Scared of the Dark? Don’t be with SuperNova

One of our wonderful sponsors has this cool new video advertising the Supernova Airstream light. Great for bars or helmets.

I should be sporting one for Schlaflos im Sattel this year too. Currently, I have a dyno powered E3 (off road model) light and absolutely love the ease of use and the fact that I NEVER have to worry about batteries running out.

CBM 2011 – Back in the saddle and doing well

The last downhill and feeling good

So, after nearly 9 months since my literally neck breaking accident, I’ve been training and now racing.

The first race of the year was the München City Bike Marathon. It just so happened that I was test riding (doing some of that now and contributing reviews to a well known 29’er website too) an On One Carbon Race 29’er (one of our co-sponsors). Since I had it and I’d also done this race on a singlespeed a few times previously, I decided to run with what I had. It turns out that it was a good idea which made the race a lot more fun. The only thing that would have made it better would have been to have had a couple of teammates there to race with. I actually think that we could have done well.

As it turns out, I started strong and seemingly got stronger throughout the race. I kept getting into mtb pacelines (often a scary thing around here), riding with them for awhile and then moving forward to the next group. I couldn’t tell you how many times that occurred through the course of the race. In the end, I finished 195th overall out of over 700 people (including pros) and 65th of 200+ men in my category. It made me quite happy in the end.

Crossing the dam close to the beginning

It’s hard to tell here but I was sporting the new Geax AKA tires which are now my new favorite tire, FRM Wheels, other sponsor products which helped me do well are my awesome Sock Guy socks, Biciclista.it uniform, CarboRocket sports nutrition, Specialized helmet and shoes. Thanks to all of you for the continuing support!

24 Hours of Finale 2010, my report… Michael

The Freaks come out at night

So, there’s this race…. it’s called the 24 Hours of Finale. For me, it’s about a 7-9 hour drive from München/Munich to the shores of the Mediterranean a few short kilometers from France and worth every second of it. The region is called Ligure and the town is called Finale Ligure. If you ever want to see a beautiful part of the world and ride on a really great course, this one is for you. On the way there you go through a beautiful mountainous region of Switzerland where they speak Switzer Deutsch on one side of the tunnel and Italian on the other side. A rather bizarre thing that harkens back to the days when people couldn’t go through a tunnel to go from one side of the mountain to the other.

Most of the Los Lobos

We put together a 4 person team made up of two current BWR Europe members (Andre’ & myself) and two non-BWR Europe members (Theran & Christian). Unfortunately, a week or so before the race, Christian ended up in the hospital with some sort of infection and couldn’t race, of course. When we hit Finale, in fact, up until the rest of the team finished registering on Saturday morning, we didn’t know that we were going to have a replacement for Christian. Lucky us though, Steffan joined us to be our fourth man. As it turned out, he was a great addition to the four-some!

Man.... this is steep!

The race for us team folks started in the Plaza of Finale. For the solos, it was the now well-known LeMans run. However, that also had a twist (it was extra long). I was the ‘Start’ guy for our team, maybe not the best of ideas, but it happened. I’d been fighting my rear tire to keep it aired up as tubeless for a couple of weeks and it haunted me. I had to finish the short lap instead of doing the long version and seemingly lost a lap or two instead of getting the 2 that we were supposed to have been given for doing the climb and a lap.

After that, Andre, Steffan & Theran went in succession. The heat took it’s toll quickly as we’re all from Germany and Switzerland where it’s been nearly winter temps and raining for months. The 30 C temps wore me out for sure and I know that the other guys were feeling it as well. So, we went from doing two laps each to one until it cooled down. After that, everything went smoothly until both Steffan and Theran managed to break their light mounts (both repaired with the help of duct tape & zip-ties). The good times continued throughout after that.

I loved my night laps as did everyone else. It was cool and beautiful out. Plus, as the hours wore on, fewer and fewer people were on the course. In the middle of the night you could nearly go a whole lap without seeing anyone. Strange as there were, in theory, up to 500 people on the course at any given time.

In the end, we somehow lost a couple of laps due to scoring errors and what I have now figured out…. I had 414A while the rest of my team had 415B-D. Odd that none of us noticed it the entire time that we were racing either.

Steffen riding through

Thanks to the guys for helping me have a great weekend! Unfortunately, I never caught Theran on film. I might have to see if I can steal a photo from elsewhere to add to this post.

The course is not easy but at the same time I wouldn’t classify it as easy by any means either. Our gear might say otherwise though. I broke my frame on the last lap and Andre’ realized a couple of days after the race that something was wrong with his frame as well. Turns out his was broken as well. Mine is on it’s way back to Black Sheep to be fixed or replaced and I believe that Andre’s Niner will be heading in to be warrantied too.

Right behind the head tube is a big crack

Oops

Next year, I am considering doing this race solo. We’ll see how this turns out as it comes closer to being reality.
Thanks to Supernova for the lights, Geax for the tires, Carbo Rocket, Biciclista, FRM, Chris King, Specialized, Sock Guy, Singlespeed.nl, Independent Fabrications, Crema Cycles as they all made the racing that much thought free and fun.

Funny T-Shirt and a new Team Member!

A photo of Martin stolen from our friend Phaty.

That above photo is what I believe to be a direct response to this.

Waltworks is selling these

All dressed up and nowhere to go

In other news, we’ve added another new member. His name is Justin Koppa and he’s another American. If you’re from Colorado or New Mexico you may know him or his wife Angie (who is on Velo Bella race team). From what I can glean, the man is rocket fast. I think that he’ll be another great addition to our team. Maybe somewhere down the road, we can get Angie on Big Wheels as well.

Justin has racked up quite an impressive resume over the years. Check out below (hopefully, he won’t mind me posting this).

NMSU cycling team 2000-02

Raced for Zia Velo 2002-2007 (famous alum include Ryan Blickem, Bob Desenfants, Steve Castillo)

A few 1st place finishes on a 4 and 5 man 24 hour team at Old Pueblo, 24hr Adrenaline Phoenix, 24 Moab
A 2nd place at old Pueblo  on 5 person, beat by a Sue Haywood team by 20 some odd minutes

10th place Solo, 24 Old Pueblo, Tinker won it, Dave Harris 4th, I was only 1 lap out of 3rd, rode it with  tubes and slime, wish I had stans wheels then.
NM state champion Expert 20-29

1st place Duo 12hr Dawn til Dusk, Gallup NM

1st Amatuer NORBA marathon (where I got my semi-pro upgrade)

9th GC Tour of Gila cat 4 ( use to do a few local road races each year)

while in Grad School, competed at Collegiate MTB nationals in Angel fire again for NMSU, got 15th or 17th in shorttrack, then broke the rear derailleur off in the XC.

I have not only been on the racing end of things, I have also promoted races.  As a member of the NMSU cycling team, 99 or 2000, started the Tortugan Torture race around “A” mountain, then the next year we added a short track.

Promoted the Hillsboro road race, part of the NM road series, when it was in existence.

Started the Horny Toad Hustle in 05, part of the New Mexico Off Road series, then in 06 it was the NORBA State Championship race for New Mexico.

Promoted a 4 race cyclocross series in Las Cruces as la Lorana park on the Rio Grande river in 2006.

Somehow… I think there’s many good things in his future too.

Welcome to Big Wheel Racing Justin!

Wow…that didn’t take long

Get used to seeing this smiling face. My buddy Jochen answered the call for new racers on BWR Europe. Strangely enough, I’ve known Jochen longer than almost anyone else in the cycling scene in Europe. We met a few years ago in Switzerland at the Swiss Singlespeed Championships. He’s a really great guy, super easy going, very fit and very fast, especially when his competitive streak kicks in. I spent a week with Jochen last year on our Gardasee tour. Even when he’d done a lot of damage to his bike in an endo, he remained calm and smiling. He rode his ailing bike back to his car, got everything taken care of and met us later in the day to continue riding with us for the rest of the week.

Jochen is one of the moderators at our favorite European 29’er forum (www.twentyniner.ch) which does have English speaking and now a French speaking forum as well.

There’s probably more that I could say about Jochen, but I’ll leave it at that. Basically…. WELCOME or WILKOMMEN!