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The Other Half

I was reminded this week, ever so gently, that I don’t often write about the women’s side of bike racing. This is an oversight on my part. There is plenty to report and enjoy from the women’s side.
Now that the men have finished up their tour of Italy, we are about four weeks away from the Giro Donne, or more formally, Giro d’Italia Femminile. They begin in Napoli with an 86-mile ride to Terracina. The race is nine stages through a smaller swath of Italy, and ending in a sprint into Bergamo, smack in the middle of Northern, Italy, after about 1,000 km.

One of the teams bound to make an appearance is the Specialized-Lululemon super team. The team dominated the General Classification of last week’s inaugural Exergy Tour in Idaho. American Evie Stevens took the overall in the new race, but her team dominated throughout.

The team took all of the podium spots of the stage-two time trial in Kuna, Idaho. American Amber Neben took the top step, covering the 10.4-mile course in 21:37. Teammate Evie Stevens was second, 15 seconds back, and Canadian teammate Clara Hughes slotted in third at 20 seconds back.

As a result, and continued hard driving, Specialized-Lululemon took all three podium spots on the GC. With Stevens on top, Neben was on the second step and Hughes ended up third.

Colorado has a tie to the history of the Giro Donne. The only American to win that race is Boulder’s Mara Abbott. This is not some fluke performance for Abbott, who won the Giro in 2010. She has won the Iron Horse Classic from Durango to Silverton on five consecutive occasions, a record for the race. This year, she covered the 47 miles over Coal Bank pass and Molas Pass in 2:44:35. That’s fast for anyone, and certainly faster than I could cover that terrane.

Unfortunately, I do not speak Italian, so I can’t really tell who will ride this year. The Specialized-Lululemon team has the Giro Donne scheduled, however. It should be a great test for the squad as they match up against the best European teams at the most important date on the women’s racing calendar.

I think I’m healed up, but I’m still trying to control myself. Returning to training after an injury is not quite as bad as sickness or starting anew. I still have to ease back in, however, or risk further pain and delays.

I have taken three short rides, one with a small group, none longer than 10 miles. Everything feels good, so far. I am monitoring my clavicle and not really lifting, so far. I’m only doing 10 pushups at a time, but it’s better than missing my biggest ride.

It’s tricky, returning. My gut instinct is to go crazy. Of course, that’s always the case for me, but now that I’ve been out so long and only have a week until Ride the Rockies, the urge is even stronger. I know, however, that a misstep now will ruin the summer. So now it’s slow and steady. If I’m good, I will get two long rides in. One to Rock Cut, and one to Ward, both slowly. It’s the only way I will get to do this ride, and document it for you, the readers.

By the way, I plan to have two new videos up on the Trail-Gazette Facebook page by the time this paper hits newsstands. This is my warm up. I will blog, photograph and post video on my experience on Ride the Rockies, as well as interviews with other Estes Park riders, interviews with interesting random people, demos and information on the towns along the way. Look for these updates on our website and Facebook beginning on June 9.

As always, have fun, be safe. I’m going riding.

Posted by Walt Out West | June 1, 2012 | Categories: Cycling photography/photography while cycling | Tags: cycling, Giro Donne, ride the rockies, women's cycling | Leave a comment

Restart

One grand tour and one smaller tour are underway. It’s nearly crunch time for training, and for fund raising. By the time most folks read this, I’ll be out on my bike.

The weather has been nice, and while I’ve talked about it plenty, I try not to complain too much about my collar bone. I was surprised to discover just how far this column goes and how many people have heard about my injury.

I was hiking up to Gem Lake about 10 days ago and met a gentleman from Denver. He noticed my camera gear and sling and correctly guessed who I am. On Tuesday night, I was doing a shoot for Children’s Hospital, all the way down on their new Fitzsimmons campus. It was an event with big donors, department chairs and hospital and foundation executives. A donor, again after spotting the cameras and sling, asked if this was my column. It’s nice to know this is read all over.

So, I mentioned Children’s Hospital and donors. I got to see the new hospital up close. I got to see a few of the many children this facility helps every day. I’ve also managed to meet some of our locals over the last few years, who have benefited from this great hospital. It’s nice to be a part, even a small one, of helping this hospital. You can be a part, as well.

I am still trying to put together my team for the annual Courage Classic bike tour. The important part is the fund raising. Riders raise money for the hospital, providing funds for them to purchase equipment, recruit top-notch talent and finish this state-of-the-art facility down in Aurora. All of this for the benefit of Colorado’s children.

There are two ways to help out. You can join me. Go to couragetours.com/2012/team/estes and sign up. Do to schedules, we are low on riders. We would welcome new team members. If you can’t or don’t wish to ride, you can always donate. Go to the same web address, pick a rider, and donate. It’s actually pretty easy.

If you don’t already know, the ride, itself, is three days around Leadville, Vail and Summit County. The riders are friendly and pleasant. The scenery is breathtaking and the support is the best of any ride I have ever done. The support consists of volunteers mostly from Children’s Hospital, so they’re cheerful people, anyway. The organizers also promote a contest among the aid stations, so they are competitively happy and enthusiastic. The real heart-warming icing on the cake is Team Courage. This is a team of kids and their parents who have been treated at Children’s Hospital. The festivities on Saturday night include introduction of the team, to cheers and hugs. On Monday, the last day of the event, the whole team masses and then crosses the finish line together.

Riders of the event get medals at the end, but the real reward is knowing you’ve helped this wonderful hospital. This will be my fifth year, and I hope to do it for many years to come. I would love to have some new friends to join me.

In the professional world, 22-year-old Slovac Peter Sagan of the Liquigas-Cannondale squad has absolutely dominated this year’s Amgen Tour of California. The young sprinter has won the first four stages, and has worn three of the for competition jerseys; best young rider, sprinters points and the yellow jersey of the overall leader. He may have trouble on Thursday with the Bakersfield time trial, however. All of the top GC contenders, including defending champ Chris Horner, are withing 30 seconds of the lead.

Friday will also be a challenge for most sprinters as the stage starts in Palmdale, north of Los Angeles, and heads west for a big climb and a finish at Big Bear Lake. The problem, for the rest of the field, is that Sagan won the climb to Big Bear last year. If Sagan can hang tough in the time trial, look for him to win the race and take home his first tour overall win.

Over in Italy, irony took headlines at the Giro d’Italia on Wednesday. Roberto Ferrari won the bunch sprint after yet another crash in the final kilometer of the stage. Before Wednesday, Ferrari was best known as the erratic sprinter who crashed world champ Mark Cavendish and GC leader Taylor Phinney in the last 100 meters of the first road stage of the race, a week ago Sunday. Phinney has not ridden very well since and Cavendish has looked tired, though he did pick up a sprint victory last week.

Joaquin Rodriguez of the Katusha team leads the overall. Canadian Ryder Hesjedal of the Garmin-Barracuda squad is 17 seconds back. Several overall contenders are within one minute of the lead and the race has not yet hit the high mountains. The year’s Giro is completely up for grabs with eight stages left. This should be fun.

Have fun, be safe. I’m going riding. Really.

Posted by Walt Out West | May 18, 2012 | Categories: Cycling photography/photography while cycling | Tags: Amgen Tour of California, Courage Classic, cycling, Estes Park, Giro d'Italia | Leave a comment

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Frank, up close

Saturday marks the start of the 2012 Giro d’Italia, the tour of Italy, and it should certainly be a good one. The flash and style, the torturous climbs, the lightning-fast sprints and the tiffosi, the crazed Italian fans, the Giro is an amazing event.
While the Tour de France has its traditional feel, awarding what looks like a Greek bowl as its award to the winner, Italian style abounds and is reflected in the Giro’s trophy, a two-foot tall spiraling gild ribbon with the names of past winner etched in it. It is Italian art all by itself.

As you might imagine, for most Italian riders and teams, the Giro is the most important of the three grand tours. To race in front of the home fans on the roads on which many of them train is a rare treat. In every one of them is the fantasizing boy, chasing Fausto Coppi or Marco Pentani up the near-vertical climbs. Each sprinter, though now a pro, imagines himself sprinting against the Lion King, the legendary and flamboyant Tuscan, Mario Cippolini, record holder for most Giro stage wins. It’s the brutal beauty of the epic stories, like Andy Hampsen’s heroic conquest of the snow-covered Gavia Pass. But cycling is so much a part of Italy, and Italy so much a part of cycling that there is much more than even the Giro to celebrate.

Cycling is such a part of Italy that the fans have their own special name; the Tiffosi. They will push riders. They have been known to assault others. They will ride the same roads and wait for a week to catch a colorful flash of their favorite riders as the fly past.

Take a ride to a coffee shop. Sip espresso with your shaved legs up on a chair. Sport that retro cycling cap. My wife hates that cap, by the way. I own five of them.

I own a replica of the 2007 sprinters’ kit awarded to Italian Alessandro Petacchi. It is an outrageous magenta. Imagine a giant-thighed sprinter in hot pink coming at you like a missile. That is Italian style. In this edition, the sprinters will fight for a bright red jersey, the shade of the stripe on the Italian tri-color flag.

Waif-like climbers have worn the other prominent color of the flag, green, until this season. This year, with a change in sponsorship of the best-climber category, blue will be the color of the Re delle Montagne. Blue, of course, is steeped in Italian sports tradition, itself. The Italian national teams, whether soccer, rugby or cycling all ware the fabled azzuro.

Like the other grand tours, white is the color for the best young rider of the Giro. Maglia Blanca was won in 2007 by Andy Schleck. At the time, fans knew he was the younger brother of Frank Schleck, but until he nearly stole the GC from The Killer, Danilo Di Luca, no one knew how good this kid was. A rider must be 25 years of age or younger. The idea being that a rider really needs to be a certain age before a body can handle the demands of three weeks of racing.

The one jersey every Italian cyclist dreams of, however, is the color of a baby girl’s blanket; pale pink. The Maglia Rosa is the shade of pink once sported by the Gazzetta dello Sport, the Italian national sports journal. The paper was the driving force behind the race in its infancy. It is still a major force behind the organization, though it is a more traditional newsprint color today.

The pink jersey has been worn by the superheroes of cycling. It was won by Eddie Merckx on five different occasions. Italian legends Learco Guerra and Alfredo Binda each took five pink jerseys home, as has Costante Girardengo and Roberto Visentini. Fausto Coppi accounted for six pink jerseys, though even he was not the best of the best for the jersey. The great Francesco Moser holds the record. Moser won eight Maglia Rosas between 1976 and 1985.

So grab some espresso and a plate of brioche with some marmellata on top and get ready for three weeks in Italy. The Giro is about to begin, and it will be a good one. Ciao!

Have fun, be safe. I’m going riding, if only in my imagination.

Posted by Walt Out West | May 5, 2012 | Categories: Cycling photography/photography while cycling | Leave a comment

Things could be worse as the summer season nears

I’ m busy this week doing one of those things I can do when I can’t get outside to ride. I’m watching old race recordings. The Spring Classics season is coming to a head, but I won’t get to see those races until at least Sunday. Meanwhile, I have the 2003 Tour de France to keep me entertained.

If you don’t remember, the 2003 Tour was the closest of Lance’s seven Tour victories. He came into the race after fighting a nasty bug and while his marriage to Kristin was falling apart. Armstrong did not have the focus or the fitness everyone was used to up to that point. The race itself, from the rider’s standpoint, was a mess.

The first week of a grand tour tends to be a crash-fest, anyway. But the crashes that started this tour were exceptional. On the first road stage, Tyler Hamilton would be involved in a pile-up that nearly ended his race before it started.
Inside, the final kilometer, just one bend from the finish line, and with all of the sprinters charging, Kelme rider Jose Enrique Gutierrez over-cooked the sharp turn and put a foot down, causing a chain reaction. The crash stopped all but the front 25 riders, and sent Hamilton to the pavement. The crash broke his collarbone. As luck would have it, the bone was broken in a spot close to where the same bone was broken in the Giro d’Italia about 14 months earlier.

In the 2002 Giro, Hamilton would ride the whole race with the brake, and grind down several of his teeth, jaw clenched against the pain. Hamilton would do it again in the 2003 Tour, resulting not only in a fourth-place finish, but also in bolstering the quiet, slight, former Colorado resident’s legend. The worst, however, would happen a bit over a week later in the Alps.

During stage nine, T-Mobile rider Alexander Vinokourov put 30 seconds between himself and the group containing the top contenders. The group was screaming down the mountainside toward the town of Gap, trying to catch the Kazakh rider, and was making up time when, on the gooey melted tar, Spaniard Joseba Beloki, sitting 40 seconds behind Lance in the GC, lost control of his bike and he hit the tarmac at about 40 mph. The crash resulted in a broken leg, elbow and wrist. Beloki never regained the form he had before the crash. Most Americans remember the incident for Armstrong’s quick reactions. He cut the switchback, riding his bike through a farmer’s field and regaining the pack as they came out of the next bend.

One could argue that this whole Tour hinged on the crashes, and on Armstrong’s luck. Beloki was well within striking distance when he crashed. Hamilton went on to score a stage win on a long breakaway, collarbone in bandages. Don’t forget the stage 15 climb of Luz Ardiden in which a spectator’s bag handle hooked Lance’s handlebars, throwing him to the pavement and Iban Mayo on top of him. Hamilton went to the head of the race to slow Ulrich and company down to allow Lance to get back on. Lance would win that stage. And then there was the big one.

On the race’s final time trial, a 30-mile race against the clock from Pornic to Nantes, Jan Ulrich crashed around a bend on the rain-soaked street. Ulrich had beaten Armstrong by more than 90 seconds in the race’s earlier TT, stage 12 from Gaillac to Cap Decouverte. Ulrich was less than a minute down, but the crash would end the enigmatic German’s bid, and all of the crashes would define those involved.

Ulrich will forever be known as a bridesmaid to Armstrong. Hamilton’s actual racing will be remembered as tough as nails. Beloki will be the rider who could have been. Vinokourov, the only rider not involved in the crashes directly, will be the rider who threw caution to the wind and took ridiculous chances on seemingly pointless solo attacks. Vinokourov’s career seemed to end in a crash, as well.

On stage nine of the 2011 TDF, on another snaking descent, Vino would carry too much speed into a corner, fly off the road and break his leg. Vino claims he won’t retire, just yet. He plans to ride in the London Olympics, less than 100 days away, now.

Yah, okay, I’ve crashed, again. I’ve even broken something. This is my third major crash requiring medical attention in the last 17 years. It won’t stop me. I suppose that’s the beauty of not being a professional. A few more weeks and, like a dog off his leash, I’m off again.

Have fun, be careful. I’m going riding . . . eventually.

Posted by Walt Out West | April 23, 2012 | Categories: Cycling photography/photography while cycling | Tags: cycling, injury, Tour de France history | Leave a comment

A speed bump!

I hit the dirt between Exposition and Cherry Creek Drive a couple weeks back. I have four weeks 'til I can ride outside. Grrrr.

Posted by Walt Out West | April 23, 2012 | Categories: Cycling photography/photography while cycling | Tags: broken clavical, cycling, injury, x-ray | Leave a comment

Don’t do this at home!

So, I’m screaming along University Blvd. in Denver, thinking, “my wife will kill me if I’m late for Passover dinner,” when I spot what I initially think is a very narrow driveway. By the time I realize that it is a rain culvert, I’m already down to one option. “MUSTBUNNYHOP!!” I didn’t make it.

There was a split second when I thought “hey, I just might make it,” then the sharp, sickening pain in which everything I see is white, and everything I say if profane.

While clutching my shoulder and swearing, I check my bike. Have to retrue the front wheel. Crap, I think, I’m gonna be late, now. Nothing bleeding, better get going.

By the time my wife sees the shoulder, it’s beginning to turn a faint yellow-green. A bruise. That is to be expected, I think. Meanwhile, my wife’s family points out that this night would not be the first time someone had to be taken to the ER for Passover Seder. I’m thinking, “okay, it hurts, but I can move it around. It might be jammed, but in a few days, it will be fine.”

The next day, purpleness begins to come through in the space between my collar bone and my trap muscle. Still, I think nothing of it.My wife, always the careful, practical and medically educated one extracts from me a promise to see our sports doctor back home. Better to be safe rather than risk losing the whole summer riding season.

I was still surprised and disappointed when the doctor and his assistant walked in after looking at my x-rays, sling in hand.

“You broke it.”

“NO!”

“Oh yeah. In two places”

The doc shows me the unmistakable spikes and shadows on the image showing just what kind of damage I had done. One looked like it had been peeled up off of the bone. The other was a faint, gentle wave.

The swelling and that I still have a little of the mass from my former life as a bodybuilder saved me from much more pain. Still, I would not suggest this as a way to pass time. I now have a nice black sling.As you already know, black goes with everything.

I find I can still ride the stationary trainer, but I won’t get to do much upper body work. I won’t get to do the CrossFit classes that helped maintain the muscle that saved me from more server damage. I’ll just have to focus on my legs. I’ll still be able to Ride the Rockies, as well as riding the Courage Classic. Those are both in summer. I’ll just do it with a different mind set.

I wrote about pulling out of the Boulder-Roubaix to avoid this exact injury. I crashed inspire of the decision. I was focused on the broken collar bone, and that’s what I got. I spent money last September on a positive self-talk seminar, then forgot everything CrossFit hero Greg Amundson tried to teach. He even sited a story very close to my own. An Army Ranger he trained with said to himself, “Watch, I’ll be the guy who breaks his ankle on this course.” Sure ‘nough.

I know better. I have to watch what I think and how I think. Positive thoughts tend to bring positive results. With that in mind, I’m going to do everything my doctor tells me, exactly the way he describes it. I will be ready to rock by the Duck Race. That will give me five, happy, warm weeks to train long riding before the Ride the Rockies. Watch. It’ll happen.

Meanwhile, have fun, be safe. I’m going healing, and riding my trainer.

Posted by Walt Out West | April 11, 2012 | Categories: Cycling photography/photography while cycling | Leave a comment

Where’s Walt – Repost

Interview at Panache Cyclewear

Posted by Walt Out West | April 3, 2012 | Categories: Cycling photography/photography while cycling | Leave a comment

Summer opportunities just keep coming!

It’s still chilly as I write this week, but the promise of spring is in the air, and my riding calendar is filling, and thrilling. Just as thrilling are the opportunities that modern technology are opening up for me.

I hinted last week at what lies ahead of me this summer. Our new publisher is almost as enthused about this June’s Ride the Rockies as I am. Armed with a new iPhone, look for a video piece, as well as regular entries to both the www.eptrail.com website and Facebook page that will compliment this column. In the run-up to the big annual tour, I will hunt down helpful hints and experts with help for those planning similar rides this summer.

If you are a fellow cyclist with questions or suggestions for the video, contact me at walt@walthester.com with what’s on your mind. If you don’t ride, but want to get involved, as the Ride the Rockies will be spending the night here, contact us to put your logo on my back as I lead the sweaty and doubtless hungry, thirsty, and sore peloton into our beautiful town. I don’t mind wearing logos. It helps fulfill my fantasies of being a sponsored athlete.

Significantly further up the cycling food chain, the first European stage races began this week. The “Race to the Sun”, Paris-Nice, started on Sunday with a short time trial that, surprisingly, did not see world champion Tony Martin of Omega Pharma-Quickstep crush all comers. The young German finished 25 seconds and 27 places behind Swedish National Time Trial Champion Gustav Larrson of Vacansoleil-DCM. After five of eight stages, several leaders have emerged to challenge for this race’s yellow jersey. American Levi Leipheimer, now riding for Omega Pharma-Quickstep, fellow American and part-time Colorado resident Tejay Van Garderen of BMC Racing, Brit Bradley “Wiggo” Wiggins of Team Sky and Movistar’s Alejandro Valerde are jammed in within 39 seconds of each other. Of those, Van Garderen is the least likely to emerge on top once they get down to the Mediterranean coast.

Unfortunately for many riders, illness is as big a factor as any this year. Both Andy Schleck and Andreas Kloden of the RadioShack-Nissan-Trek, as well as Taylor Phinney of BMC, have pulled out of the race siting gastroenteritis.

Meanwhile, in Italy, the Tirreno-Adriatico has begun. Australia’s new super team, Green Edge, won the opening team time trial on Wednesday, giving the first leaders jersey to Matt Goss. On stage two, the Manx Missile, Mark Cavendish, took the bunch sprint.

While Paris-Nice is considered the test for climbers, the “Race of the Two Seas” is very much a sprinter’s race. Along with the large lovers of flat terrain, possible contenders include last season’s Tour de France champ Cadel Evens, riding for BMC, and American Chris Horner, riding for RadioShack-Nissan-Trek.

You may already know that the Ride the Rockies’ biggest sponsor is the Denver Post. Did you know that most of the big races, and even rides, that you have heard of were originally promotional events for newspapers?

In fact, the two most celebrated jerseys in pro cycling, the Tour’s Maillot Jaune and the Giro’s Maglia Rosa, get their colors from the pages of the newspapers that started the races. The French newspaper L’Auto’s pages were yellow at the time of the first leaders jersey, rumored to be in about 1903. The pink pages of the La Gazzetta dello Sport was the inspiration for the jersey for the annual tour of Italy. Iowa’s Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa, aka RAGRAI, is sponsored by the Des Moines Register, following this distinguished tradition. Without newspapers, the races and rides we know and love would look completely different. Just something to think about.

The weather is warming, so have fun, be safe. I’m going riding.

Posted by Walt Out West | March 13, 2012 | Categories: Cycling photography/photography while cycling | Tags: fellow cyclist, ride the rockies | Leave a comment

Video