Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Power Lunch with Pitts


Power lunched with Rider Pitts toady in Frankfurt. Pitts perfects hand-rubbed ribs, tomatoes, water and cottage cheese for T´s waistline! Planned out potential future: Spokes, Strings and Edges. Met the cute Pitt kids driving Grandma crazy.

Ranch cycler´s need to start thinking seriously about next years Tour Trans-alp (road bike. We need a contingent at this race and I will personally set up the training agenda!

Giddyup!

Friday, July 31, 2009

Rider StemCell Finishes his 3rd Transalp



Rider StemCell finished his 3rd, and last?, mountain bike transalp race last Saturday. The fist stage was cancelled due to 30cm of Snow on the first pass out of Mittenwald. On the second stage, the third pass was cancelled due to 40 cm of Snow. Once out of Germany, the weather was perfect...as usual. As with the first 2 transalp races, RiderStemCell arrives home with a nasty case of swollen legs and an additional 5 kg of weight. Funnily enough, after 3 days, He is back to normal weight. Why? I´ll tell you why: too many carbs and not enough fat! The food at this event is always horrible! This year I raced in the "Herren" category which had me racing with young boys under 30. I´m a mad and must race with men older than 40! I destroyed a Ranch Jersey with grease as a major Chain suck had me elbow deep in chain grease. Sorry Tom, I owe you a Jersey.

Anyway, I have decided to concentrate my future racing ambitions only on the road bike.
As such, I want to ride the Tour Transalp. I believe the Ranch needs a presence at this event.

Who´s in? or are you all little girly boys?

Love, Stem

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Ranch Recruits: BrokenTooth & SwissChef

All quality organizations require new talent to stay on the cutting edge. New blood fosters dynamism, infuses energy and ideas, and shapes the future as time passes and the guard changes.


The Ranch has been riding high for the better part of a decade. The solid core of RanchRiders know each other well and are a tight knit bunch. Over time, a few riders have joined and none have left.


To wit, Ranch riders have spread out over the globe. With contingents located in London, Zurich, New York, Hong Kong, Frankfurt and Los Angeles, the horseshoe and star can be seen from Central Park to the Val de Bagnes, from Malibu to the Upper Levels, from the Black Forest to the hills of Lombardy, with honorary members in Boulder and elsewhere. And the legend continues.


Never satisfied with the status quo, and always on the lookout for new talent, the Ranch has from time to time invited a select few to join as both Riders and honorary members.

Introducing Rider BrokenTooth and SwissChef. Long time friends of RiderTurbo, RiderMama and RiderZoe, Rider Brokentooth (above left) and Swisschef (above right) and are experienced cyclists in their own right. Rider Brokentooth hails from Ohio -- America's heartland where hard work and simple values go hand in hand. Her mountain resume was born from a decade of ski racing in the US Ski Association Central division, and in the north-east at Cornell University. With riding experience on the climbs of Switzerland, around her mountain top vacation home in Snowmass, Colorado and on a handful of centuries that included road-worthy mishaps, Rider Brokentooth is no stranger to the peloton .


Her spouse, Rider SwissChef adds to the cosmopolitan cache of the Ranch with an impressive riding resume. Originally from Zurich -- with an Italian madre still residing there --Swisschef possesses souplesse cadence, grace and power, fluency in four languages and refined skills in both the international professional workplace and kitchen of Continental cuisine.

Both Riders are new to the ranch, but certaintly not new to the rigors of the outdoor lifestyle, endurance sports, triathlon and cycling. Both work for Nestle, producer of Powerbars, Chocolate and delicious, nutritious dairy products. Both riders recently moved to Los Angeles from living in Vevey, Switzerland where they competed in many events in Europe with Ridermama and Riderturbo in recent years.


Reunited in California, Rider BrokenTooth, SwissChef, Mama and Turbo have been on a number of rides over the past few months, and set off in recent weekends on mountian bike rides in the Malibu and San Bernardino mountains.

One interesting ride called the Bulldog Motorway involved 2500 vertical feet of steep, rocky climbing over three hours traversing the Castro Motorway atop mountain ridges overlooking the Pacific Ocean. In a word, the ride was spectacular. The riders conquered the climb with vigor despite oppressive July heat typical of Eastern facing alpine aspects in the high desert California summer.

An interesting feature of the ride was that it directly passes the original filming site for the syndicated television program "MASH."
Old rusted Jeeps and equipment can still be seen trailside and the Riders stopped for a moment to snap a photo for the blog...


Please welcome Rider BrokenTooth and SwissChef to the group. Next time visitors come to L.A. or Aspen, or when the riders next visit Switzerland, we can join up for a ride!
As an aside, Riderzoe seems to be moving right along with her second birthday and a new set of wheels...















Thursday, July 23, 2009

Racing NYC



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

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

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.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

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.

Friday, June 19, 2009

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!!!!