the new system looks more accurate. For example a month or so back, I did two criteriums in one weekend. The first, I finished in 35th, the second race 41st and yet, I received fewer points (i.e. a HIGHER ranking) for the second race. Which pretty much jives with my experience. The second day, had a bigger and deeper field with more pro and pro-ish rider types and ultimately was a harder race. Anyway, if you haven't already, click on over to www.road-results.com and www.cross-results.com for even more interactive fun. Including seeing who your most frequent opponents are, who beats you the most, and predictions on the outcome of upcoming races.