COG Keirin School Slideshow

Head over to the COG Magazine site immediately to take a look at a slideshow of photos from their excellent Keirin School feature. The pics are amazing, set it up to run fullscreen. Good work again from the COG crew.

ChiCrossCup Book!

A bunch of Chicago photographers have put together this excellent book chronicling the mud, sweat and beers of the 2009 ChiCrossCup series, so if you raced in Chicago this season and you want to see if you're immortalized in its pages, or if you didn't and you just want to look at some great photos of muddy cyclocross action, get the book here.

Thanks to AndrewFY again for the headsup!

Cadence Winter

Expect to see this Cadence bobble-hat keeping my noggin warm around Chicago, Dublin and London this winter. That's right, I'm finally leaving the tropics and heading to the lands of ice, snow and drizzle. I'm actually looking forward to it!

Seen on Tracko. Check out the full Cadence winter line here.

Rollercoaster

There's something really great about how certain wooden velodromes resemble old rollercoasters and fairground rides, because really, racing around a wooden track with a bunch of friends, feeling the gravity when you're right in the turn, the roar and noise of the pack as it passes the crowd, is there another sport which so perfectly evokes an old-fashioned thrill ride?

Photo by James Deavin, available here.

Thanks to AndrewFY for the headsup!

Life Needs No Brakes

You know, a few years ago people would have been going crazy for these shirts, but now people seem more interested in one-upping each other over whose bike looks most like something a hobbit would ride around Middle Earth. Pity. I'm sure the "no brakes" message will send some message-board granddads into fits of apoplexy too. More details on the shirts here.

No more points race, no more Madison.

Joan Llaneras of Spain riding uptrack of the peleton in the Men's Point Race. Save this photo, because you won't be seeing action like this at any future Olympics.
DANIEL GARCIA/AFP/Getty Images.

Well, that's it, then. The International Olympic Committee has confirmed a complete reorganization of Olympic track cycling events, meaning they've ditched the Individual Pursuit, the Points race, and the Madison, and added women's keirin, team sprint, team pursuit, and omnium for both men and women. The move is, ostensibly, about gender parity, having the same number of events for both men and women track cyclists, but in reality that could have been achieved by adding more events for women without cutting some of the best and most interesting race formats, i.e., the Madison and the Points race. The Olympic track racing programme has now become, almost entirely, a sprint-fest, and is much more boring as a result.

In my opinion, this is less about gender parity than it is about loading the track racing programme with short, explosive races that can be televised easily and require less attention from the average viewer. No disrespect to the sprinters, and definitely no disrespect to the female cyclists who absolutely deserve to race the exact same programme as men, but seriously, getting rid of the best endurance races is a joke, and reduces track racing to just one of its many aspects, all in the name of "good television." Okay, so, there are still World Championships every year, and lots of World Cup events, but the Olympics has always been the global showcase for the variety that makes up track racing, the one opportunity for non-cyclists to watch a bit of mental Madison action, and I think it's a big mistake to cut these events.

Oh, but they added 7-a-side rugby, a game played by almost nobody and followed by literally hundreds of people around the world. So, that's great...

Outlier Dress Shirt

This dress shirt from Outlier sounds really great. It's called the Pivot Sleeve Shirt, and it's specially tailored to fit better while riding, which, as anyone who's ever worn a dress shirt while cycling will know, would be helpful. Here's the word from the folks themselves: "The basic challenge was straightforward, when you lean forward on a bike a buttondown shirt stresses. It pulls uncomfortably taut across the shoulders. The sleeves pull up exposing your wrists to the cold, and the tails pull out of your pants, leaving you either untucked or with a blooming blouse of a shirt. Our solution is the patent-pending Pivot Sleeve, a completely reconstructed buttondown that retains the traditional look and feel of a dress shirt while working equally well both on and off the a bicycle." Perfect for cyclists like me, who are eventually going to have a job that requires clothing slightly more formal than my current work outfit of cargo shorts and flip flops. What? I work at a beach, basically. More details on the Outlier Pivot Sleeve Shirt here.

In Tom Boonen's dreams...

"I'm riding through cocaine! Yay!"

Photo from Cyclocross Magazine. Thanks to ffonst for the photo.

Seasons Beatings!

Chicago, Saturday, December 12, 2009 at 12:30pm

Two days of racing, two nights of parties, one good cause. This is a fund raiser for the members of the Tokyo BMA, who are currently $34000 in debt after hosting this years Cycle Messenger World Championship.

Friday night alleycat, info to come.

Saturday, registration at the Blue Frog, 676 N. Lasalle, 12:30pm. $10 to race, $7 for poker race only. Race begins at 2pm! There will also be a poker race for those who don't have the guts to go nuts.

Coppi Tribute Jersey

Nice vintage design/modern materials for this Fausto Coppi tribute jersey from Prendas/Santini. I need to get one of these so I can fool myself into thinking I'm riding l'Eroica everyday. Available at Prendas.

Sean Callahan

We'll always love you, Sean. You were one of the best, and you'll be missed more than you could know.
Stay gold...

Shutting down the blog for a while.

Ridiculous Winter Hats!

Want to look like a crazy Belgian this winter? Then get yourself one of these hats from Prendas!

Obree Hour Attempt Off

Sad news over on Bike Radar, where cycling legend and multiple world record holder Graham Obree has confirmed that he won't be making a new attempt on the World Hour record after all. The Scottish cyclist said that after his homemade bike, which had been performing excellently on the road, proved too uncomfortable to ride on the banking during trials at the Manchester velodrome, he was forced to concede defeat. Still, the guy is an absolute legend, and deserves way more recognition than he gets.

Team Pegasus

Great photo by Chris of Matt waving the Pegasus flag at a cross race this weekend. Check out his flickr for more photos of Pegasus cross action, and photos of other teams, 'cos we don't discriminate.

Oh man, this is gonna be good...

If "Blonde Ambition" didn't scratch your itch for a major motion picture with messengers, Columbia Pictures has a treat in store for you. According to a couple online movie sources, David Koepp (Jurassic Park, Mission Impossible, Spiderman, etc) is working on a big budget NYC bike messenger action movie.

'Premium Rush' follows a courier who picks up an envelope at Columbia University ("premium rush" referring to the type of delivery service, we're sure, and not, say, caffeine jitters). A dirty cop who's desperate to get his hands on the envelope is in hot pursuit of our hardworking hero, delivering chase sequences to rival 'The French Connection,' Variety reports.

Hmmm. Sounds riveting.

No word as to whether or not the soundtrack will be scored by Geddy Lee...

Thanks to Sage Brown for the heads up!

good find

Awesome wheel fail pic from the Life archives:

Seen at fixedgearblog

Six Eleven Cycles

Aaron's too modest to do it, so I thought I'd post up a few photos of the cross frame he built for fellow Pegasus teammate Andrew Yeoman. It's beautiful, and I want one. Badly.

Photos by Sage Brown.

Cranksgiving!

The 4th edition of Chicago's favorite race, Cranksgiving, is happening on November 21st! Brean is an excellent race planner, so this is guaranteed to be a blast!

'Tis the season...

seriously, how could you not love cyclocross?

Look how fun it is!

Photo by onegearmanygods

Photo by Michael Tercha via the Trib

Photo by Sage Brown

Well, I suppose it's not fun for everyone...

Henry, why do you hate fun?
Photo by Luke Seemann

Get out and race this weekend- the seasons gonna be over before you know it!

Awesome.

Awesome indeed. I might need to get a couple of these for a 531 build in my queue.
Get 'em here.
Seen over at Fixed Gear Blog

Art Velo opens this Sunday

Art Velo opens this Sunday in Seattle for 2 weeks- go check it out!

Mark your calendars...

Bloomingdale, IL



Orlando, FL

Pista de Tierra Mixed Terrain Alleycat from David Polka on Vimeo.

Looks like fun!
Albuquerque, NM


Urbana-Champaign, IL


Miami, Fl

“Lance’s Tequila Bike For Girls.”

From Selectism:

Last week the STAGES show opened a three-week stay at the Deitch Projects gallery in New York. I had a chance to attend the opening and take a closer look at some of the pieces. In addition to the works of KAWS, Ed Ruscha, Shepard Fairey and more, New York street-art legend Futura also had a piece that joined the exhibition in New York. I spent a lot of time walking around looking at all the various pieces. There was a nice mix of paintings, photos, and sculptures. One piece that I kept coming back to was Tom Sachs’ object-art piece “Lance’s Tequila Bike For Girls.” It was a mixture of creativity, humor, and ingenuity that I loved. The bike was prominently displayed in the middle of the floor, so that you could walk around it on all sides and enjoy every little detail. Every time I walked by I seemed to notice something else.

Absolutely amazing!

More info here.

Thanks to Ben for spotting it!

4th Annual Sadie Hawkins Day Race in Chicago

Details here.

UCI Track World Cup Manchester

The first round of the UCI Track World Cup is happening at the Manchester Velodrome this weekend. Can the British track squad continue their dominance on home soil, or will the squads who did so well at the world championships this year, especially the French sprinters, put up a decent challenge? Check out all the details here.

Photo by: Joe Klamar/AFP/Getty Images

Denis Menchov is Paul Heaton

Denis Menchov, pointing out where in Italy he's going to fall off his bike during the 2010 Giro.

Paul Heaton, lead singer of The Housemartins and The Beautiful South.

A celebrity/cyclist lookalike post that probably no one will get.
Hipster Nascar: pure quality!

Nice find!

Ah the glory days of endorsements...


Spotted by Tracko!

One sweet day...

Portland Design Works did some great coverage of the Builder's Tour leg of the Manifest show.

The Vanilla Workshop


Sacha's first build


What I dream of at night...



Pure class...

Read more about it on the PDW Blog.

What dreams are made of- sweatshirt edition

There are some sharp new products from the MARTIN Fall/Winter 2009 collection available now:


Get 'em here

Outlier has re-issued their entry into the boutique sweatshirt market, with the Merino hoodie:



Get 'em here.