Racing NYC

That is racing circa 2001. I think i have a skinsuit on.

Lance, Alberto and V.A.M

Ranch riders are always looking for an edge on the bike. A seemingly trivial video interview snippet with Lance reveals deep insight into who wins climbs and Grand Tours.

Save an out-of-this world single time trial by Lance, or otherwise catastrophic mishap by Astana, it explains why Contador is most likely to win on Mt Ventoux leading to a win in this year's TdF. It may also explain why Alberto may win more Grand Tours in the years to come to take his place alongside The Boss, the Badger, Big Mig, The Cannibal and others in the Tour's Greatest of All Time.

Secrets revealed by the V.A.M.

Lance Stage 16 Pre-Race Interview - "Back in the Day"




On the Cycling News Website in an interview with Dr. Michele Ferrari, the V.A.M. to which Lance refers in this interview is the "velocita ascensionale media" average climbing speed (vertical rate). By his own admission, Lance's best ever V.A.M was 1790 meters/hours on L'Alpe d'Huez. Presumably, this was during the uphill time trial on Alpe d'Huez in 2004 on a feather light Trek riding fresh and not in an exhausted state at the end of a long road stage as is typically the case when the TdF climbs the L'Alpe d'Huez.

By contrast, Lance states in the video that Contador's V.A.M on Verbier was 1852m/hour -- bettering that of Armstrong's rate in his best years when even then he says "he wasn't following that." This may allude to Lance's belief that even when he was at his best he might not have been able to stay with Alberto on a grand tour climb.

Examples of VAM (Vm/h) Metres Per Hour (Vm/h) from Cycling News Interview:
1800+ Vm/h: Lance Armstrong - and Pantani of olden days
1650-1800 Vm/h: Top 10 / TdF GC or mountain stage winner
1450-1650 Vm/H: Top 20 / TdF GC; top 20 on tough mountain stage
1300-1450 Vm/h: Finishing TdF mountain stages in peloton
1100-1300 Vm/h: The Autobus Crew

Interesting Articles from the 53x12 Website:

VAM: Effects of Gradient & Altitude
More about VAM

Certainly, the Verbier climb in this year's tour was not as long as many of the Tour's Hors Categorie climbs. From our personal experience, the Verbier climb is one we all know well and perhaps any rider, pros included, can sustain higher V.A.M for shorter durations of time.

Neverthless, the quick comment shows just how dominant Contador really is at climbing in Grand Tours right now -- the superior power/weight ratio is evident in his V.A.M. -- and also gives clues to how we might improve our climbing by training just a bit more with the use of a barometric altimeter that is now standard equpment on many of the modern sport watches produced by companies like Polar and Suunto.

the arrival of riderturbo

randol curtis, aka the turbo from his NCAA div 1 skiing days, arrived for a few days of pleasure, business, and fine dining in Hong Kong. Logistics prevented any cycling however, saturday morning was not just about julietta's fresh papaya and mango - no sir - in the spirit of ranch tradition - riderpitts and riderturbo - knocked off a 50 minute run around the peak followed by a plunge in the pool. Sunday morning saw the turbo depart around mid-day - but that day was not to escape its own early a.m. session as the two knocked of an hour run which included a summit on MT Austin. The highlight of the assult being the two ranchers overtaking a pair of kitted out mountain bikers - on one stretch of 14% grade - and for the avoidance of doubt - ranchers drop mounain bikers on foot. In summary, the turbo looked extremely lean, extremely fast, and exceptionally prosperous.

2010 Tour Transalp

Hello Fellow Ranchers,

Next Year I want to ride the Tour Transalp.

Who´s In?

Hold your breath for my Dreilander Report-It should be cold ontop of that little hill!!!!

RiderHowe Hitches onto the Cadel Pelaton

On Tuesday of this week, I had the pleasure of joining Cadel Evans (2 time Tour de France runner up) and Hendrik Redant (Sporting Director for the Silence Lotto Cycling Team). The background links to an Australian friend of mine, Peter Beatty (a Ranch Target) who now resides in Verbier. Pete, who hosted the dinner, grew up competing with Cadel and they have maintained a solid friendship since. Cadel and Hendrik were visiting Verbier to scope the 9 kilometer climb (one that we Ranchers are all familiar with) as preparatory work for Cadel’s assault on this years TDF.

Fresh off of a 2nd place result at the Dauphine Libere, Cadel (followed by Hendrik in the Team Car) was “casually riding” 3 stages of this years TDF that were new to him (including the Verbier stage). Known as one of the lower profile top riders on the circuit, not everyone is familiar with Cadel. His achievements speak volumes;
- 2 x Tour De France Runner Up
- 2 x Dauphine Libere Runner Up
- 2 x Tour of Spain 4th place overall
- Along with multiple single event and individual stage victories

Hendrik was no slouch himself, groomed from solid Belgian riding stock, he competed professionally for 10 years, riding 5 TDF’s and multiple top finishes in the single event and short tour circuit.

Over a bottle of red and a hearty spagbol, it was a fascinating evening of sharing tour and rider insights coupled with the regular banter you would expect to hear from a couple of Aussies. There’s did not appear to be a “rockstar” lifestyle, but rather a very serious and committed approach to their sport with a cost conscious approach to overall team Management. A couple of interesting anecdotes throughout the evening included;

- typical TDF riders will put on at least 40,000 kilometers of training per annum

- we always think of the challenge of the climbs in the TDF, what we rarely consider is the 8 to 20 kilometer descents that are done with speeds consistently topping 100 km’s/hour. Try that in light drizzle with a 100 rider pelaton!

- incredible preparation in terms of researching the nooks and crannies of each of the stage’s roadways including detailed analysis of the finishing areas

- a certain level of frustration with Nationality Partnering overtaking Team Partnering (you will know what I mean if you watched the last 2 stages of the Dauphine)

- and finally, a call from Doping Control, advising they would be in Verbier at 7am to give Cadel the once over as part of a routine spot check. Turns out the guy drove half the night from Stuttgart to meet his time commitment.

All in all, a great evening with a couple of humble guys who are so entrenched in their sport, that they don’t really seem to see the magnitude of their achievements.

It looks probable that Cadel will ride the Giro di Lombardia, and for those of you coming to Como, I am hoping I can line up Cadel/Henrik for a post race intro to Team Ranch. In the meantime, and despite confronting a slight latino bias within our team, please join me in supporting a real “class act” for the sport. Hope to see you in Verbier on the 19th of July “pour Etape 15”.

RiderStemCells New Machine

I had a custom sized frame built for me from the German Expert frame builder NICOLAI. 100% Easton Aluminum with a bottom bracket stiffer than a diamond. No carbon frame can match the stiffness of my Argon Road. It is fast...I am clocking speeds of over 75km/S down the hills of Feldberg here in Frankfurt. Negative Gravity Brakes, Easton SL90 Fork, and waiting for my Rotor Q rings(53/39) and Crank set to arrive.

Time Megeve

Team Ranch. The ranch decided to try a race in Noshow land. Time Megeve. The Alps. The month of June. Easy access through Geneva, a hotel not too expensive. This race had all the potential to be a classic on the Ranch calendar.
Saturday morning the team arrives in Megeve, sort the cars out and we load up for the 1 hour drive to the highclass ski resport of Megeve, France. We had no idea what to expect.

We arrive. 28 degrees C. Alps everyhwere. A magnificent view of Mt Blanc not far away. Wow. This is incredible. Zinni says its' the highest mtn in europe. Cali disagrees. The repsone from Zinni? "Ok, fine Mt Kiliminjaro is higher but ... " huh? Not surprisingly, the word terrone may have been used after that comment.

At the first roundabout in town we see the stadium and go to register. Plenty of bike porn for those interested. We had a cursory glance but were more business than pleasure and headed for the hotel to get settled and then find some lunch.



2 rooms, 2 guys to a room was a much improved scenario after the nightmare of 5 guys and a room at Gimondi. Net net - the place was comfortable and inexpensive even if the owner wasn't the most mannered with us.
So checked in, bike assembled and we head into town to have a sandwich and a beer. On the walk back after lunch Farace looks at Noshow and says, "hey Noshow, i think i am going to take a nap." Noshow responds by saying, "Listen, in all my years, and I am only talking about my experiences, a nap this late in the day won't be good for sleeping tonight." So we meander back to the hotel. Lay down for a couple minutes and Noshow is asleep and under the covers before Farace can finish speaking about how in love he really is with Sarita. An hour later, upon awakening, noshow hears, "And that, Noshow, is why I love her so."


So off to dinner at the slowest restaurant in Megeve, a couple glasses of red and the team heads back for a sleepy night in cool and breezy Megeve. Dreams of Sarita in all of our heads now.


Sunday. A 6:30 start - Cali and Zinni upset at breakfast because Noshow and Chiche don't go upstairs to walk down as a team. We have the "cyclists breakfast" of cold toast and fake powdered orange drink, pack our things and ride to the start. It looks to be a beautiful day. Hot air balloons drifting through the valleys of the alps, a view of Mt Blanc not far away. And the sun coming up over the mtns. What a great way to begin a race.
8:30 the bell tolls and we roll through town. 4 members ot the Ranch in their first french alps race. We have 115km of alps ahead of us. Focus.

We roll for about 20 minutes to the first hill. Not too bad. Maybe 45 minutes of climbing but couldn't have been more than 6% at its worst. Over the top of that and we have a great decent touching speeds of 75-78kph. Was beautiful. Noshow gets a flat and the team waits for him. Brilliant. Climb #2. More difficult. Ths climb takes well over an hour and the team is spreading out a bit trying to climb at their own tempos. Cali, spinning away, relaxed, eating up kilometers. Farace grinding along like Jan Ullrich in a heavy gear. Zinni churning his chainring eating tarmac under his wheels and Noshow shifting to his triple as he begins to feel his 39 years.
Over the top - Zinni flats, Noshow climbs back up to help him with the change and off they go again. The temamates, Cali and farace waiting around the corner. We're at 4 hours now and see the turn off for the 85km loop. Not even a hesitation for the team, we go for 115. Noshow flats again on the decent and almost loses it. Realizes his tube stem isn't long enough and we wait again for a gentleman spanish rider to make a trade for a tube that fits (Cali negotiates) and up climb 3. We were warned that the first 3km were difficult. What we weren't warned about was the climb was more like 20km and the whole climb was STEEP. Cals and Noshow start to bicker about 1/3 of the way through (MEIGHT) and Cali takes off. Noshow not feeling it but angry chases him and tries to drop him. About 10 minutes into the "try to drop CALIi move" he looks back over the curve in the road to see where he is and hears a chipper, "Hey Buddy! Right here!" About an inch off noshow's wheel. Darn it. Thought he had the flu.
Up over the top, a decent into the valley again and the team heads for home. At this point, the team is looking ragged. Zinni is covered in salt from dried sweat. Noshow can't think straight, Cali, looking feverish and Chiche looking calm somehow. 33 degrees C - it's hot. The road drifts up slightly and at this point it saps you but the finish is so close. We will make it. We will make it as a team. Zinni had slowed on the decent to ponder where in fact Mt Kiliminjaro actually was so the other 3 teammates wait before the finish so we could all cross together. This race was ridden as a team and we wanted to finish as a team.
We all arrived in Megeve unprepared for this race. 2 guys not trained well, 1 with the flu and one with a cold. The Ranch wasn't willing to not ride it so we bucked up, held together as a team the entire 6 hours of riding and are the better for it. I, for one, am proud of the effort and the support of fellow ranchers. Once again I am impressed at the character of the riders I am associated with. Pure quality.