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!

A very quick update…

We’re proud to announce a couple of new sponsors.

We’ve added Geax Tires and Crisp Titanium to our list of sponsors for ’09.

Crisp Titanium Website and Crisp Titanium Flickr page.

I have been a huge Geax fan for years. The tires just work. Their really well made, look great and I have to say they seem to be lighter than most other tires in their class.

As far as Crisp. Well, check out Darren’s work and I’m sure that you’ll be amazed at what he turns out.

I’ve updated links as best I can. Still waiting on confirmation from a couple of companies but we’re hoping to have things nailed down by early next week so that we can get the uniform design off and have uniforms in a few weeks (hopefully, in time for my first race in late March).

Thanks so much to our new and old sponsors for their support. We hope to do our best to “do them proud”!

Getting it together… like a solo racer.

As the only “official” member of Big Wheel Racing Europe, it’s up to me to work on getting a line-up of racers for ’09 and to start off the search for sponsors. Phew! Once that enormous task is complete, then everything heads off to some company, as yet unknown, to make the uniforms.

I’ve done this quite a few times in the past with MSRacing, Midwest Cyclery the reorganized and combined KCOI/Boulevard team and more. With the other teams, I had a lot of great help. At this point, I’m kind of having to go it alone. That means I have to translate resumes as best I can, search and ask people in various languages (mostly English or Deutsch), etc.

Big wheels are few and far between in Germany, although, not so much in the rest of Europe. For that reason, I feel it’d be a great opportunity for any interested sponsor to show their “Big Wheel” related products to the European racing community.

In my little head, I have a list of people that I’ll probably be starting with for both racers and sponsors. However, like I said before, if you’re looking for a quality (and fun) group of people to race and ride your 29’er or 700c wheels with, drop me a line. If you’re an interested sponsor also please drop me an email. I’m revising the Team info. from the States to fit our needs but I can get it out to you ASAP.

Welcome to Big Wheel Racing the European version.

Welcome to the European version of Big Wheel Racing. Starting in late 2008 or early 2009 we’ll have a team of 29’er & 700c racers in Europe flying the Big Wheel Racing Banner along with a host of new European sponsors.

As I wanted to get this rolling, I thought that I’d post a new blog for the upcoming team and mention that we’re looking for sponsors and riders. If you’re interested, shoot me a message through the website (unless you already have my email address).

Thanks a bunch,

Michael Cleveland

(aka Wunnspeed)