Amateur clubs existing solely to be brand ambassadors?  See: 5th Floor, ADIDAS*


*I think David Hall and co. are super nice people and I have no idea if they actually contribute/participate with larger clubs or race promoters, but as far as I can tell they exist mostly to Instagram Rapha-esque photos of themselves and their partnership with ADIDAS, which, uh, I didn't realize ADIDAS was in the cycling market...

David Yang said:

Amateur clubs existing solely to be brand ambassadors?  See: 5th Floor, ADIDAS*

Adidas is owned by Amer sports, which also owns Salomon and Mavic.  They quit the cycling market several years ago and Mavic became the conglomerate's cycling apparel brand.

eloy said:

Absolutely great article in Velonews, about racing, clothing, and community:

But if too many cyclists make that choice, racing ultimately loses. Even the most committed will face a tipping point when the non-contributors become too numerous, and altruism and dedication to the cause are worn too threadbare to endure.

That is when a year-on-year dip in the number of races will become a dive, and potentially a vicious cycle. No races, no racing, no racers.

I fear that in NYC, we're already at that tipping point.  

(while I think the passage Eloy cited was the meat of the article and I think it is extremely valuable just for that, the idea that people couldn't get good cycling clothes 'back in the day' unless it was from a club is absolutely untrue.  You could get Assos stuff, which was heaps better than club stuff, you could get Giordana, which also made club clothing, and the materials and cut for their regular stuff was no different than what was sold to clubs.  You could get Pearl Izumi, also better than most club stuff.  Often times, people would wear their club jersey along with a much better brand's plain black shorts, and that was in races.  And there were other companies as well. I don't think I knew anyone who joined a club just for clothing.  Among those who joined and didn't race, the most common reason I suspect was getting a newsletter and finding out about rides.)

Also, as I tweeted: "Article assumes if you are part of club you do things to help & if you are not, you do not. Neither is necessarily true."

David,

I leave this here for you.

In the late 80s and early 90s most bike shops didn't have a huge selection of clothes. You could potentially get a catalog from some retailer like Performance or Colorado Cyclist and flip through pages of random crap to get a nice pair of bibs or a quality jersey but you had to guess how the size fit you. Call your order in if you had a credit card, or mail a form with a money order and maybe get that item 4-6 weeks later. Forget about an exchange when you bought something that was supposed to be Euro small but turned out to be club cut and was better suited as a parachute (granted big shoulders were in back then).

In my experience with LA Sheriffs Cycling Club back in that era, clubs were much better at getting quality kit that wasn't so terrible. I also had significantly less kit back then which got washed much more frequently.

But kit isn't the point of that article, that article was about the contribution of club volunteers to keeping open racing available for all. I would say NYC is lucky to have two strong and large clubs, but would we be better off with 5-6 clubs that each ran more open races. I dunno, because it would still probably have the same number of folks racing, but we're the outlier, I wonder about places like smaller cities that are not cycling meccas like Boulder and whether the number of race days are shrinking because clubs are losing out to Rapha-clad privateers who don't ever have to volunteer for registration or marshal a corner.

While I am blaming Rapha, I also want to throw Strava under the bus too, as well as Stevia and Pandora - they're all combining to make us less social and worse riders. 

Who's "Eddy Merckx" and the only Adidas endorsement I'm interested in:



JK, its these guys:

My first pair of proper road racing shoes were adidas...they were black, with orange stripes and had laces. I was so styling way back in the way back. Loved those shoes.

hmmmm misremembered the strip color...here they are:

http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0172/0038/t/2/assets/blog_adidas1-300x225.jpg?2991

The numbers in this article make me feel a little ill.  Just thinking about what they are putting out is cray cray.

http://cyclingtips.com/2016/01/by-the-numbers-how-orica-greenedge-controlled-the-tour-down-under/

Marc Bertucco said:

My first pair of proper road racing shoes were adidas...they were black, with orange stripes and had laces. I was so styling way back in the way back. Loved those shoes.

hmmmm misremembered the strip color...here they are:

http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0172/0038/t/2/assets/blog_adidas1-300x225.jpg?2991

I started with a pair of leather Sidi's, but then i got a pair of these, 
i loved them, 

Speaking of the article above. Rapha is moving in about 100 feet from my building. Have never and right now don't plan on ever buying their kit. Will I be able to holdout?

I do think its nice stuff but don't know if I back what they stand for. Partly because of the article above, partly because of some Rapha clad folks I've witnessed on the road, and partly because its pretty darn pricey. Going to be interesting to walk/ride by everyday and see the crowd they attract.

http://pages.rapha.cc/clubs/new-york

Also...
http://www.adidasspecialtysports.co.uk/cycling-gear

Adam said:

The numbers in this article make me feel a little ill.  Just thinking about what they are putting out is cray cray.

http://cyclingtips.com/2016/01/by-the-numbers-how-orica-greenedge-controlled-the-tour-down-under/

I asked Vaughters what kind of wattage it took Cancellara to drop Sagan in one of the spring classics a few years ago; his estimate was 600+ for 3 minutes.

I'm presently working on the early stages of construction for Peleton , the owner told me yesterday that they just hired Hincapie & Vande velde to teach online Spin classes, 
i wanted to ask if you also order the drugs online , but i held my tongue

@SeanMiles

So Rahpa got priced out of Meatpacking district and rent in SoHo is cheaper, what kind of weird Topsy-turvey world do we live in?

http://www.hunterallenpowerblog.com/2016/01/the-world-championships-in-richmond.html

If you want crazy, here's Ben King data from the 2015 worlds.  King was in a 90-mile breakaway and only came unglued at the finish.

"Ben did 6,402 kiloJoules of work in the 6 hour and 24 minute race....A normal Continental pro race here in the US, is between 2500-3000kJ,  and this is a critical difference between abilities of the Continental pros and the World Tour pros.   Translate this into Training Stress Score and reminder that 100 TSS equals the same amount of training stress as 1 hour at FTP and Ben did 418 TSS for the race, so the equivalent of 4 hours back to back at FTP.    Some other highlights include 7,838’ of climbing, an Intensity Factor of .81(81% of FTP for 6 hours 24minutes),  an average power of 276watts and normalized power of 323 watts."

and he weighs 148lbs 

^face melt

I'll just leave this here mkay?  


Fudge.   How the hell do yu paste in this POS? 

WWW.velonews.competitor.com

Technological fraud at cx worlds

The same way you spell "you": Correctly.

Also, when do we start seeing this shit at parks races?

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/electromagnetic-wheels-are-the-new-frontier-of-mechanical-doping-claims-gazzetta-dello-sport/

the article suggest, clearly we seen it already -- at least at the fondo level.

So long as you don't lick the subway pole, you have little to fear

http://www.wnyc.org/story/what-not-touch-subway/

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-basketball/25479885/larry-bird-doesnt-believe-hell-make-it-to-the-age-of-75

tall people got...no reason....tall people got no reason to live

http://velonews.competitor.com/2016/02/news/in-the-news-giant-will-sell-direct-to-consumer-by-august_395348
sup with dat

Adam said:

The numbers in this article make me feel a little ill.  Just thinking about what they are putting out is cray cray.

http://cyclingtips.com/2016/01/by-the-numbers-how-orica-greenedge-controlled-the-tour-down-under/

I'd always wondered if I could sit in a pro sprint stage of a grand tour. Answer: No.

http://www.dailyliked.net/volvo-special-lifepaint-invention/

Cool shit

A bit long winded, but a nice story: http://kensingtoncycling.club/2016/02/16/Pine-Flat-Road-Race-Race-Report/

@Adam, that was a nail biter to the very end.  Kudos.

This is a great little excerpt:
"...bridging should be renamed in my opinion. Bridging doesn’t technically exist. It makes it sound like a calculated effort: I will do 350 w for 15 minutes, the break is doing 320 w so I will catch them in 5 miles. In reality, that is BS and if you are ever bridging for more than 60 seconds the truth is you are in serious trouble. It should be just called mid-race sprinting. Because that is what it is. A full gas, go to you blow effort."

Edit: One thing I just realized is that you had no teammates with you.  I can see how one would have been beneficial earlier on, but do you think the field would have been more inclined to stonewall your efforts if two guys in the same kit went up the road?

Riding with a team mate is super, super important.  Yes, harder to let two people go up the road together but in reality at the end of a climbing race peoples' legs often choose for them, more so than sound logic.  If they're spent, they're spent.  

Anyway, in that instance I doubt you would go together, but slingshot one after the other until at least one was allowed off.

I'm looking into the team mate thingy...