6.7132 equals?

14.8 lbs.  (still needs jump stop and pedals)

Diet

Chicago Cyclocross #2 DeKalb

Great day, first off my hats off to Half Acre Cycling and North Central Cyclery, who put on a phenomenal race.  The park in DeKalb was absolutely perfect for a race course.  You could put on 4 days of racing and never be bored with the course.  It had everything you could want, a great flow, and never felt like things were being thrown in just to make it longer or trickier, didn't need it.  It also was a course that would change with the weather, and got more technical as it started to sprinkle on the master's races then pour during the 1's 2's.  In the masters 30 plus Mark and I both had good starts and ended up 2nd and 9th, in the 40's the duo of Roman and Jim continue to impress and put up a very solid 3rd and 4th place finish, knocking on the door gents!  I heard of massive carnage in the 4's race, jack, scotty, and cliff all started out really strong then mechanicals abounded.  There is rumor of Tony out there ripping it up on a single speed!  Welcome back my friend.  Coach Brian ramped up another strong one for 2nd in the pro 1/2 and Luca was right behind in 5th.  Devon pulled a compton and decided to race with the men's 3's, awesome choice, she looked right at home sitting in the top 8 selection for most of the race.  I haven't heard of anyone else's results but I have a car full of wheels, there was a lot mechanicals and flats out there, so more work to be done, question is more tires!!!!!  

Roman decided to be the gentleman that he is and lend his bike to Ernie for the 3 race, only to have the steerer tube sheer off on the first lap.  OUCH!  Glad no one was hurt.  This kind of thing can be scary....glad that it wasn't bad. 

Tires

Sweet Silk
Bring on the Mud, man these look so bad ass.

Money

Million dollar idea....an embrocation remover.  Used up some cold weather Mad Alchemy Embrocation tonight, alright I was pushing the threshold of the coldness recommendation range  a bit but wanted to see what kind of bite it had before using it on race day, and damn I will say I am still burning.....this stuff is potent and pretty awesome.  I also have their warm weather embrocation, which will be my embro of choice till we it the 40, and below temps.  Oh yeah and keep away from any mucous membrane, I'm not kidding.  All seriousness check them out, it's always nice to support a small guy who loves the sport as much as we do, not to mention his product is some of the best I've tried.  Seriously though, patent pending, patent pending on the embrocation removal salve.  Now all kidding aside how do you get this off, I have to be on the bike at 5 am and don't think I can sleep with it on.  

Back to work

Great practice tonight!  We had 14 people out, and jessica pointed out that about 14% were girls, that's what we get for inviting school teachers out!  Some new faces, jaws were dropping, Tony B. and Baughb both showed up, great to have you guys out there.  I was bunny hopping a single and then Tony really showed us how it was done and cleared her easily.  Races this weekend, can't wait!

This is Roman doing backing in.
Baughb!  The two bucks is yours.


See Tony even surprised himself!

Ridley Bikes

I've been thinking about this for awhile, and after being at the show and speaking with the Ridley folks I'm convinced that they will be a great addition to our store.  The biggest factor for me was that a lot of companies are dragging their feet on producing a top quality Carbon cyclocross bike.  Ridley and Colnago have both stepped their game up and done so, but Ridley has gone one better and followed up their flag ship model with the X-Fire, a reasonably priced Carbon frameset.  Ridleys are currently being ridden by a lot of the top teams in the world including Fieda and more locally Planet Bike.  If you're interested feel free to contact me.  I will have some X-fires here and built up this week, and I have a secret project in the works for someone that is going to be sick!  

National Standings

Way to go Devon, keep it up!  National standings update.

Sprint

This is what it looks like when you sprint against your grandpa.  Just kidding guys, good photo though!  

Devon 3rd at Planet Bike Madison #1

Photos

I have to say after ten years of interbike this year was really great.  So many people, I don't remember seeing it so busy.  Did too much talking and not enough snapping, still not used to being able to shoot photos.  I remember the days where no cameras were allowed unless you were a press guy.  Cyclocross magazine has tons of great shots, I just have lots of good memories and reminders why I love this industry.  Thanks to everyone who made it out with us and made this year great.  

VEGAS

Mike and Ryan.
The tireless Steve Tilford.
Lance still looks pretty fit, his bike was about the sorriest there though.  If you would like to see how to properly cross pimp your Trek Lance, look at Brian's.  
John, Ed, and Alex.

That's Mike 2nd in followed by Moots, then the white helmet sticking out is Christoph Sauser, world champion.  The race was awesome, great atmosphere, great people, tough racing.  I didn't do the industry race, basically I was waiting for a call on a bike, didn't happen so I figured go with the flow and just support.  The guys working the show are so taxed non stop I didn't feel I was in the position to start calling "where's my bike to ride???"  not cool.  I handed out my share of cash and screamed myself hoarse.  The best part of the night....Mike Sherer gets a call up "number 39 from the Pony Shop in Evanston IL Mike sherer........number 40 from Trek Bicycle Austin Texas Lance Armstrong......   Hell yeah, the p shop and Mike getting the call up before the man.  I thought that was pretty cool, how many of us can say we did a race with lance, much less got the call to the line prior to Lance.  

New Film

This is sure to get people jacked up about heading back to KC for nationals this year.  Can't wait to get a copy of this, should be able to order up some copies of the 9 ball diaries as well in about 2 weeks.  Watch the trailer close and you'll see Pony Shop's Mike Sherer in the mix for a bit.  

confirm

I sole this.  Check it out...

Tires!

Things are looking sad on the tubular front... I'm on the hunt for more tires today but challenge griffos are running thing and it's only september.  I've glue and or sold more than 75 already this year.  Be nice to your tires!!  I'm hoping to talk to Don in Vegas about some more tire action.  I'll be at Intebike till Sunday, have a good practice guys will be out there with barriers!  

Jackson Park CX#1

Wow so much activity this weekend, before we get to Jackson Park, just wanted to note that Both Mike Sherer and Devon scored some of the elusive UCI points they were after this weekend.  Mike nabbed 6 in Michigan after a nice sprint finish with Steve Tilford.  Devon got 4th on Saturday despite some mechanicals, and 2nd on Sunday!  Congrats to them both, Aspen, and Ben for racing a great double weekend.

Pony Shop had so many racers and supporters I think we did a great job at Jackson Park.  I spoke with lots of guys at the race who asked about the kits and our sponsors, one parent stopped me and asked me to thank EJ for sponsoring the Junior races, that was really cool.  The part that I was most impressed with was how almost everyone (insert joke about me here) improved greatly this year over their races last year.  Seeing everyone stoked with their result really makes the difference and reminds me why this sport is so much fun.  No one wants to leave the course, it's so fun to be around.  Full results will be posted shortly I'm sure.  Some notables were Brian Conant and Luca going 1/2 in the pro race, Roman, Jim, and Bryan R. all top 10 in the staked 40 plus field, which also had a funky start...Carolyn kicked multiple buts in the women's race, Cliff top ten in the 4a's, Scott top 20 I think... lots more but don't remember them all!  

The course XXX laid out was really great, much improved from last year, with just enough room for recovery lots of turning, and some off camber stuff.  It was super organized and it was really cool to pick up the new t shirts there also.  I will be wearing my with price at Interbike.  My race didn't quite go as planned.  I crashed hard on the first lap around those willow trees, which I thought were a little dangerous, and never really recovered well.  I was so freaked out for the next two laps that people were just riding away from me.  I managed to find a good rhythm on the last three laps and reeled some guys back in and passed them, trying to sprint for 9th with Matt Silva, but ended up 10th.  I've got about 20 calls and texts with "what happened".  The truth is I'm not sure.  I felt like I rode hard, but just didn't have the head or the legs today.  I'm hoping to improve on that result as we move forward throughout the season.  I have searched yee old files and nothing really stands out that I did differently than last year, I haven't quit training, so either everyone got a lot better, or I just rode a bad race and the result is what it is, a  place to start.  

These cool photos are from velosnaps, she does an awesome job, you should check them all out.

Michigan UCI report Day 1

Report below from Aspen, Mike's is here. Awesome first day, hope Sunday goes as well. I think we'll have at least 10 people racing on Sunday all together!

Devon and I loaded up the car Friday evening with Ben and Julie from Rock Lobster to make the 5 hour drive to Michigan for the UCI double cross weekend with 5 bikes on the roof! After a quick nights sleep, we headed out early to get a few laps on the course before the racing started. With all of the recent rain and the cool evening the grass was still pretty slick. I got the morning off to a good start by hitting one of the corners a bit too fast and slamming myself into the ground as the rear tire washed out. I hit my head pretty hard and filled my shifter with mud. After finishing the lap in a bit, of a daze I fixed the shifting and tried to get my head back on straight before my race started an hour later.

Between getting everything together and trying to get a warm up in I forgot about the race before the race and showed up to the line a bit late. I ended up sneaking my way into a spot on the second row and hoped for the best. Off the line, a group of four opened up a decent gap and I was able to settle into the second pack. Soon I got into the gap and worked to catch on to the front group. About 2/3 of the way through the lap, I finally made contact with the front group. After sitting in for a bit I tried to make a move before the start finish. I wasn't able to create any separation and just ended up pulling the group around for a bit. Through the race the pack grew to as many as seven and eventually shrank back down. In the last few laps gaps started to form with a few riders getting off of the front. I ended up in a group of three others and finished in fifth. Awesome to get a result in a solid 2/3 combined field, but wish that I could have finished the race a bit stronger.

Devon got off the line in the middle of the front group with one rider opening up a small gap. She was able to bridge up to the leader with a few riders on her wheel during the first lap. Gaps were starting to form behind when Devon rolled a tire on an off camber corner and crashed, shearing her front shift lever off of the bike. After stopping again to put her chain back on, she was able to make it to the pit for a bike change. She was "super happy" to have a pit bike this year so that her race could continue. With the pit bike she never fully re-found her rhythm in the race but was able to fight back for a respectable 4th place finish.

A big thanks to Isaac for getting the A bike back into riding shape for the race tomorrow! Good luck to everyone at Jackson Park!

Aspen

Goosebumps

Watch this and tell me if the hair doesn't stand up on your arms.  Have to score a copy in VEGAS.

For Sale

Super nice ride for sale.  52cm Redline conquest pro 2008 frameset, almost all new parts including new SRAM rival new mavic wheels, lightly used Chris King headset, Ultegra crankset and BB, spooky brakes, the 09 version is 1800.00, asking 1300.00 for this one, great a deal.  Geometry.  Looking for the power??? Buy this and get some coaching from Brian!  

Sleds

I love this time of year, so many cool bikes around the shop!  Alright one of them is mine, but how many colnagos do  you see with fenders.  The Seven is another bike that was upgraded to RED after the road season, so much for easily going back to da from RED.