http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/cavendish-taken-down-by-bidon-in-dwars-door-vlaanderen

"Said it before: EVERYONE involved in a bike race should take a written & practical test to get licence..."

Ha, oh Cav... Then the fields would have 20 people.

For all you design minded folks...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/22/garden/how-to-turn-abandoned-bicycles-into-hanging-lamps.html?_r=1

Holy crap. No wonder all Gerrans could do was sit on Cancellara. Imagine what his numbers were by leading most of the way and being heavier.

http://www.cyclingtips.com.au/2012/03/gerros-milan-san-remo-power-analysis/

What gets me is that you can take a look at how much power Gerrans used to come by Cancellara, and watching the video you can see he barely got around him.

I want to add that for all of Fabian's power, I think his team is good and he rode a smart race. One more pull by Gerrans and Fabs probably would have won. Had he sat in, he would have been looking at fourth place.

A Kissena rider has been immortalized on page 3 of this month's Bicycling Magazine. Any takers for this prestigious honor? The person is riding so fast it is hard to tell who it is. Super-speedy-blurry.

I think it is John M. Black beat up Trek and white shoes....

Packing tape? Hobo look about him?

Gunny sack? Blurry piece of straw protruding from mouth?

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/report-ashenden-resigns-from-ucis-biological-passport-panel

Ugh

Wowzer

http://nyvelocity.com/content/interviews/2012/behind-scenes-contador-cas-hearing-michael-ashenden

Posted By: Jules RoazenWowzer

http://nyvelocity.com/content/interviews/2012/behind-scenes-contador-cas-hearing-michael-ashenden

I felt like NYVelocity was one of the few places that actually said something meaningful about the whole A.C. process. Only if the rest of the site could be as good

49 year-old masters racer busted doping. Admitted to doping for two years prior to bust.

http://www.usacycling.org/news/user/story.php?id=7475

http://www.usada.org/media/sanction-robertson3302012

Here's a link to an interview with the guy, a little before he later admitted to doping. I'm showing the archived version because the website admin took it down after news got out.

http://web.archive.org/web/20091119224652/http://markwoolcottphotography.com/blog/?p=268

What a loser.

Also:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/could-floyd-landis-face-fraud-charges

Poor Floyd...

@JP : That article is absolutely bizarre.

"3. How did you get started racing? I was stealing TV’s for a living and realized that I had great get-away speed so I thought I would try it legally to see how I would do. "

"6. What part of bike racing do you absolutely loathe? Saddle sores, chest pains, nausea and all of the drugs that area illegal"

Hey fellow Vassar alumnus, while poking around for information on this weekend's crit at Yale University (I'm going to be in Connecticut this weekend after PP race on Saturday), I found this link with some interesting history between our two schools:

http://www.yale.edu/cycling/history.html

Lengthy article on aerodynamics and the fallibility of human reasoning.

Bottom line; get low before you get expensive wheels.

http://le-grimpeur.net/blog/archives/598

cool blog.

Jules,
Interesting post. I read the excerpt of the Moore book he shared. I have my doubts about LeMond's contentions, and his victory was surely helped by Fignon's allegedly wicked saddle sore, but that's for another time. I also have doubts about Pantani's use of the drops. I think he actually rode his bars fairly high, which is why he could climb on the drops. Same goes for Indurain, who also often stood while holding the drops.

Relevant to us is Cancellara. Even if he is aero, I think his road bars are too low. In the final kilometers of San Remo, Fab was on his hoods, not his drops. He looked pretty aero on the hoods, but methinks if he wasn't riding the drops here, he probably finds the reach too far to be comfy for long. I'd say to everyone that if you can't race with your hands on the drops for an hour at FBF, your bars are probably too low. You don't need a shop to help necessarily. Just put a small spacer under your stem and see how that changes things.

I also think that besides spending more time on the drops, consider the other relatively inexpensive performance upgrades. Good tires. Light tubes. Proper tire pressure. A form-fitting jersey or skinsuit for racing. Keep your jersey zipped up as much as possible.

Isn't there a lot of evidence that having your hands on the hoods is actually more aero? This assumes you have them low enough to have your forearms level and you're flexible enough to have a flat back which is also almost parallel to the ground..... That it decreases the frontal surface area of your body (unlike if your hands in the drops creates a >90 degree angle), which like this says, is the primary source of drag. Dave Jordan was preaching the same thing to me a while back.

Again, this all depends on positioning and exactly how you're set up. I'm sure some people are much more aero in the drops.

My biggest takeaway is that until your head is nearly as low as your hips getting low is a way bigger aero payout than anything else.

All things being equal I think I can sprint harder in the drops than in the hoods, but I'm like 9x more comfortable in the hoods than the drops at almost any stem height. Something to do with the feel of the brakes/shifters. I don't feel as pro but it's just how I roll.

Perhaps next year I'll focus more on riding in the drops... but if it's good enough for Barry it's good enough for me:

http://velonews.competitor.com/files/2011/10/eneco-pic-1-for-michael-576x410.jpg

Canada!

Speaking of aerodynamics, it is sort of astonishing this hasn't been done earlier...

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/aviation_week/on_space_and_technology/index.jsp?plckController=Blog&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&newspaperUserId=a68cb417-3364-4fbf-a9dd-4feda680ec9c&plckPostId=Blog:a68cb417-3364-4fbf-a9dd-4feda680ec9cPost:0d824db8-cc2c-4bee-b70f-e3d0e62d8ae6&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest

Science of Sport; always a good read has a nice summary of the Ashenden articles if you haven't had time to read them.

http://www.sportsscientists.com/2012/04/around-rings-weekly-buzz.html

I liked the linked map with details:

http://transportationnation.org/2012/04/08/killed-while-cycling-why-so-few-fatal-bike-crashes-lead-to-arrest-in-nyc/

More on Brian Lehrer's show tomorrow of this ongoing debate, with someone else (who I forgot their name) apparently offering ideas to solve the engineering problems of the bike lanes construction, and the social adjustments of changing vehicular/cycling/pedestrian behavior.

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/

Bike polo is sooooooooooo 2007:

http://www.wired.com/playbook/2012/04/unicycle-football/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=socialmedia&utm_campaign=wiredplaybookclickthru&fb_source=message

Oh yeah!

http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/04/race-report/stevens-scores-biggest-win-at-fleche-wallonne-femmes_214104

http://www.bicycling.com/news/featured-stories/happily-evie-after

(Crush)

Dreams come true

"Looking ahead, Stevens hopes someday to win Flèche Wallonne before her career is done. The storied Mur de Huy with the dense crowds lining the road inspires her. This year, she rode off the front solo for 40 kilometers. She had hoped to have company in the effort, but the other teams proved content to wait for the final climb. No matter, for Stevens will certainly have a few more chances yet to try for the win. "

http://www.podiumcafe.com/2011/4/20/2123874/like-flying-an-interview-with-evelyn-stevens

I hope to god this is true.

I heart LA ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/04/news/lance-armstrong-to-return-to-pro-peloton-to-sharpen-his-fitness-for-ironman_211554

Can you actually imagine. That would be hillarious if he, because he is the Boss, just used Grand tours to train!

Wonder where Ms Prankster found her sources....

check the publishing date.