VeloCity Chicago 2010

What a perfect day. The sun was shining, the motor pacer was pacing and Washington Park velodrome in Kenosha, WI, was looking great. Lots of people, messengers and city bikers, rookies and experienced racers, families, kids, and curious locals showed up to watch and take part in VeloCity Chicago 2010. Here are some pics I took of the action.

The warm-up paceline.

The custom bars Aaron made for the winner of the city biker category.

People admiring the bars.

Ben Fietz giving the rookie racers a lecture on track safety and etiquette.

Andrew Yeoman of Team Pegasus going up against Al Urbanski of WDT in the sprint final.

The field coming out of turn 2 during the scratch race.

Al killing it.

Ben getting ready to do a few motor-paced 200s.

Messenger winner Nico trying to come around in the sprint final.

Andrew has a quick look over his shoulder to make sure his move worked. It did.

In the turn during the scratch race.

Ted B with the next generation of racer.

Big thanks go to everyone who organised the event, especially to Ben, Julio and Squid. It was great to see everyone again, and great to be at something that really encourages people to get into track racing. In this respect, VeloCity has been a huge success over the years, and lots of people in Chicago who are now regulars at the track had their first taste at one of the previous VeloCitys. Check out Dispatch101 for more pics and video, check out Sage's flickr for even more pics, Time Out Chicago for yet more pics, and the Chicago Cuttin' Crew for the full breakdown.

Come & Gone

Joe Parkin has a new book out on VeloPress!

New MASH Cinelli Frames

Super nice. More info here.

The Shirts Are All Gone! Please Stop Emailing!

Sorry everyone, the shirts are long gone. As a consolation, here's a brilliant Black Flag haircut timeline that Hank Watts sent in a vain attempt to finagle a shirt out of us. Good try, Hank! If anyone has any info on the image, like who made it and if it's available as a print or a poster, let us know!

Image originally from WFMU.

611 and VeloCity

These are the bars that Aaron made as one of the main prizes for VeloCity Chicago 2010. They're even more beautiful in person, and everyone at the track wanted them, but they were won by Al Urbanski of WDT. Well done, Al! I'll have a full report of the day with more pictures up soon. Julio and Ben and Squid and everyone did a great job organizing it this year. The bars got their great paint-job from ChesterCycles.

Photo by Sage.

Free Hipster Nascar Shirts!

As modelled above by the always awesome Kyle, we have three of these super limited (because we couldn't afford to get many made) Hipster Nascar shirts to give away to you lucky people. The shirts are a tribute to a band. The first three people to send me an email (address over there on the right) telling me the name of all of the singers that band has had over the the years will get a shirt. Make sure to include your size (s/m/l) and your address!

Photo by Ace.

PDW 3wrencho Review

The fine folks over at Portland Design Works were kind enough to send over one of their new multi-tools for a little field research. I've been using it for over a month now and it has been absolutely great. Unlike a lot of multi-tools, the 3wrencho is not overly complicated and chock-full of features to the point of hindering it's actual use. All too often I've gone to use a combo tool and it's designed to do so much, that it in fact does nothing all that well. That's certainly not the case with the 3wrencho. It's simple, utilitarian, comfortable, bombproof, and most importantly- it works great. I've long used Pedro's Milk levers as my go-to tire lever in my shop, but after some time with the 3wrencho, it has officially taken over at my lever of choice. The steel lever makes light work of even the most stubborn tire/rim combos (I'm looking at you Campy/Gommitalia!) and the plastic coating leaves rims unscathed. The 15mm wrench is small enough that it fits easily in a jersey pocket, but still is just long enough to give you the right amount of leverage to get tight axle bolts off. It also has just enough of an angle that you won't bust your knuckles when the nut comes loose.


Admittedly, the most use my 3wrencho has seen been for an unintended purpose- beer opening!


Really one of my favorite things about PDW however, is the fact that they are taking the time to produce products that not only work great, but actually look great at the same time. They put effort in to creating a sharp looking product right down to the packaging.

It's really refreshing. Their line of pumps are great and I definitely plan on using some of their speed metal grips on a build or two down the road.

Grab a 3wrencho here and be sure to check out the rest of their line of products here.

Washington DC Alleycat

I lived in DC for a while, which is why I'm posting this. They've also got a ton of great prizes. Check it out here.

1969 Giro Poster

The Rapha blog just turned up this fantastic Giro d'Italia poster from 1969:

So cool!

If you're in London, you can pick one up here. New Yorkers can wait patiently and hope a Rapha pop-up shop turns up sometime soon...

Book Bike!

Apparently, this guy is riding around Chicago giving out books for free, in an effort to promote reading, independent presses and local bookshops. Such a great idea, and I love the custom made bike! The books he gives out are paid for by donations, so if you want to know more and possibly donate, check out his webpage here.

Photo and heads up by Russ Woelfel.

Cadel

Call me petty, but on the day when the biggest scumbag in cycling history, Floyd Landis, finally admits to systematic doping, confirming that he's been lying for the last fours years and all through the court cases and in his own book, and I still dislike Cadel "Handbags" Evans more. Twat!

Amazing picture of Evans by the great Graham Watson, seen over on Cycling Weekly and brought to my attention by EvanGBX on the other Chicago forum.

American Flyers Hat Tip

I have a real soft spot in my heart for anything American Flyers related. The first bike shop I ever worked at was named after the film. So when I saw Tracko's post this morning showing Saxo Bank/Specialized's tribute to the 25th anniversary of the movie, I got all nostalgic. Nice job Julich! Looks sharp- I would have loved to see some more direct inspired decals and maybe some gumwalls, but the tubing decals are a great touch!



Read more about it here!

Also, I'll go ahead and take this opportunity to post a wrinkly iPhone photo of my favorite cycling related t-shirt ever:

The shop is long gone, but I should get some of these remade...

Good find Kyle!

Ride Hills

Tracko got new ones made. Get yours.

My New Favorite Website

Full of great photos, like the above of Basso bringing Nibali back after a crash on a muddy Giro stage 7 by Stefano Sirotti, Cycling Tips is my new favorite pro news website. Check it out here.

Thanks, Fyxomatosis!

ECMC 2010

The European Cycle Messenger Championships are this weekend, May 22nd - 24th in Budapest, Hungary. There's a full weekend of events planned, including the main race, sprints, polo, goldsprints, trick comps, and alleycats. I know this is late notice, but I spaced on posting about it was just reminded by Dispatch101 and UrbanVelo that it's all happening this weekend. Details here.

Pre-VeloCity Alleycat

VeloCity Chicago is this weekend, and as usual there's going to be a pre-track alleycat. See you there!

American Women Set World Record

The US Women's Pursuit team of Sarah Hammer (pictured), Dotsie Bausch and Lauren Tamayo set a new unofficial world at the Panamerican Championships in Aguascalientes, Mexico recently, with a time of 3:19.569, almost two full seconds faster than the previous team pursuit time. More details over at USACycling.

Ride of Silence

Tomorrow, Wednesday May 19th, is Ride of Silence Day all across the world. Join up with other cyclists to honour the memories of those who have been killed while riding their bikes. The Chicago ride starts in Daley Plaza at 6.30pm, and will visit the ghost bikes for Liza Whitacre, Clint Miceli, Blanca Ocasio, Mandy Annis, Jepson Livingston, and Tyler Fabeck. Read this story for motivation, and be safe out there.

Austin to Houston Ride

I would love to do this! Details here.

Go Vino Go

Yeah, I don't really care what anyone else thinks, I want him to win it.

More Olympic Track Changes

Sometimes being on chifg can actually pay off. I was just on there reading about the the IOC and the UCI's proposed new changes to the Olympic track programme. What the hell are they smoking in Switzerland?? First they cut the points race and the madison, two of the more exciting races, from the Olympic schedule, and now they're limiting the number of riders a country can enter in the individual events to just ONE!

British duo Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny battle it out in the final of the Men's Sprint at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. New UCI changes mean you won't be seeing these guys race against each other in the Olympics anymore. DANIEL GARCIA/AFP/Getty Images

Okay, so, cutting the points and madison was done to facilitate an increase in the number of women's events without increasing the number of events overall. I understand that. Women racers should have parity with men. It's a pity that the UCI wasn't able to achieve that parity and keep the points and madison races, but so be it. This new change, however, is really strange. Each country is now limited to entering just one rider in each event, which means that only a country's top qualifier will be entered, and to hell with the rest of the squad. This is terrible news for the big track cycling countries like Britain, France, and Australia, who each have multiple riders capable of competing at the highest level. So, with fewer riders from these "big squad" countries able to compete, the numbers will be made up by riders from other countries, riders who are not going to be as good as the excluded riders. For example, here's the list of the current top ranked men's Sprint riders:

1. Kévin Sireau (France)
2. Shane Perkins (Australia)
3. Matthew Crampton (Britain)
4. Grégory Baugé (France)
5. Maximilian Levy (Germany)
6. Chris Hoy (Britain)
7. Jason Kenny (Britain)
8. Daniel Ellis (Australia)
9. Robert Forstemann (Germany)
10. Michael D'Almeida (France)

As you can see, four countries dominate the men's Sprint scene at the moment: France, Australia, Britain and Germany. In the next Olympics, only one rider from each of those countries will be allowed to enter the men's Sprint. That means that more than half of the top ranked men's Sprint riders in the world will be excluded! On the current standings, Sireau, Perkins Crampton and Levy would be in, but Baugé, Hoy, Kenny, Ellis, Forstemann and D'Almeida would be out! Their places would be taken by slower riders, meaning that while the Olympic track programme will now have a wider national representative pool (good) it will also no longer be a competition between the fastest riders in the world (bad). Can you imagine a similar change happening in swimming? Do you think the USOC would sit quietly by while the IOC decided that countries could only enter one individual swimmer per event? Why is the IOC putting pressure on the UCI to make these changes? Do they really care about representation, or is this just another example of putting the squeeze on a minority sport? Is the UCI tired of the Track World Championship being seen as a second tier event compared to the Olympics, and so it's sabotaging the legitimacy of the Olympic track programme?

From my own perspective, I think its great that smaller cycling countries might have the chance to put a rider into the big show, but I think it's a pretty lame way to make that happen, and I'm sure that riders who qualify because of this rule will feel like they're taking the place of someone better and faster. The level of competition will be much more uneven too, which will probably make for less exciting racing. Seriously, what is going on in Switzerland?

Coney Island Velodrome

Not sure why I didn't catch this earlier, but if you're in NYC head over to this exhibition about the Coney Island Velodrome. Details here.

Originally seen on CWMD!

Flyer update and sneak peak...

There are a couple new sponsors for the Velocity tour:

Also, this gives me an excuse to show a little sneak peak at some bars I made for a prize:


They're off getting painted right now, but be sure to see (and possibly win?) the final product next weekend!

Classic Stayer Pics

I was browsing flickr the other day and I happened upon Erik Wiersma's great photos of early 20th century track racing. His main aim is to document Dutch cycling history, and particularly the professional racing career of his Grandfather, Frits Wiersma, who became one of track racing's most successful pacers in the 1920s, 30s and post WWII. I love looking at old pics like this, from the era when track racing was one of the biggest spectator sports in the world. Here are a few of Erik's photos of vintage stayer action. Check out more brilliant images here.

Dutch stayer team of Dirk Groenwegen and his pacer Frits Wiersma.

Tommy Hall, a British pro, with his pacer Cissac, c. 1910.

Bobby Walthour, famous US pro, with his pacer Lawson, c. 1910.

Paul Altwein behind his pacer Herman Buechner, c. 1913.

Carmen, with his pacer Najo, c. 1913.

Did you bring enough guys? A Styria six-man pacing tandem, pacing stayer Franz Gerger.

Events