Riding Weekend in Como

So I was chatting to NoShow today (by the way we are the only losers left in the RCL IB) and we decided that we all need a proper riding weekend in September. We both agreed that Lake Como is probably the easiest destination, great riding, easy logistic and stunning climbs. We could all go and climb the Ghisallo and ride around Lake Como. The place is stunning and the climbs are awesome. So if you are in just reply to this post and we will start organising...

The Only Way is Up: Le Chable - Mauvoisin 2010

Wednesday, July 21…Rider Sharkbite finds a reference to the 40th annual Martigny to Mauvoisin cycle race on the Verbier website. A few emails later, the organisers are teed up to anticipate some Ranch presence on the weekend with Riders Howe and Lone Wolf on board, plus Howe’s visiting guest Richard (part-time resident of the nearby Grimentz valley). The French emails with the organisers establish that the Ranch should opt for the “classe populaire” category, starting from Le Chable at the base of Verbier. Apparently the Martigny start is for registered Swiss riders only, and is composed of elite and semi-pro riders (“whose times are about 1hr 15”…”tres, tres rapide”..that's "smmmokin' quick" to you and me.)

The Val de Bagnes, looking downhill towards Martigny

Flag of the Val de Bagnes…we like this spirit! Timeless image of a couple of medieval homies taking a load off in the hot tub. Equally applicable today, as a depiction of Lone Wolf and Howe discussing pro’s and con’s of alpine property ownership (in each case with the 70's rock star hair they wish they had) .

6.50 am Sunday July 25…The boys bundle up warm and descend from Verb to Le Chable. After the initial challenge of not being able to locate the pre-race registration point, they discover it in a café in the centre of the village. A good turn out of 70 or more riders are on hand. The team leave their backpacks and warm gear behind, pin their race numbers on, then get out and warm up the legs.

8am. Altitude 821m. Riders on their way. The boys check into the peleton for a nice opening drag up the gentle slopes of the valley floor. They know what lies ahead: 2 solid climbing sections, with a couple of short flatter sections after each, followed by a final third climb up to the Hotel de Mauvoisin (including switchbacks carved through vertical rock walls). The moment the first steeps begin, a pack of extra-hardcore locals are up out of the saddle and speed off. The Ranch drives on as riders string out.

9.05 to 9.20am. Altitude 1841m. The boys have all reached the finish and earned their reward: post-race coffees in the Hotel building to warm up. Various stories emerge...

Lone Wolf, just in from Colorado, was dogged by a weenie on his wheel for kilometres on end who then takes off when the finish line nears. The Lone Wolf would turn back and give him looks…but the dude would not share the load. He actually apologises to Lone Wolf afterwards. Lone Wolf’s civil but curt reply: “C’est dommage”—it’s sad.

Rider Sharkbite: nice even climb. Delayed by a downhill post-bus meeting three uphill cars in the middle of one-lane Lourtier, so he and others had to stop and wait. But that’s community racing. A hard grind all the way, trading the pace with a couple of locals over the final 5 kms. One of whom pulls beside and pats him on the back as they crank on through the final switchbacks. Ranch = Respect.

Rider Howe: nothing stops the Howe...

But why is this guy towing his kid 15 seconds ahead of Rider Howe? (In fact, better question, why is this guy towing a kid up 1km of vertical?)

Because Rider Howe got a fargin’ big ol’ flat in Fionnay and cranked it up the final 3km on a 100% flat rear tire. (The actual Howe-quote accompanying this image is prohibited by Blogspot content guidelines.) Respect.

Richard checks in shortly after the Howe-machine. His Grimentz rides now put to good use in his first ever racing event. Primo.

After some truly excellent post-race coffees in the warmth of the Inn building, the boys watch the Elite riders start arriving from Martigny from their later 9am start. These boys can crank. Around 38km and 1400m of vertical in 1hr 17 mins by the winner.

They’re all semi-pro or pro and on some pretty sweet rides. Juniors and Femmes in the mix too, with the fastest Junior arriving within about 2 mins of the fastest Elite guy. One of a bunch of juniors from some place called the World Cycling academy. Evidently a Swiss-based training academy for truly speedster grommets from all kinds of countries.

The boys absorb the scene.

Winning elite dude brings it home.

Last but not least, the boys trade in their free meal ticket for a plate of pasta. Or the alternative meal choice of a platter of cheeses and cured meats known locally as an assiette Valaisaine. But what’s this…

Maybe that explains why these locals are so fast!

Activities continue through the day, including a 4km pursuit climb race for the top finishers after lunchtime. The boys enjoy the sun and check out the demo by stunt bike guys hopping around on a parked car and various piled fork lift pallets. Crazy stuff. We could see pretty quick why these stunt bikes had no saddles.

Next comes a little post-race VIP race event, on classic swiss bikes from the 50’s. Due to an organisational oversight, Ranch members were not invited to participate.

11.30 and the sun is shining. The team head home, enjoying a well-earned and stimulating descent to Le Chable and a ride up the telecabine to Verb. (Another shout out to CWA and the Swiss ski lift manufacturing industry. We love you.)

Overall a superb bike race that has been going strong for 40 years. Fantastic community event and slickly-organised race (except for that bus traffic jam thing), with locals all along the route cheering every rider as they pass. Most of the valley's residents are farmers. They know cows. They know sheep. And now they know the Ranch.

View of the east side of the valley, above the finish line. Nice dusting of fresh snow visible at cloud level.

Crespo Update

So I'm off work this week and today myself, Tracey and Sofia paid visit to Crespo Snr, Jnr (Benjamin) and Lucilla (the rest of the family was at Eurodisney). Crespo was in great form... I was really pleased to see him well, he looks 10 years younger.....

I seem to be spending more time at home these days surfing the web and waiting for Sofia to go to sleep. So I wanted to flag a website which has some great pics on an old Legnano plus some links to a Cinelli website for Cali .... RoryMasini

That's it.. good luck to everyone....

By the way, I've made some changes to the Blog, please feel free to change/comment/go back to the way it was.........

Giro d'Tuscano - Ranch Report

Ranch photo montage of last week's Giro d'Tuscany, where Ranch West Coast jetted on Alitalia from L.A. to Rome, and RiderTurbo and RiderMama fired off 50-60km's per day through the Italian countryside on a self-guided bike tour, followed nightly by copius amounts of homemade pasta, ricotta gnocchi, pecorino cheese,Tuscan red wine, fruity olive oils, and brightly coloured gelatos.

The ride challenged Ranchers with hot, steamy weather, rolling hills and steep climbs, including passage through the scenic countryside dotted with ancient vineyards and visits in Pienza, Montepulciano, Montalcino and Siena, punctuated by the grand-finale, knock-out wedding extravaganza of RiderTurbo's charismatic business partner at La Polverosa on the coast near Monte Argentario. Cicloposse organized the route, provided maps and bicycles and transported luggage between hotels nightly. The Ranch provided inspiration, perspiration and smiles.

man down - Crespo battles through surgery

an account by ridercali:

i feel really bad about all of this. we were riding in richmond park. finishing the first lap. probably 200meters from the main gate that we always enter traveling clockwise. i felt my back wheel start to wobble and it was crespo's wheel pushing into mine. i shouted to him and then looked over my shoulder just in the moment to see him hitting the wooden 4x4 road markers that they have all around the park. I didn't actually see why our bikes hit in the first place or how it happened or even how he came off the bike. i just remember seeing the actual impact of the fall. i knew it was going to be really bad because i saw him hit the wooden block but i never imagined it would be this serious. he was struggling to breath. i thought probably a combination of the wind being knocked out of him and maybe even a punctured lung. the guy was in so much pain and maybe even shock. he kept opening and closing his eyes, and rolling back and forth on the ground. we tried to calm him down and get him to take short small breaths so it didn't hurt as much to breath. it was awful to see anyone like that but especially the guy who's door you knocked on an hour earlier to go a ride. about 15 or 20 other riders stopped. all offering help. neither of us had a phone so one rider called the ambulance for us and was describing what happened. another rider on a mountain bike who we had passed about 10seconds before saw the entire event unfold and was helpful in explaining to the medics how exactly crespo landed. his name was Max. he took off his fleece and put it over crespo since it was cold out and neither of us had a jacket. another rider offered to lend me money for a taxi in case we couldn't fit both bikes in the ambulance.. i felt very emotional seeing how kind and concerned people can be for complete strangers in distress. we live in big cities where most of us do not even know our neighbors and we all exist 12hrs + a day in the hard world of finance where often the human sympathy element is nonexistent. people are generally good and make the right decisions. the ambulance took about 7minutes to get to us from the time of impact. crespo wanted to go to chelsea westminster hospital and insisted 2 or 3 times when both of the medics questioned his choice (it is by no means the closest hospital to richmond). i think he wanted to there because that is where Lu is going to have their 3rd child in a few weeks but I am not sure. it took about 15minutes in the ambulance to get to the hospital but for crespo it felt like an hour. he asked me every 2 minutes 'cuanto falta?' how much longer? and i tried to keep giving him an honest answer. i squeezed his right shoulder during the ride in the ambulance so that he knew i was there with him. and about half way into the ride he says. 'hey my shoulder hurts too' i just thought, great, kid crashes his bike and you think you are helping by letting him know you are with him by squeezing his shoulder, and in reality you are actually hurting him more!! it was the other shoulder that bother him. apparently he hit that on impact as well. we arrived at A&E and they wouldn't allow me to enter with the bikes so i took a cab to crespo's house. dropped off his bike with Lu and explained what happened. she gave me his phone and clothes to take back to him as crespo told me to tell her not to bother to come down to the hospital. i think he probably thought what i was thinking... few broken ribs, lot of pain, but no major surgery would be required. man where we wrong. i took the taxi home and dropped off my bike and threw on some shorts and went back to the hospital with carmen. i wasn't going to even go home but i told carmen that i would be home from the ride at 900am latest and now it was already 10am. she was worried and i had no way to call her since i left my phone at home (never will do that again). we went back to the hospital and got there around 1030. crespo was getting a scan when we got there so we couldn't see him right away. about 10mins later Lu showed up with the kids. crespo wanted to see her and had the drs. call her. i took the kids for a pizza to get them out of the hospital for an hour. when we came back we found out that he needed the operation and that he was getting taken in right away to the OR. Max Galland (good friend of crespos) showed up and took the kids for the rest of the afternoon and Lu waited while crespo had the operation.

i am going back over to see him now but unfortunately I am taking off for a week later this afternoon. if any of you guys are in london please go see the guy. he should be in the hospital for at least a week and this was a major operation. he was really out of it yesterday due to all the painkillers but I think he should be more alert today/tomorrow.

Italian for beginners

This might help the communication with Tito at the next Gimondi......
Click Here

Mama Flies High

This past Monday, memorial day in the U.S. and bank holiday in Europe, Ridermama and Riderturbo ran the Bolder Boulder 10k road race.

Billed as the largest fully timed road race in the U.S., Mama and Turbo represented the Ranch undercover and joined 54000 of their closest friends for the 6.2 mile run through Turbo's hometown of Boulder, Colorado.

Despite not having run more than 4 miles since the birth of Riderzoe some three years ago, Mama was ripped and ready and clipped a respectable pace that included a 1-2 minute courtesy stop with Riderzoe and Grandma spectating on course. Turbo provided run pacing and interval splits while Mama led the two bobbing and weaving through the crowd of runners.
Overall time was a respectable 51 minutes and change at an oxygen-deprived altitude of 5280 feet where the air was thin, the sun strong and the mountains beautiful.

Mama placed 34th out of 622 women in her age category, citizen's race, and Turbo 130th out of 557 donning compression socks and the misunderstood white bandanna that has become the enigma of Ranch West Coast style despite fitting in the L.A. gang banger scene.