I realize that Friday’s 7,100 ft elevation isn’t that high, but my natural abilities + a month off the bike + altitude ≠ great climbing. Saturday’s ride was about 7,000 feet in all, from Lake Tahoe at 6,200 ft, over the 8,900 ft pass at Mt. Rose, down to 4,600 ft near Reno, and back again. Ugh.

All smiles with maybe 15% of the day’s climbing done.

Mattias heading back towards Mt. Rose. I was not enjoying this part.

I’m up in Tahoe for the weekend with Mattias, staying on the north side of the lake at King’s Bay. Riding around the lake itself is … less than awesome. But we found a good climb yesterday up about 1,000 ft from the lake. We’ll be doing a lot more climbing today…

I edited this last night and posted this on The Road Diaries earlier. I think it came out pretty well considering that Ben shot the footage with the Flip. Getting closer with optimal iMovie export settings; it looks a lot better on Kyte than YouTube.

Taped on Friday in Chicago with Ben Raby, edited on the plane home yesterday. This probably won’t go on The Road Diaries but similar videos will.

I came across this framed 2006 Kodak Gallery/Sierra Nevada jersey at SRAM’s offices; it brings back a lot of memories, including how long it took me to lay out those cards. That was a fun year.

It’s a bit strange to find myself working in a big corporate office, but SRAM’s headquarters in Chicago is a pretty awesome space. Here’s the product testing and work area:

These belong to David Z, the head of global marketing:

Here’s Alex Wassmann, who coordinates all of SRAM’s road and triathlon sponsorships:

My column in the current issue of ROAD is now posted. It talks about the long term implications - some of them potentially negative - of the sponsorship deals for Garmin, Columbia, and Saxo Bank.

Here’s an excerpt from the next column, which will hit newsstands around September 1.

The sponsor’s choice is to stick with or walk away from the team as a whole. There is no middle ground, which makes a case like Ricco’s – where there’s no indication of systematic doping within the team – all the more difficult. Dropping the sponsorship is a clear statement against the cheater, but you can’t avoid some people interpreting it as a lack of confidence in the movement towards a clean sport. Continuing with the team avoids that portrayal, but it will always look to some like a gesture of leniency.

While the first is a debate of incentives, this one is more emotional. At its heart, it’s a question of loyalty to the community of people who love cycling. When a sponsor cuts ties with a team, is that a statement against individuals who violated the basic tenets of the community? Or is it a statement against the community itself? It’s difficult to separate the two.

I’m taking a new direction with the site. Instead of just writing mini-articles, I’m going to start talking more about what’s going on at Kadisco. Kind of like, um, a blog. Here’s something new, courtesy of MASH.

Josh Poertner of Kadisco client Zipp has cornered the Ask Josh market, so here’s my version: Ask Kadisco. I get requests for advice from time to time, and I’ll post my answers here.

In this first installment, I got an email from a young Canadian who wanted advice on getting a pro contract and personal sponsorships. Here’s my response:

Thanks for getting in touch. I’m not as involved in the team scene as I used to be, but my sense is that there won’t be as my pro spots next year as there were this year. So with that in mind…

Every rider is different – different talent, different mentally, and different luck. So I don’t know exactly what’s best for you (or anyone, for that matter) but if I was standing in front of 200 riders in your position, my advice to the group would be to get on the best amateur team you can and get ready to spend a couple years balancing racing with work/school and living cheaply. If things happen quickly, great. If not, you’ll be ready to wait until you get an opportunity to move up in the food chain. You’re only 20 after all.

As for your personal sponsors, the fact that you already have some puts you in a better spot than most riders. I think your best bet is to reach out through them to their friends and see what you come up with. Create an email list of your sponsors and their friends who might be interested in following your progress, send periodic emails to the list if you get a great result or an article written about you, and update your blog as much as you can. If you think someone might be interested in sponsoring you, don’t be shy about asking.

I guess that my advice is to just hustle and sell yourself, but be ready for it to take a while to pay off. Cool?

A: Toyota’s Winglet, “a personal transport assistance robot ridden in a standing position.”

Basically, you stand on it and drive around. Toyota claims a range of 5-10km at a top speed of 6km/h, like a smaller, lighter, slower Segway. No word on the Winglet’s price, but it will likely be less than a Segway and more than the $250 price tag for the used bike that I got on Craigslist for my girlfriend.

For urban transportation, that bike has a range of maybe 10km and a top speed of 30kmh with an inexperienced rider. Not that much better than the Winglet, but the difference is that you can get better at riding a bike. A more experienced rider might have a range of 20-30km and top speed 50kmh, but the Winglet will never go farther than 10km without a 1-hour charge or faster than a brisk walking pace.

Plus, you can put racks on your bike to carry stuff. With the Winglet, you’re limited to what you can carry on your body. There’s also the whole exercise thing. And fun.

The Winglet might be great for elderly or disabled people, but the rest of us should probably stick to bikes and self-respect.

via Gizmodo

There were a lot of teams on the market for title sponsors this year. Despite the new sponsorships announced before the Tour, it looks like the first team to fold will be Roger Legeay’s Credit Agricole, according to VeloNews.

To my knowledge, they’re the only current “ASOtour” program with roots in an actual cycling club: Velo Moto Club de Paris. Check out this picture of Roger Walkowiak from 1958, their first of over 40 years as a pro team sponsored by Peugeot. Afterwards, it was Z, Gan, and Credit Agricole since 1998. Former riders include Eddy Merckx, Greg Lemond, Stephen Roche, and Chris Boardman. Thor Hushovd aside, the recent years have been a slight decline for them: 9th, 11th, and 15th in the ProTour from 2005-2007.

Most importantly, they showed a lot of class with Saul Raisin. They didn’t just honor his contract after his injury, but they really included him as part of the team until it was clear that he wasn’t going to race again.

There are some cool videos here, unfortunately not embeddable. But check out the 2001 TTT win at the Tour with Bobby Julich, Jonathan Vaughters, Thor Hushovd, Jens Voigt and Stuart O’Grady in yellow. Chris Boardman’s Merckx-beating hour record is great too.

Someone should post those on YouTube before Credit Agricole takes the team content off their website.